wuluwu:

Last night was a wonderful reunion of sorts. I was back hanging out with my Shanghai Bloggers peeps at The Cut: Steak & Fries to taste the newly revamped menu. The last time we were here together was for the Shanghai Bloggers launch party back in June when most of us met for the first time and we all got killer gift bags (and killer hangovers).

The Cut is located inside a shopping mall, not usually my kind of destination to go for dinner but in Shanghai is quite the norm. Ive eaten dinner here once since then and the food was pretty good, but after this meal the team in the kitchen have really stepped up their game.

Dish Number 1: Pacific Salmon Tartare, avocado, cilantro and sweet chili. A generous ratio of salmon and avocado, and nice crunchy toasts on the side. Delicious! 

Dish Number 2: Black Angus Beef Tartare with Asian Condiments.

The quail eggs were nice and runny, and it was an enjoyable dish, but I preferred the first tartare. 

Dish 3: Braised Octopus Leg, Pepper Jam, Grilled Potato Salad

It was beautifully presented but the octopus was not as tender as I would have liked. The potatoes were great though.

Dish 4: Black Angus Beef Carpaccio, Aged Parmesan, Black Truffle, Confit Shallots (far left)

This one was EXCELLENT! Best beef carpaccio I’ve had. Just the right amount of truffle…this one instigated a lot of “mmmmm’s” around the table. I would definitely order this one again.

Right. By this point our bellies were starting to get stuffed. Especially considering the dishes were supposed to be for 3 persons to share, but there was only me and the lovely Priss from 1000 Pound Foodie sharing together so we had AMPLE food to eat. Onto the mains then!

Dish 5:  Croque Mister, Emmental Cheese, Cooked Ham, Truffle Bechamel

*Insert emoji of person raising both hands in celebration*

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a winner. What an AMAZING sandwich that is completely calorie-ladden but we don’t think about that because we love to eat delicious things. As the lovely Nancy from PlusAteSix said:

 “That sandwich has hangover food written all over it.”

I’ll be back for this when I’m hungover on a Sunday. See you soon sandy.

Dish 6: Roasted Black Cod Fish and Chips, Tartar Sauce, Grilled Lime

This cod was roasted to perfection. Fall-off-your-fork flaky fish. Literally, I mean it fell off my fork three times onto the table. I was trying to collect it from the wooden cracks of the table without my dining companions noticing #thestruggleisreal. But I think that was probably more to do with my dining etiquette than the cooking of the fish. Again, a stellar dish from the kitchen. (Forgive the shadow on the dish - all these photos were taken on my iPhone because my Canon G16 has shat itself.)

Dish 7: STEAK! (Australian Rib Eye 380g 300 Day Grain Fed, to be exact)

The restaurant’s namesake finally arrived! And it sure didn’t disappoint. I’ll admit I am a sucker for food served on a nice wooden board (I’m so sorry WeWant Plates - but at least the sauce wasn’t piped out in a message saying “Welcome Bloggers”)

Visually it looked amazing, and when you cut into the steak it was cooked a perfect medium. I will say however, to please bring back the frites! We were served thick potato wedges which are lovely on their own with a bit of sour cream and sweet chili sauce. But there is no better pairing for steak than super thin frites. I have had fries at The Cut before and they were awesome, so I think this would be much better with frites.

Dishes 8, 9 & 10: Buttery mashed potatoes, sauteed broccolini with soy and chill, and there was a Roast Chicken with Peri Peri Sauce there too but honestly I was so full that I really couldn’t pay attention to the chicken because I don’t usually order chicken on a menu and I was too distracted by other shiny and buttery things. But I heard good things.

So that’s quite a spread of food we’ve had so far and you know that by now my primary stomach was about to pop. But luckily I’ve got a dessert stomach which was OPEN FOR BIZ.

Dish 11: The Asian Sundae Cup, with nuts and salted caramel topping

Simple…and yet so satisfying. Let’s describe this one as an ice-cream Snickers bar. I loved it. No other words necessary apart from a high 5 to the chef. 

Dish 12: Brown Sugar Creme Brulee with Mango Chutney

A creme brulee with fresh mango. What’s not to like? 

Dish 13: Thin Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream and Whipped Cream

This is my kind of dessert! Whenever I see apple anything on a menu I will always order it. There’s no better combination than thin tart pastry and baked apples. I do wish this one came out before the creme brulee and ice cream because by the time it was put in front of me I was ready to roll home. 

Wonderful evening with good wine, good food and the coolest Shanghai Bloggers in town. Thanks to Isabelle from The Cut and Marco who hosted us for the evening! 

The fattest weekend of the year has come and gone.  Of all the wonderful festivals and holidays that I get to celebrate living abroad in China, Thanksgiving is my favorite. After all, what’s not to like about a day dedicated entirely towards eating?

With an American boyfriend, and mostly American friends, our Thanksgiving celebration in Shanghai has become bigger and better each year.

This year we celebrated with 20 of our closest friends, our Shamily (Shanghai family) who all came over with wine and hungry bellies on Saturday.

We spent the day cooking and baking up a feast, as well as decorating our house for the occasion (thank you flower market and Pinterest!)

Our poultry count was two turkeys, weighing in at an impressive 8.5kg, courtesy of our friends at FIELDS.  Also on the menu were all the classics: cornbread, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes with bacon, an insane cheesy bread, a crapload of wine, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and my attempt at an apple cider cheesecake. 

Things I am thankful for this year: A great job, a beautiful apartment large enough to host 24 people for dinner, the rooftop heaters we got for free a few weeks ago, an oven large enough to bake all the sweet treats I want, and the best friends anyone could ever ask for. 

How on earth are we going to top this in 2016?

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. My prerequisite for moving into an apartment would be first and foremost, that it has a large kitchen with an oven. I also work for an online grocery store so every day I bring home fresh ingredients to whip up into a mid-week meal.

But I know for most expats in Shanghai this is not the case. Ingredients can be expensive, especially if only cooking for one, and most would argue that they simply don’t have the time to cook, let alone the required kitchen space. Throw in the language barrier when trying to buy produce from the local market and you’ve got a pretty good reason to eat out.

This is where companies like Xinwei Cook come in. They prepare a box for you filed with delicious ingredients, so that you can conveniently whip up a healthy dinner at home. They even send you kitchen staples like olive oil, salt and pepper, all perfectly proportioned so there really is no need for you to have anything. Visit their website and you can choose from a variety of different meals, sides and desserts.

After some initial confusion by the delivery guy over when I would be home, the box arrived at my front door! Loved the wrapping on the box.

Inside were separate containers and packages for each individual ingredient. While the concept about no food wastage was brilliant, the downside was the fact that there was so much packaging that I’m sure it is not the most environmentally-friendly way to deliver a meal.  

The first dish I cooked was the Rib-Eye Steak with Red Wine Sauce and Mashed Cauliflower.  The beef steak, mushrooms and red wine sauce were excellent. The mashed cauliflower was a slightly weird texture and didn’t really provide much overall benefit to the dish so I could give or take that. But overall it was a pretty tasty and filling dish that took about 15 minutes to cook.

Here’s the dish photo on the website:

And here is the dish that I cooked:

Not bad at all.

The second dish was the Duck Breast with Figs and Balsamic Sauce. I loved this one more, because the combination of seared duck with that slightly sticky and sweet sauce was my kind of meal. I also loved the side of potatoes which I boiled then fried in the deglazed pan. 

Here is the dish from the website:

And here is my version:

Yum!

I can definitely see the appeal of using this service. Although I like to buy my own produce and do all the preparation and cooking myself, I’ll definitely order from Xinwei again in the future because the other dishes on the menu just look so good. And it seems like a nice convenient option for next time I have the girls over for dinner.

You can visit their website at www.xinweicook.com.