Thursday, December 30, 2010
Birthday Dinner
My mom's birthday was 4 days before Christmas. We took her out to dinner to celebrate. Since we knew that we would be doing a lot of cooking for Christmas, going to a restaurant was an easy choice for us. The family decided on a Chinese birthday dinner, and we went to our favorite restaurant. Here are all the dishes on the lazy susan turntable. I love lazy susan's because it's like food roulette. Hahaha. Does anyone know how the name "lazy susan" came into existence, I've always wondered that. We had a feast, consisting of pepper steak, sweet and sour pork chops, snails in black bean sauce, Chinese crispy chicken with prawn chips, chicken and beef with Chinese broccoli, and fish and tofu casserole.
Here's a close-up of the pepper steak, it came to the table sizzling hot. The steak was so tender and literally melts in your mouth. Delicious!
Here's a closeup of my favorite dish, Chinese crispy chicken with prawn chips. The skin of the chicken is super crispy, while the meat is juicy and flavorful. Traditionally, you squeeze lemon juice over the chicken just before eating it. Yummy goodness! Behind it is the plate of snails. I love seafood, and snails are one of my favorites and are a special treat. Surprisingly, many people I know hate seafood and would never try snails. However, having a dad that is a chef, we grew up eating and trying everything. I owe my diverse palate to him, and he's taught me at an early age to always try new foods. So if you are adventurous with seafood, definitely get an order of snail in black bean sauce the next time you go to an authentic Chinese restaurant. It's heavenly.
We had a fantastic meal, and mom was very happy that we were all so full!
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Once again, I'm off the bloody gym. Every time I visit I get a hunger creeping in!
ReplyDeleteWhat's the name & address of the restaurant?
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a fabulous meal, believe it or not I have always wanted to try snail. On the rare occasion that my wife and I eat out we always tend towards Chinese food...our favorite. Sounds like you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, good luck with your dehydrator...how fun. It looks like a much better model than ours was so hopefully it will work great for many, many years. Can't wait to see some of your dried produce in the future.:)
I apologize if this posts twice...computer issues.:(
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a fabulous meal, believe it or not I have always wanted to try snail. On the rare occasion that my wife and I eat out we always tend towards Chinese food...our favorite. Sounds like you had a great time.
Also, good luck with your dehydrator...how fun. It looks lik e amuch better model than ours was so hopefully it will work great for many, many years. Can't wait to see som eof your dried produce in the future.:)
I think I would like all of it except the snails. Just would not be able to try them.
ReplyDeleteHappy b'day to your mom.
I'm with Ellen - wanting to know the name and location of this restaurant - looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
Ellen and JGH, the restaurant is called Noodle Chu and is in Parsippany, NJ. Here is a link to the restaurant info.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yelp.com/biz/noodle-chu-parsippany
That looks really good! In Portland, we have a restaurant called Fujin that I just love. Its kind of a little hole in the wall but it is relatively authentic as far as I know. They do amazing things to vegetables, like their crispy eggplant and their dry saute green beans. I could eat a whole meal of those green beans. I've pressed the owner to teach me how to make it, but she insists that a home cook can't get their pan hot enough. Maybe she's right, or she doesn't want to share it with me!
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should consult Martin Yan's book next summer when I have plenty of beans.
yum! Looks like she had a great meal. I love those shrimp chips. Though that feeling that they're sucking my tongue dry was always scary to me as a kid.
ReplyDeletefood roulette - ha ha!