On the 6th of October, after a grueling day of
strolling around the 5.28 square kilometer expanse
of the
Shanghai Expo Sheila and I had late dinner at
Aniseed, a Vietnamese Restaurant in
Xintiandi.
Being in Xintiandi, Aniseed's ambiance was a bit
more welcoming compared to most restaurants in
Shanghai. Primarily because a lot of their guests
were foreigners. The restaurant itself looks
romantic on the outside and very relaxing inside.
I had a look at the English menu. It was
straightforward and easily outlined. But when Sheila
placed the order with the waiter it took a bit of
effort to explain (in Chinese) exactly what it was
that we wanted. I thought it was just us, but
apparently the other tables were having the same
issue. As friendly as they were, I think the service
staff needs a bit more practice when it comes to
communicating with guests.
Whenever we eat somewhere, especially in an Asian
restaurant I always have a peek inside the
containers of condiments on the table. 99% of the
time the tiny bowls containing chili oil, soy sauce
and other stuff are a bit untidy, like they haven't
been emptied out and cleaned in days. And in some
cases a fly would leap out! Yikes! But at Aniseed
the little condiment bowls were spotless! And that's
a very good sign! Also the Chopsticks look nice and
individually packed and the Ice Tea arrived quickly.
Also a very good sign!
Because it's a late dinner we did not order much. I
had a Seafood Fried Rice and we shared a Casserole
of Braised Pork. The Fried Rice was perfect. It was
a bit on the salty side, but that's just fine. The
individual grains of rice were intact and they were
not clumped together. The peas were not brown or
wrinkled. Very good!
The Braised Pork was beautifully cooked. Although
healthy eaters might find the ratio of fat to meat
to be a bit alarming. I did not have a problem with
it though. It meant that there's more flavor in the
sauce and I like that! All in all our dinning
experience at Aniseed was very good. Unfortunately
we were very tired and we did not feel like ordering
some more. But if the opportunity arises I wouldn't
mind going back to try the other stuff in their
menu.
The following morning, on the 7th of October, Sheila
and I went downstairs to try
Nanjing Hotel's Breakfast Buffet. There were a
lot of stuff on the buffet, both hot and cold items,
fruit juices, coffee and they'd even cook fried or
scrambled eggs to order if you ask them to.
But of course it's mostly Chinese food, like
dumplings, pork buns, pastry buns, congee, cold
sausages, eggs and chicken feet. YES... Chicken
Feet! Apparently it's a common breakfast delicacy to
the Chinese, at par with the British Grilled
Kidneys. Anyway, the foot that I got was a bit
tough. They said it's meant to be more tender than
what it was. I'm just happy it did not have toe
nails anymore. Hmm... It's gonna take a bit of
getting used to!
