Dinner at Opium Restaurant, Glasgow

Last weekend was my husband's birthday so we all went to Opium (http://www.opiumrestaurant.co.uk) for dinner and we had a fantastic time with lovely meal.

I was originally trying to book a table at Gamba (their signature dish of fish soup is wonderful!!!) but on-line booking system showed that most of December was fully booked so I thought we tried Opium for a change. I checked their website and the menu looks really good too.

We pass by this restaurant quite often every time we go to Glasgow but never got around to go in, so this was the good opportunity. My family, including the birthday boy, think I chose Opium for my blog ... Yes, I admit that's too and there is no point of hiding it now, hahaha.

It was Saturday and due to the month of Christmas dinner bookings, the earliest we could book for a table was 5pm but the place was already busy with other diners when we arrived. The restaurant was decorated Christmassy, and looked lovely and cosy.

There are three kinds of menus - a la carte, pre-theatre specials and Christmas menu, plus cocktail menu too.

You need to get the priority right, so we checked the drinks menu. Poor Maria, who volunteered to be a designated driver, could not try cocktails. Emily and I have decided to try cocktails. Since we were in Opium, I ordered Opium's Den, which is Ophir oriental spiced gin, violate liqueur, Maraschino cherry liqueur, lychee juice, lemon juice and blueberries. The restaurant was with low light and with my terrible short-sightedness, I was unable to ascertain the colour of this cocktail however to me it had some smokey and pink hazy hue to it. I enjoyed this cocktail.

Opium's Den

Emily ordered Espresso Martini, which comes under Dessert Tipples but she wanted it anyway. It is made with Finlandia Vodka, Kailua coffee liqueur, fresh espresso, sugar and some coffee beans floating on the surface.

While we were enjoying our drinks, they brought us Thai chilli prawns crackers to nibble. Just as well as there are so much selections on the menu and it took ages for us to decide what to have ....

Anyway, let's talk about food we ate. For starters, Maria had Salt & Pepper Tofu with Sichuan salt, chilli, garlic and shallots and I had Crab Meat and Chive Dumpling.

I thought Tofu looked very pretty and was tasty. I really enjoyed my steamed Dim Sum which were steamed to perfection yet retaining freshness of ingredients with different texture, all wrapped nicely in dumpling skins. I could just have these all day.

My husband had Chilli Salt and Pepper Squid which were beautifully presented, and very delicious.

Emily had Soft Shell Crab with Sichuan salt, chilli, garlic and shallots and Craig had Monk's Vegetables Spring Roll with aromatic hoi sin sauce.

Everyone really enjoyed the starters.

For main course, Maria and Craig had Malay Satay Chicken, marinated skewers of chicken fillets served with a spicy Malay peanut sauce. They enjoyed this dish too.

My husband, who normally goes for king prawn dish, decided to try Three Vegetables and Tofu with Macadamia Nuts with stir-fried park choi, sugar snaps and wild mushrooms, and garlic and shooxing sauce. I tried a little and they were very tasty. I thought they did very well with vegetables as they were perfectly prepared and cooked without overdoing them whilst retaining the original colours and crispness of beautiful vegetables.

Emily had Pi-Pa chicken, which is pan crispy-fried with aromatic hoi sin sauce, tender stem broccoli, sprinkled with red onion, green peppers and sesame seeds. Well, I don't eat meat but I liked the sound of that!

What does pi-pa mean anyway? So I checked on internet. It is a shallow-bodied, four-stringed Chinese musical instrument resembling a lute. Oh, yes, it is bi-wa in Japanese.

I had Steamed Seabass, infused with ginger, spring onion and soya sauce, served with shiitake and enoki mushrooms and fine beans. This was really delicious. I always like to order steamed seabass every time I go to Chinese restaurant and some greens so I also ordered broccoli in oyster sauce as side dish for everyone to share. I was glad that I ordered these usual combi.

Everyone ordered either fried rice or noodles. Fried rice comes in a cutw little wooden container but the look is deceiving as it actually holds much more rice that I had expected, which was good too.

Well, we all enjoyed the meal and were full by this time. I, being me and greedy, insisted that I had to have a dessert. My family said, "for your bloooooog!" Ya, I admit that again but wouldn't you want to see what you could have for dessert at Opium?  I would and we did, hahaha.  So we consulted with the dessert menu....

My husband said he did not need dessert and ordered Easter Old Fashioned, which is 10 year old Macallan whiskey with French ginger liqueur, sugar and old fashioned bitters under Dessert Tipples.

It's interesting as he does not normally like ginger, yet this has a big slice of ginger in it. I have not mastered to appreciate the taste of whiskey but when I tried this a little, I could be persuaded to have this as it tasted very refreshing, and I do like ginger.

Meanwhile, Maria, Craig and myself tried Deep Fried Ice Cream - vanilla ice cream inside a crispy coconut ball with chocolate sauce, golden syrup and fresh strawberries as we were all intrigued about the fried ice cream ball and also we probably had 'deep fried Mars Bar' in our head. Of course, we soon found out that a fried coconut ball with ice cream was nothing like deep fried Mars Bar.  The presentation was lovely but I am afraid that I don't think fried coconut works. Still, it was enjoyable, we tried and my own curiosity was satisfied.

Emily had Mandarin & Ginger Cheesecake with oriental sweet ginger, Mandarin zest, Mandarin segments and pomegranate & elderflower jelly. Wow, it sounds fancy. Pomegranate and elderflower jelly!! It sounds delicious and Emily did say it was delicious.

And guess what? The restaurant brought a special birth day dessert for my husband! How sweet was that? And of course, our obligatory Happy Birthday singing, off key, to the birthday boy.

We were full, really full but totally satisfied with lovely dining experience. Meal was delicious, service was excellent and attentive; staff kept coming around to fill water in your glasses, the pace between courses was good. 

We asked for the bill and they brought us Ferrero Rocher instead of mints, maybe because it was approaching Christmas. Anyway, we enjoyed it too. 

We really enjoyed the meal at Opium. We looked outside. We arrived at 5pm for dinner and it was only after 7pm. The night was still young and the streets were still bustling. 

Once we stepped outside, it was really a chilly night, yet I insisted that I wanted to see Christmas Lights and Nativity Scene in the George Square as I had not seen. Yes, the night was still young and there were lots of people in the Square.

I want that Santa .....

It was a lovely night. We all enjoyed the dinner. Having done this blog, I could do with that Crab Meat and Chive Dumpling right now.... yummy. My husband suggested that we could go back to Opium again sometime for Dim Sum, ordering different mini dishes to try out rather than having a full 3 course meal. Yes, that's a great idea, like oriental tapas. Really addictive, those Dim Sum ... and Opium restaurant. 

That's all forks and a Happy Holiday!

Fudges at Fudge House, Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland

Emily and Craig have recently been to Edinburgh for the weekend and kindly brought us back some delectable fudges from Fudge Kitchen on the Royal Mile. So, as I am writing this, I am eating the fudges.  Mmmmmm, yummy. It's bad, you know. 100gram serving of fudge may contains over 450 calories! It's just sugar, milk and butter..... but it's approaching Christmas, no point of worry about your waistline, so I might as well eat and enjoy it.

Well, fudge from Fudge Kitchen is not the only fudge I have eaten recently. Back in October, my husband and I were in Edinburgh too for his sister Mary's birthday dinner. Whilst we were there, we went to Fudge House (http://fudgehouse.co.uk) on the Royal Mile toward the Holyrood Palace end and near The Peoples' Story.

The shop started selling their hand made fudge in 1949. There are 27 flavours, from classic creamy Vanilla and sophisticated Dark Chocolate to fruity Strawberry and authentic Italian Nougat - [just borrowed texts from their website, hahaha!].

On their show windows, they display wonderful ranges of their products, which are very enticing ....

We stepped inside and were welcomed by choices of delectable looking fudges. You can buy a box of 5 or box of 10 selections of fudge bars. Each bar weighs about 50 to 70gram. My husband said I could have a box of 10 and I took ages and ages trying to decide which bars we should buy.

Before everyone's patience barely ran out, I managed to select 10 which were boxed in nicely.  I could not wait to go home and open the box....

When I opened the box, I got a thrill as if I was opening up a box of jewels.

I laid them all out on a plate so that we can cut small bit off each bar to taste and critique. Maria called this as Fudge Tasting, like wine tasting.

So it goes .... we admire each piece for colour, shine and smell ..... but I won't bore you with details. Besides, it was almost 2 months ago, to be honest, I could not remember what each taste was all like, other than they were all deliciously sweet and enjoyable.

The first one we tried was chocolate fudge with sea salt. This one is our favourite.

Next one was lemon meringue pie with real meringue bits in it.

Next one was Italian Nougat, made with Torrone, an Italian nougat candy.

We then moved on to Chocolate Orange....zesty orange fudge with Belgian chocolate on top.

Next one was Chocolate Peanut Butter, cooked with 100% peanut butter, topped with layer of chocolate budge and chopped roasted peanuts mixed in!

We also tried Pistachio & White Chocolate. I like pistachio so I would like to have a bit stronger pistachio flavour from this bar though ....

Next one was Maple Walnut, infused with roasted almond and crunched up toffee pieces....

We also had Scottish Butter Tablet, made to the shop's founder's grandmother's recipe to this day....

And finally, their classic Vanilla Fudge.

So we tried them all. No, we didn't finish all in one go, that would be impossible as it would be pure sugar overload. It was fun though, trying different flavours.

You can also buy their fudges on-line so you don't need to go all the way to Edinburgh, although it is much nicer to go into the shop and see all the selections. You can also sample before you buy.

After the Fudge House of Edinburgh, we walked down the Royal Mile and found a Christmas Shop.

Of course I went in and bought myself some decorations for Christmas. My husband was laughing (or despairing) at my ability to find places to shop without having to walk much far.

The Royal Mile ... such a great place for eat and shopping, not to mentioning sight seeing.

That's all forks and a Happy Holiday!