Chinese New Year Meal(s)

By now, I have not celebrated Chinese New Year with my family for more than a decade. So I am doing what I can, living just with my hubby. For the last 3 years, I made a hot pot (Asian-style fondue) with different flavors of broth. I made the tom yum flavored broth last year and the year before. This year I decided to try something different and simpler, as I was hosting my parents in-law who don't really like spicy food. I made the broth from miso paste and hon-dashi.

As you can see from the pictures below, I had some bok choy, fried tofu, regular fish cakes, lemongrass-flavored fish cakes, beef tendon balls, pork balls, enoki mushrooms, another kind of wild mushroom and some thinly sliced beef tenderloin. Yum!

Dinner at Topolobampo Chicago

We had been dying to try this restaurant. We had been to Frontera Grill three times before and had a very good experience every single time. So we wanted to try Topolobampo.

It took me more than 3 months to get this dinner reservation. Initially I wanted to surprise my new husband for our wedding celebration. Well, just think of this as 4 month anniversary celebration. =P The wait was well worth it as it was the best dinner we both ever had.

This is my appetizer - the sausage and cheese salad with green verde sauce.

And this is my husband's appetizer: muscle soup

This is my soup entree:

And this is my husband's soup entree:

This is my first entree: halibut with sauce and caper

And this is my husband's first entree: seafood mix - this is my second favorite dish of the evening

This is my second entree: braised pork with some kind of polenta - this is our favorite dish of the evening. The flavor was so complex. It was very tasty, it had some smokiness to it, ahh, indescribable.

This is my husband's second entree: steak with amazingly complex flavor

This is my dessert: shortcake with berries, some crumbs and ice cream.

This is totally my kind of dessert, light, fruity and airy. Delectable!

This is my husband's dessert: chocolate cake with caramel sauce and ice cream.

This is totally his kind of dessert: chocolatey, rich, and decadent!

This is not a cheap meal, by any means. However, it is worth the experience. Obviously we cannot afford to go back every year, but this one time was totally worth it.