Fortuitously, I had watched a program on M1NT and Hubby's work associates had taken him to M1NT a couple of months ago.  So, it was a natural progression that Hubby took me to see M1NT in person :)  

Located in a very unassuming office building, I was surprised by the views and taken by the posh ambience ...

Our bread basket ... dee-lish!

Deconstructed Caesar Salad ... this was really memorable and probably ranks as one of the best caesar salads I've had ...

Penang Beef Cheek Curry ... it tasted rather like beef rendang I thought, but I wasn't a great fan as the cut of the pork wasn't my favorite ... a personal prejudice of mine ...

Grilled chicken ... with grilled garlic cloves (on left) ... I thought it was pretty tasty ... wished there was more sauce though .. but then I am a sauce-loving kinda gal ...

Mushrooms ...

Bread n Butter Pudding ... I'm not too much a fan of custard, so I wasn't entirely won over by this, but I'd prob recommend it to custard lovers as this pudding had more custard than bread ...

Overall, I guess maybe I had high expectations, so I wasn't blown away by M1NT.  But having heard about Hubby's earlier visit that had gone well in his view, I might pay them another visit and order some different dishes ... more Western in concept perhaps ...

Goodies fm Taipei - Afternoon Tea & Agnes b

When I first saw that Shanghai Xintiandi had an "Afternoon Tea" shop, I was estatic ... till I went in to have a look at their cakes.  Unfortunately, they paled in comparison to "Afternoon Tea" in Taipei and Japan.  And they didn't carry my favorite cake - the fruit roll with almond and chocolate bits in the cream.  So, when Hubby had to go to Taipei for a business trip, I leapt at the opportunity and wheedled him to handcarrying some cakes back to Shanghai for me :)

Here's my fav fruit roll cake from Afternoon Tea, Taipei (oh why oh why can't they have this in Shanghai?  And why oh why does Afternoon Tea in Shanghai look less gleaming and polished and cozy compared to the outlets in Taipei and Japan?) ...

A seasonal cake - matcha green tea cake with cherries and red beans ...

I also managed to convince Hubby to bring me some goodies from Agnes b cafe in Taipei ... my fav Chloe (left) and coffee mille feuille ...

The whole box of pastries/sweets that Hubby came back with from Agnes b cafe ...

The gorgeous and wonderfully delicious cakes from Afternoon Tea ...

Good Hot Pot, Xintiandi, Shanghai

So Good Hot Pot doesn't have the most original name, but it certainly lived up to its name ... at least in my opinion :)

They had a pretty nice selection of hot pot broths to choose from - most with a very distinctive Cantonese flavour ... like this one we chose - a broth with century egg ... which came with a very generous helping of green veggies ...

Evidence that there is indeed a century egg in the broth ...

We ordered a mix plate of meatballs ...

"Special" potatoes ...

A mixed plate of organic greens ...

Ye Shanghai, Xintiandi, Shanghai

After hearing so much about Ye Shanghai, we decided to try it out for dinner one night.

Stepping into Ye Shanghai was like stepping into a piece of historical Shanghai ... the restaurant was tastefully decorated in the style of an old Shanghai lane house.  Ambience was definitely good.  There was even a singer singing olden Chinese songs from the 1940s?

We ordered some deep fried crispy eel ... 

Sheng Jian Pao ...

Herbal chicken soup ...

Sour and Spicy soup ...

Peking Duck ...

Stirfried duck (using the rest of the duck fm above dish)

Overall, I thought the ambience was beautiful, but the food (at least what we ordered) generally wasn't as impressive.

Yuan Yuan, Westgate Mall, Nanjing Xi Lu, Shanghai

When we first moved to Shanghai, someone we met recommended Yuan Yuan.  As we were around the Nanjing Xi Lu area a month or two ago, we decided to check it out.

Appetiser:  Rolled up lettuce ("tied" up with thin slice of cucumber) served with sesame sauce ...

La Zi Ji Ding ... essentially fried chicken with loads and loads of dried chilies and peanuts ... (this also had loads of small bones though ... not my fav thing ...)

A seasonal dish as bamboos were in season ... bamboo shoots and mushrooms ...

Fried fish ...

Herbal chicken soup ...

Durian puffs ... ohhhh ... the pastry was AMAZING!!!!!  I only wish the durian were sweeter/more ripe ... but perhaps that's a subjective thing ...

Chilled pipa fruit with lotus seeds ... this was really quite refreshing!