Welcome the Tiger

Welcome the Tiger

The Chinese Year of the Tiger arrived February 14 this year.  We made reservations to celebrate at Wong's King Seafood (www.wongsking.com) in Portland, a restaurant we had learned about from Bonnie, whose cousin is the manager.  The flyer promised pastries and wine tasting, lion dance, cooking show, and nine course dinner.  We had been impressed by the dim sum and looked forward to a sumptuous feast.

We were greeted by uniformed wait staff, of course, and carved fruit promising marvels to come.

Musicians played while we talked with others at our table and after some delay, local club members in lion costumes danced through the hall to the beat of drums.

During the cooking show, Martin Yan (of the "Yan Can Cook" PBS TV show) demonstrated remarkable carving technique and explained pasta spinning, a skill I think I won't develop.

Entertaining as it was, we were ready for the first course, the Five Happiness Cold Cuts, smoking on dry ice: lotus root, vegetarian goose, marinated cucumbers and tomatoes. It was yummy, as was the Tai Chi pumpkin and spinach soup arranged as yin and yang in a single bowl.

Then came the Crispy Lucky Dragon Fruit Roll, a seafood and fruit paste deep fat fried with a dribbled fruit sauce.

Even better was the carved vegetable dragon--which looked delectable but which we did not get to taste.

Then came prawns, one each, alas, and absolutely yummy scallops atop an egg tofu custard, again, alas, one each.

After that came the Peking style steak folded into a steamed pancake-like bun, smoked sea bass from Chile, a mixed seafood fried rice in a stone wok, finishing with pastries.  

By this time, some diners had worn out and left, but Deb, convinced by the occasion and the food, purchased Martin Yan's China, the "companion volume to the Public Television series."  Yan inscribed the title page in almost illegible script, "To Debbie a most gracious [unreadable], wonderful lady, & a fabulous cook."

An evening to remember.