Chinese Year of the Dragon & Thom Pham's Wondrous Azian Kitchen

Originally published Apr. 21, 2012

I had the recent pleasure of dining at Thom Pham’s Wondrous Azian Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis.  Some of you locals may be familiar with his former restaurant, Azia, on Nicollet Street, which will actually be reopening in its old location in the near future.  I know, you’re probably wondering, what the heck does this have to do with photography?

If there are two things in life I love almost as much as photography, they are music and food, and inevitably, I am going to end up talking about them.  So without turning this into a restaurant critique, let me just say that the food was great and the service was exemplary (both times, I went twice).

The architectural details were really interesting and inviting as well.  I thought about asking for permission to take a few shots to show here, but since they already have some nice work on their site, I decided it would be easier to include a link (look under the “Gallery” tab).

http://www.wondrousmpls.com/

The most intriguing part of my visit though and the one that made me want to write about it, was seeing a framed poster on their wall concerning the Chinese Year of the Dragon.  The design is beautifully done, the colors are striking and the message is what really caught my attention.  It says:

“Celebrating the Year of the Dragon: Other years might seem to drag on, but the Year of the Dragon has the potential to breathe life-shaping fire, to be magical, even mythical.  Keep one eye on the calendar and the other on the stars.”

Since I was born in a year of the dragon, I was perhaps a little more influenced by this poster than some people might be but it reminded me too of my New Year’s Day post and so I wanted to share it.

FYI some previous Dragon years were: 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988 and 2000.

[A special thank you to the restaurant for providing me with a copy of this poster.]