Gaz's Birthday

We had a great feast at a Chinese restaurant tonight to celebrate Gaz's birthday. It was a delicious meal all paid for, and lots of laughter around the table. For the first course, we had the standard fare Snow Crab with egg noodles, with XO sauce. It was yummmeee!! At $40 per pound, the price was rather steep, and the crab itself was already 2.5 pounds. I imagined the total cost of the dinner must have cost around $200.

Then the dishes started coming with steamed rice. We'd ordered a steamed barramundi, which was fresh as. It was firm and tasty, and we couldn't get enough of the simple seafood soy sauce it rests on. The second dish was silken tofu with assorted seafood. I just love silken tofu for it's fragrant egg aroma, and the ease with which it slides down my throat. It was just wonderful. The chef must have also fried it in salty fish infused oil, which added a nice edge to it. There were scallops, big peeled prawns, squid, and fish fillets in the hot pot as well.

The third dish was a unique one which was on the specials board. Auntie forgot to bring her glasses so was looking at the specials board for inspiration on what to order instead of trying to make sense of the teeny letters in the menu. The dish was fried beef and cup mushrooms in goose liver paste. Goose liver!! This is a delicacy in France. I just love the first taste of the dish, which was very 'liverish'! Only 2 out of the 5 on the table liked the dish though. I liked the liver paste, it's like eating rice porridge, which is a comfort food for me.

We had stir fried kailan with fish paste slices as the fourth dish, which was nothing out of the ordinary. I was absolutely stuffed to the gills by the end of the dinner, but there were more to come! Chinese restaurants always provides free soup at the beginning and free dessert and fruits at the end. For dessert we had almond 'soup' with sago (I love sago, it's transparent and different), and oranges and watermelon.

Just when I thought I'd enough, we went home for cake! We'd ordered a chestnut cake, so we had that for tea. This must be the most I've ever eaten in two hours!