My cousin married a Chinese man, and the night before the ceremony his family hosted a traditional wedding banquet for the immediate family at one of Seattle’s best Chinese restaurants. I remember the 13 courses coming out in succession, with the last course being a hot almond soup.
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I can see it when I am on my phone.
that’s so odd, i can see it on my laptop.
but funnily enough, i can’t really read HO on my cellphone because it’s not an app (right?) and it wants me to sign in every time. i never remember my PW.
i’ve only been to a couple Chinese banquets, and the dishes all came out one after the other and placed on the lazy Susan in the middle, so you could pick and choose what you ate. how interesting about the hot almond soup!
i just noticed there were two pics missing!
the Buddah Jumps Over the Wall soup:
and the Longevity Greens:
sorry about that!
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Really nice report - so each dish, e.g. Buddah Jumps over the Wall etc., is meant for three people ?
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Now I can see the address on my Pixel phone AND my Samsung tablet app.
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thanks! well there were two of us at our table. there was a table of 6, and they had presumably bigger portions.
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Interesting that you were only two people - a number of dishes had three pieces, e.g. shrimp, squid rings, tofu skin, salted eggs - I was expecting that the kitchen adjusts to the number of people at the table
yes, they made a comment about that, actually, unbidden - they said that they did it that way so that each person would have a little “extra” but you’re right, it meant we had to find a good way to split the third piece. Luckily, we’re friends, and one of us taking a bite worked fine.
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They’re now booking for February 18: https://www.exploretock.com/good-to-eat-dumplings/event/private/11e1c1a7-243b-4e4d-be10-31f79a9b0eec?_kx=BCq8JdUlV5kSm6Kllbk45y90ApD6tCrFffFx8iuhlg4%3D.YnqjDc
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wow, the price went way up! pretty sure ours was $110 pp…
Yeah, I was in for 4 at $110 pp, but at $175, I’m gonna have to think about it. No doubt some of the increase is due to increasing cost of, well, everything. It may also be due in part to increased buzz about them, including, ironically, attention from HO!
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Yup, $175 pp means the dinner is off the table for us.
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I went to the January Jan Ban Bae last night, and upon comparing what we ate to the pictures from the previous banquet post, I noticed more luxurious ingredients in this dinner. Items such as Santa Barbara red abalone, lobster, a whole fish, and huge shrimp were included. It was undoubtedly a splurge at $175 per person in addition to the 20% tip that is added to the price of the tickets, but I returned home with a grocery bag filled with leftovers that will feed two people for at least three more meals. For the record, we are not light eaters. There were 16 unique dishes served, and we were sent home with two more desserts and a bag of charcoal roasted oolong tea.
This was an educational experience for me as I have no previous experience with Taiwanese banquet food (although I’ve been to more Cantonese banquets that I can count).
I’ll post a handful of my favorite dishes.
The highlight for me was the cold plate. Clockwise from the upper left-hand corner is the lobster salad, Taiwanese golden kimchi, try-colour egg (century egg, salted egg, and regular egg salad) with early spring asparagus, and the bottarga gold (cured salted wild-caught mullet roes). The mullet roe was like no other roe I’ve had before: it was fermented and it had the texture similar to a hoshigaki, which is funny because that is what it visually reminded me of. The roe was from Taiwan and the chef cured it in the Bay Area.
The Santa Barbara red abalone with Taiwanese five-flavor sauce. The abalone looked whole when presented, but it was cut on a bias underneath the sauce. Nothing was wasted - the liver was served sautéed as a bonus course.
I adored the classic stick rice mi-gao with eel.
Every dish came with a story, which is a huge part of the experience. I didn’t just eat Taiwanese banquet food; I also learned about the expected dishes (soup, a chicken dish) and the etiquette (taking home leftovers is expected at these banquets). So, reducing this 4-hour experience to a few pictures and my blathering doesn’t do it justice. However, I wanted to chime in so people could see an example of what is offered for that $175 and decide if it’s the right choice for them.
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Wow, that does seem worth the price of admission! thanks for sharing!
Now booking for March 10: https://www.exploretock.com/good-to-eat-dumplings/event/468175/ja-ban-bae-tasting-menu-march-10?_kx=BCq8JdUlV5kSm6Kllbk45y90ApD6tCrFffFx8iuhlg4.YnqjDc
As well as March 21: https://www.exploretock.com/good-to-eat-dumplings/event/private/ef5b2d84-da47-41d3-ae4b-d8198ee07db6?_kx=BCq8JdUlV5kSm6Kllbk45y90ApD6tCrFffFx8iuhlg4.YnqjDc
