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!
Course #2: Chicken with a Ginger and Plum Reduction
Our favorite dish of the afternoon? The fluffy, cloud-like steamed breads (maantoes) which we filled with thin scallion wisps, sticky spoonfuls of hoisin sauce, and crisp, mahogany-colored duck skin and meat.
The rest of the dishes were made in the classic "San Francisco Chinatown" way: with tremendous amounts of oil, MSG, and cornstarch. Yea baby!
We also ordered the salted pork ribs that had just enough resistance to require me to pull and tug off the meat from the bones with my tightened teeth. The chewiness of the pork and the penetrating flavors of the salt and piquant jalapenos was everything that I knew this dish to be. Execution of this dish? Impeccably Chinese.
Finally, we sampled the walnut prawns, a dish that undoubtedly originated in the streets of Some-Chinatown, U.S.A. (Mayonnaise in Chinese food? Clearly from America.) The prawns were heavily drenched with abundance of mayonnaise, so much in fact, that the prawns had clumped together in a massive baseball of mayo. The prawns were accompanied with candied walnuts that were coated with a hard sugary shell.
As I polished off our family-style meal, I realized that the prices were reasonable and for being in the heart of Chinatown, Yee's Restaurant is a great place to get the full San Francisco-Chinatown effect: the heartburn and the window view of the colorful exported plastic merchandise lining the streets and alleyways.
Just like bees flock to honey, tourists flock to places like the picturesque Monterey bay. If you live in the Bay Area, the scenic trek down to Monterey is well worth it.
Unfortunately, when their meal arrived, we noticed that the plastic Silo-brand containers of dipping sauces and the French fries monopolized over 80% of the plate. Plus, I observed my friends disappointedly peeling off the soggy and excessive batter-breading and heard their repeated comments on the "okay," but bland taste.
However, I had no complaints. I ordered "I'm Stuffed Shrimp," a dish served in an individual-sized wok that held a neat circle of shrimp stuffed with a mayonnaise and crab mixture, baked with butter and garlic, and swathed in a bubbling cover of Monterey jack cheese. When my order came, my eyes immediately riveted on the substantial pools of butter that were comparable in size to the tide pools in the Monterey Bay. The melted butter soup was infused with the essence of garlic, and was a perfect dipping 
Even though I sponged up the majority of the melted butter with my bread, there was enough remaining to act as gravy for the heap of mashed potatoes I ordered to go with my entrée. The creaminess of the mashed potatoes played perfectly against the crunchy deep-fried nest of onion tendrils and the bite of the scallions sliced on a bias.
To partially mitigate my chances for a heart attack, I also sampled a bite of the coleslaw that came with my meal. However, I couldn't finish it, because like the dish, "I was stuffed."
Another companion at the table ordered the fried chicken, and had positive things to say about it.
As the bill came, I realized that Bubba Gump (with locations aptly on Pier 39, Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and in Cannery Row at Monterey) had all of the elements of a successful tourist trap: a memorable restaurant interior with photo-worthy surroundings, over-the-top portions to quell the emptiest of stomachs, and prices that you wouldn't pay unless you had no other alternative.
Last month, as my friend and I strolled through the streets of Berkeley, we decided on a whim to sample the various restaurants the foodie-complex known as 
My favorite Las Vegas temptation? 
The second was braised slices of Australian abalone served in an oyster sauce reduction. Abalone slices are almost like high-quality chicken breast cold cuts straight from the delicatessen, but have more of a sinewy snap and seafood essence.
Third, we dined on whole curls of spotted prawns that had been chilled and served with a delicate soy dipping sauce that was lightly flavored with stringy sprigs of cilantro. Once the crackly shell was peeled away, a fountain of pristine seafood broth spewed forth and I eagerly slurped it up and nibbled on the crunchy and tender prawn meat inside.
Fourth, we sampled the Imperial Peking duckling with the crispy, seasoned, and bronzed skin glistening from the juices and melting white fat. The duck had been roasted on an open flame and basted in its own juices. Each of us at the table were provided with carved slices of steaming hot duck wrapped in a paper-thin envelope of delicate mu shu pancakes. The warmness of the duck and the pancakes contrasted perfectly with the cooling matchstick juliennes of scallions and cucumber inside the mu shu wrap.
The main dishes included giant Alaskan clams that were seasoned in a rice wine broth and garnished with a nest of fresh cilantro,
Australian crystal crab that was coated with a cornstarch batter and fried with sun-dried chili flakes, chopped shallots, crushed garlic, and sliced ringlets of green chili peppers that somehow penetrated their fiery essence through the thick calcium shell of the crab and permeated the meat inside;
Long beans that were served in a fermented black bean sauce; and
A plump Maine lobster that had been poached in a light seafood sauce and garnished with fresh leaves of zesty cilantro. The lobster had been cracked and chopped into large hunks that were splayed across the serving dish.
At the end of the night, we were satiated to the extreme, but we still had room for dessert.
We followed up our classic Chinese dessert with an Americanized dessert sampler which included: 1) a decedent chocolate volcano cake served with a rotund mound of soft white chocolate gelato, 2) a quadruple serving of super-creamy crème bruleé, with flavors including blueberry, passionfruit, citrus, and vanilla--each crème bruleé had its own hardened, glass-like, burnt caramel crust, and 3) a sampling of Pacific island passion chiboust cream, caramelized Tahitian bananas, a fluffy spoonful of tropical cake topped with a pineapple chutney, and a crisp butter cookie that was artistically arched over the atmosphere of the plate.
As my family and I ended our meal, we returned to the classic dichotomy of "
Tip #2: Although it is important to include a varied assortment of vegetables, remember which vegetables generally work together. An avocado and cucumber stir-fry might taste a little narley. When you are starting out (essentially, if you are a stir-fry virgin), first try the generic basics, like mushrooms. Also, a sub-tip about mushrooms. If you are wary of experimenting with a unique (and more-expensive) types of mushrooms like oyster mushrooms, then combine the "gourmet" mushrooms with plain, ole' button mushrooms, to extend the earthy taste (and the pocketbook). Remember to cook mushrooms earlier on in the game, so that they can release their excess liquid.
Tip #3: I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Always cut the vegetables that you will be using in your stir-fries into relatively uniform, bite-sized pieces. You want all of the same pieces of the vegetables to cook at the same rate. Even if they are different vegetables, I find it preferable to have bite-sized florets of broccoli alongside bite-sized slices of carrots. Of course, you can vary the size of certain vegetables based on their cooking time, but try to avoid the massive discrepancies in the "cut size" of the different vegetables.
Tip #4: Always begin by cooking the meat first, and then add the vegetables, unless of course, it is seafood. Then, you should add the seafood after the vegetables, but "when" exactly you'll add it will depend on the cook time. Always add the ingredients to the stir-fries in stages, because if you add them all at once, the temperature inside the skillet or wok will decrease and the liquid won't fully evaporate. You'll tend to get a mushier, sloppier stir-fry that way.
Tip #5: Finally, instead of serving your stir-fry on regular white rice, try a more nutritious alternative, like black rice (pictured below), brown rice, or wild rice.
