Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Dublin Exchange
The bangers were not very nice at all. Maybe that's why they didn't serve more than 1 and a half sausages for each portion. And there was no English mustard. We were told that that's some kind of cost cut.
Dublin Exchange
2/F, HSBC Building, LuJiaJiu, Shanghai. Tel: 6841-2052
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sushi Tei
On this visit we tried ordering as many dishes as we could, cos both S and I are big sushi fans.
We totally took advantage of the salmon sashimi special at RMB12 a portion. We got two.
My tuna and spring onion gunkan.
The grilled king prawn. We couldn't work out what was on top. It was salty and slight creamy but it wasn't cheese. We loved it nonetheless.
We were so full at the time but then there were only 8 dishes. The bill for 2 with two apple juices came to RMB325.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Ginger
Look how cute the iced tea(RMB30) is!
U's hummus with vegetables (RMB45), served with bread.
This is my Thai beef salad(RMB68) that I ened up bringing home as I was way too full (and I had to save room for dessert!). The salad was very plain and the salad leaves bitter. I couldn't really taste the dressing at all, except a faint sour taste from lime sauce. The one I had in Kabb was much better.
Mesa
For our anniversary meal we ended up going to the reliable Mesa. I always like the lunches and it's my first time having an evening meal there.
There was no bread basket. Our one piece of bread were digested in no time and it didn't get replenished. Bummer. The orange powdery dip was interesting enough: there was paprika, sesame seeds and some crumbs. Not sure how we were supposed to incorporate it with the bread but it kept us occupied for a while.
My husband didn't say much about his foie gras but it looked freah and tasty.
My risotto with salmon and prawns was delicious!!!! It was rich and creamy with chucks of salmon and prawns. Most importantly the broth used was delicately seasoned and not salty and garlicky like a lot of other places.
My husband's beef tenderloin was cooked to perfection. The meat was juicy and tender.
My lamb medallions were also extremely yummy. The mash on the side was excellent as well but I just could not finish it all, as my risotto was so big.
No room for desserts! The portion for dinner is a lot bigger than lunch (see here and here). We were very happy with the food but the service was a little sluggish. My husband's second glass of wine never arrived for like 20 mins, and by then we finished eating anyway. To make things worse we got charged for it too! The meal for 2 with 2 glasses of wine came to RMB886.
Mesa
748 Julu Rd. (near Fumin Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6289-9108
Friday, May 25, 2007
Green Cottage
Green Cottage is now in its new and much larger location since the beginning of May. I was greeted by the owner's wife at the door and her familiar smile. All looked to be in good order! The menu is essentially the same as the old one but a little glossier.
To start I ordered the Steamed Vietnamese sausage. I am not entirely sure what it's made out of but I think it has got pork - probably similar to the bologna concept? I liked the faint peppery taste and it goes well with the vinegar/fish sauce dip.
As my usual greedy self I got the prawn and duck rolls as well, knowing that I would not have room for all the food. The rolls didn't disappoint: so crisp and refreshing it was exactly what I needed.
I was going to get the beef pho but I saw this dish called train engine pho on the menu and decided to give it a try. I should have asked about its name but it's basically the works. It had a variety of beef related toppings like beef balls, sliced beef, tripes, etc. The broth was immaculately cooked with all the right flavours. I have to say I prefer the simple beef pho over the works as some of the items are too funky for me.
NewsFlash: there's also a new location at the airport in terminal 2, 6/F, Sky Plaza. Tel: 3197-9440
Grappa's
On this visit we were all in a bad way: I was having some major stomach cramps from my Thai food the night before, while K and my husband were both suffering from hangovers. For once we were all sitting there sipping peppermint tea while we were waiting for the food.
My husband's pizza looked really weird. He didn't even know what he had ordered except he was getting some kind of meat pizza. It was more like flakes of dried meat shavings and he didn't think much of it.
K's pizza was more conventional looking and he said it helped getting rid of his hangover.
Spaghetti and meat sauce has always been my ultimate comfort food and this version was not bad. The meat sauce was smokey and rich tasting and I managed to stomach nearly half of it. Too bad I couldn't have more cheese because of my condition.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Bonobo
To categorise Bonobo's music as downtempo or chillout would be an insult, as it is a lot more than that. The new album Days to Come has got a much more polished and sophisticated sound compared to Dial M for Monkey and I've been hooked ever since I picked the record up. This time he's introduced vocals and they are not at all intrusive and he manged to keep everything liquid and silky. Love it!
To listen to some of Bonobo's tunes click here.
For a funkier sound check out Quantic's tunes here.
Thai Farmer
This visit however caused me a lot of grief and it has almost ruined my trip because I was so sick. My friend who came to the meal with me was perfectly OK after though, so was it me? Or was it the food? Hard to tell.
We started our meal with our all-time favourite lap moo: spicy minced pork. We love this dish cos it's good with lattice wraps or with rice. This version had lots of chili, shallots, chopped coriander and they were stir-fried with pork mince with lime sauce and other secret seasonings. It was simply divine. It was very spicy though so perhaps next time I will ask them to go easy on the chili. (We ate all the cucumber slices but our tongues were still burning.)
One of my favourite dishes with Thai cuisine has to be squid salad. I love the dressing with lime, chili, coriander and fish sauce. It goes so well with squid! This version was again extremely spicy, and I hoped that there would be more squid and less tentacles.
Good thing V ordered the pineapple rice. The sweetness of raisins, pineapple and nuts helped cool us down. There was not not a lot of pineapple in the rice and I totally appreciated it as I hate pineapple to begin with.
A must for a Thai meal: green chicken curry. Nothing extraordinary nice but it's always nice to have it with the rice.
The grilled pork neck fillet was tasty as usual. The dish can be really greasy but it's usually OK at Thai Farmer. The pork was lean but had that melt-in-your-mouth consistency. I should find out what the seasonings are because I can probably roast/grill some in our oven.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Nha Trang
It's always good to catch up with the girls as they are generally quite sensible. I must be getting old too as these days I actually prefer moderate drinking and some good food. The days of getting tanked with no food and drinking tequila at 3am are over. Well at least not on a week night.
By 9pm and 4 glasses of wine later I was more than happy when they suggested a Vietnamese restaurant nearby. The place was still packed when we got there! We had to wait briefly for about 10 mins for the smooching couple to leave, but it was fun practicing our get-a-room venomous stare.
By the time we sat down we were more than hungry. We picked a number of items from the reasonably big menu and our arrived quickly.
Our spring rolls arrived piping hot. I was going to use the lattice to wrap it up but then it was so crispy and fresh I decided to just pop it in my mouth. I love Vietnamese spring rolls because of the herbs and the glass noodle fillings. Somehow everything works so perfectly together. I hate Chinese ones as they have too much gooey carrot and taro, the Thai ones are OK but sometimes too much prawns. Yes I am picky.
One can never have Vietnamese without having the beef pho. Truth be told I don't really know what the authentic version should taste like but I can definitely tell the tasty ones from the blah versions. We were extremely happy with this one as it was simply delicious! The rich beef flavour was just bursting out of the broth.
The noodles were cooked to perfection.
Next came the grilled meatball rolls. They looked a little different than what I expected but we gave them a try anyway. There was just way too much rice noodles (and not much of any other things) in the rolls. To sum things up they were rather boring. And what do they mean by meatball? I didn't really find anything remotely like meat let alone meatballs. We'd rather save our stomach quota for other tastier options.
Next we had the shrimp mousse on sugar cane. By now you've probably noticed that in each of the picture a food grabbing hand keeps appearing. Despite my protests my friend V insisted that my shots need some action in order to make things appear more desirable. Did she take a marketing class in the 1970s? Anyhow back to the shrimp mousse. The shrimp tasted rightfully shrimp-y and the texture not too plastic-ky. Yummy! I never understand the role of the sugar cane as it doesn't seem to add any taste to the dish?
The steamed rice cakes were a lot tastier than the meatball rolls. The meat, mushroom and carrot fillings were well seasoned and not soggy at all. Most rice cakes would fall apart after a bite but this one was nice and firm.
The vermicelli cake with grilled beef was delicious. One complaint: too much rather tasteless noodles, not enough beef.
The night's winner was the beef curry for sure. The beef was heavenly delicious and tender and the curry sauce itself was out of this world. Why can't I make curry sauce like this at home?
My husband (who arrived almost at the end of our meal) ordered the deep fried soft shell crab and he said it was OK. I am never a big fan of soft shell crab as there's never enough meat. He loved his beef pho too.
The Saigon export went down pretty easy, even though I'm not a big beer fan. Dinner for 4 came to almost HK$500. Not bad for such a scrumptious meal!
Nha Trang
88-90 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong. Tel: 2581-9992
Chiu Yuen
On the day of my visit I thought the fish balls were uncharacteristically salty. It could be that since we have such a low-salt diet these days that we can't handle the restaurant doses anymore. Anyway my plain (as in without noodles) fish balls (HK$17)were still peppery and bouncy in texture, with a nice fresh taste of fish. One will be surprised that sometimes there's actually no fish in some of the fish balls.
Chiu Yuen
Dragon Air
Monday, May 14, 2007
roast beef dinner
To make Yorkshire puddings you will need (receipe from BBC Food web site):
- 3 eggs
- 115g/4oz flour
- 275ml/½ pint milk
- beef dripping
- salt
1) Mix together the eggs, flour and a pinch of salt.
2) Add the milk, stirring constantly, until you have a runny batter.
3) Leave this to rest, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.
4) Place 1cm/½in of beef dripping in the bottom of each pudding mould, or if you are using a rectangular roasting tray, place 1cm/½in of beef dripping across the bottom.
5) Heat the dripping in the oven (at 240C/460F/Gas 8) for about ten minutes, until it is piping hot. (Smoooooking!)
6) Remove the roasting tray from the oven, pour in the batter, and immediately return to the oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, making sure not to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
Makes about 12 muffin-size puddings.
Luna
G went for the cream of broccoli soup - the chef's name must be Campbell. Nothing wrong with that, because it at least tasted decent - unlike mine.
G's pasta bake with vegetables looked presentable but its taste did not match up to it. She said it was very plain and boring. (I suppose veg pasta bake doesn't get too interesting to begin with.)
My pork tonkatsu salad with aioli looked very impressive indeed. I went straight for the pork as I was staving, but was having difficulty cutting through the paper thin fillet. Basically the batter was way too thick and overlooked. I moved on to the salad and aioli sauce but they were way too salty once again. As hungry as I was I left most of it untouched. Sad!