Vivian & Yvan Trying to Order, Oriental Garden, Chinatown, Manhattan
A trip to the aquarium? No! These were just a few of the lovely creatures waiting in the tanks at Oriental Garden to become our dinner. Yvan, Jeannette, Sarah, Tien, Michael, Vivian, Yim and I were out celebrating the Chinese New Year yesterday. $198 may seem like a lot of money for dinner but not when you’re getting almost 10 courses of seafood for 8 people. We had:
- Full-bodied, freshly steamed shrimp (gnarly too look at, but very tasty)
- Seafood soup (didn’t care for this one too much – Tien ate mine!)
- Sauteed clams
- Mixed seafood platter (really good scallops & conch on here)
- A whole fish in a brown sauce (very tender and yummy)
- Lobster (delish but hard to eat with chop sticks!)
- Sauteed mussels
- Sauteed oysters (may be the first time I ate an oyster – I didn’t really like it)
- Seafood fried rice (big chunks of scallops, very tasty)
- Lo Mein (I was told it’s tradition to order this for longevity)
- Sauteed Pea Pods (I think that’s what it was – really sweet and tender)
- Oranges for dessert, of course
After adding Tsing Tao and 3 bottles of sake, the bill wasn’t all that reasonable any more, but still the dinner was so delicious and so much fun it was well worth the price.
Note: In a restaurant like this, with a menu where the prices are the only thing not in Chinese, it helps to have someone there who speaks Chinese. After 20 minutes of back & forth with the waiters, Yim finally arrived and within seconds took over the situation and ordered our drinks and food. Thank God for Yim or we’d still be there bickering with the waiter!
More Information:
- Chinese New Year, Take II, by Tien
tien mao's little read book... // Jan 23, 2004 at 9:02 am
Chinese New Year, Take 2
The seafood display. We didn’t specifically eat these, but we could have. Nice outfit! The anatomy of a funny story with Rachelle telling Jeannette. As if eating dinner on New Year’s Eve with my family wasn’t enough, last night…
actually, i didn’t see much conch. but there was definitely some squid. and those were pea pod chutes, i believe.
Somehow, when dimsumming in Chinatown with Jake and other photobloggers, I was the only Chinese person. And let it be known I dropped out of Saturday Chinese school after two sessions because at age 7, what is more depressing than missing Saturday moring cartoons and what is more disturbing than saying the Pledge of Allegiance in Cantonese? So I managed to order things until the end, when the table wanted more pork buns. I tried to ask for them through the server. I was unsuccessful. The server must have waved for helpf, because then the manager came by. He heard my Cantonese and surmised, “Your parents are not Chinese.” Ultimately, after I convinced him I was just a wayward child of Chinese parents, he was amused enough to give our table free tea.
Anyway, your meal looks very delicious.
I would like to whish everyone a happy Chinese
New Year
The year of the Monkey
The food looked inviting
Dad
Xin nian yu kuai, Rachelle!
rachelleb.com // Jan 16, 2005 at 8:05 am
Shedd Aquarium
Jessica, Rachelle, Stephanie :: Shedd Aquarium, Museum Campus, Chicago From January 14 – 20th the Shedd Aquarium is offerring free general admission. The regular entrance fee is $23/adult and $16/kid, so Richard, Amanda, Stephanie, Jessica, Nancy, Jos…