SEA - Dinner at Rocking Wok

[rockdoggydog]

The latest list:

LEDlund and Mr. LEDlund

White Lotus +1

Little Ms Foodie +1

LaurieA-B and Mamster and Richard

SeaGal and SeaGuy

Eden and Bill

Sequim

Creepygirl +2

Kay and Al

Malarkey and Speck

Blue Heron

Girl Chow

Scorched Palate and Sea Crotty

Rockdoggydog and Dani

Reesek +1

Laurel +1

Mary

Waiting List:

Della +1

Right now we stand at 32 confirmed so I need to cut off any more additons, email or PM me if you want to go on the waiting list. See you guys soon!

Rocky

[rockdoggydog]

Okay guys less than aweek to go and the menu that they've put together has settled down at 14 courses. The cost will be $22 a person including tax, beverages and gratuity not included. Please remember to bring cash. Thanks for reminding me to send this out Laurie!

Rocky

[reesek]

Okay guys less than aweek to go and the menu that they've put together has settled down at 14 courses.  The cost will be $22 a person including tax, beverages and gratuity not included.  Please remember to bring cash.  Thanks for reminding me to send this out Laurie!

Rocky

←

yum! any menu preview?

rocky - thanks so much for putting this together...i'm looking forward to meeting so many gulleteers in one fell swoop!

Edited January 10, 2005 by reesek (log)

[rockdoggydog]

Okay guys less than aweek to go and the menu that they've put together has settled down at 14 courses.  The cost will be $22 a person including tax, beverages and gratuity not included.  Please remember to bring cash.  Thanks for reminding me to send this out Laurie!

Rocky

←

yum! any menu preview?

rocky - thanks so much for putting this together...i'm looking forward to meeting so many gulleteers in one fell swoop!

←

I can let one loose as it seemed to very important to many people, there will be an entire assortment of salt pepper things, chicken, pork, and squid.

Rocky

P.S. Anyone who can't make please let me know as soon as possible, thanks.

[SparrowsFall]

I can't make thursday, so I made up for it in advance last night. Nothing new to report; I ordered what Matthew did (rule of life: *Always* order what Matthew orders): won ton in red chili oil (stunningly good), thousand-layer bread (so NOT Atkins, and so worth it), and crispy duck (good, but a bit disappointing--no sauce or anything so sort of dry; the remainder is at this moment becoming duck stock). I will be going back regularly; lots of stuff I wanted to order. They're open Sundays at 11 am...

Steve

[rockdoggydog]

The final list is:

LEDlund and Mr. LEDlund

White Lotus +1

Little Ms Foodie +1

Mamster and Richard

SeaGal and SeaGuy

Eden and Bill

Malarkey

Creepygirl +2

Kay and Al

Blue Heron

Girl Chow

Scorched Palate and Sea Crotty

Rockdoggydog and Dani

Reesek +1

Laurel +1

Mary

We now stand at 30, amazingly my math was off before and so it's still $22 a person including tax. See you guys there.

Rocky

edited for typos and I'm sure I still didn;t get all of them.

Edited January 13, 2005 by rockdoggydog (log)

[Abra]

I am so jealous! We can't make it, so I'm waiting anxiously to drool over your reports. Please take pictures, for those of us that haven't been there yet.

[LEdlund]

Paul and I are looking forward to seeing everyone - either at our house for the "pre-func" or at the restaurant.

Thanks again Rocky for setting this up. I can't wait.

[white lotus]

Many thanks to Ledlund for providing such a beautiful setting for us to socialize in. There is never enough time when it comes to hanging out with fun loving eG folks. Also, a big thankyou to Rocky and the folks at the restaurant. What an overwhelming experience of so many wonderful foods. I will leave the food descriptions to those who took photos and menus. There is a Japanese saying that for every new taste experience, one lives an extra month. My lifespan has been greatly extended. I must also compliment the quality of the tea. Too bad good teas have to contain caffeine. Rocky, perhaps we can convince the restaurant people to sell us some. What a great evening it was. Wish me luck in getting some sleep tonight! WL

[girl chow]

WOW!!

That was such an extraordinary experience last night -- the food and hospitality were just unreal and the company was, of course, exceptional. Ours was loudest table of the three I'm sure (might have something to do with my giant mouth), but I don't think we ate the most or the fastest (we gave it our best shot).

We ate 14 dishes in about 90 minutes. Can you imagine the kind of sensory experience that was? Totally freakin' unreal.

The amount of food was dizzying and the flavors were intense. I can't decide which was my favorite, but the honeydew fish (deep fried in a honey sauce) and the King Tu spareribs (is that the right name Rocky?) were divine -- although we couldn't decide if the sauce had maple syrup, molasses or honey in it. Hell, maybe it had all three -- I don't care it was so damn good. I scored a take-home box of them and ate them about midnight (like White Lotus, I drank too much of the excellent tea and was up late). Late into the night, I polished off the metballs, which were these discs of steamed rice (is that right Rocky?) wrapped around chunks of beef and loaded with a sweet chile peanut sauce that was dip worthy for the steamed buns.

The thousand layer bread is what I'd order again and again -- layers and layers of dough, much like phyllo, sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper.

OH! THE LOBSTER! It must have been 2-3 whole lobsters, with (I think) a ginger garlic sauce. I can't believe I'm such a wuss-- I was too full to eat the crispy whole duck. Amateur. argh.

And I'm running out of room to talk about the soups, but both were interesting -- one was a hot and sour (at the beginning of the meal) and the other was a bonito dumpling soup (at the end of the meal).

I want to say thanks to Rocky for being a stellar host -- and thanking everyone for a memorable night. And a special thanks to the food stylists of our table

When will those pics be posted?

[girl chow]

Oh! Can someone post the menu from last night -- I wanted to see what the "actual" names of the dishes were instead of relying on my made up names! I definitely am planning a return visit to Rocking Wok with friends for dinner.

[little ms foodie]

I'll echo the above, thank you to Paul and Lauren for hosting a pre funk. What a beautiful house you have and how nice to be able to visit for a while with everyone before dinner.

Rocky...you are the man! What a great dinner, place and menu you chose. Wow!! Dayne and I were still talking about the food this morning. Our favorites were the spicy soup served in the beginning, the spare ribs, the duck and the scallion pancake. Oh and I loved the rice and just realized I left it at home...very sad!

An insane amount of food, all so interesting to try.

And the company....top notch guys! Thanks for such an awesome evening. We really, really enjoyed it.

Wendy and Dayne

[Fay Jai]

Ditto --- I would love to know what to order when I finally am able to go!

Sounds like it was fun!

[rockdoggydog]

Thanks for making it such a fun night everyone. Thanks definitely to Lauren and Paul for the pre-func, it was wonderful and you have a beautiful home! I'll tryand get the menu scanned and posted today and hopefully pictures within a day or two.

Rocky

[reesek]

we're both still full this morning!

my favorites were the duck - (moist, salty, & crisp - trifecta of glory) the lobster (g-c summed it up well) and the fried rice...rob liked the steamed rice, the honeydew fish and the lobster the best.

rocky - thanks for putting this together and being such a great host. it was good to put handles to faces for so many of you - sorry we fled at the end...sensory overload i think.

which led to a strange dream wherein i borrowed mamster's self-titled cookbook from someone i haven't seen in 8 years to hunt for a rice cake recipe...these

[Blue Heron]

Thank you Rocky for organizing this Taiwanese banquet for us.

There were so many in attendance, and the way the tables were arranged, I regret I did not get to meet everyone before the night was over, and also regret I wasn't able to go to Ledlund's before hand for the pre-func.

The highlights for me were the lobster dish... major delicious!, crispy duck (albiet a little salty), shredded pork w/preserved mustard greens (I will try to make this at home sometime), the crispy honeydew fish, and the fried rice. I didn't care for the green onion pancake (too heavy), but the flaky 1000 layer pancake was delicious. Their version of sticky rice in banana leaves is one of best I've enjoyed.

[LEdlund]

Wow - I am still full!

Rocky - thank you so much for putting that together. Please pass on my thanks to the people at Rocking Wok. They were so fun and gracious. I'm sure they had to work hard to prepare all of those dishes for the, what did it end up to be, 29 of us?

My favorites of the evening were the king tu spareribs, the rice cake with the ground pork (or was it beef) on top and the thousand layer pancake. Paul's were the duck and the honeydew fish. Unfortunately, I was so full towards the end that I wasn't able to have more than a small taste of the pork potage and I had to skip the duck altogether. Oh well, next time.

I'm glad so many were able to join us for the pre-func, it was really nice to be able to have some extra time to visit. There were so many new (to me) folks - unfortunately I don't think I got to meet everyone. My idea to go around the room and introduce ourself was promptly rejected

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

[seacrotty]

mmph. <chewing leftover duck>

Thank you, Rocky, for setting up the dinner. And thanks to LEdlund for hosting the pre-party. What a wonderful, delicious evening!

c

edited for typo

Edited January 14, 2005 by seacrotty (log)

[Blue Heron]

we were all snug as a bug in a rug, w/o room to walk between the 3 round tables. But I'm happy the owner let us all fit in that section together.

[rockdoggydog]

Okay, here are the scans of two of the menu fronts that they made for us and the menu itself. I'll try and have pictures of food up in a day or so.

Menu items:

Appetizers

Combination plate if Salt and Pepper Squid, Pork Spare Ribs, and Chicken

Cold appetizer plate of Jellyfish, Cold Soy Braised Beef, Wined or Drunk Chicken, Maraschino Cherries on Pickled Daikon, pigs feet, and BBQ Pork

Dim Sum

Plain Steamed Buns

Green Onion Pancakes

Thousand Layer Pancakes

Dumplings served with Ginger Chili Oil

Tradional Taiwanese Food

Pork Potage - Soup with pork and fish dumplings, Shitake, Bamboo Shoots, and Shave Bonito

Sticky Rice - Lor Mai Gai sort of thing, sticky rice embedded with beef, pork, shitake, and nuts steamed in a banana leaf

Steamed Rice Cake - Rice flour cake with ground beef and dried onions and shitake on top covered with garlic soy paste

Meat Ball - Meat ball, with bamboo and shitake wrapped in a rice flour dough that's semi-clear steamed and covered in sweet chili sauce

Soup

Hot and Sour Soup with Seafood

Main Dishes

King Tu Style Spareribs - Okay I asked my mom how to make this and I got lost but it does involve brown sugar and ground dried orange peels

Honey-Dew Fish - not Honeydew Melon flavor, the fish is fried in a salt pepper type preparation and then coated in a light layer of a honey sauce

Pork with Preserved Cabbage - pork braised with cured cabbage

Ginger Lobster - I scored lots of shells, lobster bisque here I come

Yang Chow Fried Rice - moister than normal, steamed again after prep with all the usual ingredients, bbq pork, shrimp, veggies, egg

Crispy Whole Duck

I think that's everything and here the url for the album:

Rocking Wok Album

Rocky

edited for typos, I'm sure I still left out stuff

Edited January 14, 2005 by rockdoggydog (log)

[LEdlund]

Thanks for posting the menu.

There was also a salami-type thing on the cold appetizer plate. Do you know what that was?

I also was too full to try the fried rice. Paul says it was fantastic. Again, next time......

edited to take out a question about the food photos since Rocky answered it in the post above.

Edited January 14, 2005 by LEdlund (log)

[laurel]

There was also a salami-type thing on the cold appetizer plate. Do you know what that was?

←

If you're referring to the pork item that was cut in a half-circle with a skin, I think it was pig feet.

[rockdoggydog]

Thanks for posting the menu.

There was also a salami-type thing on the cold appetizer plate. Do you know what that was?

edited to take out a question about the food photos since Rocky answered it in the post above.

←

Sorry, I missed the pigs feet, fixed it.

Rocky

[SeaGal]

What a great evening! Thank you to Lauren and Paul for a great happy hour with good wine and really nice smoked salmon (I wanted to eat lots of it, but thank goodness I saved room for what was to follow.)

Rocky, thanks for organizing such an amazing feast for us. My favorites were the cold plate (I adore jelly fish), the green onion pancake, the spareribs, the lobster, the braised pork and cabbage and top of it all--the crispy duck. Also, I usually don't care much for fried rice, but this version was really excellent--I've got leftovers in the fridge for tonight

I think we have a new place to become regulars at. Thanks again everyone!

Jan

[creepygirl]

Just wanted to say that David, Miran, and I had a great time last night. Thanks to Rocky for setting it up. It was great to meet other obsessed food nuts, and I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to talk to more of you.

My favorite dishes were the salt and pepper things (all of them), the thousand-layer pancake, and the crispy duck.

We have some photos of the food and people, but are having some technical difficulties getting the pictures to post on eGullet. Please bear with us as we figure things out.