888 Seafood Restaurant

First off, if you are not new to my blog, you will notice it's been tweaked many, many times over the past few weeks as I experiment with certain features. Many of these are offered directly by Blogger (e.g., lists, tabs), while some require a little more back-end tinkering (which sounds just about as wrong as a Shake Weight).

I added a "Related Posts" feature. This took a few tries to get right, but it basically required going into the blog template and pasting some code. This thing works okay, though not perfect, but I will not complain. It uses tags from entries to figure out what is "related."

And then, I added the "Recent Comments" thingy on the side. This, on the other hand, was pretty simple to put in -- it's a lot like doing a feed, which is something that Blogger offers.

Now that I've ruined the magic behind my blog, onto the post at hand:

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Due to my Asian heritage, I have frequented many dim sum/seafood restaurants over the course of my lifetime.

As one may notice, I typically don't review Asian restaurants, and it's not because I don't like Asian food, as many people would think...

Truthfully, in the times I've eaten out, I still fine that most of the time the food that my parents cook is better than what I'd have to pay for outside. And honestly, having spent my first 18 years of life mostly eating Asian food (due to me not going out to eat much at all), I tend to steer toward the novel.

Anyway, another obstacle for me is the fact that I no longer eat meat (for the most part). Of course, Asian restaurants CAN have a great selection. See THIS , THIS, and THIS entry for examples.

Unexpectedly, here's one of them:

This place mostly serves dim sum, which includes items such as steamed pork buns, shu-mai (pork dumpling), har gow (shrimp dumpling), and even chicken feet. However, I have had lunch here and was able to stay alive on sweet buns and vegetables, though you REALLY have to be careful, because tiny dried shrimp bits may end up in broth or other unsuspecting places.

So with the difficulties of dim sum, I am at least glad to know that their evening fare can be more friendly. Dim sum restaurants stop serving in the afternoon and become more banquet-y at night. I attended a fundraiser event for one of my besties (who is my age and a city councilman), and he had a kosher table for his friends, which worked out for me, because that meant vegan in this case! (NOTE: Kosher doesn't necessarily have to be vegan, but the meat/dairy items did not meet the requirements of be kosher in this case.)

Here are some of the dishes we had that night:

Above: I think this was made out of zucchini, flavored with a sauce that tasted like fish sauce but was not. It was refreshing and yummy!

Above: Soup coming out of a squash.

Above: This was my plate at one point. Notice the bean-curd wrap. There was also some mini egg-rolls filled with mango, which was weird, but yummy!

Above: The best part of all was this fake fish they brought out. We debated at the table for a long time over whether this was actually fake or not, but the tell-tale signs were that there was no eye, and it was tough as heck to get a piece out! I took some of this home (the tail) to my parents because I was soooo intrigued.

Above: As always, the rice...

Above: ...always comes...

Above: ...at the end, when I could not eat much of this yang-chow fried rice imitation. The real dish is usually made with ham, but there was some kind of root vegetable and fake ham in here.

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All in all, I was pleased with the creativity of this place and am thankful to "The Councilman" for arranging this special table for us. I was not jealous of the other meat-eating tables at all!

Finally, I found it weird that a Jewish mother at my table, the mother of "The Councilman"'s friends and also a friend of "The Councilman" later wondered why we're not dating. Not that she asked me directly, but word got around afterwards, as she is very vocal and was apparently impressed by me.

This has been a repeated question I've heard throughout my life, as we've been good friends since we were in elementary school. But even if I was still single, that would be like dating my cousin.

I have never had any notion of it and wonder why people can't believe that males and females can be good friends without any other "intentions." I have been approached by MANY naysayers on this view, particularly when I was in college. I know this can't be true with all male/female friendships, but it IS possible.

Do you think that guys and gals can be friends and nothing else?