My parents had their 25th wedding anniversary this past week. I took the whole family out to lunch today to celebrate. After much deliberation,
Dynasty Seafood in Cupertino was chosen for its location, degree of fanciness, and food. It turned out really well because they gave us a semi-private room and split us into two tables to boot, since their tables could only seat 10 max. The restaurant is a little difficult to find since it's hidden in Cupertino Square Mall, but it still gets really crowded during lunch on weekends with people looking for dim sum. In China, Dynasty is a super-fancy restaurant, with gilded utensils, crystal chandeliers, the works. This one is definitely much closer to that than the one near downtown San Jose. If you have enough people to book the whole room (five tables), they even have a TV and what I suspect is a karaoke machine. I think they also have smaller rooms, but for some reason my parents didn't reserve one. Oh well.
Every Chinese place I looked at is substituting lobster for crab nowadays - Dungeness runs $9.99/lb, so it's not surprising. While I still think I prefer crab, the lobster was good. The Japanese-style beef was incredibly tender and flavorful. They forgot the chicken and we had to remind them, but as it turned out, that just meant they served it as soon as they finished cooking it, which made it absolutely delicious. I'm a huge fan of both mango and coconut pudding (as anyone who's been to dim sum with me knows) - the dessert of the day today turned out to be mango-coconut pudding and I was quite the happy camper. The only problem I had with it is I'm no longer used to MSG, so towards the end of lunch I was extremely thirsty and kept drinking pot after pot of tea.
After lunch, I picked up a chocolate mousse cake from
La Patisserie on Stevens Creek, which was conveniently right next to Dynasty. The girl taking my order asked me how to spell anniversary, which slightly concerned me, but it turned out really well. I like this particular cake because the it isn't overly sweet (a big problem with most non-Chinese cakes we've had in the past) but is a bit fancier than the typical Sheng Kee cake my family gets. We reconvened at my parents' home for cake and champagne.
For dinner, the women made wontons while the men ooo'ed and ahhh'ed over the new PS3. I remember helping make wontons since, well, since I can remember. It's definitely on my top five comfort foods. All-in-all, I thought it was a very successful day.
Every Chinese place I looked at is substituting lobster for crab nowadays - Dungeness runs $9.99/lb, so it's not surprising. While I still think I prefer crab, the lobster was good. The Japanese-style beef was incredibly tender and flavorful. They forgot the chicken and we had to remind them, but as it turned out, that just meant they served it as soon as they finished cooking it, which made it absolutely delicious. I'm a huge fan of both mango and coconut pudding (as anyone who's been to dim sum with me knows) - the dessert of the day today turned out to be mango-coconut pudding and I was quite the happy camper. The only problem I had with it is I'm no longer used to MSG, so towards the end of lunch I was extremely thirsty and kept drinking pot after pot of tea.
After lunch, I picked up a chocolate mousse cake from La Patisserie on Stevens Creek, which was conveniently right next to Dynasty. The girl taking my order asked me how to spell anniversary, which slightly concerned me, but it turned out really well. I like this particular cake because the it isn't overly sweet (a big problem with most non-Chinese cakes we've had in the past) but is a bit fancier than the typical Sheng Kee cake my family gets. We reconvened at my parents' home for cake and champagne.
For dinner, the women made wontons while the men ooo'ed and ahhh'ed over the new PS3. I remember helping make wontons since, well, since I can remember. It's definitely on my top five comfort foods. All-in-all, I thought it was a very successful day.
Wow, when my parents had their 25th anniversary, I got them...a picture frame. hahaha. but seriously, what a sweet celebration! and the food looks amazing!
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