Mein Menu, part 2: Golden Dynasty
The first time I ate at Golden Dynasty wasn't memorable so much for the food (which was excellent) as much as it was for the circumstances. It wasn't too long after I'd moved to Berkeley. The HMS Fort Awesome had not yet come to be, and all the crewmembers lived in their own apartments. Unfortunately, mine wasn't working out so well. My roommate, who had seemed completely normal when I moved in, turned out to be a little crazy, and even though I'd only been there a few months I was already sure I wanted to move out. I was planning to wait until the summer, when everyone would be moving, and I could move in with my friends, but when I saw an email sent to the Chemistry Graduate Student list from a house of grad students who were looking for a roommate due to some extraneous circumstances, I reconsidered. I looked at the email for a few minutes, and thought, "the hell with it. I'm getting out of here."
After a lot of wrangling with the new landlord, and meeting my new roommates, who were very cool, I managed to get things settled. And so I made ready to move in to 39 Del Mar Ave, the place I lived in immediately before the HMS. Keith had told me he would help me move, but I was surprised when I arrived with the moving truck and found Joe Sweeney and Craig had also shown up to help. Because they're awesome like that. Anyway, we managed to get all my stuff into the truck before my crazy roommate woke up, and I left my key on the table. I was out of there.
Keith, Craig and Joe helped me move all the stuff into the Del Mar place, which was a nice place with the single flaw of being rather high up a very steep hill. The guy who was moving out had arranged to take the truck after I got there, so we piled into Joe Sweeney's car to go get some lunch -- my treat. The question, of course, was where to go. We decided that we should just cruise up San Pablo to see if anything caught our eye.
San Pablo is a good place to look for places to eat, as it has a plethora. Though the Church's Chicken and Taco Bell were tempting, especially for Keith, this occasion called for something of a little higher class, so we kept going. After a while with not much catching our eye, Keith spotted the place. "Dude. Golden Dynasty. Let's do it." We agreed.
I remember the inside being a little dark, but the decorations were quite nice. Clearly this was a Chinese restaurant of a slightly higher caliber than one often finds. I think we were the only people there, as it was a little late for lunch. Moving will do that to you. Suffice it to say that we were very hungry and were not dissapointed. While the prices were a little higher than a lot of the Chinese places in Berkeley, it was actually an amazing deal when you discovered how much food you got. I went for the house special Chow Mein, which arrived on a heaping platter, and basically featured every possible combination of ingredients at the same time. It even included soup as an appetizer. Despite having moved my heavy furniture all day I was still barely able to finish it. Fortunately, the other dishes also came in gigantic proportions, so we were all quite content by the end of the meal.
Since then I've been back to the Golden Dynasty a few times, usually with a group as some kind of special occasion lunch, and it always reminds me of the day I moved into the Del Mar place and finally felt settled. The place was great except for the hill, but I got a bike (courtesy of Joe Sweeney) and even got to the point where I could bike all the way up after a while. When I think back to my first apartment I'm surprised I could stand living there that long. Moving was definitely the right call. Besides, it was a great excuse to eat some Chow Mein.
After a lot of wrangling with the new landlord, and meeting my new roommates, who were very cool, I managed to get things settled. And so I made ready to move in to 39 Del Mar Ave, the place I lived in immediately before the HMS. Keith had told me he would help me move, but I was surprised when I arrived with the moving truck and found Joe Sweeney and Craig had also shown up to help. Because they're awesome like that. Anyway, we managed to get all my stuff into the truck before my crazy roommate woke up, and I left my key on the table. I was out of there.
Keith, Craig and Joe helped me move all the stuff into the Del Mar place, which was a nice place with the single flaw of being rather high up a very steep hill. The guy who was moving out had arranged to take the truck after I got there, so we piled into Joe Sweeney's car to go get some lunch -- my treat. The question, of course, was where to go. We decided that we should just cruise up San Pablo to see if anything caught our eye.
San Pablo is a good place to look for places to eat, as it has a plethora. Though the Church's Chicken and Taco Bell were tempting, especially for Keith, this occasion called for something of a little higher class, so we kept going. After a while with not much catching our eye, Keith spotted the place. "Dude. Golden Dynasty. Let's do it." We agreed.
I remember the inside being a little dark, but the decorations were quite nice. Clearly this was a Chinese restaurant of a slightly higher caliber than one often finds. I think we were the only people there, as it was a little late for lunch. Moving will do that to you. Suffice it to say that we were very hungry and were not dissapointed. While the prices were a little higher than a lot of the Chinese places in Berkeley, it was actually an amazing deal when you discovered how much food you got. I went for the house special Chow Mein, which arrived on a heaping platter, and basically featured every possible combination of ingredients at the same time. It even included soup as an appetizer. Despite having moved my heavy furniture all day I was still barely able to finish it. Fortunately, the other dishes also came in gigantic proportions, so we were all quite content by the end of the meal.
Since then I've been back to the Golden Dynasty a few times, usually with a group as some kind of special occasion lunch, and it always reminds me of the day I moved into the Del Mar place and finally felt settled. The place was great except for the hill, but I got a bike (courtesy of Joe Sweeney) and even got to the point where I could bike all the way up after a while. When I think back to my first apartment I'm surprised I could stand living there that long. Moving was definitely the right call. Besides, it was a great excuse to eat some Chow Mein.
posted by Waltorious at 10:16 PM
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