February 13, 2017
Afternoon Tea at The Wellesley
LIFE, LATELY: SWIM - A PRELUDE Read the first chapter Life, lately: That sinking feeling
My family are hard work. Don't get me wrong, I love muh crazy Asian fam and wouldn't swap them for any other brood in the
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CHRISTMAS PLATTER
£188, SERVES 2 PEOPLE
Edamame
Selection of 6 pieces sashimi (salmon, fatty tuna, yellow tail)
Selection of 6 pieces nigiri (tuna, salmon, yellow tail) Whole grilled live Canadian lobster with Korean spicy sauce or
Japanese teriyaki sauce topped with gold leaf
Alaskan King Crab leg with spicy chilli sauce Skewered yaki scallops with sweetened soy sauce
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*I was invited to review Pan Chai and the meal was complimentary. |
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...and my passport back in time for me to join my annual family trip, this year in Reykjavik. Unfortunately, both the Home Office and Santa's workshop take the same amount of time to make a little girl's wishes come true ie. a whole friggin' year because the odds of me traipsing about Iceland with Rudolph & Co in just over a week's time are as slim as the chance of a white winter in London. I bear no grudge toward the big red guy (although I'm a tad exasperated by bureaucratic red tape), after all as a sometimes-Atheist-mostly-Agnostic-Asian my claim to Christmas celebrations goes as far as opening every window of my beauty advent calendar on the 1st and Bucks Fizz benders on the 25th.
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I'm surprisingly sanguine about the prospect of spending Christmas on my ownsome. Christmas is about food, family, and fighting. The latter two, I'll get my fix of the week before Christmas when my family make their way to me in London (which I'll no doubt milk by nudging them towards the Prada concession in Harrods *cough* consolation present *cough*) and the former, I can get my fix of with Chai Wu's Christmas Menu - seasonal dishes with a delightful Chinese twist. So Santa, put me on your naughty list for all I care - I see your minced pies and raise you the Chai Wu scallops and foie gras in red wine sauce.
CHAI WU, HARRODS FIFTH FLOOR, KNIGHTSBRIDGE 87-135 Brompton Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7XL |
You know from my previous review of Chai Wu that this glossy Pan-Asian restaurant serves up luxurious Chinese and Japanese favourites with a literal Midas touch (gold leaf-flaked dim sum, anyone?) so I was as curious as anyone to see their tribute to the festive season. It seems that as far as flavours go, the references are subtle - such as the deliciously dense black pepper turkey roll, while the focus is rather on that hearty, homey feeling of Christmas dinner. Hence a creamy starter of avocado lobster soup topped with fish roe in a delicate glass bowl, hinting at the refinement to follow. The scallops and foie gras in red wine sauce brought glamour and decadence. The star dish was the Chilean sea bass, the skin perfectly pan-fried with the most moreish yellow bean sauce begging to be mopped up with the accompanying rice. Even humbler dishes, like the baby pak choi and egg fried rice were elevated with rich ingredients; the former with silky shiitake mushrooms in oyster sauce and the latter with bits of scallop.
CHRISTMAS MENU
£88 per person, minimum for 2
Avocado Lobster Soup
Black Pepper Turkey Roll
Scallops and Foie Gras in a Red Wine Sauce
Pan-Fried Chilean Sea Bass with Spicy Yellow Bean Sauce
Shiitake Mushrooms and Baby Pak Choi in Oyster Sauce
Egg White Fried Rice with Dry Scallops and Mixed Seafood
Dark Chocolate Orange Fondant
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Desserts at Chai Wu are always a gorgeous and elaborate affair. The Christmas special is no different - the dark chocolate orange fondant mercifully had none of that cloying chocolate orange sickliness (its popularity amongst the Brits will forever remain, to me, a great mystery) but rather a thick, rich, warm sauce that oozed with all the sensuality of a good pudding.
I made two curious observations; one: that the meal began on a distinctively Western note, and two: that despite the rather traditional Chinese home-cooking style of the other dishes, the Christmas menu evoked just the right amount of homeliness with none of the 'dated' feeling. For yours truly, that rare Overseas Chinese expatriate who eschews simple Chinese home-cooking for more time consuming-to prepare dishes such as duck pancakes, it's a compliment to Chai Wu for finding the right balance between comfort food and contemporary cuisine.
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I invited Honey to join me at Chai Wu for a long overdue catchup. A seven-dish Christmas menu turned into a nearly-four hour long meal; partly because the dishes were so delicious that they begged our full attention, partly because we had so much to say in between courses, and partly thanks to the libations. As per my suggestions Honey had the signature champagne cocktail - Chai Wu Fizz - while I whet my palate with a sake cocktail I believe to be called the Gold Miyagi. And then there was the tea. So much tea - and I'm not only talking about the herbal variety but also about the jaw-dropping, scandalous variety. After what seemed like an endless and delicious wave of 'Oh my God!'s and 'They did NOT!'s the drama was punctuated with perfect comedic timing when the ever-attentive staff asked, 'Ladies, would you like some tea?' WOULD WE! The Jasmine Blossoming (how appropriate) flowering tea was a wonderful refreshing note to the end of a decadent meal and equally juicy conversation.
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"Welcome, esteemed guests from five lands and four seas, to gather as friends for various delicacies"
MIN JIANG Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London
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However, a concept that is not alien to this Overseas Chinese Malaysian-now British expat is the comfort of authentic Chinese cooking in a foreign land. A surefire indication of such a establishment is, as is the case with Min Jiang on Kensington High Street, is a chorus of various Chinese accents: I heard the baritones of husky Mainland accents, the clear altos of the Taiwanese; the curious, sometimes soprano-like drawls of the Malaysian Chinese, with Cantonese cadenzas peppering the symphony. That overture raised the brocade curtain on a gorgeous meal for four at 'London's most authentic Chinese restaurant'. |
Call me the Alexander Petrovsky of date night. And before any of you shake your fists at me with cries of Team Aidan! or Team Big! (Team Berger? No? Darn right, he was a real wet towel), hear this Sex And The City-binge-watching-sister out. So maybe I'm neither composing 'Ick!'-inducing love songs on my grand piano* nor waltzing in couture** at the local Maccy D's, but if you want me to show you a good time you gotta get your art on (and get to grips with chopsticks - you'll see why in a bit). And as far as London art exhibitions go, it doesn't get bigger than the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Every year, this world-class institution of art hosts its legendary open-submission summer show, with an eye-watering exhibit of over a thousand works within the Palladian-mansion walls of Burlington House. Because either you go big or you go home. Jack Berger, I'm talking to you...#RASUMMER
Oh, the Strand - that stretch of London spanning Trafalgar Square to the City limits, where every horror story you've ever heard about London traffic (both the four-wheeled and two-legged variety) crawls past some of the city's most iconic landmarks: whether it's the tired and touristy (London Eye) or the underrated yet quintessentially London (basically every pre-war building with a view of the river). At least the view makes for an interesting distration from the ever-climbing taxi meter, yes? Steadfastly self-employed as I am (read: works from bed, attends Skype meetings wearing crispy linen blouse + sweatpants) you'd have to move heaven and earth to get me to venture out of my pocket of East London and into Covent Garden. F/29/Shore-bitch. Will haul arse for: the opera (or Lion King, depends on how long we've been friends), London Fashion Week, and of course the promise of cracking company (I mean, her surname is Lux. Spirits don't come more kindred than that.) + beautiful beverages + good nosh. Because the best things in life are free. I see your contempt for bloggers and raise you my complimentary cocktail.