Hidden Lane Tearoom - West End in Glasgow

Just as we have all recovered from BBC British Bake-Off completely, Emily invited us for a tea and a cake deal at this rather a bit quirky and cute tea room tucked away from a busy Argyle Street in West End of Glasgow.  This is aptly named The Hidden Lane Tearoom (http://thehiddenlanetearoom.blogspot.co.uk), situated at Unit 8 Argyle Court (The Hidden Lane), 1103 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G3 8ND.

Yes, it's literally hidden, so you need to look for a wee lane off Argyle Street, I think it was quite near to Crab Shack seafood restaurant.

Look out for this sign at the entrance of the lane off Argyle Street

You just keep going to the end of this lane and turn left, until you are wondering if you are really in the right place...

And, yes, here is is! The tearoom is at the end of the street!!

Despite the horrible weather with strong wind and rain earlier in the day on one Sunday afternoon, the place was very busy for 3.30pm.  At least Emily booked the table for us so no problem for seating.

As we walked into the tearoom, we saw a young couple having bowls of tomato soup that was emanating wonderful aroma.  Whilst I was distracted by the tomato soup, the staff started to explain to us what cakes were available for the day. There were lots of varieties of cakes, such as chocolate brownies, sticky toffee puddings, chocolate oranges, cupcake, scones and Guinness cakes which look like Guinness.

The tearoom has quite a good selections on the menu, including sandwiches and soup, notmentioning selections of loose tea.  Craig chose this milky Indian (?) spiced tea (sorry, the name has just escaped me ... was it Masala Chai tea...?), my husband and I chose Darjeeling and Emily had cold apple and mint tea.  All came in lovely cups, saucers and pots, individually matched that add quirkiness.

Craig ordered orange chocolate cupcake. Indian tea was milky, sweet but had kick with spices. I tried it a little just to taste it. I would have liked it if I did not have lacto intolerance. 

Craig's Chocolate orange cup cake -  looks yummy!

My husband had chocolate brownie and I had sticky toffee pudding cake, which was really yummy and moist.

Emily had Guinness cake; it's named so as it looks like Guinness.  Despite the thickness of cream on top, it was not overly sweet, it was light and delicious.

Guinness cake

We asked the staff if we could get our pot of Darjeeling tea topped up with hot water, which was no problem and got it for free of charge too.

We looked around us and saw others enjoying afternoon teas with delectable looking cakes on cake stands. We could not resist trying something more, and decided to opt for something savoury.

Having remembered the wonderful aroma of tomato soup earlier, My husband and Craig decided to order the tomato soup each. In fact, I think it was a roasted pepper and tomato soup. Emily and I decided to share hummus, carrots and beetroot sandwich between us.

Emily enjoyed this sandwich so much she decided to make her own for lunch at work the next day - spread of hummus, grated carrots and some beetroot in brown bread.

Hummus goes so well with carrots and beetroot in lovely and soft brown bread! 

We really enjoyed our afternoon.

Despite how busy it was, I thought the service was very good, food was very nice and everything was reasonably priced. I would like to try their afternoon tea sets next time. They looked really delectable!!!

I know it's a cliche but the Hidden Lane Tearoom is a hidden gem indeed.

That's all forks.

Royal Garden welcomes you - Chinese Restaurant in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow

It was Glasgow's September weekend (local holiday) when people were taking long weekend off including Mondays.  I was working on the Monday and so as my husband. Roads were very quiet driving home from work and when I got home, I got a little bit of holiday feel and said to my husband that we shall go out for dinner.

We remembered of the taxi driver who was raving about a new Chinese restaurant somewhere in Muirhead or Stepps  when he was taking us to the airport this summer. We could not remember of the name so we decided to just drive up there and look for it.  Of course when we got there we could not find the restaurant the taxi driver was talking about. We then decided to go into this Chinese restaurant in Muirhead that has been open for business for years. When my husband drove into the car park, it was full and no space for parking. We immediately gave up and decided to go to Torrance, basically double back what he drove to get to Muirhead, and then drove further to a completely opposite direction to where we came from to try another place for dinner. Once we got to this eatery and walked into the premises, we were told that they did not serve food that evening. I guess because of holiday Monday...?  By this time we had already wasted good 40 to 50 minutes.  It was then a case of 'do we just go to a supermarket and buy something to cook at home' or 'shall we try one more place'.

At that point, we just remembered about my daughter Emily having talked about this Chinese restaurant she likes in Bishopbriggs.  So, as a last resort (?) we decided to drive up there. When we got there, we could see a light coming from inside and there was a definite sign of its business being open. I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally we could eat!  And this is the beginning of our visits to this Chinese restaurant, Royal Garden (http://www.royalgardenglasgow.co.uk ) in Bishopbriggs.

It turned out that we were really lucky as we just got there a few minutes before 7.00pm when they finishes their Pre-theatre menu of £10.90 for 3 courses (note: extra £2 for king prawns). Not only that the menu is normally only available between Sunday to Friday except Monday evening however being the holiday Monday, they decided to open their business that particular evening.
Place was quite busy however we had no problem getting table. I felt lucky. 'Welcome to Royal Garden.'

I was trying to get rid of the cold for a good few weeks so I wanted to have something hot and spicy with chilli.
I chose Peking Hot & Sour soup for starter but explained to them no meat, just prawns and vegetables please.  My husband ordered the same.

It was tasty, I could feel the chilli was working and warmed me up to help me cure my cold.

For main course, my husband ordered Kung Po King Prawns. I saw they have Chicken in Garlic and White Wine Sauce on the pre-theatre menu so I asked if they could do this with King Prawns instead.

Well, King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce was really delicious - lots of garlic and some ginger.  I would be a breath monster the next day but I didn't care!  It was worth it as King Prawns were really nice and succulent and fried rice was tasty too.  (Wow, thinking about it just now makes my mouth watering!)

 

For dessert, we both decided to have banana fritters.  Let's not worry about calories here. It's banana, it's fruit, and yeah, sugar came from sugar cane or sugar beet, it's plant so all good for you.... [...not!?]

We had a lovely dinner. The service was really good; all staff were very friendly and very welcoming. We noticed that they seem to know most of customers dining there, calling them in first name terms and chatting about every day things. Like Cheers, "Everybody calling your names..." in that fictitious pub in Boston on US TV series.  Oh, my cold got a bit better too.

As we were leaving, I noticed their sign inside of the entrance that we came in a few hours earlier - 'Welcome to Royal Garden'.  Indeed, Royal Garden does welcome you.

Well, well, well... so much so, I went back on Friday that week with my daughters Emily and Maria. That evening, we were making some decorations that go into centre pieces for Emily's wedding next year so we thought we should be fuelled with good food before we set to work.

Another round of Pre-theatre menu.

Maria ordered Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings and Kon Sui Chicken. Emily ordered Vegetable Spring Rolls and Chicken Satay. She also ordered Chili Fries. I asked the staff if I could have Peking Hot & Sour Soup without meat and King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce instead of chicken.  He said, "Yeah yeah, I know, I remember you." We all laughed.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings

Vegetable Spring Rolls

Peking Hot & Sour Soup without meat

Well, another delicious meal. For dessert, Emily and Maria had jasmine tea. I wanted to try New York Cheese case. The staff asked if I wanted cream with it. Maria answered for me and said No thanks. [It's a bit too late to worry about calories here, don't you think?]  Well, a slice of cheese case was quite small however just as well. I don't think I could handle that much portion anyway.  It was a nice cheesecake.

Another lovely evening. We were really full by the time we left the restaurant. We could lie down to rest.... We went back to Emily and Craig's house, not to rest but as we still had to make some decorations for the centre piece for their wedding. That was the whole point of why all three 'girls' got together that night, Emily reminded us all.

.... I must confess ... I went back again this week with my husband.... their King Prawns in Garlic and White Wine Sauce is really addictive! I ordered the exactly the same things, even down to Banana fritter.  The staff came and said, "Ah, it's you again." We all laughed.  This time, my husband ordered King Prawns with Green Peppers in Black Bean Sauce.

It's all fruit and plant - good for you???

Yet again, we had another lovely meal, and good value for money too. 

The restaurant is near Bishopbrigg's Cross, behind the train station and in the residential area. The decor is nice and relaxing. Service is excellent and all staff are very friendly and guests seem to be mostly all locals and are treated like their friends.  Just like Cheers.  Royal Garden welcomes you.

Next time I may not even need to say what I want, they may already remember my orders. That's the kind of place, Royal Garden is.

That's all forks!

My first tomato!

My mother-in-law Mary gave us tiny tomato plants in a pot while ago for our kitchen windowsill. She told us to keep watering every morning and night, so we were doing that for a while. The plants started to get taller and taller and we were also starting to forget watering them.

I don't have green fingers and I managed to kill all the plants that came to our house, except pots of Phalaenopsis (or Moth Orchid) which are placed on our windowsills in the kitchen. So the tomato plants would be a matter of time.... it would be added to the list of al the plants who faced a sad fate under my watch.

We are now watering them when we could remember and before we know, they started to go yellow and then some bits started going brown and dried up.  I was thinking that we may have to throw this away soon.

This evening, I waterd my orchids, trimming dead flowers and then moved on to the tomato plants to remove all dead stalks and leaves when I notice this tiny green tomato which is a size of a marble.

Wow, my first tomato which I have ever grown (or I should say, which has grown of its own).  Compost was bone dry (poor thing!), yet it has born this tiny fruit. Life is amazing, nature is fantastic!  I need to pay more attention to this plant now.

I hope it will grow a bit bigger and get red so that we can try it.  I am so excited that I had to blog about it right away.

Mary, look at this!  This was the plants you gave us a while ago .....

That's all forks!

Curry in Lisbon - Jesus e Goes

My husband and I ate a lot of seafood in Lisbon and we wanted some change. I always wanted to try curry in Lisbon because of its Portugal's history.

The Portuguese colonised Goa, the southwest coast of India, from early 16c up to 1961. As usual, I did some internet research that informs me that Goa is the home of Vindaloo, an intensely hot curry made from pork 'pickled' in vinegar and spices. Pork is not eaten by India's Hindus or Muslims whilst vinegar (originally wine) is not used by Indians. The Portuguese introduced 'Carne de Vinha d'Alhos' which is meat cooked with wine and garlic, that came to be pronounced 'vindaloo' and wine was replaced by wine vinegar, then other vinegar whilst increasing the spices including hot chilies, again that was introduced to India by the Portuguese. This was how Vindaloo curry came about!

Wow, that sounds very interesting!  Curry must taste really good in Portugal. So we found a wee lovely curry restaurant in Lisbon that serves Goan curry. The restaurant is named Jesus e Goes (means 'Jesus is from Goa', and Jesus is the owner's name) at Rua Sao Jose 23 in Lisbon.

For starter, we tried samosa and also chickpea fritters that came with an amazing coriander and coconut chutney.  The chutney was really interesting, in an amazing good way.  It looks really like Japanese wasabi paste that comes with sushi, so you'd almost expect it to taste really hot and spicy that makes your nose really painful. No, not this one. It is actually quite mild but very flavoursome.

Chickpea fritters with coriander chutney

We loved this chutney so much we asked the very helpful and cheerful staff what was in it. She said, "lots and lots of coriander leaves, orange peels, two spoonful of yellow sugar, salt, one spoonful of saffron and half of coconut." and started explaining how to make it. My husband was already looking at me as if to say I should try making one back home.

For main course, my husband tried Goan fish curry and I tried prawn and okra curry.

Goan fish curry

King prawns and okra curry

These come with big plentiful rice!

I enjoyed my king prawns and okra curry however my husband's Goan fish curry was really great. We asked the very helpful and cheerful staff what kind of fish it was in his curry. She said 'pampo' which is probably Portuguese. She also said that no yoghurt is used in Goan food; yoghurt is for Indian, she proudly announced.
Anyway, while I was thinking pampo sounds like shampoo, she was trying to find an alternative word in English and came up with 'croaker fish'.

Later on, I tried to look up on internet. Pampo seems to be pomfret fish, a seawater fish with one single bone and found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. (very different fish from coaler fish ...?) Apparently it has a lot of nutritional values. They are very low in calories and fat; rich in protein that helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and helps to muscles; and also contains high amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids that supply DHA, component for development of the brain. Wow, what a fish!

By the time we finished our curry, we were very full and no room to try their dessert. The restaurant is lovely, a bit small and there was no AC so I was feeling hot. In the meantime, more customers arrived and wanted to consult the menu with the very helpful and cheerful staff.  I was amazed with her full of energy with big friendly smiles, helping them choose dishes whilst I was feeling heat, wanting to get fresh air.

She then came over and suggested that we try her ginger tea. She then went behind the counter and started mixing ingredients which she left to brew for a while and went to attend to other customers who had just arrived.

Her ginger tea eventually arrived, after having let it brewed properly for a good time. Wow, this was like a breath of fresh air! It was a hot tea but really refreshing. I no longer needed to go outside to get a fresh air. I asked her what was in it. She said 'ginger, cinnamon, cardamon, orange, lemon and flower of anise.'

Ginger tea at Jesus e Goes

The menu is short but has interesting dishes on it.  I wish I could try their Goan fish curry again.

The restaurant is not big, just a long rectangular shape with small bar where the very helpful and cheerful staff prepares drinks and ginger tea for customers, and behind the wall there is toilet. They decorated the premises with colourful paintings and it looks fun. 

It was an excellent restaurant. The service was excellent, the food was fantastic, served by a really friendly, helpful and cheerful staff who is absolutely passionate about their food and wants to share that with you. 

So where is it? It's off Avenida da Liberdade, walking toward north on Rua Porta sto. Antao where lots of restaurants congregagtes (near Placa dos Restaudores) that eventually connects Rua de Sao Jose.

There is no sign or name of the restaurant outside so you need to look out for this design on the doors/windows (see below). 

We don't know when we go back to Lisbon again. I hope they will be still there when we go back, serving lovely Goan curry, served by that very helpful and cheerful staff who is really passionate about the food they serve.

That's all forks!

Pizza at Nonna's Kitchen in Kirkintilloch

Having suffered from cold during the second week of my holiday, I went back to work the following week. I still had no interest in cooking, hardly any appetite, never mind doing dishes that kept piling up in the sink. My kitchen is always chaotic but at least that week I had a good excuse not to bother.
So my husband cooked dinner or went out to get carry-out for dinner whilst Maria tidied up kitchen as she couldn't stand the mess and we were running out of cutleries (and also she is a really good cleaner!).

So Friday evening last week I came home from work, still having cold, and said to my husband if we could go out for dinner quickly.  Maria said, "I thought you still got cold and are not that hungry...".  I replied, "I think I am feeling better...".  Besides, I could not be bothered cooking, to tell you the truth.

So we decided to go to Nonna's Kitchen (http://www.rivarestaurants.com/nonnas/about.html) in Kirkintilloch for a quick dinner.

My husband never tried their pizza so decided to try Pizza Puttanesca which has red onion, capers, black olives, roasted cherry tomatoes, anchovies, chilli and grated parmesan.

I must say that this pizza is really flavoursome, really tasty. In fact I am a bit obsessed about this pizza at the moment and so much so, we went back to Nonna's Kitchen last night and asked my husband to order this again so that I could steal some from his plate (as whole pizza would be too big for me and I could not decide between this or a pasta dish).

This is really yummy ...

Anyway, I love ravioli so I ordered Ravioli Frutti di Mare, which is seafood ravioli served with a langoustine bisque.  It was delicious however the portion size was so small that my husband thought that was a starter size. I finished eating all whilst he was still eating the second slice of his pizza!
The dish was £9.95.... they could put more ravioli on the plate charging a bit more...

Ravioli di Mare - more ravioli please .....?

As I was still suffering from a cold, I probably could not eat large portion of any dish anyway, however, still, pity about the portion size. It was a tasty dish, but I don't think I would order again because of the portion size.  Anyway, my husband asked if I want some of his pizza, I said yes without any hesitation and he cut me two slices and put them onto my plate.

That's how I came to taste Nonna's Kitchen's Pizza Puttanesca and I am now obsessed with it as I find it so yummy. I love capers, olives, anchovies (to moderation), roasted tomatoes, red onions and parmesan - so all these my favourite ingredients are on top of the fluffy pizza dough, and lots of them too. It's just so flavoursome, so addictive that I could eat it every day!

We normally do not have desserts but I still had some room in my stomach so I ordered tiramisu and my husband ordered sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, which we enjoyed.

We then had coffee afterwards to finish off our meals -cappucino for my husband and macchiato for me, both came with a piece of tablet. I like that.

Sorry, I moaned about seafood ravioli's portion size but over all we enjoyed the food and had a lovely evening.

I really like their Pizza Puttanesca now. I even thought about take-away from them for this weekend but their take away menu seems to have only limited selection of pizza's so I decided to refrain myself from going back there again - besides, that's like going there 3 times in 10 days ordering the same pizza!  That's a bit obsessive, so just as well....

My husband was contemplating to order Pizza Gamberoni that has king prawns, spinach and mascarpone topped with sweet chilli sauce but was not sure about the combination of chill and mascarpone.  Next time he may try this pizza and I shall order Pizza Puttanesca. By then hopefully my cold will be gone, I can eat this pizza to my heart content AND to my stomach content!

That's all forks!

Craig's food adventure - Singapore

Emily's fiance, Craig, has just come home from business trip, this time from Singapore.

He is now well familar with his routine - to take some pictures of food he eats wherever he is sent for business for my blog, hahaha.

This one was his room service for dinner at Shangri-La Hotel - Singaporean Chicken Rice. The menu informs Craig that it's a very popular Singaporean dish: the chicken is slow cooked in chicken broth until it is tender and the same broth is used to cook the rice, giving it subtle aromatic fragrances, accompanied with homemade chilli sauce, dark soy sauce and ginger paste.  Wow, it sounds really yummy.

Singaporean Chicken Rice

He then had a dessert, some kind of jelly. He remembers it was sweet. I don't know if each colour has different flavour. I am curious and visited the hotel's website but I could not find any information about this dessert.  Maybe it is only available for room service... I wonder what this is...

He thinks he may be sent to Bhutan for business next. I am wondering what he can eat there, so I consulted with internet that informs that chillies are an essential part of nearly every dish and are considered so important that most Bhutanese people would not enjoy a meal that was not spicy.  I hope he would like lots of spicy food there.  Wikipedia also informs that when offered food, one says meshu meshu, covering one's mouth with the hands in refusal according to Bhutanese manners, and then gives in on the second or third offer.

Craig's food adventure continues ....

That's all forks!

Cocktails at Hotel Avenida Palace in Lisbon

We were staying at Hotel Avenida Palace (http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt/en/hotel-overview.html) whilst we were in Lisbon for a week for holiday recently.

They do daily cocktails so I tried all 7 cocktails every evening before we went out for dinner!
We arrived at the hotel on Saturday, so it started off with Saturday's cocktail.

Saturday - Hotel Avenida Palace cocktail: I asked Tiego, the bartender, what was in the cocktail however he said that it's hotel's secret recipe so he can't tell us what's in it. When he brought this cocktail over to our table, he said, "just imagine yourself in Caribbean and enjoy tropical fruits...". I guess that was the clue. I could taste rum and pineapple. What else ...? The cocktail had two tone colours - light lime green at the top and pastel pink at the bottom....  I am not a cocktail drinker but whatever it in, it was tasty.

Hotel Avenida Palace Cocktail

Sunday - Pineapple Mojito: it was meant to be a strawberry mojito but they run out of strawberries. I was about to have an ordinary mojito and then quickly changed my mind and ask if they could make  mojito using a different fruit. The bartender on the shift that night (Tiego was on holiday) went in to a wee kitchen and came back with this lovely pineapple mojito.  There were lots of pineapple bits at the bottom of the glass, mmmmmm, yummy.

Pineapple Mojito

Monday - Dry Martini: I forgot to ask for my martini to be 'shaken, not stirred' like Mr Bond, hahahaha. Does it really matter? According to Somerset Maugham, "a martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."  I would not know the difference!  'Dry' means very little vermouth and gin based. If it's extra dry, it may be only the slightest splash of vermouth or even just a glass-coating wash!  Wikipedia also informs me that a dirty martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.

It's a classy drink, clean and simple that comes in an elegant cocktail glass. There is something sophisticated about it. People drinking it look good with it and the drink looks good with olives in it!  Unfortunately I don't have coolness to look good with it. I just wanted to eat olives soaked in the simple cocktail of gin [and vermouth....] as I had never had one with olives in it!

Dry Martini

So, how was it?  It was too strong for me ... basically gin.... before even giving olives chance to be soaked in the cocktail, I just finished off olives and gave the rest of the drink to my husband. Just as well as I don't think I get it, this simple but beautiful refreshing drink ...  my husband would appreciate this much more than I would anyway.  Apparently the best part is eating those olives AFTER they've soaked in the gin for a good long time! See, I did not get this drink after all!

There seem to be different versions of how this drink originated. I like the versions of that in 1910, in a New York hotel when John D Rockefeller asked the bartender John Martini for a simple cocktail and he came up with the one being dry with a mixture of gin and vermouth in a shadow of a glass with an olive in it.


Tuesday - Blue Lagoon:  Again the internet informs me that this is made of vodka, blue curaçao and lemonade.  I have never tried this before and the blue colour makes anything really artificial however  I enjoyed this cocktail: it was very refreshing and summery.  Yeah, I get it. The colour does look like a tropical blue lagoon .... also reminded me of an old movie, 1980 American movie The Blue Lagoon starring Brooke Shields, then only 14 years old. The movie was about two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Wow, such a long long time ago.  I doubt Emily and Maria wouldn't even know who Brooke Shields is, never mind about the movie.

It also reminds me of the beautiful blue sky we had in Lisbon.  I love summer in Lisbon - it is hot but dry and you always get lovely sea breaze to cool you down. When you look up, all you see is an eternal blue sky, not even a cloud, beneath of this you see beautiful red roof tiles and white buildings with lush green trees lining avenues.

Looking out from Rossio train station.
Castelo de Sao Jorge is on top of the hill

Wednesday - Golden Cadillac: According to the internet, this cocktail was developed in the 1970s and its key ingredient is Galliano (a sweet herbal Italian liqueur of vanilla-anise flavour with subtle citrus and woodsy herald under notes with its vivid yellow colour symbolising the Gold Rushes of the 1890s) and creme de cacao. It is more of an after-dinner drink, digestif or a dessert cocktail that pairs nicely with almost any sweet dessert, especially those with chocolate. I really enjoyed this cocktail, with some chocolate shavings on top. The cocktail was never too sweet, just perfect.

I was wondering why this is called Golden Cadillac so I did more research on internet. According to www.cocktailhunter.com (http://www.cocktailhunter.com/cocktail-story/a-dash-of-cocktail-history-2/) this cocktail was originally created at Poor Red;s Bar-B-Q in a gold rush town of El Dorado, California. A newly engaged couple came to the bar to celebrate their engagement and the bartender, Frank Klein created this cocktail to match their newly purchased golden Cadillac. Ah, that's where the creamy golden colour came from....

I thought this cocktail had rather sophisticated taste and in fact it went down as a lovely treat to go with the piano recital we had at the Palace lounge where we were having evening drinks.
I got to enjoy this lovely cocktail whilst a pianist played wonderful renditions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy.

The Recital Programme by pianist, Joao Romeiras 

Thursday - Mai Tai:  This cocktail is based on rum, curaçao liqueur and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style setting. According to Wikipedia (and what do we do without internet!!!), this cocktail was purportedly invented at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, California in 1944. The Trader created it one afternoon for some friends who were visiting from Tahiti, and one of them tasted it and cried out, "Maita' roa ae!", literally "Very Good" or figuratively "out of this world, the best!", hence the name.

Mai Tai

I have just remembered! When I was in college, I had a weekend part time job as a PA to a General Manager of Trader Vic's restaurant within Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, Japan. I think his name was Mr Miyake or something and he was a Japanese-American. His full time PA works weekdays and I did some weekend and holiday cover to look after some admins for his office. I now remember, there were some female college students working as waitresses wearing fancy Polynesian-theme flowery dresses as uniforms at the restaurant, I used to think how glamorous they all looked, whilst I was wearing a very conservative dark blue dress with a red scarf around my neck as uniform, working in the back office. Mr Miyake liked watching sumo wrestling on TV during his break and used to tell me to practice typing as I could not type! It was rather a wonder how I even managed to get a job as his PA to begin with despite my lack of typing skills back then. I guess my English language probably helped as Mr Miyake did not speak Japanese that much.

I have just checked Hotel New Otani's website and they still have Trader Vic's!!!  They also have their cocktail menu (http://www.newotani.co.jp/tokyo/restaurant/vics/menu/drink.html) and I have found their Mai Tai for 1,900 yen.  Wow, I never thought I would end up going back to a memory lane through a drink of Mai Tai cocktail I have had in Lisbon, hahaha.

Friday - Cosmopolitan:  And finally, my last cocktail of our week in Lisbon, which is made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and freshly squeezed lime juice. Is this the drink further popularised by the TV programme, Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshow, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, used to drink when out with her girlfriends?  Anyway, this cocktail became my most favourite one and I think Maria, my younger daughter, likes this too.
Would it be nice to have this when you come home after hard day's work, whilst preparing dinner to wind down? It would be even better if someone else is making one for you.  (Maria, are you reading this, hint hint ...).

A picture hang just outside of the entrance to the bar
I think it summons up my cocktail experience - a bit of decadence, luxury in relaxing atomosphere!

Hotel Avenida Palace - daily cocktail 

Anyway, I have tried all 7 daily cocktails which Hotel Avenida Palace was serving while we were staying there and I really enjoyed all. It's not something I drink back home but there was something of a bit decadence about having a different cocktail to try every evening before dinner.

That's all forks.