Chinese banquet dining is serious business in the San Gabriel Valley, though a lot of non-Chinese diners might never know. Most of these meals take place in private rooms, drawing from negotiated, unprinted menus. My in-laws are Chinese-American, born in China’s Guangdong province. We typically gather around lazy Susans in either Monterey Park, San Gabriel or Alhambra at least a few times a year to share celebratory dinners. I rarely know exactly what to expect, though they typically order soup, vegetables, fried rice, suckling pig, and at least a couple live seafood dishes. To celebrate my father-in-law Eugene’s 80th birthday, he and my mother-in-law gathered family and friends in a back room at Elite Restaurant, a Cantonese restaurant in Monterey Park that’s better known for dim sum.

Elite staffers beautifully steamed live shrimp and red rock cod, preserving each seafood’s distinctive, essential nature. Still, the dish I’ll remember most from this meal involved lobster. They hacked a whole sea creature into chunks that exposed the sweet meat. The chef wok-fried the lobster with chewy, disc-shaped rice cakes (neen go), garlic, ginger, pork squiggles, and scallions. I’ve never seen a dish like this on a restaurant menu, but it was delectable.