Cynically Optimistic

I celebrated the Year of the Rat with some of my lab mates. The Chinese guy in the lab organized a big dinner at New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe Restaurant. Inside was a tropical theme married to exposed brick. Somehow it worked. Here's what we had for dinner:

1. steamed crab meat and pork juicy bun
2. eight delicious: smoked fish/aromatic beef/ preserved duck/ jelly fish/shanghai dough/aster indicus/ spicy cabbage/ little bamboo shoot with brown sauce
3. jumbo shrimp with ginger and scallion
4. sauteed fish fillet with chinese yam and lily ball in wine sauce
5. sea cucumber with shrimp eggs
6. pork shoulder in honey sauce
7. steam whole fish
8. house crisp duck
9. vegetable in season
10. seafood soup
11. house style fried rice
12. sweet eight jewel taio
13. fruit

The dumplings and the pork shoulder were my favorites. Also of note, the seafood soup had sea sponges in it, which was interesting. I felt like I was eating a loofah. Chinatown was in such disarray after the previous night's festivities. Confetti and streamers of mylar and paper littered the gutters and covered cars. As we left dinner a cleanup crew was outside assisting street-sweepers. Oh, and the NYPD's paddywagon drove by, too!