Family dinner at Gold Garden, Balcatta
My mum came home from her trip last week and we all got together for a family dinner on Friday night.
Dinner was Mum’s treat – before heading off on her trip, she’d made a booking for us at Gold Garden Seafood BBQ Chinese Restaurant in Balcatta and pre-ordered the dishes so all we ‘kids’ had to do was turn up after work.
I knew if Mum chose the menu it would be a carnivore’s delight (same as if I’d chosen the dishes). And so we had duck, two ways – roast duck, and deep-fried duck with yam (taro) paste; fried Patagonian toothfish; crispy skin chicken; beef with honey and black pepper; salted egg yolk prawns; sizzling Japanese tofu with chicken mince; and even our token vegetable dish of stir-fried kailan (Chinese broccoli) included pieces of chicken! You see where I get my meat-loving tendencies from?
It was an excellent meal; my favourite dishes were the Patagonian toothfish and the beef. Dessert was simple – slices of fresh watermelon and orange, followed by rockmelon and sago pearls in sweet coconut milk, served cold, like a very basic bubur cha cha.
The kids told us all about their day at school. Again, they had colouring books to keep them busy. We also played word games (surprise surprise, food-related), such as:
“Name different kinds of pies”
Ruby: Strawberry!
Zoe: Blueberry!
Me: Apple!
Caleb: Banana!
Ruby: Peach!
Zoe: Potato!
Me: Chicken!
Caleb: Hair!
A protest from the girls, but Caleb was insistent! Until I said, “Tell you what, Caleb. I’ll eat a piece of hair pie if you eat some too. Deal?”
There was no deal, just a new answer of “Pineapple pie!” (Thank goodness – I didn’t really want to eat hair pie!)
When Mum saw my photos from our Chinese New Year family reunion dinner, she said that I had failed… to be in any of the photographs! Well, I guess I’ve failed yet again!
Auntie and nephew, family resemblance! My nephew Caleb is going through a ‘tongue out’ phase – this is what he does now when I point my camera lens at him. 
Zoe especially enjoys colouring in the most intricate details of a picture.
Caleb asked his Auntie Juji to draw him a reindeer, which he then coloured in. 
Duck with yam (we also had roast duck)
Fried Patagonian toothfish – most of us named this dish as our favourite.
Crispy-skinned chicken
Token veggie dish – kailan with more meat!
Beef with honey and pepper – Mum confessed she’d requested less honey to be used than usual so the dish wouldn’t be too sweet. The beef was incredibly tender. Mushrooms were a terrific addition to the usual onion chunks. 
Salted egg yolk prawns – no shells to stuff around with, just beautifully bursty prawns in savoury batter.
Ruby loves to look at pictures of her Auntie Juji’s dog Mia.
Paper, rock, scissors
Someone naughty this way comes!
Gold Garden Seafood BBQ Chinese Restaurant, BalcattaMy mum reminded me of the comment Caleb made when the waiter poured the hot sauce (with minced chicken and sliced button mushrooms) over the pre-fried tofu and egg in the cast iron dish, to make it ‘sizzling’. The sauce spilled over the sides of the dish, and Caleb said disapprovingly, “So messy!”
Gold Garden Seafood BBQ Chinese Restaurant
Stirling Gate
12/257 Balcatta Road, Balcatta WA 6021
Enter via Wanneroo Road, lots of free parking