Anniversary Dinner

Since Jane is leaving for China on Tuesday, we celebrated our anniversary a few days early by spending the night at the Shangri La and going to a real Chinese restaurant. Fortunately, the Chinese restaurant happened to be located in the Shangri La. But first we had to verify its authenticity by asking if in fact the chef was from China. Once we were assured he was, we took our table. The restaurant offers food from Sichuan (where I was located), Yunan (a province nearby) and Cantonese cuisine (from Hong Kong). We started with a cold dish of chicken slices in a marinade. Jane, however, was not quite satisfied. It seems the dish did not quite resemble the Chinese original ("this one is not that one"). She delivered the same verdict on the tofu and fish soup. Not that it wasn't good, but that it was not like the Chinese original. She loved the shrimp dumplings, however, and the main dish, twice-cooked pork from Sichuan, was a dead on recreation of the Chinese original that I knew. We left stuffed, although we somehow managed to find room for desert at the coffee shop in the lobby. We also agreed to alternate restaurants, so that next year we will eat Italian on our anniversary.