Sushi Boat server brings food, smiles

Chin Yuen Choy can’t always eat the food he serves at Sushi Boat. A Chinese doctor told him to… Chin Yuen Choy can’t always eat the food he serves at Sushi Boat. A Chinese doctor told him to avoid eating seafood, red meat, nuts and beans, because they aggravate his arthritis. Choy takes medicine so he can come to work in his Oakland Avenue restaurant every day, where he almost always greets customers with a smile. ‘I think Sushi Boat is pretty much the best place around here, and honestly, it’s because of him,’ said Pitt student Prashant Paul. ‘If he left, it would definitely affect how much I come there.’ Paul comes to the Sushi Boat at least twice per week, in large part to visit Choy, a server at the restaurant. Choy, a 5-foot-1-inch Malaysian man with neatly side-parted hair, was once fluent in six Chinese dialects ‘mdash; Cantonese, Mandarin, Hakka, Hoken, Teochew and Malay. Choy helps Paul with Chinese, his minor. ‘If you come in the restaurant, I’m happy,’ said Choy of all his friends. ‘He’s so open. He’s so caring,’ said Paul of Choy. ‘Once you come in and he’s working, it’s like you’re walking into his own home. He makes you feel really welcome. Choy has a perpetual smile, despite often climbing the restaurant’s stairs 200 times in one night. ‘That’s a really, really hard workout, to be honest with you. He works at that job six days a week, just climbing up and down steps six days a week … And that’s even more of a testament to how cool he is, that he can have a big smile of on his face even though he’s going through that,’ said Paul. ‘He’s a tank.’ Paul said Choy creates a ‘really laid-back atmosphere’ … and he can pretty much do that to anybody.’ Choy’s popular with other Oakland restaurant owners. On Sundays, the only day he doesn’t wear his white apron, Choy enjoys roaming around Oakland. He doesn’t own a car and can’t drive, because he can’t twist his head to look back without feeling dizzy ‘- an affliction that remains undiagnosed. When he finds a place he likes, Choy stops to watch Steelers’ and Penguins’ games, drink tea at Starbucks and, of course, joke around with friends. ‘All of the restaurants, businesses, everyone knows him,’ said Michelle Peng, co-owner of Taiwan Cafe on Oakland Avenue. ‘He’s not one who can sit down to watch TV, read or listen to music. He likes to go and say, ‘Hi’ and talk, talk, talk.’ Paul agreed. ‘When we went out to lunch, we went to a Malaysian place, and he just walked in like he owned the place,’ said Paul. ‘Everyone loves him there. Everyone knows him. He just walked to the back and talked to the head chef.’ Choy’s no stranger to other people’s restaurants. He met his wife, Yeoh Stak Ngim, when she was waiting tables in a Malaysian restaurant. One of his first jobs in the United States was at his brother-in-law’s buffet in Atlantic City, N.J., where he was a busboy. Before moving to the United States, Choy worked in Taiwan as an assistant supervisor in a factory that produced ceiling fans. Before that, he spent three years working on a farm harvesting beans and sweet potatoes. When the buffet in Atlantic City closed in 2006, Choy moved to Connecticut, where he worked for another restaurant owner he knew. He moved to Pittsburgh shortly after, partially because he knew the former owner of the Sushi Boat. ‘ Still, Choy will always refer to Malaysia as’ ‘my country.’ ‘ Choy was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1961. He was the youngest of five children. He has two older brothers and two older sisters. ‘ Choy and his wife, who also works in the restaurant rolling sushi, live in Greenfield. They rent one room in the house of the three owners of Sushi Boat. ‘ Their three children live more than 9,000 miles away, on the outskirts of Choy’s hometown. Though Choy has traveled back to see them only twice in the last nine years, he doesn’t complain about how much he misses them. He calls his children every week. ‘ Sitting in a booth at a neighboring restaurant, Taiwan Cafe, Choy straightens up and fidgets as he talks about his children, who are experiencing life in ways he could not. Choy’s son, 26-year-old Chee Kuan, studied computer science in England. Choy’s elder daughter, Chin Phei Ying, 25, worked her way through medical school and now works in a hospital. Choy’s 19-year-old daughter, Hswu Huey, earned nearly straight ‘A’s last term, said Choy, beaming. ‘ Choy never finished school. He said that he didn’t like studying and dropped out after five years ‘- Malaysian people typically attend 12 to 13 years of schooling before they graduate. ‘ Though Choy didn’t have a knack for academia, he respects young scholars. ‘ ‘I didn’t take the tips from students. I say, ‘You’re students. You’re not working. You don’t give me the tips.” said Choy. ‘If you’re working [professionally], and you give me tips, no problem … A lot of students give me tips. I don’t take it.’