Tag Archives: restaurant

Chinglish Lunch

Posted on October 30, 2012 | 2 comments

Today I went to lunch with a group from the office.  We went to a local Chinese restaurant and had a delicious meal.  I love the Chinese way of ordering lots of different dishes and then everyone tries a little of everything.  It is also nice to go with locals who order food that I would never think to order and most of the time, it is yummy!  I had to laugh at the translation on the menu for many of the dishes.  I don’t know what the staff thought I was doing when I asked to keep the menu so I could take photos!

Every restaurant in China has a food safety certificate prominently displayed.  I think that yellow is ok to eat!  No funny tummy so far……

A yellow neutral face for food safety today

There were 7 of us for lunch and everyone ordered a couple of dishes each.  I chose a spicy fish option, because my first choice had already been ordered:

Explosion Lamb! It was fantastic.

Pork Grandmother (the translation means “homestyle” cooked). Again, it was delicious.

This cauliflower dish was perfectly cooked with a fabulous combination of flavours. Unfortunately, none of my friends knew the English for the “green stuff” so I don’t know what it was cooked with. It was definitely not mustard!

The rest of the photos here are of dish names on the menu that made me laugh, but that I did not try.  I will be going back, so I will be sampling some of these in the future.

So many on this page alone: Moo Meat; Braised Stroke; Chicken Black Fungus; Rich Beef; Cowboy Cake Ring; Chicken, blinds results.

Grilled Husband Sixi. Perhaps all the scorned women of China get together for a special type of “divorce”.

I love soybeans (edamame), but I had no idea that I just been eating the good ones up until now. I can’t wait to try the naughty ones next time!

3 yellow chicken

How many versions of yellow can there be? And, this poor chicken has 3 versions……..

Old Chicken Pot. This poor chicken looks like he just gave up the struggle to live. Chicken in China is more often than not served like this (head and feet). It is also the same when you are buying it. The feet are a delicacy and are most often served deep fried.

Chicken Feet

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Char Bar, Mr Willis and Friends

Posted on October 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

End of a long week!  Friday night started with us heading to the Char Bar, which is  a bar on top of Hotel Indigo on the Bund.  We were meeting friends from Emerald on the roof top for drinks before going to dinner in the French Concession.

It was a fantastic evening.  The ladies all wearing sleeveless dresses/tops and no need for a jacket!  The weather is absolutely gorgeous this time of year.  Loads of blue skies, sunshine, good air quality and warm!  We arrived on the rooftop at 7.30pm and had a couple of cocktails there before leaving for dinner at Mr Willis.

Owen, Matt, Emma, Nick and Lin at Char Bar, Hotel Indigo

Owen, Matt, Emma, Nick and Lin at Char Bar, Hotel Indigo.  Great view of the Pearl Tower, Bottle Opener and other downtown buildings from here.

Owen & Sara at the Char Bar, Hotel Indigo

Owen & Sara at the Char Bar, Hotel Indigo

This is a fabulous location!  It was a lovely relaxing start to the weekend – chilled glass of wine, with friends, admiring the view and unwinding from the week.

Fabulous view of downtown Shanghai

Fabulous view of downtown Shanghai

All of the boats on the Bund were lit up!

All of the boats around the Bund were lit up!

Another great view.......

Another great view…….

The Huangpu River at night.

The Huangpu River at night.

We can highly recommend Hotel Indigo!

Hotel Indigo

After such a good start to our evening, expectations were high for dinner!  A short drive across town and we arrived at Mr Willis in the French Concession area.  This area is very distinctive as there are lots of trees down all the avenues and there are many “boutique” type shops, cafes and restaurants.  This area is probably the most western within Shanghai.

Mr Willis restaurant is on the top level of a building with a couple of other restaurants in it.  The menu is all western and top quality.  I shared the Goats Cheese Souffle with Emma (Owen ate a whole portion) to start with and then had Lamb Shank for my main.  Owen had ordered the Roast Beef which was actually the biggest steak I have ever seen, but so delicious (over 50% came home in a doggy bag with us!)  My lamb shank was fall-off-the-bone tender, and perfectly accompanied with couscous and a tomato based sauce.  Owen had lemon sablee for dessert and I had pavlova – both melt-in-the-mouth yummy!  It was a fantastic meal for both of us.

A lovely evening, with lots of laughs, good food, fine wine and friends.  The perfect start to the weekend!

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Reservation for 70 – Sunday Brunch at Intercontinental, Shanghai

Posted on September 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Our Ex-pat Community, The Emerald, is a fun, close-knit environment of Westerners in Shanghai.  Newcomers are welcomed with open arms and everyone is so friendly – a real community setting.  This atmosphere and attitude has greatly helped Owen and I to settle in to life in China.

There are several members of our community celebrating their birthday in early September so one of our neighbours had sent an invite for Sunday brunch to join them in this occasion.  We had Driver Fu take Matthew, Emma, Ava, Ethan and us to the hotel Intercontinental for a 12 noon reservation.  When we arrived and said the name of the person organizing this get together, the response was “Ah yes, reservation for 70”!!!!!

Matthew, Emma, Sara, Owen (and Oliver who sneaked in). Isabelle took the photo!

Matthew, Emma, Sara, Owen (and Oliver who sneaked into the photo). Isabelle took the photo!

What a terrific gathering of people.  All the children were spread across 3 tables, while the adults all grouped in tables of 6 -10.  The Intercontinental Hotel also has a fabulous kids club, so after the kids had eaten they all disappeared to a separate room for arts and crafts activities, bouncy slides and reading – all supervised so the adults could really relax!

Wow – what another lovely selection of food!  This was definitely the best selection of desserts and I especially loved the eclairs – passion fruit, raspberry and chocolate flavours.  Owen liked the passion fruit tart the best.  They also had some delightful chocolate lollies, which I had to try many times to ensure that they were all just as good as the first!  

Owen really liked the Thai selection – he enjoyed some spicy crab, black pepper beef and chili chicken.  I loved the Indian dishes – butter chicken and lamb rogan rosh were excellent (they have a real Indian chef which explains the quality of these!)  There was a wonderful selection of sushi, seafood, salad, pasta station and crispy duck pancakes.

The Thai Selection

The Thai Selection

The Indian Selection

The Indian Selection

Crispy Duck Pancakes!

Crispy Duck Pancakes!

The Seafood Selection

The Seafood Selection

Pasta - anyway you want it......

Salad and Shooters

Salad and Shooters

Sushi and Tempura

Sushi and Tempura

These chocolate lollipops are filled with little explosions of heaven

These chocolate lollipops are filled with little explosions of heaven

Chocolate Fountain

This was the kids favourite – chocolate fountain (marshmallows and fruit to dip), plus sweetie jars! This area got multiple visits from all the kids…..

Wonderful flavours in these eclairs :-)

Wonderful flavours in these eclairs 🙂

Passion fruit tarts - Owen's favourite

Passion fruit tarts (bottomm right) – Owen’s favourite.

It was funny to watch the older kids with their heads down into their video games/cellphones etc.  All the little kids were busy in the Kids Club making felt slippers, notebooks, reading books or playing group games with the supervisors.

"Don't interrupt our games!"

“Don’t interrupt our games!”

"Ok, we'll smile for a picture......"

“Ok, we’ll smile for a picture……”

Jenny, Sara, Owen, Matthew, Emma & John

Jenny, Sara, Owen, Matthew, Emma & John

Oliver's favourite - the marshmallow covered in chocolate

Oliver’s favourite – the marshmallow covered in chocolate

Isabelle loved the fruit juice shooters

Isabelle loved the fruit juice shooters

Lovely neighbors!

Lovely neighbors!

More lovely neighbors...

More lovely neighbors…

Even more lovely neighbors

Even more lovely neighbors

And, even MORE lovely neighbors.....

And, even MORE lovely neighbors…..

We had a complete section of the restaurant for our group