Ying's 20th at Casa Asturiana

Sophia, Julia, Tapas, Rena, Kylie, Ying and I went to Casa Asturiana, which is on Liverpool St in the Spanish Quarter to celebrate Ying's 20th year on this here planet.

There was some confusion over the tables, which led to our party walking up the stairs, then down the stairs, then UP the stairs again! Then we found out that half our party had been mistakenly put downstairs

... but we had already started eating our bread, and thought it would be kind of odd if we ate the bread, got up, and left ... so, the downstairs people came up to our much nicer upstairs table with our view of the monorail.

We ordered a banquet, which started off with almonds (which tasted like peanuts) with a sweet, honey glaze, and Spanish and garden salads.

And what's a Spanish dinner without sangria? Very drinkable, although I know deep in my heart it's cheap wine.

Our tapas consisted of:
*GAMBAS A LA PLANCHA - Fresh prawns from the barbecue accompanied with salt & lemon
*ALBONDIGAS A LA ASTURIANA - Meatballs cooked in savoury tomato sauce
*PULPO A LA PLANCHA - Octopus straight from the barbecue
*SARDINES ESCABECHADAS - Filleted sardines marinated in olive oil, vinegar & garlic
*CHORIZO A LA PLANCHA - Barbecued Spanish pork & paprika sausage
*PATATAS BRAVAS - Fried cubed potatoes topped with spicy tomato salsa
*CHAMPINONES A LA PLANCHA Barbecued whole button mushrooms with white wine garlic and parsley
*CALAMARES FRITOS - Fresh, fried calamari


Dessert were casadiellas, pastries made from ground wanuts, cinnamon, lemon zest & anis liqueur, dusted with icing sugar, and were very yummy and Christmassy.

Julia LOVED the sardines, and no one else touched them - she was my food hero for the evening. I think Tapas kept on shooting her looks, like "Are you sure?!"

We were also entertained halfway through our meal by some Spanish dancing, and that was pretty awesome. I love it when we have these interludes in meals for dancing, just like at Rowda Ya-Habibi!

Ying tried to get Rena's attention by calling her name, but when that failed I suggested, just for fun, she try other names she might answer to like "bitch" or "skanky-ho", which didn't work either because Rena is neither bitchy nor in the least bit skanky. She's just has a knack of selectively blocking out idiots like Ying and I!

This is a photo of Rena refusing to smile ...

Afterwards we headed out to Darling Harbour to Pier 26 for a few drinks, then we called it a night. Happy 20th Ying!