There is a new Indian restaurant in Taikang Lu called Lotus Land, which we enjoyed recently. I am going there tonight.

I like it, because the food is very tasty and reminds me of my favourite Indian food from the UK. The menu includes tikkas, biryanis, saag paneer and lassi yoghurt drinks. It has a hippy lounge vibe and there is a tatami lounge that fits Taikang Lu. It is also very reasonably priced. A meal for two cost us 170 RMB. I have to warn you that the food is very rich and may leave you feeling comatose for several hours afterwards. I suggest you eat slowly and in small quantities to avoid being overwhelmed.

Here are the details: Lane 274, House 12, Taikang Lu, tel: 54652743, E-mail:lotusland@live.cn

We went to CBTL for dinner last night. Jenny ordered the chicken and mushroom fusilli dish, but they had great trouble giving her what she ordered.

First, they gave her pasta with mushrooms, but no chicken. We sent it back.

Then they apologised and said there was no chicken left. I presume they thought we wouldn’t notice its absence. Chicken was out, but they had turkey instead. OK, Jenny was willing to try the alternative.

Five minutes later Jenny was given a plate of pasta and ham. We sent it back and got a refund.

I also lack any knowledge of meat, but my excuse is that I don’t eat any. Here is some simple advice for CBTL. Turkey meat is white and ham is red. It comes from pigs. I would feel happier if the lives of pigs and turkeys were spared in the making of any pasta, but I am a hypocrit who eats fish to stay healthy and to avoid being a freak. I still know the difference between ham and turkey.

Southern Barbarian serves Yunnanese cuisine from the south western province that borders Laos and Vietnam. The food there is well known for being spicy.

The restaurant is on the second floor of the market that is sandwiched between Jinxian and Maoming Lu. It was not so easy to find. You have to navigate a maze of stalls, cross a plank and climb some stairs before you eventually arrive.

Southern Barbarian serves Yunnanese food, but they haven’t turned the restaurant into an ethnic theme park. The staff wear plain black shirts. The walls are plain white and the floors are charcoal stone. They have a black and white photo exhibition from Ying Tang, which was recently attended by actor Steve Buscemi. Otherwise, the choice of latin music could almost fall you into thinking that Southern Barbarian is a tapas restaurant.

What about the food? Wow! We ordered a few dishes. A bowl of delicious fried green vegetables arrived within a few minutes. They tasted clean and wholesome. Then they served us some amazing roasted goats cheese that excited us, because it was so unexpected to taste something so mediteranean as a provincial Chinese dish. Next came a large bowl of fresh soup and noodles that were perfectly warming for such an inhospitable evening.

The highlight of the meal was the barbecued fish that had been roasted in spices and peppercorns. It was soft, moist and slightly fiery causing our mouths to glow.

We will return. You an buy cheaper Yunnanes food in Shanghai, but we paid just 133 RMB for one of the most delicious meals we have eaten for ages.

Address:
Southern Barbarian, 2F Area E, Ju’Roshine Life Arts Space, 56 Maoming Nanlu (near Jinxian Lu). 上海聚荣轩生活艺术空间南蛮子餐厅. 上海市茂名南路56号E-16. Tel: 5157-5510.

Eating with chopsticks can be tricky for those of us who first picked them up quite late in life. Even though we’ve been using them for a while, our frequent spillages suggest that we need to refine our chopstick wielding skills. Success in this endeavour will generate the same level of praise hitherto reserved for baby faced Channel V presenters and NBA basketball stars. We may exaggerate, but thanks to Gomestic (via Lifehacker) we have found the definitive seven step guide to becoming a chopstick maven.

1. Place one chopstick in the crook of your thumb and index finger. The chopstick should be at the base of your thumb and your thumb should be about 1/3 the way down from the broad end of the chopstick.
2. Rest the chopstick on your ring finger between ½ way and 2/3 the way down the chopstick. The first chopstick should now be very stable with one end securely between your thumb and index finger and the other end resting on your ring finger.
3. Place the second chopstick in your hand the way you would hold a pen. It should rest slightly on the tip of your thumb and be held into place with support from your middle finger.
4. Use your index and middle fingers to practice moving the tip of the top chopstick up and down. The bottom chopstick should remain relatively still. As you move the top one down the tip should meet up with the tip of the bottom one.
5. Imagine you are pinching something. If the tips aren’t meeting up, adjust one chopstick so they do because it will be very difficult to pick anything up if the two chopsticks aren’t evenly aligned.
6. Attempt to pick up some food! Start with large chunks of food like chopped up vegetables or meat. Once you get the hang of that you can try the trickier foods like rice and grains.
7. Practice Practice Practice!

Read more at Gomestic

Visual learners will enjoy the above Youtube video from Cat1173.

Restaurant Review: H & Y, originally uploaded by shanghaimat.

Maoming Lu is no longer a wild party street. Gone are the lascivious hostesses running around in noisy, chaotic fashion challenging beer drenched men to games of Connect Four. H & Y’ s boss must have seen it all, because this low key Japanese restaurant is still going strong in this street after seven years. We enjoy this restaurant, because it has tasty, inexpensive Japanese food in a very casual environment. Inside, H & Y revels in Bohemian kitsch. It has “I heart you” sprayed on the mirrors, alongside kooky paintings, New Year emblems and Christmas lights. Expect to hear Eric Carmen or some Chinese power ballads as the soundtrack to your meal.

We like Japanese food, because it is simple and light so you don’t feel like you need to have an enema when you have finished eating. H & Y has many of the dishes you would expect to see at a typical Japanese restaurant including rice sets, tempura, noodles and sashimi. The food, however, is not as fussy as some Japanese meals we have eaten in Shanghai. It is presented and tastes like well cooked family fare. We ate potato salad, salmon sashimi, mushroom yakatori and an eel rice set. All the food was delicious and dare we say it almost hearty. The service was prompt, yet relaxed. At 100 RMB for two (including drinks), we are inclined to think that H & Y offers the best value Japanese food in Shanghai’s city centre. One word of caution is that you should go with someone who can read the Chinese menu, because it has a wider range of low cost dishes.

H & Y can be found along Maoming Lu between Nanchang Lu and Fuxing Lu.

Walk through the door and you are immediately greeted by a very cool bistro café replete with predominantly white decor and ambient dance music. The interior is bright, modern and spacious. We went there for last orders at 9.30pm and it was almost empty. We are curious to to know whether it gets busy earlier in the day.

We reckon Spago would be a good place for a party, a film club or a fashion show. Let’s talk about the food, because restaurants are pretty pointless based on the ambience alone. The menu is pretty broad and you can choose anything from pasta and pizzas to Chinese and Thai dishes. We opted for a salad, Prawn Fusilli and potato wedges. The food looked good and tasted OK. In our opinion, Wagas offers better food in the same price range. The pasta was spicy but was otherwise a little dry. Otherwise, there were no complaints. We didn’t try their desserts. In total, dinner for two cost us 147 RMB.

We were happy with the meal, but were more impressed with the design of the restaurant. We will go back.

Spago is located at 595 Nanjing Xi Lu, 南京西路595号, Tel:
Crossposted on Shanghaiist

Most Delicious Cake : City Supermarket at the Portman Complex (Nanjing Xi Lu) Shanghai Centre 1376, Nan Jing Rd 商城店号上海商城，Tel: (021）62150418

It has become a tradition in our household to buy each other a birthday cake from the bakery at Portman’s City Supermarket. The chocolate birthday cakes are rich and moist, but not too sickly if you eat less than three slices. The cakes are also beautifully presented. This bakery made have been some of the tastiest cakes we have ever eaten. We like them so much that we got them to make our wedding cake. A medium sized birthday cake costs about 400 RMB.

Best Looking Cakes: Bakery at the Westin (Yanan Dong Lu, Henan Zhong Lu)
Bund Center, 88 Henan Central Road, Shanghai, Shanghai 200002, China, Tel: (021) 6335 1888

The Westin’s Sunday brunches are expensive and tacky, but their bakery produces beautiful birthday cakes. This is a clean family friendly site, so I am not going to describe or put up a picture of our friend’s recent cake except to say that it is too racy to show to children. It did make us smile and gave me the idea for Jenny’s recent birthday cake: pair of juicy lips. Underneath the red icing is a very sweet chocolate cheese cake. It also tastes really good, but it’s just a little too rich to be able to eat three slices. After managing two, I was glued to the sofa for most of the weekend, too paralysed with chocolate cake to move! Prices are similar to the Portman. Send a text message to Guanxi (85880) for the address in Chinese.