I Do... Love Weddings!

As I've said before, weddings are an ideal forum for learning great entertaining ideas. My beau and I attended a stunning wedding and wedding reception at Hong Kong East Ocean Restaurant in Emeryville, California this weekend, and were able to eat like Kings and Queens. Although this post will be easy on the eyes (and my tongue, as I won't be writing much), I hope you enjoy the pictures and are inspired! Sorry, I accidentally did not snap photos of the soup or the dessert, and I apologize that most of the pictures are blurry--we were hungry and wanted to dig in immediately. Thus I had to act quick and snap action shots!

I'll be posting full-length, descriptive posts soon--I'm pretty busy this week. Also, with the pictures, I'm providing the menu names of the dishes. (I love the way Chinese restaurants translate the names of their dishes!)

Barbecue Assortment Platter (cool and refreshing):

Jumbo Prawn Salad with Honeydew Sauce (the prawns and honeydew were deep-fried in a tempura-like batter) :

Garden Vegetables (a fancy way to say "broccoli") with Sun-Dried Scallops Topping:

Royal Shark Fin Soup with Shredded Chicken (a must-have classic at every Chinese wedding) and Crackling Peking Duck Skin with Steamed Bread Pockets and Shrimp Chip Crisps:

Imperial Braised Lobster:

Crispy Roasted Chicken:

Steamed Fresh Catch (Angler):

Yang Chow Fried Rice:

Warm Puree of Red Beans with Lily and Chinese-Style Cake (airy and light sponge cake with fresh strawberries, kiwi, frosting, and fruit cocktail inside):

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Help Me, I Beg You

Has anyone encountered a small pop-up box that says, "Click YES to view this page now" when trying to access this site?

When I first started my blog, and I noticed that this pop-up box would "pop up" occasionally. However, recently, I've noticed this EVERY time I visit my blog, and I'm getting angry. Where is this coming from? I think it may be from some website counter that I added to my html template, and I've heard that this may be spyware. Does anyone know how to get rid of this? I don't want to infest anyone with spyware!

Additionally, now my site as "errors" that cause "Microsoft debuggers" to pop up. The pop-up boxes claim that "there is an unexpected ')'." What the?!?

I plead with you, help me! Also, as a note to Stanley's friends who visit this site. I know that you guys are engineers / computer whizzes. Would you mind helping a distressed food blogger in need?

And as for the pictures of prime rib and chicken fried steak--well, there just pictures of crappy food that I had recently, but they reflect my crappy mood.

Breakfast for Dinner When Pulling an All-Nighter

Remembering my time in college always makes me so nostalgic. Ah, those were the good ole’ days, when all I could afford to eat was ramen noodles and outdated cans of garbanzo beans. There were some notable exceptions however. I once remember splurging before a "double-whammy" calculus final and philosophy paper to eat and study all-night at a classic Americana diner. Although my dismal finances have probably not changed much, I recently visited my local "Open 24 Hours" diner to take a trip down memory lane at around 11:00pm at night.

I read diner menus like they are juicy novels--I just can’t seem to put them down. I love looking at a diner’s offerings: salisbury steak with sliced mushroom gravy on a bed of creamy mashed potatoes; thick malted milk shakes brought out in frosted metal shakers; and huge sundaes with spherical mountains of pink ice cream dribbling with Hershey’s chocolate syrup and a perfectly-coiffed whipped cream "do." A diner helps to remind me of why I am alive--to eat.

On my recent diner trip, I decided to bet it all, and order the colossal breakfast extravaganza, including: two eggs over-easy, two crispy fried bacon strips, two meaty sausage links, one slice of honey-baked ham, half a plate of fried hash brown potatoes, and three hot cakes.

When my order arrived on two heavy beige platters, I felt as reminiscent as Celine Dion once sang, "It’s all coming back to me now."

The first thing I did was dust the entire landscape of my plate with black pepper and empty the tall glass Heinz ketchup bottle onto the perimeter of my potatoes. After pouring the small jug of sticky maple syrup on top of my pancakes and smearing the fist-sized mound of butter in between the open crevices, I wolfed down the meal in front of me. After dinner, I gently patted my stomach. I was a self-satisfied glutton.

However, my trip to the diner did not end when I cleaned off my plate and left my place in the vinyl booth. Later that night, I tossed and turned in my bed, and my burning and bloated stomach growled and hissed at me. It was then that I remembered why in college I ate at the diner to stay awake. As I sat up in my bed, the memorable words once wisely sung by Celine Dion resonated in my head again, "It’s all coming back to me now."