Family Chinese Dinner - bizarre menu

Before I got wicked sick on my holiday break, I had just enough time to fulfill family obligations. One of them was dinner with my dad's side of the menu. The dishes were really bizarre, either really fatty or heavy in gravy. I said as much to my dad. Apparently he and an uncle ordered, and they didn't coordinate.

My favorite dish was this chilled poached chicken with sliced blanched geoduck (pronounced "gooey" duck). There was a slight wasabi flavor to the chicken skin which complemented the geoduck nicely. My parents used to like to go dig for geoduck, before they got fined so many times due to their confusion about how to properly comply with the California Fish & Game code regulating the taking of geoduck. Now they like to stick to abalone.

Back when we liked to get geoduck though, we'd have to dig rapidly after the tunnelling snout of the clam. We'd head out to these sandy tide lands to look for them. Once the shovel hits the ground though, those ugly suckers start burrowing away, farther and farther from the surface. Since my arms are so long, I have distinct memories lying flat on my stomach, my whole body embracing the wet, muddy ground, while I plunged my arm down a narrow hole groping around hoping to grab hold of a shell or a snout like siphon. I remember wondering what in the world I was supposed to do once my fingers touched something, but that particular search was fruitless.

The siphon looks like a long elephant trunk, it's a bizarre looking animal, but really delicious when cooked properly. My parents don't know how to prepare it well, so we always have to go to restaurants to get our fix.

Fried pork trotter. Too fatty for me without some crisp, spicy pickles to cut the taste.

Fried oysters. The batter was coated with an oddly sweet. I didn't get this dish. Why was it on an iron skillet? What was it on a bed of undercooked red onions? What was a Chinese restaurant serving oysters rolled in a cornmeal batter?

Fish star fry with snow peas. I'm not entirely clear on why all Cantonese dishes have to have at least a light glaze of sauce/gravy.

Another bizarre and random dish. Eggplant in gravy tossed with scallions and shaved bonito flakes. Since the eggplant was hot and the bonito flakes were thin and wet, the kept curling up in the wet heat, and it looked like there were little moving animals on top of the eggplant.

Not so shocking, chicken stir fry with red onion and bell peppers, but also a nonsensical dish. The iron skillet, the undercooked vegetables, the pairing with chicken, none of it makes sense, nor seems Chinese.

Beef and broccoli, but this time with Chinese broccoli. I love Chinese broccoli. Finally a normal, edible dish.


Soft tofu with reconstituted dried scallop and shrimp. I love dried scallop. It's really good in soups with melon and in fried rice.

It was funny, there was a cousin from Reunion Island there, and she doesn't know most of us in the States, being more familiar with the side of the family living in France or still in the French colonies. I've had dinner with that side of the family several times in Paris, and they are very polite. Someone from the younger generation goes around and serves every single dish to every single person, and they're very careful with the serving. When N serves the fish, she makes sure everyone gets a little bit of sauce and a little bit of the scalded green onion and ginger slivers.

The American side of the family comes directly from mainland China, and it's much more of a free for all. A grandchild might serve one or two dishes as a token gesture to my grandma, but that's about it. I think this poor girl was a little confused, and it took her some time to just get food for herself and not have to serve anyone else.