Paulenar Braeuhaus

Another visit to Paulenar with my dad, as it is his favourite place in SH since places with garden setting is hard to come by in Hong Kong.

His meatloaf (~RMB100).  It's very tasty but somehow the texture reminded me of spam?

My ham board (~RMB100).  Nice bread, nice ham, nice pickles.  Still I think the menu is a bit pricey but I guess you pay for the setting.
Paulenar Braeuhaus

150 Fenyang Rd. (nr. Fuxing Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6474-5700

Laris

We had our first dinner date since the arrival of our LO 9 months ago.  Wow.  I am glad that life is somewhat "back to normal" for us and that we get to go eat whenever we want from now on.  

Back to our meal.  We picked Laris because I wanted mud crab.  I wanted it so much that when I phone to make our reservation I asked if I could reserve one.  i was told no it's OK just come on down.  Obviously the story did not end there.

To start my husband had some kind of squid stew.  It was pretty tender and tasty.

I had some kind of pasta dish to start.  It was obviously pretty average as it didn't leave an impression.

I was going to have mud crab for my main but was told that it was sold out.  Man was I disappointed.  I then mentioned the story with my reservation and my mud crab request, and the fact that it all happened less than two hours prior to our visit.  The waiter went away and came back.  Not only was he apologizing, he also told us that he "found" us half a mud crab and it's complimentary.  And once again he apologized for the disappointment.  I almost felt bad about giving him such a hard time!

My husband's duck, cooked in 5 ways; even though he couldn't really tell me what way green blob was supposed to be

My lobster risotto.  The lobster was fresh and sweet and with the rich creamy risotto sauce it couldn't get any better.

As full as we were we had to have desserts.  My husband's soft chocolate cake with ice cream.  

My meringue pie with passion fruit sauce.  I almost licked the plate.
Dinner for two with 2 glasses of wine came to RMB1400.  Thanks Laris for the mud crab and free wine.  

Laris

6/F, 3 on the Bund, Guang Dong Rd., Shanghai.  Tel: 6321-9922

Haiku by Hatsune delivery

Got the sushi itch again and decided to use the delivery service.  Normally I'd be a bit worried about sushi being put in back of bike for 30 mins but in this case craving won.  

Dynamite roll - spicy tuna with double the hot sauce (RMB70).  It was so hot that I couldn't really taste the tuna at all.  At one point I cheated by scraping the hot sauce off the top.  

Engen roll - tempura shrimp, spicy raw tuna, fish roe, avocado, eel and green onions (RMB75).  The shrimp was good but the eel on top made it too fishy for me.
California roll (RMB62).  It had some crunchy stuff on top as supposed to the usual fish roe.  It wasn't bad but a little plain compared to the other rolls.
Moto-roll-ah moto-licious - deep-fried spicy tuna, snow crab and avocado (RMB82).  I wondered if they gave me the right roll?  I couldn't really taste spicy tuna nor snow crab but who knows.  The little light brown patch on the lower left corner tasted like pate.  Strange.  And now that I've checked my previous reviews I guess I never really liked moto-roll-ah roll except the very first time I tried it.  Perhaps the recipe is different now?
Haiku by Hatsune

28B Tao Jiang Rd. (nr. Wulumuqi Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6445-0021

Crystal Jade

A recent dim sum visit at Crystal Jade.






Everything was tasty but we knew we were going to get very thirsty afterwards with all the MSG and salt. We suffered but we will be back, as unhealthy as it is we do like dim sum after all. It will probably take us a year to get ourselves ready again for another visit.

Crystal Jade
2/F, South Block Xin Tian Di, Lane 123 Xin Ye Rd.(nr. Ma Dang Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6385-8752

Maido Japanese Cuisine

I was in Maido by chance. After a morning of serious baby shopping in Zara I thought I'd settle down and entertain my neglected tummy. When I walked pass Maido on route to the carpark I thought I'd try it out. It thought it couldn't be too bad as it was packed out with lunch crowd.

The menu featured all the regular items you'd find in a cheapish Japanese restaurant: sushi, sashimi, hand rolls, salads, tempura, teppanyaki, noodles, rice; it seemed to be the sort of place with variety over quality. Still I thought I'd give things a try.

Tuna hand roll. It was big and the seaweed was crunchy, and they are about the only good things about it. The two pieces of tuna tasted of nothing and I might as well be chewing on some toilet paper. They had probably been in the freezer for too long.

Here we have toro on the left and tuna with spring onions rolls on the right. Three words came to mind when I saw the so-called toro: toro my arse! I almost sent them back but I was curious to see how bad they would be. Again they tasted nothing like fish and the texture was almost soggy. Yuck! And the tuna and spring onions rolls were not any better: it's 2 piles of very blah-tasting tuna with spring onions sprinkled on top. Very sloppy and I could probably chop finer than that.

Since everybody was having some kind of lunch set I decided to try one as well. I picked a buri(hamachi) fish set as it looked really good on the menu. Boy was I disappointed when it arrived: my fish was at least half the size as the one shown on the menu.

There was no real surprises there after sampling my pathetic looking fish. It was very fishy and even the heavy dose of terriyaki sauce was unable to mask it.

Hugely unsatisfied, I moved on to the special salmon salad on its seasonal menu. Again the salmon was very generic tasting it could be anything but at least the vinegar and sesame dressing and the shaved crunchy radish made the dish interesting. Still it wasn't enough to redeem the underwhelming meal. Never again!
Maido Japanese Cuisine
B/F, Times Square, 99 Huai Hai Rd. Central, Shanghai. Tel: 6391-8105

Bibimbap

After a very satisfying meal in Hanmadang I had developed a "Korean-food itch" and I wanted more. I knew I should not have settled for a place in a shopping mall but I was desperate. Big mistake.

The kimchi spread looked normal with two very heavily flavoured (reads MSG) red varieties.

Beef bulgogi (RMB55). It was cooked on a hot plate by some dude on the side as they were too lazy to set up the grill on the table over lunch. He was pretty much just stir-frying the beef and veg together with some sauce. With a slightly sweet taste the dish was very average and tasted like a ready-mixed-just-add-water bulgogi marinate you can pick up in a supermarket.

Beef bibimbap (RMB25 after a half-price lunch special). There's only one word to describe the dish: nasty. Perhaps the various dog dishes on the menu freaked me out to begin with, but when the bowl arrived with raw beef and egg I got worried. I tried mixing everything up very quickly and hoped that the remaining heat on the stone bowl would help cooking them through. No luck. In the end I had a few small tastes and decided it was nowhere good enough to worth the risk. It's ironic that they would name the restaurant after this.
The underwhelming meal came to RMB90, which is quite expensive considering the poor quality. To add insult to injury I suffered all afternoon from MSG. I should have known better.

Bibimbap
5/F, Superbrand Mall, Pudong, Shanghai.

M1NT

Unlike M1NT in London and in Hong Kong M1NT Shanghai is not a members-only place, at least not for the time being. In a slightly off-Bund location the view is actually not bad but it is a little awkward to get there. And if you drive you will find the only way to get to the place from the carpark is via the service lift.  Not that anything was wrong with using the service lift but I think we scared the heck out of the snoozing security guard.

We were in for a luncheon and therefore we got to sample a number of dishes.  Vanilla-cured salmon, kaffir lime leaf, celery salad.  If I hadn't looked at the menu I would not been able to tell you the salmon was vanilla-cured.  It tasted like regular salmon but with the salad it was pretty refreshing.

Mizuna Salad, pomelo, crispy scallop, sake vinaigrette.  To be honest the dish was pretty ordinary and I had forgotten what it tasted like.

Steamed baby spinach and sesame powder.  It looked impression but its taste did not leave an impression at all.

Crispy squid, black pepper and lime.  It was the most popular dish on the table.  It was similar to the salt and pepper squid you get in Chinese seafood restaurant, but without the greasy batter.  Yummy!

Miso-crusted soft tofu, creamy garlic.  The only memory I have of this dish is the overpowering miso sauce on top.

Alistair's damn pork Goi-oza.  I seem to remember Alistair is one of the founders of M1NT.  I wonder why they name these dumplings after him as they were pretty ordinary dumplings.  Perhaps they thought the little twist with the dip would make it stand out?  Well other than the fact that they were not greasy I didn't think much of them.

Grilled lamb chops, Korean chili paste, sweet pickled cabbage.   The quality of the chops was excellent but once again I don't have much to say about the sauce.

Salmon simmered in yellow curry, shiso and thai basil.  It was the best dish by far.  The fragrant curry sauce was bursting out of flavours and it coated the salmon perfectly.  

Our dessert selection.  

Everything was great especially the chocolate cake.  If the rest of the dishes were as good as the desserts we would be running back.  At the moment we are not in a rush.

M1NT

24/F, 318 Fuzhou Rd. (nr. Shangdong Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6391-3191

more Thai House delivery

Somehow I found another picture of a delivery we had from Thai House.

here we had (clockwise from left) roasted pork fillets, dried red curry beef, fried vermicelli, chicken satays, green curry chicken.  The chicken satays were a little dry but the rest was excellent.  I think my husband stopped me from licking the plate.

Hanmadang

My search for good Korean food is over at last!    I am so grateful to be shown this secret Korean place (thank you C!) as I would never have come across it otherwise.

Hidden in a Korean hotel in Gubei is Hanmadang, a place you will find good quality beef.  When they took out real charcoal I was more than excited.  

I left the ordering to C since she is the expert.  Our kimchi spread was very different than the mass Korean places catered to foreigners.  These dishes all tasted differently and delicately, unlike the usual stuff soaked in red chili and garlic paste.  C mentioned it's very difficult to make good plain kimchi and I agree.  My favourite ones here were the sweet potato and white radish.

A closer look at what I believe to be garlic chives but i could be wrong.  

Somehow the place always gives you sashimi on the side.  We never got to try any of it as our main focus was beef!  

Korean glass noodle salad - always a favourite of mine and this version was excellent.

Beef ribs for barbecue.  C was right about the quality of the meat....it was so tender and juicy that it had that melt-in-the-mouth feel.  I want more!

Bibimbap.  The bowl came sizzling hot and we left the rice in it for a little while so it cooked for a little longer and got crunchier.  Loved it! 

Korean cold noodles.  I had fallen in love with cold noodles when we were in North Korea.  Since then I've tried a few in Seoul but they were hits and misses.  This version is a little different: with little broth and lots of chili sauce it was very refreshing but spicy at the same time.  A very interesting contrast.

The scrumptious meal for two came to just over RMB300.  Good deal!  I wish I could try more dishes next time.

And just as I thought I was going to pop I saw these red-bean fish at the Korean supermarket.  No was not an option and as full as I was I managed to wolf down 2 of those.  They were not particularly nice but they reminded me of my childhood as we always got given a red-bean fish every time we went to Mitsukoshi.

Hanmadang

3/F, Highton Hotel, 1000 East Hong Song Rd., Shanghai.  Tel: 6145-9691

Galleria Korean Supermarket

1000 Hong Quan Rd. (Nr. Jin Hui Rd. South), Shanghai.  Tel:  5528-3838