Tag Archives: Bar Rouge
13 September, 2009 

Art Etc

Last week, having managed to see all the exhibitions from my list I felt rather pleased with myself. Two days later the Tate magazine arrived announcing the autumn schedule, I scanned through all the galleries and here is my new to see list:

Tate Modern: Pop Life show will include Kippenberg, Koons, Warhol and Hirst to name a few. There will be also a John Balderssari show and Miroslaw Balka will take over the Turbine Hall.

It seems to be the season of Pop Art, The Hayward Gallery is having a retrospective of Ed Ruscha paintings, this should be good!

Tate Britain: Turner and The Masters, I am really looking forward to this show, it will include old masters like Rubens and Rembrandt. I would suggest to visit this exhibition bit later in the autumn as it will be packed in the opening weeks. The gallery will hold the annual Turner Prize show too.

Somerset House is hosting Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour, expect a visual feast of some of the best fashion pictures ever taken. I must admit, I have never been to this venue, it has been on my list for ages. Now is the time to go.

Victoria and Albert Museum: Maharaja show, I really hope this is good, the last few times I went the exhibitions looked tempting but failed to deliver. The last one that I really enjoyed was The Golden Age of Couture which I went to see twice.

Royal Academy of Arts, probably my least favorite museum in London, will hold Anish Kapoor show. Looks very interesting.

National Gallery is showing a major exhibition of Spanish painting and sculpture from 17th century, Velazques and Zurbaran are among the artists. The Sacred Made Real show opens in October. This is my favorite gallery in London, I often go in and spend hours looking at the paintings from their permanent collection.

The White Cube Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard will hold Anselm Kiefer and Damien Hirst shows respectively.

Fashion and Textile Museum have got Foale and Tuffin retrospective. I saw few designs of this iconic company few years ago at the V&A and loved every piece they produced.

British Museum:  Revolution on paper, Mexican prints 1910-1960. This is a real highlight for me.

I did miss one exhibition this summer which was Banksy vs Bristol Museum however Purple Cloud documented it very well so I feel like I have been there. Have a look here.

17 August, 2008 

China Part 4 – Food

I was really excited about eating authentic Chinese food. However, I had been warned about lack of vegetarian dishes. It was hard. Most menus don’t make any sense as names of dishes are translated directly from dictionaries so you often come across things like Barbecue Speculation, Third Time Explosion or Buddha Jumped Over Great Wall Soup, whatever they can be!

I’ve tried dishes I’ve never heard of before, one of them was Mongolian hotpot (like the Japanese Nabe). You are presented with all kinds of bits and pieces like cabbage, fish balls, mushrooms and cook it in boiling stock. It was very very tasty and a healthy option too. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photograph of it as my husband was being force fed by an over-friendly waitress while I was left with some scraps.

I love street food and Beijing has lots of it – buns and pancakes with cabbage and garlic filling, sweet buns with coconut and caramelized onions (it does work). I did draw the line at fried silkworms and locusts.

I’ve discovered a brilliant dim sum canteen called May 1st in Xi’an – super cheap, tasty buns and dumplings, with lashings of MSG.

After a 20h train ride, arriving in Shanghai, I really craved European food. The first stop was M on the Bund – a flash restaurant with one of the best views of the waterfront – the Bund. We started our evening with cocktails at the Glamour Bar, one floor up from the restaurant, moving to M for a tasty feast of spring risotto and salt baked lamb for my other half, washed down with good Riesling. M has got a big balcony overlooking the Pudong district and the view is truly magical. The evening was perfect.

The best restaurants and bars in Shanghai are in exclusive shopping areas on the Bund. We visited Landis, Whampoa Club at Three on the Bund and Bar Rouge at Eighteen on the Bund.

Landis has fabulous European food, we went there for brunch. I had poached eggs with truffles followed by a fruit plate and my husband had the prefect omelette followed by cinnamon doughnuts with fresh chocolate, very naughty.

Whampoa Club serves modern and sophisticated Chinese food and I was very happy with the vegetarian lunch which had the prettiest dumplings.

One of the best teas I ever had – fresh camomile flowers and goji berries. Gillian McKeith would approve :-)