Saturday, March 9, 2013

Birthday Dinner

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Todd and I have traditions surrounding birthdays. Todd usually has a party called “Super Todd”, since his birthday is usually around the Super Bowl. We would invite all our friends over on Super Bowl Sunday for a birthday party which included catered food and watching the Super Bowl. You can see past Super Todd parties documented here and here. As for my birthday… I usually invite a few friends out to dinner. You can see our dinner celebrations in 2010 and 2011. (I didn’t have a birthday dinner in 2012.) This year we didn’t have a “Super Todd” Party, so we decided to have a combined birthday dinner last Sunday night, in between Todd’s birthday and my birthday. We invited a few friends to celebrate our birthdays together.

Who: Roby, Dejah, Victoria, Anne, Gilbert, Sally, Meera, and AJ
What: Newmans combined birthday dinner celebration
When: Sunday, March 3, 2013
Where: China Max
Why: because we love celebrating birthdays with our friends

As with traditional Chinese banquet-type of meals shared with family/friends, we sat around a big round table with a big round lazy susan in the middle. And we ate family-style, sharing all the dishes.

The meal started with vegetable spring rolls.
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Victoria, Anne, and Gilbert waiting for food to arrive. :D
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After the spring rolls, it was soup time! This was beef and spinach soup.
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Roby and Dejah helping us celebrate our birthdays.
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Pork Lettuce Tacos.
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Birthday boy and birthday girl! :)
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Honey Walnut Shrimp. This dish was decimated before I could take a proper photo! (I’ve never seen anyone NOT like this dish, except for people who are allergic to shrimp or hate shrimp like Todd does.)
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So happy that Meera and AJ were part of our birthday dinner celebration!
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Fried Tofu with Vegetables and Mushrooms. Yum!
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So happy that Sally could join us for birthday dinner! (Thank you to Sally’s mom for babysitting the twins!)
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French-Style Beef with Asparagus. This was definitely a hit!
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Me and Meera. We walked Finish Chelsea’s Run together the day before. The next day we got to share a meal together. Every day I see her I’m filled with joy. :)
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Garlic Chicken with Vegetables.
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Seafood Pan-Friend Noodles.
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General Tso’s Chicken. I think this was AJ’s favorite. :)
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We finished off the meal with sweet red bean & tapioca dessert. This is usually complimentary when you order lots of dishes at a big table at Chinese restaurants.
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Another year older and hopefully more wise. We’re both so thankful to have good friends to celebrate our birthdays together. It’s definitely one of the highlights of our year! ♥

7 comments:

  1. What a wonderful night with good friends. And the food looks absolutely yummy. I especially love the lettuce wraps and the walnut shrimp - my favorites. TFS.

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  2. I ate two bowls of red bean soup!

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  3. Happy birthday(s)! Looks yummy!

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  4. Yum yum YUM!!! And great company - thanks again for the wonderful night out!!!

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  5. Looks fantastic! Wish we could have been there - but happy birthdays wishes to both of you from all of us. :)

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  6. Happy birthday! Wow! All that food is making me hungry :)

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  7. Happy Birthday Christine.

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