Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the Dog and we went to Chinatown for some of the festivities going on. We missed the parade (so many people!) but we got dim sum at Happy Chef and bought some groceries from the Chinatown Market. I bought some "Neen Gao" aka "year cake" to try and fry up at home.



At least I still got to see one of the lion dances while JJ was waiting for a table. I was happy I got to hear the sound of those drums beating and the pops from nearby firecracker things that kids play with.


Anyways, there was a huge wait at Happy Chef (at 2pm!) but we shared a table and met some ladies in their 50s who were trying "something new". Boy did they try something new. They ordered a dinner course and picked four entrees (for the four of them) and it came with an appetizer. We're sure they were thinking egg rolls and crab rangoons (I still have no idea where this came from) but instead, they got traditional Chinese appetizers with the cold jellyfish with the octopus and the cold beef. At least one of the ladies was adventurous enough to try it! I was sad they decided to trash the mounds of jellyfish they barely touched but they did offer us some of their food! JJ thought it was probably one of the most exciting and stressful lunches he's ever had.

For dinner, we decided to grill pork chops (Havana Garlic & Lime), our fancy salad, and milkshakes for dessert!