Stuffed Silly
The last few days have been a return to relatively relaxed dining, as opposed to the previous week of mad stuffing. The previous Monday, February 11th, Chinese New Year's Eve, was spent scarfing down home-cooked Chinese food at my aunt's house. Fish, shrimp, chicken, and a big Chinese hot-pot of boiling fish-balls, vegetables and assorted goodies.

See Chinese food...
Tuesday night was spent with the UW Crew at The Mayflower Chinese seafood restaurant, with lobster, Peking duck, and steamed fish highlighted a classic chinese dinner. At $25 a head it was more than our usual fare but worth the food, though perhaps not the service. We even had a very New Year's style soup with 'hair fungus' and dried oysters. 3/5

... More Chinese seafood ...
My aunt from Chicago visited on Friday the 15th, so I was invited to dinner at the uncreatively named ABC Chinese seafood restaurant. The restaurant fit the typical Chinese seafood restaurant profile, although the menu offered eclectic delicacies not common elsewhere. Highlights were a slightly fishy, but sweet and crisp geoduck sashimi, and an extravagant 9 lb. Australian 'Emperor' crab. The crab was excellent, as meaty as a lobster tail and even more succulent. Even the red bean dessert was good. 4/5

... and yet more Chinese seafood
It's great when relatives treat you to excellent dinners, and even better when it repeats. Saturday's restaurant, was more typically designated in the same Chinese seafood style as Dynasty Chinese seafood restaurant. The place had more of a Toronto or Hong Kong feel to it as we had a large table in a private room. I lost count of the the courses, though it started off with a mixed platter (jellyfish, duck, suckling pig and other goodies), and proceeded to various dishes including a dish with 'hair fungus', braised dried scallops and dried oysters, shark fin soup, steamed fish, lobster, and sticky rice. The papaya dessert ended off the meal very nicely. 3.5/5

Vietnamese in America
February 18th finally arrived on Sunday, and it brought Amy with it that afternoon. I picked her up after church and we lunched in the city, at the popular and chic Slanted Door vietnamese restaurant. Not your typical Pho place, dinners tend to require reservations, although the two of us were seated immediately at the bar for lunch. The service from the bartender was the best kind: quick, clean, and courteous. The vietnamese shrimp rolls and the crispy crepe appetizers were both excellent. I don't recall ever having bean sprouts as good as the ones in the crepe. The fried noodle with sea bass included bits of fish and seafood in a sauce that was a bit heavy on the salt. All were nicely presented in very westernised fusion display. A relatively light lunch for two came to $12 each. 3.5/5

Classically French
Monday was spent touring the city, and the evening was spent at one of San Francisco's fancier French restaurants, La Folie. The small, jester themed dining room was rather closely packed and more business than romantic, although curiously the tablecloths were carefully draped all the way to the floor. The menu was very traditionally French with very few signs of Californian fusion influences, with caviar, truffles, and foie gras starring in multiple appearances. The serving staff was polite, yet as mechanical as the marionettes that decorated the walls, delivering a well-practiced but graceless proposition to add truffles and caviar to our meal, which we passed on. The food however, spoke for itself.

A complimentery oyster appetizer was a happy surprised, perfectly served on seaweed, topped with some sort of cucumber sorbet and fish roe, without a hint of any seafood fishiness. The duck and oxtail consomme with a foie gras flan was served beautifully, as was butternut squash soup with (a single) duck ravioli. In the playful theme of the restaurant, both soups are served in covered bowls, as the lid comes off, the later appears as a single ravioli in the center of an empty bowl, the iconic French dining experience until the soup is poured in. The goat cheese tatin was a very tasty salad., but the albacore and lobster duo which was tuna tartare with a shelled lobster salad on the side was extravagant.

The 'loup de Mer', a seared Mediterreanean sea bass was a smaller fish than I expected, not the usual flaky and buttery type, but still a fat fish that was cleanly prepared in its crispily seared skin. Not particularly notable but a reasonable addition for the five course dinner. The salmon was better, though still simply prepared. However, the evening special was an epitomy of epicurean cuisine, a perfect medium rare filet mignon topped with foie gras in a truffle Madeira wine sauce.

Desserts were well prepared though not spectacular. An assortment of fruit sorbets, and a sugared puff pastry with dark chocolate in Grand Marnier sauce presented a clean finish to a fine dinner. As usual quality comes with a price. The four course prix fixe rang in at $75, and an additional entree makes a five course meal for $85. Even after the bill, I found myself well satisfied as the chef and owner, Roland Passot, greeted us on the way out. 4.5/5