Instant Pot Beef Stew

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70th Birthday Dinner at Lee Wing Wah Restaurant - Chinatown - Chicago

Last night, our family celebrated the 70th Birthday of my "Aunt-in-law" (is that the real way to say it?) at Lee Wing Wah Restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown Square.

In my haste to get the shots quickly so that others at our table could get to the food and eat it, several photos came out a bit more blurred than I preferred.  But, I think you can still get an idea of what we had for dinner.

We started out with a cold plate of Char Siu, Jelly Fish, Pork Belly, and Pigs Knuckles.  Next, there was a Corn Chowder Soup, Mushrooms and Sea Cucumbers, Honey Walnut Shrimp, Chicken (my sister-in-law insisted that I take a photo of the chicken head for you to see...), Lobsters, Fried Tofu medallions, Fish (Sole) - the server broke it open before I had a chance to shoot it, Seafood and Vegetables on Pan Fried Noodles, Beef, Gai Lan on Rice Noodles and finally Orange.  And let's not forget, Birthday Cake!

The food was great as always.  We've been to Lee Wing Wah for countless dinners and banquets.  It's one of the better restaurants (and better values) in Chinatown... so make note the next time you go to Chinatown!

Happy Birthday Aunt Ruth!  Wishing you many more to come!

Pepe's Mexican Restaurant - Rolling Meadows, IL

My wife and I went to Pepe's Mexican Restaurant in Rolling Meadows, IL for dinner tonight.

I've driven past this restaurant for years, but had never been inside, but a Local Flavors coupon for 50% off ($10 for $20) and an additional 25% off of that got us to go there for dinner.

The decor of the restaurant was definitely Mexican.  The color scheme, archways and overall feel was no doubt, Mexican.  That's what I expected and that's what we got.

We both ordered burritos, but different versions.  My wife had a chicken burrito (not a dinner plate, just the burrito) and I ordered the beef burritos suizo dinner (which has cheese and sauce on top).  The dinner plate has refried beans and Mexican rice.

My wife's version had a lot of refried beans in the burrito and my burrito had ground beef and beans in it.  My wife could have ordered it with only chicken in there, but she didn't realize that until after thinking about what she saw on the menu which said that you could get "all meat".  It wasn't very clear that this meant no beans in the burrito.

Anyway, my burrito had ground beef, whereas I thought it would have been more like steak slices.  I think the menu should have called it a ground beef burrito rather than the generic name of beef burrito.  Apparently, there are other versions of the burrito that I could have ordered that had steak pieces, but like my wife, I didn't know any better.  It's on the menu though as I re-read it while writing this review.

My meal at Los Arcos Mexican Grill (see my blog post on this restaurant by clicking here) had actual steak pieces.  So overall, I thought Los Arcos' burrito was better.  But, it was $3 more than the one here at Pepe's.

Still, we both thought the meals were good.  My wife thought the chicken burrito was a bit salty, but overall tasty.  My burrito was tasty, but again, I had hoped it was actual steak pieces.  The second photo above shows the ground beef pouring out after cutting into the burrito.

My wife ordered a churro for dessert.

Our waiter was good and brought out tortilla chips and salsa twice for us.  Another waitress brought out a third basket of chips and salsa after we were done eating too!  The chips were not as light as perhaps Uncle Julio's, but still light enough for me!  Because the service was so good, we gave a generous tip.  My wife noticed that the waiter seemed very surprised at the nice tip.  I suppose many who use coupons don't tip as well or not on the actual cost of the meal.  But we always make sure that the wait staff gets tipped the amount the full value of the meal should be BEFORE coupon discounts.  They should not have to suffer a discounted tip even if the meal is discounted by a coupon.  Anyway, he got a good tip... even more than it should have been before discount.  I'm sure he was happy.

Would we go back?  Sure, but if we do,  it we will order "all meat" options instead.