i heart chinese food

I am full. As a last-day-at-home outing, my family took a trip to see Night at the Museum (a pretty funny movie, actually) and ate at our favourite Chinese restaurant.

The difference between this trip to the restaurant and the other trips that we usually make is that today is not a Fast Day. In the Orthodox Church we fast on certain days and seasons to remind us of the sacrifice Christ made in giving up his life (we figure giving up certain foods for a little while might not be so bad), and also to remind us of the simplicity in the garden of Eden before living things ate each other. On these days we don't eat meat, poultry, eggs, or dairy. In other words, most of the other trips to the Chinese restaurant involved eating fruits, vegetables and sea creatures that don't have backbones (in ancient times things like shrimp and other spineless sea-snacks were considered 'trash', and therefore are ok to eat.)

That's just fine with me, because even though today we were able to enjoy honey chicken and an unidentified meat wrapped in bacon, I was also able to ingest the food of the gods. Yes, I'm talking about coconut shrimp. And when I say food of the gods, what I mean is that if I were suddenly whisked off to Mount Olympus in a parallel universe where Greek gods are real, and was offered the choice between a container (platter? goblet?) of nectar and ambrosia, or a plate of coconut shrimp over rice, I would consider (for a good three seconds, at least) and choose the coconut shrimp. It's really that good.

It was a nice end to a long stay at home for the holidays. Tomorrow it's back to work, back to school, back to chaos. Right now it's time to pack...wish me luck.