Birthday at Wong's

As you may know, I love and adore Wong's King Seafood Restaurant. And not without reason; They consistently produce some of the freshest, most delicious food in Portland. Note that I did not qualify it by saying Chinese food. Food, any type of food. Absolutely amazing.

So, last Wednesday, on our weekly visit, Katelyn and I swung by the live seafood tanks to admire the beautiful (and tasty looking) rock prawns. The always amiable general manager, Fu, noticed our interest and swooped in to gloat about how good they make them at Wong's. He was so proud of them that he insisted we try them soon, but also acknowledged how pricey they can be. Suddenly, a smile spread across his face and he asked conspiratorially,

"Hey, when is your birthday?"

I had to laugh, "why, this coming Saturday, actually!"

"Great," he said, "you come back next week and I will have some of these made up for you. On me!"

I thought this to be extremely generous, which it is; But let's be clear here, Katelyn and I aren't one of the big spending clients, the type who rent out the whole restaurant and drop a dozen grand on one evening, but we are consistent customers. We have a (nearly) two year tradition of going to Wong's EVERY WEEK. On top of that, we direct all of our friends towards Wong's, building the fan base. Fu recognizes this, and I guess doesn't feel hesitant to acknowledge it. I certainly don't feel that I deserve this generosity, but absolutely appreciate it!

Tonight was the night. Through a combination of confusion, miscommunication, and greater generosity on their part, we got our entire meal on the house. This elates me.

Check it:
We started with one our favorite appetizers, Fried Shrimp Dumplings:

Loving them so much, I forgot to snap a picture of the main platter before tucking in with gusto.

These are the Prawns. Part of the above mentioned confusion was that these four Rock Prawns were most likely the last in the state, if not everywhere. The rock prawn season ended two weeks ago(!), a small but important point Fu forgot about when he invited us eat them last week. Since then, these four had been kept alive in their tank, just for us. Rock Prawns don't become available again until next June.

They were very lightly fried whole, in their shell, with garlic, chillies, and scallions. After sucking off the shells, we cracked them open, eating the tails, brains, entrails, eyes, and all. Holy Good Lord were they good.

The Prawn shells

The main course was one our absolute favorites, Crab with E-Fu Noodles in Supreme Broth. This dish is amazing. The crab is cooked perfectly, served on top of a pile of thick and chewy noodles. These noodles are made using soda water, giving them their distinctive spring. I just found out that they are also known as Longevity Noodles, traditionally being eaten on birthdays, making for an auspicious selection on our part. The Supreme Broth is a mystery to me. It is a thick, hearty sauce imbued with a meaty savoriness that perfectly compliments the noodles and crab. Something tells me that it is much simpler than it seems, though.

The staff provide you with shell crackers and meat picks that work wonders on retrieving the hard to reach morsels.

I love you Wong's King!


Song of the Day: Telephone, Erykah Badu - This song was apparently written using imagery from the mind of J-dilla, on his deathbed, while hallucinating, as told to his mother who later related it to Badu. Powerful shit.