China House Restaurant - 2328 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda CA 94501 (510) 521-2500

April 6, 2013 -- Today we are back in Alameda (after some guest blogging in Berkeley - stay tuned). We went to China House Restaurant which is a venerable old school Chinese restaurant upstairs at the corner of Santa Clara and Park. Some of us have been going to China House for over 30 years, but it's not in our usual rotation, so we had no specific expectations. We were psyched that they are now on the MASC program and are recycling and composting. Yay!

Five of us came for lunch and ordered six dishes (but we had to cancel one because we had too much food). The portions are enormous, so we had plenty to bring home to Jen and Kevin (who were taking a self-defense class at Team Silva Brazilian Jiujitsu [product placement]).  We had:

- Chicken and Corn Soup - This was very delicious (mostly because we were very hungry and it was on the house). Greta enjoyed it (avoiding the chicken, since she is a pescatarian).
- China House Tofu - Greta ordered this thinking it was vegetarian, but she was able to avoid the pork and loved the prawns. She says, "I really enjoyed it because the tofu was tender and soft and very enjoyable to eat."

- China House Chicken - Vera ordered this and the chicken had white sauce and the tofu had brown sauce. Otherwise they were very similar with lots of yummy vegetables.  Vera says, "It was delicious and I saved the biggest piece of chicken for last."
- Eggplant with Pork - Fred ordered this even though it wasn't on the menu. It was not quite what he was expecting, but very delicious.

- Salt and Pepper Fish - Deep fried and very crispy. It came with fried peppers and onions. This was Linnea's favorite. She says, "It was tender and not too salty. Kind of like fish and chips without the chips."
- Crispy String Beans with Black Bean Sauce - Everyone liked this, but we still had leftovers.

Greta loved the tea. She asked if there was a limit of how many cups she could have. Since neither of her parents were there, there was no limit and she had about five cups (don't tell).

Compost Report -- China House is on the MASC program! Yay! They are diverting 80 percent from landfills and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Please visit China House and enjoy some good old fashioned Chinese food and thank them for recycling and composting!