Keep Calm and Have Lychee @ Lychee Oriental in Glasgow

I had been very busy working away last week and when I came home from work, I could not be bothered cooking. I had to admit that last week was a very lazy week for me and my cooking department let my family down too. Despite 2014 started off with great intension (i.e. supporting Emily and Maria in them following SlimmingWorld diet by cooking oil free or syn free meals for the whole family, anticipating that I too would lose some weight!) as the time goes by, this notion has escaped me.

And then I remembered that I had on-line voucher for 2-course meals with Thai crackers with chilli dip, sides and a glass of prosecco each at Lychee Oriental (http://www.lycheeoriental.co.uk) at 59 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, G1 3LN.  This is actually Maria and her boyfriend's favourite restaurant.

So Thursday last week, we decided to try Lychee Oriental. Glasgow was quite busy with late night Thursday shoppers and people going home after work. We could not find on-street parking space so we decided to part NCP car park which was almost right next door to the restaurant, albeit being rather expensive.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were seated at one of the corner booths which we found it very nice and relaxing with low light. Outside there was bustling and hassling of the city, cars and people, yet here inside of Lychee Oriental, we found calm and relaxing atmosphere.  I said to my husband, 'I think I have seen that staff who showed us to this table .... at Cotton House Chinese restaurant in Longcroft near Falkirk...'  While we were perusing the menu, the same staff brought us Spicy Thai Cracker with Sweet Chilli Dip to our table and asked us 'Do you go to Cotton House?'  Yes, I was right - we did see him before and he is now at Lychee Oriental. It was nice to see a friendly face.

Crackers were really lovely, I could not stop eating. He came back and asked if we wanted more but we resisted the temptation as we had whole 2 courses ahead of us.

When I go to Chinese/Thai restaurant, I like ordering sea bass so I ordered Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Mushrooms for main course with £3.00 extra supplement. This was very delicious. There were lots of oriental mushrooms and underneath were 3 slices of nicely steamed sea bass with lovely soy and mushroom flavoured sauce. I really liked this. Fried rice was sutley seasoned so it actually went very well with this sea bass as I could taste the fish and delicious oriental mushroom and soy sauce.  Some restaurant's sea bass could be really salty but not here. It was just right.

Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Mushrooms

Spicy Thai Crackers with Sweet Chilli Dip  - yummy

After demolished the crackers, for starters my husband had Stuffed Fresh Chillies with Prawns in Black Bean Sauce whilst I had Salt and Pepper Squid. I love squid!

Stuffed chillies with prawns - it was not too spicy -
this came with crunchy pickled carrots and cucumbers which were very lovely and refreshing

I like salt & pepper squid - this too came with crunchy vegetable pickels!

Whilst I had sea bass for main course, my husband had Fresh Scallops with Pepper and Black Bean Sauce sizzling on a pan.

By the time we finished eating all, we were quite full, yet I wanted to see dessert menu. I saw Mango sorbet with lychee fruits. I said to my husband, 'We were in Lychee Oriental, why not try lychee?' So he ordered one between us.

To be honest, I think this might have been my very first time to have tried lychee. The fruit has a delicate and sweet flavour however it never appealed to me .... it looks a bit like an eyeball (sorry for being gross!), not that I have ever eaten eyeballs. BUT, according to Wikipedia, the lychee contains on average a total 72mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit and on average 9 lychee fruits would meet an adult's daily recommended vitamin C requirement,  also low in saturated fat and sodium, and is cholesterol free! Wow, sounds great! Maybe I should eat more. The same Wikipedia page also informs me that excessive consumption can, in certain extreme cases, lead to fainting spells or skin rashes.  Ok .... maybe not too much...or  I just stick to jasmine tea then .....

Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner. If you want to go there, you should ask for a booth as it is lovely and cosy. Oh, by the way, apprently there is a very nice toilet downstairs worthy of 'toilet check'; I did not realise this and used toilet I could find on the ground floor, which happens to be a disabled toilet.  Having checked their website, I also discovered now that if you want to part at NCP next door, you could park there for £5 if you phone the restaurant. We did not know that neither so I think we paid around £6.50 for a few hours parking. 

It was a lovely restaurant. Food was lovely and service was good. I may even try another Lychee fruit when we go back...

That's all forks!

Another Afternoon Tea - Grange Manor Hotel in Grangemouth

Quest for 'value for money' afternoon deal continues ... this time, my mother-in-law, my husband, younger daughter Maria and I went to the Grange Manor Hotel (http://www.grangemanor.co.uk/home) in Grangemouth. This was another one of those on-line deals, Groupon deal this time. It was £31 for four people including a glass of bubbly each, equivalent of £7.75 per person.

The staff was very friendly and very attentive, kept checking if we wanted our teapot to be replenished. Both my daughter and I enjoyed nicely brewed pots of tea.  Sandwiches were nice and soft with selections of fillings - cheese, eggs, ham and chicken. Cakes were very moist and delicious - ginger cakes, fruit cakes and butternut white chocolate cakes. There were also scones, small profiteroles and mini meringues with strawberry slices. We got 2 cake stands that came with creams and there are also mini pots of jams to go with these - strawberry, raspberry and marmalade.

The hotel is in Grangemouth, on the busy main road. The restaurant is probably a breakfast room, overlooking the front car park with ASDA's warehouse the other side of the road. So view from the table is not great however the room was nice and quiet, very relaxing.

We really enjoyed our afternoon tea with bubbly at this place. I was particularly impressed with slices of cakes as they were really soft and moist.  Ginger cakes, you can taste ginger but never over-powering.  We also liked slices of butternut & white chocolate - not too sweet but goes well with tea.
The portion size for the whole thing was just right.

Grange Manor Hotel, Grangemouth, Scotland

We all enjoyed our afternoon tea last Sunday afternoon.

I was almost giving up on-line Afternoon Tea deals after recent experience (see my recent blog) however I may change my mind about that after this.  My husband said, just try not to go for afternoon tea deal too often AND just enjoy what we are served. Yes, that's so true...

And that's all forks!

Celino's - tutto per tutti - Glasgow

Somebody told us about Celino's, Italian Deli Cafe at 620 Alexandra Parade in Glasgow (http://www.celinos.com) and I always wanted to try this place. It is a Trattoria and Delicatessen, established in 1982.  I checked on Tripadvisor to read about the place - it sounds good so my husband booked the table for three for 7.30pm - for me, my husband and younger daughter, Maria.

There is no parking place but it was not difficult to find a place to park nearby. As soon as we walked into the place, we were surrounded and mesmerised with delicious looking food sold at deli counter. It was Thursday night and the place was really busy, however as we booked our table, we were seated right away. They do pre theatre menu till 6.30pm however we discovered that they do pre theatre menu all evening on Thursday, so we decided to try dishes from this menu - two courses for £10.95 and three courses for £13.95.

So for the starter, my husband and I had Ravioli Fresca (home made ravioli parcels filled with spinach and ricotta cheese with a butter and sage sauce) whilst Maria had Antipasto (cold cuts of San Denielle, Celino's Parchetta and Salame served with Puglian olive, mixed antipasto vegetables and Italian Bread).

Home made ravioli - this was really delicious!

Maria's antipasto that came with slices of bread - she really enjoyed this!

For the main course, my husband and I had Spaghetti Camberoni alls Ortolana (spaghetti pasta tossed with panfried courgettes, king prawn, sun blushed tomatoes in a white wine and chilli sauce) and Maria had Pollo Diane (pan fried chicken breast smothered with sautéed mushrooms in a cream sauce glazed with brandy with a touch of French mustard served with herb infused rice).

Lots of king prawns ....

Maria's chicken - she really enjoyed this one too!

By this time we were all full but my husband and I also wanted to try their Tiramisu so he ordered one so that we could all share.  A big slice of Tiramisu came with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with warm chocolate sauce.

I then had a macchiato and my husband had cappuccino. Yes, you are not meant to have cappuccino after lunchtime but he likes to have this after meal so he did. I thought the coffee was good.

Including 2 glasses of wine and Maria's drink, it all came around £50 - which is not bad at all!

When we first entered Celino's, I spotted Arancini right away.  These are fried rice balls coated with breadcrumbs, filled with mozzarella and peas. Wikipedia informs me that the name derives from the food's shape and colour, which is reminiscent of an orange (the Italian word for orange is arancia, meaning 'little orange'), and is said to have originated in Sicily. Well, this was one dish on my 'to eat' list when we went to Sicily and to my regret I never tried it when we went there twice! If you are a fan of Inspector Montalbano, you know how much he loves Arancini, so I got to eat this someday ... and here I am, in Glasgow, I finally get to eat this!

After we paid the bill, I did not waste anytime at all to approach the deli counter.
I bought 2 Arancini balls, a tab of antipasto vegetables, and for my husband's lunch, Vegetable Calzone.

The next day, he heated up the Calzone in the oven with crunchy antipasto vegetables. There were lots of vegetables inside of Calzone and he enjoyed this too.

I asked him if he would get this again and he said yes so it must have been delicious. I had my Arancini cold (as I did not deep fry them and not sure if microwave may explode this...?) with salad and crunchy vegetable and I enjoyed it.  Next time when we go back to Celino's, I may try this for starter so that I could eat it hot properly.

Celino's - tutto per tuiit, 'everything for everyone' indeed!

That's all forks.