Slow:

I was trying to figure out why I was so tired after church. It took me a while, but I finally realized what it was. My church had a Thanksgiving lunch and I had consumed a ridonkulous amount of turkey. Mmmm... tryptophan. So now I have an excuse as to why I was such a lazy bum this afternoon.

On Saturday, after the walkathon, FA and I went to the National Museum of American Indian and then to the US Botanical Garden Conservatory. We saw the titan arum (pictured, but it's not as big as that one), not yet bloomed... but it was supposed to soon and it did the night after. Kind of cool, knowing that it takes 14 years for the flower to grow before it blooms. The NMAI was very cool. I love the design and atmosphere of the museum because it's so fluid and curvy. One quote that particularly caught my interest was, "I did not practice my culture, I lived it." I like that.

Saturday night I went to my church's 70th anniversary banquet dinner. The food was so good and I got so stuffed. Let me enlighten you about the wonderfulness of China Garden's typical banquet menu:
First, there's the cold cut platter with jelly fish. Everything sort of looks gross, but it's all so delicious. The dried meats provide a perfect balance to the slightly pickled jelly fish (which resemble cooked rubberbands). Next comes the second appetizer, fried shrimp balls. These might be my favorite part... it's really just that- fried shrimp chunks... but the simple taste is just incredible. The third dish is a soup. We had an egg drop crab soup. It's not my most favorite, but it has a clean taste and perfectly sets you up for the real meal. Fourth came the roasted chicken, which is very tender and juicy. But really it's chicken and it's a filler dish so you only want to take one good (and by good I mean fewer bones) piece and save room for the rest. After the chicken comes the deep fried shrimp. These shrimp are usually jumbo huge. Like 4 or more inches in length. It's pretty salty and a little spicy so be prepared for a little kick. You eat everything because it's all fried, but it's not considered wasteful if you don't want to eat the head because that can be pretty rough on the mouth. Dish number six is the vegetable. I usually don't eat this because it has mushrooms and a mushroom sauce. Fungi are gross. Seven is the fried rice. I can tell you, CG has some of the best fried rice ever... and I've had a lot of different fried rices. Again, this is a dish that fills you up quick and they hit you with it relatively late so be careful about portion sizes. Eight is the roasted duck. This is the best duck meat next to straight up Peking duck. In my opinion, it's one of the best meats that Chinese restaraunts serve. Take my word, eat this dish with vigor and be sure to claim as many good pieces as you can without being dishonorable. The last savory dish is fish. We had a fish and vegetable stir fry which was pretty good since the meat was tender, but it lacked a true fishy flavor. I enjoy CG's cod... which they serve over one of those warming platters with the fire underneath and everything. Closing out with dessert, we get a pastry and in our case we got a puff pastry filled with lotus paste. It kind of tasted like a moon cake, but much more crispy and sweet. Following that, the last dish was, and usually is, a dessert soup. It was red bean soup, which is rather sweet and has a unique aftertaste that you don't experience elsewhere. I had three bowls since some of the people at my table were weak. If you've made it this far, then you've probably wasted a lot of time learning about Chinese-American banquet food. Most big celebrations, such as weddings or anniversaries, are held at similar type restaraunts and will serve similar foods so it's possible that this information might be useful. Quality-wise, you won't find much better than China Garden. Okay, that's enough of that rant... stop wasting your time and get on with your life.

Oh yeah, my mom bought fortune cookies. Six boxes and I think each has 300 cookies in them. Remind me to bring some back.