Last week, one of my oldest friends, Dzi Nguyen, took his final breaths.
Dzi and I met that first year of high school, both temporarily stationed at Northwest Classen. We sat next to each other one afternoon in Coach Piccolo’s class and started enthusiastically talking about how cool Duran Duran’s 1984 hit “The Reflex” was; even though their comeback smash, Duran Duran really wasn’t a cool thing in the fall of ’93 at Northwest Classen, but, thankfully, they were just cool enough for us.
From there, a friendship grew that lasted over 20 years.
If you’re ever wondering where it comes from, I have to credit Dzi for giving me the gift of appreciating intricate foodstuffs, delicacies like roasted chicken feet, jellyfish salad and, especially, pig intestines. Most of these culinary lessons started and ended at Chow’s Chinese Restaurant at 3033 N. May Ave. Just a block or so down from Northwest Classen, many times we’d sneak off-campus, eating a quick lunch there. To this day, their menu is still a true Oklahoma City original.