New entry from the 18th to 25th August 2008

The new page of this week is a review of the restaurant Edward Moon in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Edward Moon

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From this week we will go for a vacation in Greece for 2 weeks and, consequently, I won't be writing about Birmingham for this period and maybe a bit longer, as I should write about Greece somewhere else instead.

Before I go, I want to show you a dish I had in Malaysian Delight in Chinatown, Birmingham. Usually I order Malaysian dishes here, but on this occasion, I wanted to do something different and chose a dish called "Salad Pork" without having any idea what it should be. A food exploring adventure.

Here, this is salad pork:





'Salad Pork' was basically sliced, battered, and deep-fried pork served with salad cream mixed with chili paste. Ah, yes, and some "salad" consisting in shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumbers, and wedges of tomato.

I was not quite expecting to be served with that amount of salad cream in a Chinese cafe (Ok, Chinese-Malaysian Cafe). Chinese do adopt mayonnaise from time to time, as you experience in some deep-fried dim sum dishes, but this one looked far closer to "Western" dishes than to any Chinese dishes I have ever seen in Chinese places. Fusion dish? Maybe... The pork itself was very tender and flavoursome, though.

It is priced £6. And I noticed that they started to charge 50p for Chinese tea that used to be free here. Food price inflation everywhere. Mmmmmh.

Pakistani Milky Sweets

I bought a box of Pakistani sweets from a confectionery shop in Balti Triangle.

I asked a guy in the shop to mix a bit of everything for £5. Actually he put more than that (about £5.20). I was about to pay that sum, but the guy told me not to worry about it and charged me only £5. I remember this, not because I was happy to save 20p, but from the way he did it, I sensed that he was proud of the products, and genuinely wanted us to try them.

And in fact, they were so good that surpassed greatly my expectation for this kind of sweets. Most of them are milk, bean-flour, or semolina based, and soaked in syrup. But different from the norm (to me), the taste of sugar did not overwhelm the taste of the other ingredients.





I am so happy with my new discovery!

New entry from the 11th the 17th August 2008

New entry of the week is another report about dim sum lunch at Golden Pond in Arcadian Centre, Birmingham Chinatown.

Birmingham Restaurant Guide

Golden Pond (the 9th visit)



I have written so much about the dim sum of Golden Pond. I hope this one is excused since the past entry was written some time ago.

I wish a good week to everyone.

£10 sushi at Shogun Sushi Bar

The other day, passing through The Mailbox, I found this board.

Shogun Sushi and Noodle Bar in The Mailbox has always offered all-you-can-eat sushi buffet for £10, but it used to be only for lunch time. Evidently, now, it is extended to all day, from 12 noon to 11 in the evening everyday (except Sunday, finishing at 10 o'clock).

There is 10% obligatory service charge on the final bill (it is written in small letters at the bottom of the board). As the sushi here is virtually self-service, it is slightly odd, but this is not a buffet restaurant, so probably we can swallow that.

In the present air of economic uncertainity, to be able to eat out knowing how much we will be spending is a good thing, I guess.

Falooda

Yesterday I tried falooda for the first time. I have been wanting to try it for a long time, but never had the chance. Then, finally, I made up my mind.

(For those who doesn't have a clue about falooda, try wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falooda )

This is where I bought it: Yaardgar in Indoor Market. This is a sister outlet of the Yaardgar at the beginning of the Ladypool Road in Balti Triangle.

When I order one falooda, the guy at the counter put into a plastic cup a scoop of white noodles (in the container to the left), a couple of scoops of beige mass (to the right), and some basil seeds (not in the photo, but in the container to the right end) on top. Then some swirls of red colouring, maybe with some fruits flavour, and then mixed it with a spoon.





He closed the cup and put a thick straw through the cover. Then gave it to me.

I gave him £2, and he did not give me back 1p of rest. So the price is more £2 than £1.99 as is advertised.

I removed the cover and took this photo.




It is not appetising, is it?

Now the taste. The main component is the beige mass. It is something made of milk, but not exactly yogurt. It is creamier and heavier. More like sour cream, but it also has fresh cheese like quality. I think it contained also some cinnamon. It is quite sweet, but not more than Mac Shake. I did not like so much the texture of noodles; I would have preferred smoother stuff. Basil seeds did not contribute much, although they were visibly there.

I would have appreciated more if it were cold or chilled, but it was just lukewarm. Very sweet, fatty drink does not go a long way, if not chilled.





However, I managed to finish 90% of the content, and then I felt really fed up and threw the cup away.

Do you know some place where I can find better falooda? I would try again, if you know anything better.