dressing for the ballet and fried chicken

On Sunday, my friend and I went to see the National Ballet of China perform "Raise the Red Lantern" at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. I read about it during my flight back from D.C. and was very excited to see that it was a product of Zhang Yimou, who also directed "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers," my new favorite movie. The ballet was stunning, with creative use of lights and paper screens. I was sad to see it end after only two hours. Now I'm going to check out the movie version.

Afterward, we went to the mall and then joined some friends at Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant in Buena Park. The outing was sparked by an article in the L.A. Times. We all ordered the traditional chicken dinner. It came with creamy chicken noodle soup or cherry rhubarb (don't recommend), salad, unlimited biscuits, 3 pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, kernel corn or cabbage with ham, and a dessert choice of boysenberry pie, apple pie, vanilla ice cream, or boysenberry sherbet. It's a lot of food and you do get your $13.50 worth, but nothing was outstanding. I liked the creamy soup over the usual watery chicken noodle. The biscuits were good. They were soft, but not the flaky, buttery kind that I expect when I hear "home-made." The mashed potatoes were disappointing--thick and no good without the gravy. The cabbage was good, better than the corn, which was not sweet. I really liked the boysenberry sherbet--sweet, but not tart. The boysenberry pie had a very strong flavor and would have been better if toned down with some vanilla ice cream. Still, it's fun to go for the novelty of it. And where else can you get boysenberry punch? It's good stuff. You can buy the mix from Knott's and make it at home. They also offer an 8-piece chicken meal for $24.50 at the Chicken-To-Go next door. It comes with biscuits, a whole boysenberry pie, and I forget what else. It sounded like a good deal to me.


a time-saving technique i had never seen before--mix the butter in with the jelly so that once the warm biscuits arrive, you are all set to go


mrs. knott's chicken dinner