Dinner out at Forbidden City with friends and Dreamstone Moscato

Since baby #2 will arrive soon [negotiations on name still pending] and the first weeks after the pregnancy might overlap Carm's birthday week / month extravaganza, we decided to celebrate early this year and have a nice adult dinner out at Forbidden City in Long Beach, CA. 

Located at Marina Pacifica.

There is also a full sushi bar on site

Forbidden City boasts a wonderful selection of freshly made traditional Chinese and Japanese fare with entrees averaging $15.  The owner, who to his credit takes great pleasure at meeting all the diners when he is onsite [which is often] takes great pains to explain the reason everything tastes so great is because all the sauces and meals are prepared on site and not prepackaged.  

Since Carm and most of her girlfriends swear by locally sourced organic foods, he was definitely preaching to the choir on that one.

Forbidden City is located right on the canals of the Marina Pacifica.  On the weekends you can see the boats coming in and out of the marina right outside the restaurant at sunset it is a very cool sight.  On Friday night a very good jazz duo play for the diners.  

The outdoor fire pit.

Forbidden City also has a wonderful tented outside patio section that is a must see complete with a ultra cool fire pit that has built in seating for evening cocktails and dining.    

To me the most  impressive thing about Forbidden City  is its great collection of Chinese Art that the restaurant owner lovingly collected over the years expressly to open this restaurant.  Statute.

More importantly for this blog it also has a very reasonable corkage policy of $15 per bottle.  Which is handy since I enjoy bringing my own selections which are typically better than what most restaurants stock.  Since I didn't know what to bring for Chinese food I asked my friend Richard who by trade is a professional wine buyer for some recommendations.  Richard told me he would take care of it and brought the new F&E Dreamstone Moscato.

Dreamstone Moscato and Chocolate Cake, yum!

I am not a huge white wine fan but I asked for a professional opinion and went with his selection.  Apparently sweet white wines pair well with salty and spicy food.  Even alone this sparkling Moscato would have been good.  Dreamstone has a fun peachy flavor with a smooth aftertaste, it also paired well with the chocolate cake I brought for Carm's birthday.  Dreamstone is low in alcohol content which is helpful since the female half of the table are all expecting.

 
All in all a good time had by all.