Happy Chinese New Year

[wolf]

Every year I go to a Chinese New Year Feast that is given by a pair of restaurants in the Lansdale area, Abacus and Yangtze Chinese Gourment.

Both are exceptional places to eat, and to enjoy Chinese food that is more elegantly prepared than is customary in this country. Of course, if you WANT Chow Mein, they'll make it for you, but it WILL be damn good Chow Mein.

Anyway, for the Chinese New Year Celebration, they provide a multiple course gourmet meal. I have also gone to the Chinese Cultural Center in Chinatown for theirs, I like Abacus/Yangtze better.

The restaurant is decorated for the occasion by one of the owners.




So are the guests. The men have to wear cardboard "Happy New Year" hats, the women each receive a flapper headband with a plume.

Once you get over the indignity of wearing the headgear, they start bringing the grub ...

They started this year with Imperial Crab Soup. It was served in a coconut shell. I felt just like Mary Ann!!



Then came the appetizers ... first New Year Chicken Cracker. It's meant to look like a British Christmas Cracker.



Then Scallops with Sesame Seeds and X-0 Sauce. According to the waiter, "X-O" stands for "extra-ordinary". It's a mildly spicy sweet red sauce.



The Giant Prawn stands proudly erect upon a bed of chinese vegetables.


We decided that Imperial Duck on Lotus Bun was a Chinese Quesadilla. Except there wasn't any Queso. It was extremely tasty, though.



The Grilled Sea Bass was accompanied by a kiwi fruit carved to look like a monkey's face. This got the whole Year of the Monkey Theme into the meal, without actually involving monkey. Most years, they serve something to complement the animal year, like for year of the ox, they served buffalo, year of the sheep they had lamb ... we were really worried about the monkey thing. We'd all seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.


The Filet Mignon was arranged to simulate stones of a waterfall, with a cascade of sauce and chinese broccoli. The whole thing was balanced on a pile of mashed taro, which has a starchy, potato-ey flavor.


Dessert continued the monkey theme ... chocolate banana pie. Not traditional Chinese by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely good.