Anne and I ( you may recognise her from such posts as Thames Lido and others ) went down to Portsmouth to see Gerald van Courtland Vernon Jackson, the only Mayor of Newbury who needed two lines on his mayoral plaque in Newbury Town Hall. I was fortunate enough to be his Mayoress which was great fun and who knew that Newbury had SO many clubs and groups including the Padworth WoodTurners Group, The Probus Club (come on I am not the only person that thinks that sounds a bit saucy?!) and the Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers to name a few of the diverse and wonderful associations that we discovered.
Mixed starter and so amazingly good, a great contrast to the exact same items you may get in any other Chinese but here the prawn toasts were so light and fluffy inside with a crisp but not dry outside. You cant see the chicken satay because Gerald forgot the rules and ate it before I got a chance to take a photo of it!
The whole meal was so much better than the average Chinese, it looked similar but had been transformed by the Chinese restaurant fairy who had put the whole thing through a taste filter and it came out the other side so much tastier, less greasy with a depth of flavours that make you want to come back as soon as possible. Also they do dumplings, always a winner in my book.
Very juicy duck which looked great but I didn’t try as I was so stuffed. The tea was jasmine and Gerald and John got through quite a lot and seemed to enjoy it.
King prawns that were enough for everyone to try, very fresh and delicious
This is my main course, I saw Johns wonton soup and had to have some, again very juicy prawns with a delicious light broth and a bit of crunch with the chinese cabbage.
Gerald and Anne using chopsticks for the photo then picking up their little shovels (joking!)
The delightful Albert and his very beautiful French server. What I like about this is that Gerald calls EVERYBODY Albert or Snodgrass so the fact that this chap is actually called Albert is brilliant.
Along with Gerald, John, his husband is one of the most delightful, gentle and caring people that I know. Utterly loyal, put themselves out and totally dependable on things of importance I love them both enormously.
And?……. These are actually MY rabbit ears that my granddaughter is wearing and I normally wear them over my bowler hat. It is a look.