Screening the film 2046 last night at the Embarcadero cinema made me hungry. Although I ate some popcorn before the film started, my thoughts kept wandering to food during the dark, sexy film. I was running through a list of items to prepare for Oscar's birthday party: Hawaaian pork with rolls, new potatoes, chicken wings, steamed green beans, cherry tomatoes, donuts, soprasetta, salami, lamb's milk cheese, yellow cake, and more (a mixed bag of food, but all good stuff that he loves).
In 2046, Chow Mo Wan orders things like lamb casserole and snake in a fancy dining hall. The problem is, we don't really get to see him eat. Most of the restaurant scenes instead show drinking, smoking and carousing. Also, there are many passionate love scenes throughout the film, which only further stirred my appetites. Seeing the seductive women make me want to do my hair in a big, mussy fashion the way the Su Li Zhen and Bai Ling characters do. They are hot! It helps that I've had 
a crush on Gong Li since a college film course.
After getting a free movie poster and leaving the Embarcadero, Oscar told me, "Let's just go home and you can drink some water," when I told him I was hungry for Chinese food. Water. As if. That. Could. Ever. Work. For. Me. After some debate, he indulged my food craving, and we ambled to Chinatown. He probably realized I wouldn't sleep until I got my fill, somehow. We should've headed to the "tried and true" Yuet Lee restaurant, where we had our second date. It is open late, and many cooks of all ethnicities crowd in for catfish clay pot and other savory dishes. I didn't want to walk too far away from BART, and steered us towards someplace closer, by saying, "Let's be adventurous!"
We ended up in a bizarre restaurant called Silver. It has a bare bones decor, with love songs from the fifties to seventies playing. Other customers included: tourists, tatooed, and even a young Chinese family, with girls dressed in similar tops and coats. I liked that Silver has duck and sausage hanging up in an open kitchen, and tanks of live seafood. The biggest turnoff was seeing waiters count their cash rather than pay attention to us, and having to ask for water three times.
Rather than get 1/2 a duck for $9.95, and a few orders of dim sum, we went for the most expensive meal option, at $9.95 a pop. The egg rolls were soggy, and I later noticed it's because they are rewarmed in a microwave. Our more than decent soup had a tasty chicken broth with sausage 
dumpling. Next, we enjoyed pork fried rice, sweet and sour pork (with HUGE chunks of onion that I polished off), spicy pork, and Sichuan Beef. "We get a ride of luxury," Oscar said as he paid the bill. Ah. He knows I hate BART when it's late. Too bad the "luxury" included a cab that reeked of cigarettes, and a tour of Market Street, complete with sirens and police, breaking up something at a check cashing joint. I kept licking my lips and groaning, regretting that I bit down on so many onion chunks.
I would go back to Silver for soup or duck, but only if it's late at night. There are much better places for lunch in that area.
Now I have to figure out how to get my hair teased and ratted just so, and where to put our beautiful new poster.
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