Food: Silver Pond

Hell hath no greater fury than a woman scorned - and in this case, the woman was my Mom. The owner of Silver Pond, a Chinese restaurant that we frequent, had canceled our reservations for a graduation party a week before the graduation. Mom declared she would never set foot in the place again - a Silver Pond-cott, if you will.

There's not many good Chinese restaurants in our area, so while Silver Pond would be considered middling in Hong Kong, it's absolute gold if you're hungry for Cantonese and you're stuck in West Palm Beach. There are other places, but few as consistent as Silver Pond. It's nestled in a cut-rate shopping plaza (the plaza also has a gun shop/indoor range, if you can believe it) in Lauderdale Lakes.

Eventually Mom's will broke (well, she was sort of dragged there by Grandma and Grandpa, too), and we have eaten there since. But to this day, Mom avoids the gaze of the owner, and some of the initial ebullience of Saturday dinner is inevitably lost as we all recall what happened.

The food is pretty good, though various restaurants I've been to in Seattle, Paris, and Toronto clearly eclipse it. I'm sure any good Hong Kong place would demolish it, too. We enjoy the salted shrimp, Cantonese-style lobster, steamed fish, and occasionally the roast duck. I would've given this place a higher rating if not for the slight on my parents, so it's gotta be...

2/4 stars