Well, Mr ABC that I am, I will eat the fortune cookie at the end for two reasons: (1) was taught to clean the plate, on the plate, every plate and (2) i like dessert of some sort and if it is only a fortune cookie so be it.
What I miss in terms of dessert is the old school almond jellow or the off white tapioca drink. I will do it, but not a big fan of the red bean dessert.
Not big on the onions and bell peppers but I will eat some if no other veggies around…
Why don’t Chinese restaurants cook onions and peppers for a long time. Onions that are carmelized are very tasty and don’t give one gas. Same with peppers if cooked long enough they become soft and gas free.
Because they lose their vibrant colors if cooked too long. It’s all about presentation.
Not sure, but maybe it is all about quick stir frying and fast turnover esp in takeout restaurants so wham bam thank you ma’am or the fear that they might overcook them. They can’t win…
Depends on how far back in history 
In Mexican and Italian cuisine they cook peppers for a long time so they are edible. The presentation looks fine to me.
Those onions and green peppers are just dish fillers. They are there just to occupy space, otherwise your dish will look small and Chinese being cheap people will complain. Unless I didn’t order enough food I don’t eat those.
I think back in Hong Kong they don’t use as much onion and peppers. I need to double check with the resident Chinese gourmets here.
Then in that case the Chinese also invented soccer.
Such a waste. If cooked properly onions and peppers are delicious. Like an Italian sub with fennel sausage onions and peppers. Philly style… They ultimate hotdog.
I have the same exact feeling as you, SFDB — on where I draw the line. However, recently I was in Vancouver and had a banquet meal at Sun Sui Wah - https://www.yelp.com/biz/sun-sui-wah-seafood-restaurant-vancouver-2
This is pretty darn good HK-style restaurant in North America’s best HK-style Chinese food city. This is a banquet where I was eating all the usual good stuff - boiled shrimp, Australian Lobster 2 ways, abalone, birds nest soup, geoduck 2 ways, roast baby pig, and OMG I was hovering up this dish that was like total crack! Much to my chagrin, I discovered that the crack I was eating was their interpretation of Sweet n Sour Pork. Now I am conflicted. 
Wow, light eating I see…
Would you believe that it was for a funeral? Some of the best HK Chinese banquet meals I have had were thrown for funerals. Eat your grief away???
The one that stands out in my memory was a few years ago - also for a funeral - at the Golden Leaf Restaurant in the Conrad Hotel. The person throwing the meal paid — get this — HKD $1500 PER BOWL of Shark Fin Soup.
You know how sometimes you can have too much of a good thing? Like if you were ravenous and were given the opportunity to eat an entire slab of pork ribs = too much!I Or maybe if you love uni and someone gave you an opportunity to eat, say, 5 trays of uni? And then you feel slightly disgusted because its. just. too. much.? And you know how you’ve never had that feeling about shark fin because you can never have enough? Well, this was too much. Too much shark fin. TOO MUCH. I will never have such a bowl of soup ever again for as long as I live.
Doesn’t it seem disrespectful to eat shark fin at a funeral? Or the deceased had so much assets left behind that he/she elected to spend it all at the dinner table?
Very interesting… I have never heard of extravagent meals for funerals. Usually, they are very simple or lean towards Buddhist beliefs.
I posted this awhile ago. This was really odd to me…
It was a complicated story. To make a long story short, the executors of the estate were incentivized to spend as much as possible of deceased’s assets so that the “companions” of the deceased could benefit as little as possible from the deceased’s passing…
You are authorized to organize my funeral… lol
I ran the stripper and banquet idea by my wife. She was not too fond of the idea. I will need to outlive her too get the dream funeral.
Yes, I am not a big fan of this trend that started when???
Uh, while you down there I am sure a few posters here wouldn’t mind a abalone or two…