Tannntastic: 022 Asian Potlucks for the Win

Woke up at around 10 this morning after staying the night at my Aunty Sau Kuan's place. My cousin, Shan Shan, is back in the States on holiday from med school in Prague so we wanted to spend some time with her. Snaps for family time.

Aunty Sau Kuan was awesome enough to take Christine and I out for a dimsum brunch (so much for my summer diet) at a new place called New Capital Seafood Restaurant. I'm super obsessed with dimsum because it doesn't exist in Fayetteville, so I was pretty excited.

We got to the restaurant at around 11, and had to take a number and wait in line. To those less well-versed in dimsum restaurants, dimsum is goddamn AWESOME, so there is always, always a line. If you ever see a group of Chinese people waiting outside a Chinese restaurant in the morning, regardless of whether it's a weekday or during the weekend, there is a 99% chance that that restaurant serves dimsum. If you know of a restaurant that serves dimsum, and no line exists, don't eat there. Their dimsum sucks, no question. Go look for a cluster of Asians elsewhere. Chinese people don't mess around when it comes to food.

I digress.

PICTURES OF FOOD TIME.

Fish cakes. Sounds gross, tastes incredible.

Shiew mai, chicken feet, tripe. All yummy. Trust.

Cheong fun. Le nomz.

Char siew bao - pork buns. I will literally fight you
for these.

What's in this incredible bundled treat?

Awesomeness. That's what.

Durian-flavored mochi. Idk. I hate durian.

It has occurred to me that not everyone knows how dimsum restaurants work, so here is a lesson for those not in the know. There are no menus in real dimsum restaurants - only aunties pushing metal carts around.

Exhibit A: Aunty + cart.

Exhibit B: Aunty + cart close-up.

These aunties walk around from table to table, announcing what type of food their cart has, and then you tell them if you want anything from their cart. If so, they'll give it to you, and stamp your table's receipt card with a number, denoting the value of the food you've just selected. This is how your total is rung up when you're done eating. There is literally no way of knowing if you're getting cheated or not. Bahaha. Just go with it.

After dimsum, we headed to a Chinese grocery store. Because this is Monterey Park, places such as these are everywhere, unlike in Fayetteville where much like dimsum, they are nonexistent.

Random things you can find in Chinese grocery stores.

More random things.

Boba stall. Duh.

Honey dew slushie.

After we finished up at the Chinese grocery store, Aunty Sau Kuan dropped Christine, Shan Shan and I off at the Puente Hills Mall so Shan Shan could do some shopping. She'll be interning at the Mayo Clinic (wtf why is she so badass) over the next two months and needed some new swag. I, of course, bought way too much. UGH I WILL HAVE NO MONEY FOR JAPAN. My excuse is the items I bought were necessities - people need clothing, right? That's perfectly acceptable, right? RIGHT?

I digress, again. The mall was fun.

Unfortunately, Chris and I were too fat for this.

Aunty Sau Kuan and my grandma picked us up at about 5 so we could go for a potluck at my Aunty Sau Ying's house. My grandma turns 80 this year and the potluck was planned as part of the celebration. Chinese potlucks are the bomb diggity. We arrived at my Aunty Sau Ying's at around 6:30, and a lot of my family was already there, with a whole lot more on the way. As expected the food was awesome.

More pictures of food. Geez.

Fried noodles from my grandma.

Prawns from Aunty Sau Ying.

Steamed fish from Aunty Sau Ying.

Dog from Julian. KIDDING THIS IS BUBBLES WE LOVE HER.

Fried mixed vegetables from Aunty Sau Ying.

Chicken and some sort of chili thing from my grandma.

Fruits from my Aunty Lydia.

Meat pies from my Aunty Cindy.

We ate till we exploded and spent the rest of the night talking and watching K-Dramas. My mom would have been proud. To be honest, I wish I had spent more time with my family before tonight. I've never really spent much time in LA (only during university holidays when my family used to live here), and the more I get to know my family, the more I adore them. I'm pretty lucky to have such a large family who loves me. Yaaayyy.

After talking and bonding for a while, it was cake time for my grandma! The cake was pretty incredible, no lie.