Since I'm overseas for a little while i thought I'd blog about some of the fabulous places I've eaten at and other food related adventures. Being vegetarian in China isn't always the easiest. They have a plethora of 'vegetable' meals with varied vegetables, tons of tofu and rice/noodles, however, despite saying 'Wo Chi Su' (i am vegetarian - literally i eat vegetables) I've found diced pork, random seafood or oyster sauce in my meals. Anyway, that's all part of travelling and i now know how to say i don't eat meat or fish so hopefully that will help too!There are several dedicated vegetarian restaurants in Shanghai and i hope to visit them soon.
Last night we went to Mr & Mrs Bund which is an upmarket western restaurant by French Chef Paul Pairet. It's a very cool place. The wait staff wear jeans, suspenders/waist coats and red converse sneakers. The clientele was very western which was amusing after spending so much time being the only white person in a room!
The menu is seriously extensive. The idea is that you create your own meal from different elements. For example, say you want tomato, under the tomato heading there are about 5 different tomato based salads. Same went for other vegetables, meats, fish, rice, desserts etc. There is also a rookie menu if you're too overwhelmed by all the choice.
The first dish to come out was a complementary starter of tuna mousse and croutons. The plating was so cool in a tuna can and the mousse seemed to have been siphoned, it was that aerated.
Next out came the salads. Is that an American/French thing to have the salads as a separate course? We thought they'd come out as sides to our main course. Anyway we had the tomato mozza salad, which as it seems was cherry tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella with a gorgeous tomato puree. The salad was like eating pure tomato, absolutely delicious! The second salad was rocket, truffle & Paris mushrooms, soy and parmigiano. It was AMAZING!!!! Just like the tomato salad the flavour was so intense. So earthy and mushroom-y with a hit of saltiness from the parmesan and soy.
Now for the main course. I ordered Risotto Truffle & Paris (yes a little obsessed by truffles/mushrooms) but i don't cook with truffles at home. The bowl was really funky and unfortunately my photo of the risotto itself is hard to see but it was delicious. Perfectly cooked rice with flecks of truffle/mushroom and beautiful flavour.
The folks ordered a hunk of meat to share. It was enormous! It looked like something from the Flintstones. We also ordered steamed greens to go with the mains.
Now for the desserts. Mum and I both ordered Lemon & Lemon Tart as I'd seen a picture of it and i was not disappointed. This is a candied whole lemon, filled with lemon sorbet, lemon curd, chantilly and pink citrus (grapefruit?)
It was a fabulous evening and the wait staff were lovely. At the end of our meal they brought over an iPad with their wares for sale (cutlery, glasses etc and also takeaway food items) different idea, but effective!
Until next time
Sarah xx
Mr & Mrs Bund
Bund 18, 6/F
18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu (near Nanjing Dong Lu)
Shanghai 200002
China
http://www.mmbund.com
