Celebrate Good Times

I am seriously bloated. Boy and I have just come home from a meal at the Lucky Star, a local Chinese restaurant that offers buffet meals - all you can eat, for not a lot of money. As I was sipping on my 4th cup of Chinese tea, Northern Monkey's Other Half's quest to find a decent Chinese meal flashed through my mind. So I thought I would do a restaurant review of our meal.

I have had squid in England and in Turkey. I've had it stir fried, battered in rings and now tonight, done with onion and chillies. I've been told that squid when it's fresh and flash cooked is a joy to behold. Tonight, I came to the conclusion that it's all bollocks really. I will now stop giving it the benefit of the doubt. Squid is a bit like chicken cartilage, chewy and tasteless.

Crispy seaweed. Tell me again ~ why? Its like deep fried cabbage. With a slight sweet tang. Nothing to write home about.

I'm really nosey about what people chose to eat and in what order. Think about it, you've got 3 different buffets ~ starters, mains and deserts. If you can help yourself to anything, you could be really inventive about the order of your meal. Start off with fruit, a bit of icecream and then beef in black bean sauce, prawn toast and crackers. Why not? Why do we always do the 'right' thing?

I also love watching people fill up their plates. It's like watching an artist preparing an installation, the care with which each type of meal is arranged into a huge food mountain the EU would be jealous of. I get to the point where I'm betting on the mini-vegetable spring roll that will exceed the critical mass and send the food spilling everywhere. Sweet and sour chicken balls being chased across the floor by the breaded crab claws.

Seriously, for parents wanting to eat out with their little darlings, I'd definitely recommend eating at Chinese restaurants. Culturally, they love kids, they expect them to run around and get in the way and be noisy. They don't give you pointed looks, get you extra napkins for the finger food and they'll sneak the kids treats when they think you aren't looking. I'm sure Boy has half a hundredweight of mints in his coat pocket.

We had a good time tonight. OMG am I full!