Our housewarming/birthday bbq sort of just turned into a party because the weather outside wasn’t the greatest. It didn’t rain, but it seemed like it was going to any second. Plus, it wasn’t that warm out. Oh well. It was still a fun time. Lots of great food and good friends, and tons of sake and beer. More on the food coming up!
Tags:bbq·benjy·birthday·chad·Chicago·dallas·ed·ella·eric·housewarming·jocelyn·john·john zeratsky·margaret·richard·roscoe village·sake·susan·susie·trent
Miko, John, Danny, Doug :: Roscoe Village, Chicago
Rachelle & Dallas, Roscoe Village, Chicago
John Toasting to Each Year of Danny’s College Career (also, Amy!), Roscoe Village, Chicago
Lori, Cory & Darren in the Sake Toast, Roscoe Village, Chicago
Lori & Darren, Roscoe Village, Chicago
Last night was Danny and Lori had another party, this time to celebrate Danny’s graduation. All of the family and all of their friends were over. Later on after the aunties and uncles and kids left, someone busted out some sake and the shots began. The sake, along with the keg of beer, bottles of red wine, and abundance of booze in general, lead to lots of dancing and a crazy competition that I’m going to do a seperate post on.
Tags:amy·Chicago·cory·danny·doug·john·lori·miko·roscoe village·sake
Joey on the trolley from The Drake to Gibson’s
Wedding Cake
Sake Keg
Seating
Dinner Menu
Pretty flowers on the table.
Doug & Naoko breaking open the sake keg.
Sake Ceremony
Sake Ceremony
Doug, Naoko, Heather
Naoko
Masu – Sake cup
Jeff’s Speech
Dallas
Naoko & Doug
Brad, Josh, Aly, Dallas
Brad & Mandy
Josh & Aly
Rachelle
Josh, Aly, Dallas, Rachelle
Dallas & Rachelle
Josh, Brad, Dallas
Josh, Brad, Dallas
Danny, Josh, Darren, Miko, Scotty, Dallas, Brad
Glenna & Brad
Lori
Lori
Sake!
Doug
Dallas & Rachelle
Uncle, Aly, Josh, Brad, Peggie
Glenna, BB, Dallas, Uncle
Chris, underaged sake server
Chris & Dallas
Dallas + Cute Baby
Dallas + Cute Baby
Dallas + Cute Baby
Dallas + Cute Baby
Filet Mignon and potatoes
Naoko
Doug & Naoko
Doug & Naoko
Naoko & Doug’s wedding continued on as all guests were trollied (our trolley was named Elvis) from The Drake Hotel to Gibson’s Steakhouse. Joey was on our trolley and got on the mic to give us a drunken “Doug is my best friend and I never thought I’d see him get married, I’m so happy” speech combined with a White Sox World Series score update. It was pretty funny. At Gibson’s, after getting drinks and being seated, there was a sake ritual with a KEG of sake and traditional wooden sake cups called masu. Have you ever seen a KEG of sake? It’s A LOT.
The dinner and party were tons of fun, but here’s a tip: eating a grilled cheese at noon.. then later on having a ton of drinks and not eating dinner til like 10pm isn’t a very good idea. Especially when you’re sitting at a table with some underagers who wind up out-drinking you. And also when there’s a lot of banzai and kampai toasts going on. Not so great. Some people might have even drank so much, so fast that they got scolded for helping themselves to liquor behind the bar and couldn’t even remember the steak they ate from the best steakhouse in the city.. the one they’d been looking forward to for weeks… and then that person might have had to be the first to leave the party! But that wasn’t me. My steak was yum yum and so were the cheesy scalloped potatoes with the.. eh.. crunchy stuff. Really good. And the sake was probably the best I’ve ever had.
So this was the last wedding in the Rachelle & Dallas wedding circuit this year. Each one was very different from the others and was really a lot of fun… but honestly, I’m glad this was the last one.. and so glad it was local! To show the diversity of the weddings this year – here are links to them -
2005 Weddings
» Tweeny & Josh’s wedding in an art museum in Washington DC
» Jen & Matt’s causual wedding at a large country house in Illinois
» Tandy & Chris’s tropical outdoor wedding on Kaua’i
» Megan & Scott’s more traditional, slightly Jewish wedding in Peoria
» Naoko & Doug’s classic Chicago wedding that mixed American, Buddhist & Japanese traditions
Tags:aly·banzai·bb·brad·chris·christopher·dallas·darren·doug·elvis·filet·gibsons steakhouse·glenna·gold coast·heather·joey·josh·kampai·lori·mandy·masu·miko·naoko·peggie·sake·scotty·steak·the drake·trolley·trolly·wedding·white sox
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
Tags:Animals·chinatown·chinese new year·clam·crab·jeannette·lobster·michael·mussels·New York·oriental garden·oyster·sake·sarah·seafood·shrimp·tien·tsing tao·vivian·yim·yvan