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YOU’VE probably had enough of turkey by now, or you soon will have! What’s left from the festive roasts is being cut cold for today’s supper and made into stew, curry and soup for subsequent meal times.
There is only one place to head for … your favourite Chinese restaurant and mine sits splendidly just through the entrance of the Sheraton Hotel, on the edge of the diplomatic and business area of Manama.
The Soie Restaurant never fails to deliver and the good lady wife Kathryn and I tend to treat it as our retreat whenever we are celebrating something special.
That’s going to have to change because I like it too much. The last time we booked a table was for my 50th birthday, a memorable occasion because a friend brought me a Gucci belt – the most expensive belt I’ve ever owned which I still slip on today, three years later, although the notch may have gone up a little in that time.
The year 2013 is going to be the year of the diet (another useless resolution) where I’m going to get those notches back, tuck my shirt once more into my trousers and show off the stylish belt for all its worth.
But with a few days before New Year I may as well carry on celebrating the island’s fine dining establishments and as I explained before, few live up to the quality of cuisine, service or ambience of this beautiful Chinese restaurant.
It really is a picture to behold from the moment you step inside the restaurant. It is exquisitely lit with comfortable chairs, round tables with clever shaded-style windows portraying the setting of the sun in the East and the central dining area has a clever pagoda setting.
When we arrived, a family of Chinese expats were just about to leave after enjoying their meal. I think it’s always a good sign when a restaurant attracts its host country’s clientele.
But I didn’t need convincing about how good the food would be. In the kitchen were Chef Lee, Chef Labh Singh and Chef Choi and they didn’t disappoint by conjuring up a feast.
Prawn crackers with chilli veg was placed on our tables to get us in the mood before the appetisers arrived.
The battered king prawns with sweet chilli sauce was a sensation, hot all the way through with a succulent crust cooked to perfection. Good looking and tasty too.
Kathryn’s favourite Tom Yam Prawn Soup followed but I went for the traditional Chinese sweet corn and chicken soup which came in stylish silver containers and tasted as good as they looked. Mine was an absolute bargain at only BD2.900 ++
By this time our eyes were bigger than our bellies and we went for our firm favourite of chicken curry with seafood fried rice. And, just to prove any of my culinary critics wrong, chicken does go with seafood … they even have a noodle dish costing BD4.200 ++ of that very combination!
To round things off we had some stir-fried sliced beef with green pepper (BD6.900) which continued to sizzle as it waited to be dished up, Chinese broccoli with mushrooms (BD3.500), and wok fried scallops and asparagus at BD8.200.
I think the polite term is ‘stuffed’ and all memories of festive fare were extinguished.
But it never fails to amaze me that no matter how full you are, there is always room for a dessert.
We shared a portion of toffee apple and bananas and we piled in with gusto, as I carefully moved my belt up another notch.
