Sea Empress and Boiling Crab

Celebrating Simon's birthday with dim sum at Sea Empress in Gardena. Lots of nom'ing on all the staples, sadly no birthday cake... oops! Not that mattered, we had plenty of har gow, shu mai, pai gut, lo mai gai, dan tat, and all the staples instead-- then we topped it off with milk tea from Tea Station!

A few short hours later, off to Boiling Crab, 'cause eating til we explode is how we do it. Met up with Jeff and Joycelyn (along with Sue, who was at dim sum too) and after an unexpectedly short wait of only an hour, we found ourselves seated and aiming for something like four pounds of shrimp, two of mussels, one of clams, plus a dozen raw oysters. Do order the mild spicy rather than medium or hot, seems to bring out the flavor of the other spices more.

After that ridiculous amount of food and the reek of garlic, well, we had very full bellies to enjoy...