Sunday, April 3, 2011

Birthday fun!

I know I kept this on the down low, but yesterday was in fact my birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!!
Basically I woke up yesterday morning and my boyfriend made me some pancakes and some hot chocolate for Breakfast.


Then we went out for a walk and decided we would try climbing Bray Head again but go a different route this time, but unfortunately... As we were nearing the sea front a big huge black cloud appeared

so then we decided to call in and visit some friends. We had some Chinese Jelly there. It's weird it comes in a tube like a cool pop. Actually it comes in all different shapes, like Cats, Sea horses, mice fruit. Etc and they come in all different flavours such as Strawberry, Mango, Lychee, Pineapple & Banana



If you want to see more check this website Zuozuo Jelly
 My friends son Yi Bing

Here is me and my friends daughter Yi Han

Then we went for a walk down the sea front and walked around the harbour looked at the incredibly noisy swans,

We went back to the apartment and freshened up then my boyfriend said he wanted to find the best Chinese restaurant in Bray for us to go to. We went into about 4 different ones. The first one was incredibly overpriced.  we would be better off going to an Irish restaurant, if we had to pay that much, Then we looked in a Chinese restaurant that we had never been in and they didn't have a "Chinese" menu. It was purely take away style.

Then we looked in another restaurant the food was reasonably priced but all the tables were on top of each other my boyfriend said he didn't want us eating in a canteen. Then finally we found the perfect one. Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant.

Most people will know this already but it your finding trying to find a good Chinese restaurant outside of China of course, A key indicator of a restaurant being good is if they have a Chinese version of the menu (written in Chinese)
Secondly if there are actually Chinese or even Asian people eating in the restaurant.

Thirdly this is not always true, but if the restaurant looks quite shabby with quite old mismatched furniture, its likely to be family run and will have quite traditional food. and traditional food is always better than Chinese Take away style food.


Sweet and sour chicken is not traditional, The best place to find traditional Chinese food in Ireland is in Parnell street and Capell street  in Dublin, City centre, Some restaurants in my hometown Bray have traditional food if you inquire such as China Kitchen.

Anyway back to the dinner, I let my boyfriend order because sadly most restaurants don't translate the Chinese version of the menu into English and a lot of dishes are left out in the English menu what a pity!

We had Prawn Wonton Soup.

Crispy Ribs 

Sweet and Sour Sea bass

Yummy!!! My favourite was the Sea Bass, Most Irish people don't like fish but I usually love it!

and my Birthday Celebrations are continuing today. Its a tradition in my family that the Birthday Girl or Boy gets to choose which restaurant they want to go to for their Birthday dinner. So we are having my Birthday dinner today because.... Its mothers day and my dad wanted to include my Grandma, which I was fine with. So I am thinking Italian today!!
 

2 comments:

  1. A 'Happy Birthday' back at you!

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  2. Happy b-lated birthday. I am all about the fish, but then again I grew up in the coastal area of Maine. =o) It seemed like a fun day, which is great.

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