A Chinese feast

I always enjoy Chinese banquet style eating. I usally ask to see the Chinese menu in "authentic" restuarants and have the waiter translate the courses. It's usually the best deal. Friends of ours have a tradition of going out to eat a Chinese meal before Rosh Hashana starts and asked us to join them this year. The choice was Joy Luck Place in the Cupertino Village shopping center on No. Wolfe Road (at Homestead), mainly known for their dim sum. What a great meal it was!
We got the lowest price family dinner, $268 for 10 people plus one other dish to make up for one of our party's being allergic to shrimp. The dinner consisted of generous portions of: a cold BBQ meat platter with jellyfish and seaweed too (pork very fresh), soup with seafood and tofu, glazed (giant) prawns with walnut, scallop and chicken in black bean sauce (scallops a little overcooked), braised broccoli and bok choy with black mushrooms, pepper fried whole crab (2), Peking duck (excellent), pan fried sea bass (very tender and fresh), seafood fried rice, and red bean soup. The added dish was beef tenderloin in capital sauce with lovely sauteed onions.
Their dinners for 10 are also available for 5, which is unusual and welcome. It was a great meal and a good start to a new year, albeit traif.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the BATS (Bay Area Theatersports) Theater at Fort Mason for a terrifc night of improvisation, Jane Austen Unscripted, by Impro Theater of Los Angeles. Before the show, we went to Yukol Palace, at Lombard and Scott for some very fine and pretty inexpensive Thai food. We parked near Fort MAson and walked. It's nice to know about it as it is away from the Chestnut Street crowds and so reasonable. Their Yum Ma Keur, charbroiled japanese eggplant in lemon dressing topped with shrimp, chicken, and accompanied with slices of hard boiled egg is a wonderful way to start. We followed this up with beef larb, pad thai, Panang chicken curry, and brown rice. All dishes were under $10. Look for the daily specials. They also have some easy drinking cocktails.