Asian Pearl

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/asian-pearl-fremont

We met up with my parents for dinner in Fremont. They wanted to try this new restaurant that just opened in Fremont called Asian Pearl. There is also a branch in Millbrae if you don’t want to drive all the way to Fremont but it’s probably not as large as the one in Fremont.

It’s in this huge strip mall near Auto Mall Parkway and right across the street from Costco. Next door to the restaurant is this furniture store that almost takes up one square block! The restaurant itself has high ceilings and is very spacious. There are also some private rooms, which is where we got seated. If you don’t want to end up waiting forever for dinner, MAKE A RESERVATION. My parents did a good job with that.

Our reservation was at 7:30 and we were seated within 10 minutes. The waitstaff was very courteous and friendly although a bit slow in the beginning with coming to take our order.

Their menu has a yellow/red theme. Lots of good photos.

We ordered the set meal for 4 persons, for $188. We paid a bit extra since we had 5 people.

Our first course was the meat platter with duck tongues, beef, chicken wings, and fried tofu. The tofu was the best part, crispy fried skin and soft silken tofu in the center.

Our next course was a special dish of chicken with geoduck. The geoduck was tossed with wasabi, red onions, ginger, and cilantro… oh so spicy but oh so good!

We had shark fin soup.

Romaine lettuce hearts sauteed with tofu skin and barely cooked garlic. The garlic was spicy!

A steamed black bass.

Stir fried foie gras with a variety of mushrooms and green beans. We’ve never had Chinese style foie gras so I didn’t know what to expect but it tasted pretty good, it was a bit charred on the outside but not the melt in your mouth type of texture.

Tofu medallions and scallops topped with pumpkin sauce and fish roe. You could hardly taste the pumpkin flavor of the sauce but the fish roe was there and the scallops were really fresh.

Our last main dish was the foie gras fried rice. A bit dry for my liking but the small pieces of foie gras really gave it something extra.

Last but not least, mango pudding!

They also served us red bean soup to end the meal. Needless to say, we were ready to roll home. Again just to mention, the waiters were very attentive and kept on coming by to check on how things were and appreciated our compliments by always saying thank you.

If you’re looking for a place for a Chinese wedding banquet or to hold a company dinner, I think this place has nice facilities and would be able to do a good job.

I’m not sure if we’d ever drive all the way out there again but never say never… sounds like their dim sum is good too.

Asian Pearl
43635 Boscell Road
Fremont, CA
510-979-1368

EZ5 Bar

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http://www.ez5bar.com/

Ron’s brother Henry’s birthday is on Monday so his friend Cindy organized a party to celebrate his 30th. Ron and I both got this evite that said “Hello Kitty is turning 30!”… we were like, huh? Come to find out during his pledge years, Henry was known as Hello Kitty Chung!

We dropped by for drinks at the EZ5 Bar near Chinatown.

Ron looking cool…

Do you think Ron and Henry look alike?

Henry is a “poser”!

He even waited for the flash to go off twice for this picture.

With a look of dread on how this shot would taste…

The drinks at this bar were okay, at least not watered down. The crowd was a bit eclectic, there was us then there were also some older men playing dice… so more of like a “neighborhood bar” atmosphere.

EZ5 Bar
682 Commercial Street
San Francisco

*sigh* this means my 30th birthday is coming up…

Andy’s Excellent Chinese Cuisine

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/a…e-san-francisco

Ron and I didn’t feel like making dinner tonight so decided to order food for delivery. When I checked the mail today there was a flyer for Andy’s Excellent Chinese Cuisine, free delivery for $10 minimum order and if you order $25 or more, you can get free egg fried rice, vegetable chow mein, OR one egg roll. So we figured we’d try it.

We ordered Kung Pao Chicken ($7.95) (but got Kung Pao Shrimp instead)

Salted fish and diced chicken fried rice ($6.95)

Sauteed broccoli in garlic sauce ($6.95)

To top off our order over $25, Ron ordered a TsingTao beer ($3.50)

We got the free vegetable chow mein:

They delivered in about 45 minutes as promised. Likely because we’re not that far from their actual restaurant.

The chow mein was a bit bland, needs some sort of sauce. But overall, pretty standard Chinese food, the kung pao isn’t as spicy as we would have liked.

We paid $27.50 but I have no idea how they came to that number because however I add tax, it doesn’t work our exactly. I guess they did not charge us for the shrimp, which is $1 more than the chicken.

Looking forward to the weekend so we can go somewhere nice for dinner…

Watched an interesting show tonight on FOX: Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay. If you were a fan of Hell’s Kitchen, then I think you’d enjoy this show.

Andy’s Excellent Chinese Cuisine
1358 Ninth Avenue (between Irving & Judah)
(415) 661-1803 or (415) 661-1804

Maxwell Returns

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While we were in Singapore, our cats Tiramisu (Misu) and Mochi were taken care of by our friends Jane and Tony then my parents while Maxwell was cared for by Isabell and Jason. Jason is one of the docs I worked with and when he heard of my difficulties with finding a caregiver for Maxwell, he and his wife offered to take him in. I am extremely grateful to them for taking good care of Maxwell and welcoming him into their home. Apparently, Max didn’t like their other two cats very much but got along great with the humans! He’s always been more of a *people* cat.

Now Maxwell is back with us. He does not like Mochi and Misu very much but even before, he only tolerated them so this isn’t too different… except for more hissing! I hope he’ll adjust okay but he seems to enjoy his old toy, Nanook the beanie baby.

He’s becoming an old man, already 9 years old!