Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mother's Day Buffet

Oh gosh, breathing is difficult right now. Ummm, anything difficult now.  Just finished a delicious Mother's Day special buffet lunch at Lok Thian Restaurant with Gilbert and his friend's family. I wonder, would lamaze classes help me with these binge pains I'm experiencing now? I'll cut to the chase, I just wanted to list some of incredible dishes from today's monstrous meal:


Preserved jelly fish
Drunken chicken
Smoked grass carp, country style (maybe my favorite dish because of the tangy palm sugar syrup sauce)
Generous selection of dim sum
Cha seow puff
Pickled Cabbage
Joyous Shanghai fried Prawn
Dong Po Pork (3 layer style pork)
Hot and sour midin (jungle fern)
Spicy Mango Salad
Hot and Sour Seafood
Amazing Pork Dumplings(for me a very new style, with crispy pork, vegetables, and a plum soy sauce wrapped in a egg pancake/crepe)
Roasted Suckling Pig
BBQ Octopus

Sushi (mostly maki rolls)

Sharkfin and crab soup (though I don't like that this soup exists because I 'm pretty opposed to shark hunting, but it was being served at this place and I was offered some, so I decided to give it a single try in my lifetime).
     The soup was much like eggdrop soup, with the texture of shredded chicken and sort of stringy, jello-like masses inside. It was decent, and I do see the appeal in a sense, but  I feel like equally good versions of it could be made minus shark fin. Still, the Chinese consider it a culturally important dish, to be served at many big events, such as banquets for weddings. How do we reconcile this supposed conflict between culture and ecological balance? I really don't know, and it would be too easy to say "stop" and "never again kill another shark [for its fin]." I would err on this side, but I do recognize the cultural insensitivity of such recommendations. Yet I do feel like over the centuries, many cultures have had to adapt to increasing knowledge of the effects human activities reap on our biosphere. And the effects of shark hunting on the environment seem to be pretty severe, due to sharks' unique role in the oceanic food chain. So maybe adapting to our increased knowledge of sharks' importance in the biosphere is not so different, since we are inevitably talking about the welfare of the planet, and, well, Us. Check out this link for more on this, and the slowly changing attitudes held by affluent Chinese who could afford this luxurious soup. Yep, it seems like maybe people are starting to catch on, but will it happen quick enough?

Ok back to written food porn.

For dessert, there was Mango Sticky Rice and some delicious soup containing small sago/tapioca pearls, yam, and something that was kind of like squash or pumpkin. Yum!

Sorry everyone, photos are unavailable. I was too busy stuffing my face.

All in all, amazing meal, great company, and yet another food post. 

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