I finally got to try duck's feet last night when we went to Sun Hong Kong Restaurant in Oakland. Sun Hong Kong is one of the few restaurants that stay open late till 3AM. Yes, of course, to those sophisticated royalty who have spent half their lives in the Big Apple, 3 AM is not late, but this is the west coast after all. People have lives here. People sleep in the west coast so that they can pay attention to the world. West Coasties don't have to go on artificial highs induced by staying up late and going to restaurants at 4 or 5 in the morning to say that they are sophisticated.

The duck's feet came with shitaki mushrooms and bean curd. I must say, the use of shitaki mushrooms is just appaling. Five years ago, one would be hardpressed to find a dish that served shitaki. But now, Chinese!!! food actually has the damned little fungus. What is the deal?

The meal consisted of fried calamari, and no, it is not the small squid type calamari. This was the large calamari. The batter came out yellow after being fried. I wonder what type of food coloriing was used. The calamari had pieces of small noodle like substances that were crispy in texture. And, the squid plate came with pieces of chopped pepper for that extra zing. Very delicious. Give that dish a five oxtail rating.

Next up was the fried shrimp. Everyone else seemed to like it. But I actually forgot to taste it. The participants of the dinner were discussing whether or not they actually took out the chitin skin / shell of the shrimp. I just eat the whole thing except for the tail. Unless of course, someone out there would like to lovingly peel off the shrimp shell and separate it from the delicious white meat. Ummm, my mommy used to do that! Any volunteers?

The sesame chicken was the next plate served. The chicken had a sticky sauce that surrounded it. The chicken itself was deep fried and then covered with the sticky semi=sweet sauce. I mostly ate the chicken so that I could watch my girlish figure. Don't want anything sagging anywhere, you know. This one deserves a three oxtail rating. I figure the chicken should have not so sticky sauce.

The other Chinese diners in our table noticed that we ate a lot of rice. I guess they don't really eat any rice. But, us Pin@ay love our rice! We can eat more because we get to dilute the taste. And, with practice, you can have large servings of everything because the taste buds don't get overloaded.

We're off to Fresno today. Off to attend a wedding reception of an Indian friend. I wonder if chutney will be on the menu.