A happier birthday banquet

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Hopefully this will be the last dinner connected to my birthday... Anyway, I had dinner with a few friend tonight where I was one of two birthday boys.  Yes, my birthday was actually 3 weeks ago, but we've both been busy...  We met up at Xi Yan Sweets (囍宴 甜·藝).  After my disastrous meal at another branch of the chain 2 months ago, this place would not have been anywhere on my list...but I kept my mouth shut and decided to see how it would go.

Greenhouse tomatoes in wasabi sesame sauce (芥末胡麻醬拌日本溫室蕃茄) - one of only two dishes that tasted good last time, and still tasted good tonight.

Cold tofu with preserved duck's egg and potherb mustard (皮蛋雪菜涼拌凍豆腐) - soooo thankful that we didn't order the other tofu with shrimp and crab relish... Simple is best here.

Dried scallop and choi sum salad with Chinese dressing (瑤柱涼拌油菜花) - not bad.  A very different way to take in this veggie.  But what exactly is "Chinese dressing"?!

Sichuan spicy chicken (招牌口水雞) - the other dish from last time that tasted alright.  Still tasted OK, and we asked for medium spicy.

Shrimps in salted egg yolk and basil satay sauce (金不換沙爹蛋黃蝦) - can't say this was anything special but it's not bad.

Zhenjiang spareribs (密制鎮江骨) - this type of spare rib is always popular... since the sauce is kinda sweet.

Poached radish with baby bean sprouts (浸湯蘿蔔豆苗) - very young bean sprouts were used here, and almost look like radish sprouts (which would have been another funny 親子丼 combo...)  Very refreshing and good for the summer.

Dan dan noodles (招牌擔擔麵) - this was alright.

Since we are at Xi Yan Sweets, we definitely had to order some desserts.  I was already pretty full, but the Okinawa black sugar with glutinous rice balls (沖繩黑糖白子) looked interesting.  Besides the typical red bean sauce and mochi balls, the black sugar did not come in the form of the typical liquid syrup, but was made into cubes of jelly instead.  I really liked that.

I'm glad the meal turned out well.  After all it was supposed to be a "birthday dinner" or sorts.  Very thankful for my friend treating us to the meal.