Green Cottage

I finally made it back to Green Cottage 14 months since my previous visit. We had to order everything naturally!

Our spring rolls were piping hot and crispy.

We had 4 orders of nem chua (naem in Thai). We are famous at the restaurant as we consume them by the ton!
Eggs in sweet soy stew: a nostalgia for our early years, especially for my sister as she was constantly eating them when she was young.
Beef pho. The broth was not as good as before but it was still yummy.
Beef and noodles in curry soup. I wish I knew the secret of this curry soup as it's simply the best.
Green Cottage

2/F, Gigna Tower, 482 Jaffe Rd., Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2832-286

Dragon Air

Shanghai to Hong Kong, lunch. For western there was the usual salad then fish or beef for main courses. On the other hand the Chinese menu looked so much nicer so here we go.

To start there was soup with chicken and ham and jellyfish salad on the side. The soup was quite salty (because of the ham) but the chicken was tender. The jellyfish salad was a bit too soggy and had too much vinegar dressing.

There were 2 main courses: braised pork ribs in sugar and vinegar sauce. Ribs were really tender and the sauce was yummy.
Scallops in XO sauce. The scallops were huge and the sauce not spicy at all - I wouldn't have known it was XO sauce if it wasn't for the menu. As usual the veggies were overcooked. I did enjoy all the meaty scallops and I couldn't believe how big the portion was.
Instead of the Chinese soupy dessert I went for ice cream. It came pretty close to the best airline meal, right after this one.

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Hong Kong to Shanghai. Business starter: smoked salmon salad.

Fist class starter: same dish, same ingredients but different presentation.
Business main: chicken and mash. The chicken legs were grilled and they were pretty moist and tender. The gravy was actually quite close to real gravy! Yum!
First class main: steak and roasted potates. For once the steak was not overcooked but since it's pre-cooked and kept warm it didn't have that fresh-off-the-grill aroma. Still it was pretty good for airplane food.
Dessert was Haagen Dazs again - it's probably the best dessert arrangement and I wish other airlines would do it too.

Da Marco

Dinner at Da Marco. As usual the place was packed. I don't dislike busy restaurants but it's very uncomfortable when the tables are 2 inches away from each other. I know Da Marco is not shooting for upscale dining but still.

We ordered a number of starters to share. Antipasto platter.

Tuna salad.
Clams cooked in white wine sauce.
Soup with seafood.
For our main courses we had pizza.
Lasagna. We were so full we didn't touch the lasagna and decided to doggy-bag it. To our horror the bus lady cut and squashed the thing into a small round container. It was so dreadful looking we sent it back. To give them credit the waitress swiftly apologized and took it off our bill.
Food was good value and generally tasty but it's too crammed to enjoy our meal.

Da Marco

103 Dong Zhu An Bang Rd. (nr. Zhen Ning Rd)., Shanghai. Tel: 6210-4495

Lisboa Macau Restaurant

I was hungry. I was desperate. And I still regretted eating this food. It was on the afternoon tea specials and my theory was that it can't be too bad if it's a signature dish the restaurant plugged. Well I couldn't be more wrong. The curry sauce was so salty I knew I would be in trouble. I usually have a pretty high tolerance of MSG but in this case even I was feeling very uncomfortable. I cursed and cursed for the rest of the afternoon. Never again!

Lisboa Macau Restaurant

B1, Times Square, 99 Huaihai Rd., Shanghai. Tel: 63910866

McMuffin

My first McMuffin in Shanghai. Somehow breakfast here ends at 9:30a.m. and unlike in Hong Kong, McMuffin is all on the all-day menu. The verdict: plasticky egg, salty sausage and very greasy. Just like the McMuffin we know. Good for hangovers!

Table No. 1

After our not so successful lunch I was ready to give it a second try because of the rave reviews I kept hearing. This time we decided on the set lunch.

A starter with tuna. It looked yummy enough and C and J seemed to enjoy theirs.

I think I had duck. To be honest I don't remember as it wasn't a memorable dish.
My fish for main. Sorry once again I forgot what type of fish it was but I remember it being rather fresh and flaky. I particularly liked the zingy sauce and the sweet mandarin slices.
Beef fillet and foie gras. Beef looked lean this time and C and J said it was nicely cooked.
I got so jealous of their side dish - the fries were absolutely out of this world.
Ice cream trio was one of the desserts.
Tapioca. It was interesting enough but far from outstanding. Should have had ice cream. We did enjoy our lunch and it's good food considered the price they are charging. We will go back for set lunches again but probably not for a la carte.
Table No. 1

The Waterhouse at South Bund, 1-3 Mao Jia Yuan Rd. (nr. Zhong Shan Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6080-2999

Da Marco

Dinner at Da Marco. The menu changed slightly since the last time we were there but all the favourites are still there.

Beef carpaccio with shaved Parmesan.

Caesar salad. Very bacon-y (and nice!).
Antipasto platter.
Oven grilled seabass. P said it was way too salty.
Pasta with clams in white wine sauce. Clams were fresh and sweet and it wasn't too garlicky.
Prosciutto pizza. It was just prosciutto and tomato sauce but I guess sometimes simple is good.
Once again food in Da Marco is generally tasty and good for the value but don't expect gourmet. Dinner for three with a bottle of wine came to just over RMB600. Bargain!

Da Marco

103 Dong Zhu An Bang Rd. (nr. Zhen Ning Rd)., Shanghai. Tel: 6210-4495

Sir Elly's Restaurant

A fine day and a fine lunch at Sir Elly's. A 3-course set menu (RMB280) was offered for lunch.

Drinks were extra. We opted for iced tea and it had to be the strongest tea I ever tasted in my life. It totally blew me away and I was having caffeine rushes all afternoon.
Our appetizer sampler. Clockwise from top left corner: summer tomato salad, orange and ginger confit; hamachi with vanilla and lemon dressing, mango chutney; asparagus panna cotta, Szechwan whipped cream, salmon roe, chive tip; almond gazpacho, confit peach, endives, coco nibs. We throughly enjoyed all the dishes. There were lots of ooohs and ahhhs while we were eating as the tastes were quite refined and delicate but very crisp.
There were 5 choices for main course which covered scallops to pigeon, beef, salmon and risotto. P decided for the salmon, confit, shiso, roe, and jade vegetable. We were not sure what jade vegetable is but he gobbled everything up pretty quickly.
My wood grilled Wagyu short ribs, corn, romaine, espelette coulis was delicious. The only problem (which was a big one actually) was the beef and it was too fat for my liking.
Dessert was a tasting sampler in 3 parts: apricot creme brulee, Madeleine stuffed with honey, and strawberry lassi. Our favourite was the creme brulee.
Sir Elly's Restaurant

13/F, Peninsula Shanghai, 32 The Bund, Shanghai. Tel: 2327-6756

Chi Restaurant

We finally got to try the one and only Chinese restaurant in the village near us. We didn't expect much and we were more interested to see who is actually cooking behind the kitchen. It is a small village after all and we didn't expect an ethnic restaurant.

To start we tried the aromatic duck (₤10.8). It's actually our favourite pseudo-Chinese dish. Instead of getting just the skin with Peking duck you actually get shredded duck meat with this dish. The pancake and the fixings are the same and to be honest it makes more sense (to get meat rather than skin). This version however was a little dry.

Lemon chicken (₤13.20). Nice zingy sauce and tender chicken. My family would say I'm a disgrace to be eating lemon chicken but heck to it.
Singapore noodle. All the main courses come with either rice or Singapore noodles. The color was not right but all the tastes were there. Not bad at all.
The rice was pretty good too.
Fillet beef with spring onion and bamboo shoots(₤15.20). We should have taken the server's suggestion of black pepper beef instead of this one. The cut of beef was actually very tender and juicy but we didn't like the fact that it's swimming in sauce. We think they were trying to do gravy and it was just too pseudo for our taste.
Steamed bass (₤17.90). We wanted steamed fish and settled for bass as they didn't have any other sea fish. The bass was actually a very nice fish to be steamed. Its firm texture stood up really well to the sweet soy and ginger sauce. And it's a bonus that it was boneless.
All in all it was a pleasant dining experience and we especially liked the high-quality ingredients and produce used.

Chi

Fore Street, Kenton, nr Exeter, Devon, UK. Tel 01626 890 213

another BBQ

This time it was a BBQ just for my husband and I. To start we had panzanella - our housekeeper calls it soggy bread salad. We actually liked the toasted and slightly chewy ciabatta.

Champagne to go with our BBQ mud crabs.
I thought the crab could be bigger but my husband said I was greedy.
Crumble for dinner. I suppose we didn't need a bigger crab.

Michael Caines at ABode Exeter

We originally wanted to visit Gidleigh Park - Michael Caines' Michelin restaurant in Devon. Unfortunately we had to cancel and we decided to try his other establishment in Exeter instead. We were so glad we went.

We emptied the bread basket trio in no time and asked for a refill as we loved all of them. We also really enjoyed the free potato and bacon starter.
My husband's wild salmon (₤22) was delicately cooked and had all the right flavours.
We even polished up all the side vegetables (₤3.95).
My guinea fowl (₤23.75) was easily the best dish I EVER had in England! I never knew guinea fowl could be so tasty it's difficult to go back to chicken.
Too bad we didn't have time to stay for dessert but we will be back very soon.

Michael Caines at ABode Exeter

Cathedral Yard, Exeter EX1 1HD. Tel: 01392 223-638