Monday, November 30, 2009

A very happy birthday


It's always a little bit sad when Thanksgiving is over. It's my favorite holiday, and I really look forward to it in the months leading up. But as with a birthday, wedding, or any other day you anticipate, its specialness does not make it last longer than any other day. In fact, it seems to go even faster.

One thing that always keeps me from dwelling on the 364 days standing between me and my next pumpkin chiffon pie is the fact that my birthday is right after Thanksgiving--November 30th. So, happy birthday to me!

I share this auspicious birth date with Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, and Billy Idol. And, in a funny twist of life, with my niece, who happened to be visiting from the East Coast this weekend.

To celebrate her ninth and my thirty-something, we decided to have a joint celebratory lunch at Yank Sing. Who doesn't want to spend their birthday eating dumplings?


I sat next to the other birthday girl, who has asked to be known in this blog as Mischievous Pug. Look how good she is with chopsticks!


And I sat across from Mischievous Pug's little sister, who I've decided to call Scrappy. Looks like Scrappy's plotting something.


We started off with Shanghai soup dumplings, delicate and porky.


Then on to steamed pork buns. A long time ago, I worked at Yank Sing, and I can tell you that no matter how many of these you eat, even if you are ridiculous and eat one every single day for two years straight, you do not get tired of them. You may find that you begin to resemble one, but you do not get weary of the soft and faintly sweet dough, and the perfectly salty-sweet BBQ pork filling.


And har gow, siu mai, spring rolls, vegetable dumplings, turnip cake, and many, many more. So many, in fact, that I forgot about taking pictures in my dumpling frenzy.

Later, we rolled back to our place for some birthday cake. The husband had ordered a beautiful vanilla tomboy cake, which we picked up from Miette, along with some tall skinny candles. We got nine for Mischievous Pug, with one to grow on. They looked so pretty all lit up!


The cake tasted delicious with coffee and vanilla ice cream. Oh, and see those little ballerinas? My mother dug those up from my childhood--little ballerina figures she used to always put on my cakes. Mischievous Pug and Scrappy placed them very carefully around the candles.


Amidst the cake, there were presents, Barbie clothes and a new watch for Mischievous Pug, a sparkly necklace for me from my sister, and popover pan from my mother. Expect to see the second chapter in the popover challenge very soon! And, so that you might appreciate the popovers through well-lit photographs taken from flattering angles, the husband gave me a long-coveted EGO light along with a little tripod.

Thank you to my family for a delightful birthday! I'm glad I got to spend it with the people I love most in the world.
xoxo,
Hungry Dog

15 comments:

  1. Many, many, many, many happy returns of the day Hungry Dog! Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all - Mischievious Pug and Scrappy are very cute. Looking forward to more popover adventures :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Birthday! Looks like a good way to celebrate. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. A lovely, lovely day...down to my meyer lemon tisane Chez HungryDog. So glad we were able to spend the double b'day together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm so glad the birthday was so warm and wonderful. You deserve it! The nieces have grown up so much! Enjoy the rest of the week (and the cake).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy birthday! It looked like a tasty, fun time!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, Happy Birthday! I always love my birthday. I think that everyone in the world should know that it's my special day. I've never met anyone else with my same birthday, so maybe it IS my own special day.

    It looks like your own special day was full of family and fun and good food. What else is there?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy birthday! And celebrating with a cake from Miette guarantees a lovely, sweet year ahead. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happy Birthday! Mine is today. I would love to celebrate with those dumplings!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy happy birthday! That sounds like a fantastic way to celebrate. I need to have a dumpling-themed birthday. I can't wait that long, so I should just have dumplings! It's cool that you have your birthday around the holidays -- it just keeps the festivities rolling along! Cheers to you -- I hope you made a lovely birthday wish!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!

    Barbara; happy birthday to YOU!

    Denise: yeah, who really needs the excuse of a birthday to eat dumplings? Go for it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy belated birthday! That's so sweet to share a birthday with your niece and then have her here to celebrate. That feast at Yank Sing looked mighty fine, and that cake looked really special. That's a really cute tradition with the ballerinas. If I can find it, I think I'd like baseball players on my cake! ;-) Looking forward to the popover post!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Happy Birthday to you and Miss Mischievous Pug! I love the ballerina figurines.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Happy birthday again! I've left you a little something over on my blog...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Happy Birthday! May many more happy returns! What a fabulous birthday treat and the cake looks awesome good too. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy belated birthday! And happy soup dumplings!

    ReplyDelete