Dinner with the Woo's

Today is Stan's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Stan!  And Sunday is Father's Day.  The Woo's decided to combine the 2 occasions and have a family dinner.  And because Stan's mother is superstitious and doesn't believe in celebrating anything after the fact,  the dinner was scheduled for Wednesday - last night.

Nikki had mentioned this dinner to me on Sunday when I saw her.  I was happy to hear that she was planning on attending.  I got a call from Julia on Monday with an invite.  So yes, I still get an invite despite the fact that Stan & I are no longer married and he's married to someone else who is also at these dinners.

It is an extremely strange situation.  And then not so strange.  After all, I have known the family all my life.  It was even mentioned in passing last night when Stan's mom reminisced about the first time my mother brought Baby Me for a visit.  As soon as we stood on the threshold of their Brooklyn apartment, I went into hysterics.  So much so, my mom had to leave so there wasn't a visit at all.  Hmmm....was that a sign of things to come?  LOL  And then she talked about the 10 years we all lived in the same building in Chinatown. Quite a history.

We had dinner at Mr. Tong's which happens to be in walking distance to me located on Queens Blvd.  The site has changed hands many times and when Stan & I were still married, we used to frequent the place a lot although it was "Queens Dumpling House" at the time.  I didn't realized it but it is now Mandarin cuisine.  Which means "spicy" and spicy it was.  But tasty and thankfully, not all the dishes.

We started off with a cold jellyfish appetizer since Nikki said she had a craving for it.  And a cold smoked fish appetizer.  And as with most appetizers, they get eaten up as soon as it's served because everyone is usually so hungry.  This was no exception so I didn't get a chance for a photo.

Clams in Black Bean Sauce

Hot Spicy Shredded Beef
(Spicy enough that I couldn't eat it)

Chicken and Mushrooms

Peking Pork Chops

Fried Salt & Pepper Whole Shrimp

Sea Cucumber with Bamboo Shoots and Mushrooms

Fish Head Soup with Jelly Noodle Casserole

This last dish...the Fish Head Soup is what made me realized we were in a Shanghai restaurant.  It brought a flood of memories since my dad LOVED this soup.  When my sisters and I were young, my parents would have dinner out once a week.  Sometimes it would be at Shanghai Village which was located above our store.  My dad always ordered the Fish Head soup which is spicy so we never ate it.  For us, he would get  the "Sizzling Rice Soup" which I loved.  The Fish Head soup was always made & presented  in an earthenware pot as it was last night.  It was a huge "blast from the past" for me.

Happy Father's Day to my Daddy...xoxo