Wishing you all a very Happy Chinese New Year for 2012 and thank you for your continued support and friendship.
1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000
People born in the Year of the Dragon are healthy, energetic, excitable, short-tempered, and stubborn. They are also honest, sensitive, brave, and they inspire confidence and trust. Dragon people are the most eccentric of any in the eastern zodiac. They neither borrow money nor make flowery speeches, but they tend to be soft-hearted which sometimes gives others an advantage over them. They are compatible with Rats, Snakes, Monkeys, and Roosters.
Please do book via our Book a Table page (below or click here) and we look forward to accomodating you.
We hope you have recovered from all the Christmas festivities and raring to go for 2011. At Sweet Mandarin there are early preparations to make the celebration of the year of the Rabbit a magnificent one. As we await this celebration, let us see what is in store for the year of the Rabbit.
To ease you into the brand new year why not start the new year with our lovely jubbly tips to get the NEW YEAR OFF TO A BANG and most importantly a NEW YOU…Every day we keep you up to date with New Recipes and Cooking tips on our blog.
We are open on Saturday 1st January 2012- book your table here
Happy New Year To YOU
Best Wishes and Sweet Dishes to You and Your Family
Lisa, Helen and Janet
TIP TOP TIPS FOR 2012
1. LOOK FORWARD
2012 welcomes the Year of the Dragon – the sign symbolizes strength and innovation. Reward yourself with a dinner at Sweet Mandarin to celebrate your year ahead.
2. RECHARGE YOU
A great Chinese proverb: ” Getting up when the sun is up and rest when the sun is down” Remember to recharge your batteries after the christmas rush. Enjoy a sumptuous meal at Sweet Mandarin and book a table (click here).
3. COOKING YOUR WAY TO HEALTH
Try something different by taking part in the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School (Featured in the Sunday Times and CityLife). Learn how to make fast, healthy super suppers and impress you, your friends and family.
4. TREAT THE NEW YOU
Calorific mouthwatering dishes at Sweet Mandarin to celebrate the new year – Try the Sizzling King Prawns bursting with fresh vegetables and light soya flavour. Join Sweet Mandarin’s fortnightly detox menu and see the New You.
5. ME MYSELF AND I
Take advantage of the special offers for Sweet Mandarin Newsletter subscribers. Win a bottle of champagne, a meal for 4 or a place on the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School. Enter here and we wish you luck on the monthly prize draw.
It was a pleasure to meet all the Team of Project One. As promised to Hayley and Sharon, here’s a little video keepsake of your Christmas do at Sweet Mandarin. The soundtrack is All I Want For Christmas – Hayley’s favourite Christmas track. Enjoy!
If you want unique gifts for Christmas, buy a Sweet Mandarin Cookery School Gift Voucher for your friends and family. Click here for our courses, course dates and purchase an evoucher via paypal.
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
Nosebleeds may be a symptom of high blood pressure so if you are getting them regularly please please please go check yourself at the doctors.
The best thing to alleviate nosebleeds is good ole fashioned tea. PG tips is my favourite breakfast tea. Its the tannin in the tea that prevents nosebleeds. The used cold teabags can be placed on the nose to stop the bleeding. I know you might feel like a plonker, but its worth it.
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
Put your hands up if you have a cold – that awful sneezing, wheezing, blocked up nose, cough and temperature. Its man’s worst enemy and it spreads virally – in the air, by touch and pounces on those with a weak immune system or are stressed.
Here is my suggested diet to fight away a cold – foods rich in vitamin C and zinc, spiced up with ginger, chillies and ginger.
Oranges for breakfast or dessert. Lots of them. Whole or juiced – preferrably raw.
Sizzling king prawns with ginger and spring onions. Ginger itself has healing qualities that warm the body and fight infection.
Wok tossed kale greens with fermented blackbeans and garlic – rich in vitamin A (beta carotene), super delicious and fast to cook up.
Noted if you have catarrh – avoid chocolate or foods which are fatty – these are mucus forming and could really make your situation worse.
Its great being a short 10minute walk away from the MEN Arena because we get to meet all the stars that perform at the MEN Arena. If you are going, be sure to book your pre-concert dinner at Sweet Mandarin (click here ).
Following her Arena show in May of this year, the Barbados-native returns next October and November to showcase tracks from Loud – including the UK number one single Only Girl (In The World) - alongside the chart-topping hits Umbrella, Don’t Stop The Music, SOS, Disturbia and Shut Up And Drive.
Earlier this year Rihanna became the first female artist of the past decade to score six number one’s on Billboard’s Hot List 100 when Rude Boy topped the charts.
Earlier this year Rihanna became the first female artist of the past decade to score six number one’s on Hot List 100 when topped the charts.
The second single to be taken from Rihanna’s fifth studio album – What’s My Name? featuring Drake – is out now.
Thank God for Peter Kay. I love the Bolton born comic and man-of-a-thousand-faces who loves Chinese food.
Here’s my favourite joke (thanks Peter) ….. So I went to the Chinese restaurant and this duck came up to me with a red rose and says “Your eyes sparkle like diamonds”. I said, “Waiter, I asked for a-ROMATIC duck”.
Finally, Peter has returned to us in Manchester with his tour which has people in stitches as he turns the most trivial of daily nuisances in the world of the working class family, and turns them into comedy gold. Without this man, life would, quite simply, be a bit boring.
I’ll feed Peter and I’ll feed all you lovely people who are going to see Peter Kay’s show at the MEN. We are next door to the Crowne Plaza Hotel which is a short 5-10 minute walk to the MEN Arena. Approximately 40 furry footsteps and you are door to door. Click HERE for the AA Routeplanner and Map.
OK, and I’ll get you revved up with that uber-annoying (because once heard you can’t get it out of your head) ‘Is This The Way To Amarillo’ song that Peter forced upon us, Peter Kay at his exasperated best.
Sweet Mandarin Address: 19 Copperas Street (off High Street), Manchester M4 1HS
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
Cystitis is a bladder infection. When one goes to wee, only a few drops pass but the burning sensation could possibly knock you to the ground its that painful. If left untreated, the kidneys may get infected especially if you are passing blood. Gorry stuff, but it should be talked about so people can understand its common – not embarrasing – and more importantly, can be treated with a bout of anti-biotics.
There is the humble cranberry that when drank in 50ml doses can halve the risk of getting cystitis and lessen the onslaught of the attack. If you feel the burning sensation – stop drinking tea, coffee and alcohol. Drink plenty of water to dilute the urine which makes it less painful to pass as well as reducing infecting bacteria. Chemists have packets of potassium citrate that neutralizes the urine so takes the pain out of going to the loo. Ultimately, the message is whilst cranberry juice can help, if you get these symptons, go to the doctor immediately.
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
Nausea is a feeling of queasiness or sickness which may or may not result in vomiting. My clients are an international crowd and sometimes the travel can disrupt one’s well being.
On of the best cures is fresh ginger. I grate them a grated fresh ginger and make them a ginger wine which I send to their hotel room. If they don’t like ginger, then peppermint tea also helps.
Crazy but true. Hollywood descended on the sleepy Northern Quarter and now the movie is finally released today. Although we are less than 25 yards from the polished doors of the Arndale Centre, half of Manchester probably will never ever wander in the Northern Quarter – and although those members of the public are missing out on an absolute unique dining and shopping experience, the majority of the shopkeepers in the Northern Quarter, including myself are not too fussed. We’re more easy going and have the 20,000 residents in the area to cater for most of the time. Having said that, its always nice to meet more people outside of the enclaves of the four streets that make up the Northern Quarter.
The Northern Quarter is a get together of independents who don’t want huge chains descending upon us and creating pure and utter blandness. What we at Sweet Mandarin stand for is something different, something fun, something unique. That’s why we opted for the Northern Quarter rather than elsewhere in Manchester. We deliberately placed ourselves outside of Chinatown to make a statement.And I suppose its working. Gordon Ramsay crowned us with the Best Chinese Restaurant in the UK on his F Word Programme and we’ve recently been awarded the coveted 1AA Rosette.
I have also noticed there have been a significant number of American clients visiting us but I never in a million years would suspect that Tinseltown would zero in on the Northern Quarter (I mean they have the whole world at their fingertips) and say “I have found the perfect location for Captain America. Manchester’s Northern Quarter.” LOL That is quite funny. I better tell you now Captain America, Manchester has signed a huge disclaimer for the weather. It rains here. Sorry about that but I hope that adds some dramatic effect for your movie. Today, outside Sweet Mandarin I witnessed a mini waterfall and a running stream. Anyhow, we welcome you to the Northern Quarter and to Sweet Mandarin.
When they filmed around the corner, it was great to meet the stars and their entourage – and we’re talking mega entourages whose presence could be mistaken for a union meeting. Talking about pre-orders for food at Sweet Mandarin….it got a bit crazy at Sweet Mandarin but I say bring it on. I can’t wait to cook for Tommy Lee Jones (I got your dim sum won tons right here right now), Samuel L Jackson (I got your chicken wings ready for you here!) and the superhero Captain America aka Chris Evans (the perfect portion of prawn twitters lol here ) (and we’re not talking the ginger Chris Evans).
Amazingly, in the midst of our Rainy City, I have been rescued by Captain America, my hero!
About Captain America
Based on the Marvel Comics character from World War II. A brave, yet mild-mannered young soldier named Steve Rogers volunteers to undergo a series of experiments for a US army Super Soldier program. The military succeeds in transforming him into a human weapon, but quickly decide that their Super Soldier is far too expensive a creation to risk in combat. So, they decide to put him to use as an army celebrity and parade him across Europe to boost morale by performing in USO shows for American troops. He is even given a costume that bear the colors of Old Glory for the stage. Then, when a Nazi plot reveals itself Rogers must rise up and and become the First Avenger, in order to save his country. Steve Rogers becomes Captain America and he earns his way into the hearts and souls of every American, bringing hope and justice to a war-weary nation. Later, during a mission to Germany to stop his archenemy – The Red Skull, from launching rockets at the allies, Captain America sacrifices himself and winds up frozen in ice for almost six decades! Revived, Steve Rogers now must join forces with new heroes and become an Avenger of the modern age.
Media
Here’s the Manchester Evening News Bulletin about Captain America being filmed in the Northern Quarter (link)
Book Your Front Row Seat at Sweet Mandarin
If you want to star gaze from the comfort of Sweet Mandarin as Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans and Samuel L Jackson whizz around in their car chases and jump from the Smithfield Fishmarket Wall, click here
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
Mouth ulcers are found in the mouth and can make you wince in pain if touched. No-one really knows why they flare up – perhaps one is stressed or over worked. Nonetheless, swallowing a whole tube of Bonjela may or may not work. Here are some alternatives using food as the weapon:
Try honey as approved by Winnie the Pooh bear :0) – this sweetness is an antiseptic which heals and cools the ulcer. Another alternative is rubbing garlic on the affected area (but not that good for a date). Or how about trying bio yoghurt – its healthy bacteria may sort out that ulcer quicker than you can say Bonjela!
A small tip to make your life more bearable – avoid vinegar, ketchup, pickles, oranges and lemons until the ulcer has gone. If such foods touched the ulcer, I’ll get my camcorder ready and watch you shoot to the moon!
I know one day will never make up for all the universal joys and incredible memories of childhood that I’ve shared with my Dad but I wanted to thank you Dad, for being there for me, always, unconditionally and always fighting our corner. Together with the entire world – in celebrations of Dads all over the world on Father’s Day 20th June, I wanted to say I love you Dad.
I remember the midnight jogging sessions to Chaddy park with Dad, my siblings and our dog, Choy Sum as Mum drove the old banger alongside us. Even though we never managed to jog back as we all went home in the car – I loved that sense of adventure you instilled in us.
I remember Mum had gone out to buy the groceries and you decided to be a hairdresser for the day. We all had pudding bowl haircuts……and it was so atrocious you bought us an ice cream to make up for it. I learnt quickly not to let you touch my hair ever again!
I remember the amazing dinners you made us ranging from spare ribs to a whole steamed fish to chicken tomato with an egg in it and your amazing red cooked melt in the mouth chicken. And you allowed me to go on the woks and you taught me how to cook the perfect egg fried rice. Wow – Dad you’re the best.
And now you and the fat baby are partners in crime!
For everyone out there, don’t forget its Father’s Day on Sunday 20th June. We only have a few tables left that evening (5-11pm). If you’d like to tell your Dad you love him by treating him to a delicious Chinese banquet, I’d be honoured to serve you our sumptuous food and ice cold beers. To book your table call 0161 832 8848 or email me lisa@sweetmandarin.com or click here
I’ve often been asked to provide a lunchbox of foods to help my clients overcome their illness. I believe in the power of food – that certain foods can make you better and certain foods can make you worse. Here is a short excerpt from my handwritten book that I look to when cooking for my clients.
If Jeckell and Hyde were a woman, some would have probably diagnosed her with Pre-Menstrual Sydrome aka PMS – which appear 4-10 days before a woman’s period begins and disappear a day or two after it has started. The symptoms are weight gain, water retention, a foul mood, food cravings, breast pain and fatigue.
Now to cheer you up. Diet and being more careful of what you consume can help alleviate the symptoms of PMS.
1. Avoid caffeine in the week pre-period.
2. Reduce salt – this minimizes water retention (which could add 7 pounds to your weight…now there’s an incentive
3. Eat weatgerm, pulses, oily fish, bananas and poultry (these have vitamin B boost – keeps your nerves healthy and replenishes when you feel depleted)
Its great being a short 10minute walk away from the MEN Arena because we get to meet all the stars that perform at the MEN Arena. If you are going, be sure to book your pre-concert dinner at Sweet Mandarin (click here).
The list of records Kylie holds at the Manchester venue is unprecedented.
The pop icon has performed more shows, and to more people, at the M.E.N Arena than at any other venue in the world.
More than 300,000 concertgoers have seen Kylie at the Arena since her 2002 debut with her sold-out summer 2008 shows confirming her position as the biggest selling solo artist in the history of the venue.
Kylie now returns to the city which she says “has always welcomed me so much” to perform tracks from her latest album Aphrodite - including current hit single Better Than Today - alongside hits from her back catalogue spanning over two decades.
John Knight, General Manager for the M.E.N Arena, said: “Manchester holds a very special place in its heart for Kylie and the feeling is more than mutual. She loves performing here and next year’s shows are going to be one of the musical highlights of the year.
“Since her first show with us nearly a decade ago Kylie’s returned again and again with bigger and better shows and, after seeing the initial production plans for her new Les Folies shows, her Manchester fans are in for another breathtaking treat”.
Devotion, a duet Kylie has recorded with Manchester synthpop duo The Hurts, is out now.
Its great being a short 10minute walk away from the MEN Arena because we get to meet all the stars that perform at the MEN Arena. If you are going, be sure to book your pre-concert dinner at Sweet Mandarin (click here).
Her only show in the north of the country during 2011, the US singer-songwriter will bring her Speak Now World Tour to the Manchester venue on Tuesday 29 March.
Following her winter 2009 debut, the country-pop star returns to the Arena to perform tracks from her brand new album Speak Now alongside the chart-topping hits Love Story, You Belong With Me, Fifteen and Mine.
Fearless, her third studio album, became the best-selling US album of last year and earned her a Grammy for Album Of The Year making her the youngest artist, at 20 years old, to collect the award.
Speaking ahead of her Manchester return, Taylor said: “I’m so excited to go back out on tour again in 2011. The Fearless Tour was so much fun and even more unforgettable than I ever imagined. I can’t wait to get back out and play my new music from Speak Now!”
Its great being a short 10minute walk away from the MEN Arena because we get to meet all the stars that perform at the MEN Arena.If you are going, be sure to book your pre-concert dinner at Sweet Mandarin here.
Get the lowdown on the Boyz with the men-arena.com’s top five Boyzone facts:
1: Following the ITV1 special, Boyzone: A Tribute To Stephen Gately, the new four-piece will be performing tracks from Brother alongside Boyzone classics Pictures Of You, Love Me For A Reason and No Matter What.
2: Speaking ahead of their Manchester return, Ronan said; “There was a time there when the lads and I didn’t know whether we would ever get back up on stage together again – we just didn’t know if we could do it as a four-piece.
3: “We played three tracks live at the Albert Hall a couple of weeks ago and the reception was just unbelievable. We all came off stage buzzing, knowing that we had the full support of the fans and it all just suddenly felt so right. We can’t wait to get back on the road together.”
4: Boyzone: A Tribute To Stephen Gatelyaired as an hour-long special on ITV1 featuring Ronan, Keith, Mikey and Shane performing a selection of their top ten hits joined by special guests including Mika, Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle and Arena favourites Westlife.
5: Boyzone love aromatic crispy duck with pancakes, scallions and hoisin sauce!
Breathe. Breathe again. I’ve got some news my friends. I’m going to be starring on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 on 12th – 17th 12.30pm – 1.30pm. This is like a dream come true for me. Thank you God. You’ve already given me an amazing blessing when Sweet Mandarin received the most prestigious accolade, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award. Deep breath. My heart is racing because I love Iron Chef. I’ve watched all the American versions and am in love with Chef Morimoto and Bobby Flay. I can’t wait to get to Kitchen Stadium – this is an experience of a lifetime.
I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef and will dedicate my dishes to Manchester, my followers on Twitter and to all my clients at Sweet Mandarin. I’m gonna tweet throughout the cook off so follow me for more of the action http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin.
PRESS RELEASE: 1st December 2010 Lisa Tse to star on Iron Chef UK
Lisa Tse, CEO and head chef of the award winning Sweet Mandarin is to star on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 in December. Lisa has already received one of the most prestigious accolades, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award and her cookery school is now fully booked for months. This latest challenge will see Lisa battle against the Iron Chefs in a specially created Kitchen Stadium.
Iron Chef originated from Japan and its American version has received cult status as well as receiving the blessing of Michelle Obama who invited Iron Chef to the White House. In each episode, a new challenger chef battles one of the resident ‘Iron Chefs’ in a one-hour cooking competition based on a theme ingredient. In April/May, the UK will witness Iron Chef which is like no other cooking show before it. It combines haute cuisine, sports broadcasting and martial arts. It is crazy, zany and addictive.
Chef Lisa said “I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef. My three passions in life are cooking, people and business, and Iron Chef ignites all three. For everyone in Manchester, for my Twitter friends and my customers at Sweet Mandarin, I will rise to this challenge and try my best. I’ve been told that when the secret ingredient is revealed, we are free to choose what to cook and have an hour to produce something amazing. The Japanese call it omikase. I call it omigod — cooking without a net!”
For more of the action follow Lisa on Twitter http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin as she proposes to tweet throughout her cook-off.
About Chef Lisa Tse
Lisa is the CEO and brainchild behind Sweet Mandarin, an award winning Chinese restaurant, cookery school and corporate team building events organizer in Manchester, which she set up with her two sisters in 2004. Lisa won the prestigious award of Best Local Chinese Restaurant 2009/10 on the F Word and Gordon Ramsay was highly impressed with Lisa’s cooking. Sweet Mandarin has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Times, on BBC Newsnight and on the front cover of the Shanghai Daily. Lisa is the third generation of women in her family in the restaurant business and their story, self titled Sweet Mandarin was published by Random House in 33 countries and covered in a documentary by the BBC and the Chinese Channel. In 2010, Amoy chose Lisa as their chef of the year to celebrate Chinese New Year. Lisa has been cooking from the age of 11 years old and now cooks at Sweet Mandarin and for celebrities.
This video is a one off special – so make the most of it my friends – coz we got two left feet between the three of us in real life – so you’re never gonna catch us doing these ole Hip Hop moves!! We wish you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year (2011 welcomes the Year of the Rabbit).
Much love
Lisa, Helen and Janet x
www.sweetmandarin.com
Go-Social Bootcamp launches with Manchester social event at Sweet Mandarin.
CEO of Sweet Mandarin, Lisa Tse has been invited by the prestigious Go-Social Conference to speak about her expertise in social media marketing – namely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. The audience which will be drawn from as far a field as Scotland, London and Manchester will be listening to Lisa talk about how her love of food, people and business led her to social media networks. Lisa now has over 7,000 Twitter followers, over 1, 100 Facebook Friends liking her page and her Youtube Channel has had over 30,000 hits.
Tweet Mandarin – A Wok N Roll Story
The phenomenon of @sweetmandarin - a Chinese restaurant using social media to take bookings, orders and organise Tweet ups has caught the eye of the Times newspaper (click here), Big Hospitality (click here) and the BBC (click here). Oh and don’t forget Gordon Ramsay – Chef Lisa and he had a good ole banter about Twitter whilst she cooked her way to success, winning the title Best Chinese Restaurant in the whole of the UK for her 70 seater restaurant and cookery school, Sweet Mandarin.
The organiser, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp followed Lisa on Twitter and was so impressed with her use of Twitter that he came up to Manchester to meet Lisa, and invited her to speak on the platform. The co-speakers at this event are heavy weights in the world of social media such as Olgilvy PR, Staniforth PR, Huggies and Brother. Lisa representing Sweet Mandarin is the only restaurant business to speak. Lisa said “I am extremely honoured to be asked to speak and I would be happy to share with the audience about my journey into social media, how much fun it is to express oneself in 140 characters and how it has helped Sweet Mandarin grow from a small orange to a blossoming tree of fruitful opportunities”.
About Go-Social
Go-Social has been organised by Intelligise in association with The Drum and Marketing Industry Network. The keyman is Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, a popular social media blogger at The Drum, who has promised that Go-Social would “cut through all of the false mystique and guru talk that hides the real practical applications of social media in marketing”.
In a lively format, five influential companies give snappy 30 minute presentations about social media and its potential. The decision to hold the inaugural event in Manchester was momentus especially since the organisers are from Scotland. The reason for this is that 7 percent of UK Twitter users live or work in the greatest city in the world, Manchester (of course :0). And Lisa’s tweets are resoundingly sweet. Follow Lisa here
If you are attending the #Gosocialuk event on Thursday 25th November 2010, be sure to visit @sweetmandarin for lunch or dinner. Book a table here.
This first video demonstrates the work I do day in day out with my corporate clients, VIP clients and Cookery School clients. Sometimes, its easier to just show you what I get up to. As they say a photo tells a thousand words. So I guess this first video will tell you a million and one sweet things about us. Enjoy! Chef Lisa
This second video was a lot of fun to make. I’ve been honoured to cook for thousands of people, teach hundreds of clients and meet a few celebrities along the way. This pictorial journey is a little something I’d like to share with you. The music is by Train and the up beat sweet song is ‘Hey Soul Sister’. I hope you will be inspired to cook. Much love Lisa.
I was chatting to my friends who are also my customers (its funny how customers become friends after a while) and getting their feedback on Sweet Mandarin’s takeaway offering – always listening and trying to improve our service.
My friend Julia said many nights, she had gone home hungry – craving good Sweet Mandarin food – she remembered our wholesome Chinese food with a steaming bowl of rice after a corporate night out with her firm. She said “No where else does what you do – offer simple but delicious food at reasonable prices.” That’s true. Most restaurants will charge you restaurant prices for takeaway. What we offer is takeaway at takeaway prices with restaurant quality. We’ve also chosen our containers with thought, to ensure it comes to your door piping hot. We consider takeaway to be one of our core businesses and we value customers at home, as if they were sitting at Sweet Mandarin. We’ll even accompany the dinner with our choicest wines, so you can have the Sweet Mandarin experience in the comfort of your own home.
You can’t beat a takeaway – here are Julia’s top ten reasons:
1. I am home alone
2. Its raining/cold/late/got no car/car’s broken down/don’t want to venture outside for a whole night out
3. I’m already wearing pygamas and hooked to the tv set – you can’t just leave if Pop Idol or Desperate Housewives are on can you – get the bf to collect @sweetmandarin!
4. I just want to eat some decent Chinese food – no one else does Lily’s curry or Mabel’s claypot and the more I think about their food, the more hungry I get.
5. The fridge is bare apart from some mouldy cheese and stale bread – even a mouse would decline that offer!
6. I don’t want to cook, and even if I did, I have no food. Can’t cook won’t cook.
7. Its cheaper to get Sweet Mandarin take-out, than to buy all the ingredients and try to cook it yourself.
8. When I cook it tastes funny- I’ll leave it to the experts at Sweet Mandarin.
9. Takeout is great for a romatic night in, especially accompanied by the fine selection of wine Sweet Mandarin has (hehehe, I’m not alone, so you can ignore point 1 tonight :0))
10. Sweet Mandarin takeaway is the best…because the staff are friendly, the food is superb and the price is right.
Now that you are in a state of ravenous hunger, here’s what to do – call 0161 832 8848 and see their online new menu for takeaway at www.sweetmandarin.com – if you are really good with the computer, order online.
where’s the phone?
who’s taken my phone?
I need takeout NOW!
spring rolls – sweet and sour chicken – peking duck – firecracker prawns – special fried rice – chicken chow mein – one hot and sour soups – no make it two – and some prawn crackers…..and hurry. i’m about to faint with hunger.
To the ruler, the people are Heaven; to the people, food is Heaven’
My grandmother, Lily Kwok was born in a small village in Southern China in 1918, confounding the midwife who’d predicted that she must be a boy because she had kicked so hard in the womb. That independence, strength and energy stayed with her all her life. Lily is 88 now, and still a fit, intelligent and – I’m afraid to say – stubborn woman despite all that she has been through. She and I are very alike. Lily and my mother, Mabel, inspired and shaped much of what I have done with my life: my success at school and in business; my return to the catering trade; my journey back to China to rediscover my roots, and in doing so, discovering her roots too. Her story is my story, and it’s the story of Sweet Mandarin. My sisters and I were immersed from birth in the Chinese catering business – the fourth generation of our family to make a living from food. We grew up in a family firm that was built on decades of graft and hard-earned experience, and we were expected to give up our evenings and weekends to help out behind the counter or in the kitchen. Not surprisingly, by the time we were teenagers we just wanted a way out. I became a lawyer, Lisa, my twin, a financier and Janet an engineer, but for all our efforts to escape we found ourselves choosing to follow in Mabel and Lily’s footsteps in the end. We opened our own restaurant together in 2004, and called it Sweet Mandarin. None of our friends in the Manchester Chinese community understood why we were doing it. The restaurant business is a very demanding one – the hours are long, the work hard and the economics precarious. One moment you’re in the black, the next something unexpected has plunged you into the red. It’s a tough, male-dominated world too, so why would three twenty-something professional ladies with good degrees and white-collar careers want to risk it all for something they’d seen their parents slave over all their lives? Our friends in Manchester had done everything they could to avoid taking on any responsibility for their own parents’ restaurants and takeaways, even moving hundreds of miles away so it was impossible for their family to call them up and expect them to rush home to help out. Living any nearer would involve a burden of guilt and obligation from which they were desperate to be free. I could count on one hand the number of my Chinese peers who were going back into catering.
They thought we were taking a step backwards, and even at the huge street party we held for the restaurant’s launch, with firecrackers and performers and champagne, I could see them quietly shaking their heads over the choice we’d made. The generation above them understood though. I remember old Chinese – the bosses of the established Chinatown restaurants and supermarkets – smiling on us with respect. It was an acknowledgement that we were carrying the flickering, dimming torch for a new generation, and they wished their own sons and daughters would do the same, keeping the community alive and handing down traditional recipes and family business know-how to their own children.
Opening my own restaurant gave me all those things; it was much, much more than a chance to test my entrepreneurial streak. It brought me closer to my sisters, for a start, and though I’m the voice for all of us in this book, they share this heritage with me as well as the work of setting up Sweet Mandarin. It also introduced me to my grandmother and mother all over again and opened up a bridge between us that crossed East and West, uniting the present and the past. I came to understand what their lives had been, and what my generation represented to them.
Lisa, Janet and I had problems getting our business off the ground, but all our slog and late nights were nothing compared to Mabel and Lily’s struggle. They arrived in Britain from Hong Kong with nothing, strangers in a foreign country. Everything they had they built from sheer perseverance and toil, and everything we had came from them.
Every Saturday morning, my mother, grandmother and I shop at the Chinese supermarket. We buy stock for the kitchens at Sweet Mandarin and food for our own home cooking. In the past I’d only known the barest facts about my grandmother’s long life, but when we began these weekly trips she started to reveal the real story, bit by bit. I’d known some things already – just the anecdotes and the funny characters that make up family folklore – but now the detail and the scale of what my grandmother had gone through began to emerge. It was as though each bottle or package that she picked out for our basket was tied to a different chapter of her life, and now she wanted to share it with us. When your entire family works in restaurants, food becomes a family album – an heirloom that triggers memories.
Very little has been written about the experiences of mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong and to Britain, but I knew that as I discovered more about the journey my grandmother had made, and the extraordinary things that had happened to her, this was a story that had to be told. It’s shared by many of the Chinese who settled in this country, who also carved out a place in their new homeland through the catering trade.
Sweet Mandarin Cookery School teaches a Dim Sum Masterclass. Its been so busy that we’re full till October 2010 and I’ve had to add an extra date for the people who really really really want to learn. So here’s a date for your diary: 8th August. Its first come, first served. For more information, go to www.sweetmandarin.com To book your place on the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School click here or email lisa@sweetmandarin.com
As a British Born Chinese, I have lived a very British way of life being educated in Manchester and Australia. However, throughout my life, I grew up with the backdrop of serving and cooking in the family restaurant and continue my involvement in the catering empire as a co-owner of Sweet Mandarin Restaurant (www.sweetmandarin.com).
(Illustration by Lisa Tse “To The Ruler, the People are Heaven, to the People Food is Heaven”)
Chinese food has had an overwhelming presence in my life and been the catalyst for my hunger for understanding China and the significance of food in its culture. This series explores the cities where I stayed, the lives that crossed my path and the amazing food with a story to tell. China is a captivating and vivacious collection of diverse cities, provinces and regions. In the south, Guangdong, the Cantonese speaking region is renowned for its steaming, boiling and stir frying and dim sum feasts which we have become accustomed to and love in the western world. Beijing in the coldest area of China boasts the Emperor’s banquet, the world famous Peking Duck and hot pot. In the east, Shanghai offers its famous Shanghai Dumplings, whilst the Sichuan provinces easily provide the hottest and spiciest cuisine.
I finally arrived at Guangzhou which is famous for its “dim sum”. Literally translated, “dim sum” means “to touch your heart”. Guangzhou is north of the Pearl River Delta, adjacent to Hong Kong and holds a special place in my heart as the place where my family originates from. The nickname for this province is “Flower City” because flowers keep blossoming all year round.
(Five Ram Statute in Guangzhou)
It also holds the myth that there were five celestials riding five rams with rice in their mouth. The celestials gave the rice to the residents of Guangzhou and blessed the province with good harvests and an abundance of food. Today, the celestials have flown away but the five rams have been turned into stone sculptures in the Yuexiu Park area. The blessings have seemingly been fulfilled and the city is brimming with masses of people, bicycles and restaurants.
To date, there are over 10,000 restaurants in the city, with seats for over 500,000. The people of Guangzhou are natural born gourmets. Food in Guangzhou is famous worldwide. Indeed in 1927, Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of the nationalist party responsible for unifying China, set up his headquarters in Guangzhou and enjoyed dining at the many restaurants serving dim sum.
(Dim Sum Mania on Sunday Mornings)
Dim sum is often referred to as “yum cha” (??) which means “drinking tea”. This interchangeable expression originated from the teahouses which set up along the Silk Road. The Silk Road linked China to Syria and was travelled by merchants and farmers trading their silk, gold, ivory, spices, exotic animals and plants. Travellers and rural farmers, exhausted after working hard, would also go to teahouses for a relaxing afternoon of tea. At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. However, people later discovered that tea can aid in digestion. Therefore, teahouse owners began adding more variety of snacks, so the tradition of dim sum evolved.
(Dim Sum Restaurant – Old Hong Kong)
Dim sum mania spread to Hong Kong as the Guangzhou population immigrated to Hong Kong in the 1920s. Chinese restaurants grew exponentially in Hong Kong and soon dim sum was available from 6am through to late afternoon. Restaurants in Hong Kong and Guangzhou became filled mainly with the elderly population who often gathered to eat after the morning session of tai chi exercises, often enjoying the morning newspapers.
In the west, dim sum came about as a natural result of Chinese immigrants moving to the western world. When Europe started trading with the Orient, the seaport of Guangzhou became the gateway to the West. The Chinese readily absorbed these cosmopolitan influences, and being great travellers themselves, emigrated to the United States of America and the United Kingdom. They were the first to make Chinese cooking known to the Western world and as a result dim sum has become the firm favourite of the Western world.
(A Packed Dim Sum Session)
Go to a Chinese restaurant on a Sunday afternoon and you will be greeted by a sea of Chinese families spanning three generations. Dim sum is the Chinese equivalent of French hors d’oeuvres or Spanish tapas. It’s a colourful and loud dining experience starting with the rush for vacant seats and the hustle and bustle of the gesticulating waiters selling their dim sum specials from their trolleys. Bamboo containers filled with steamed dim sum are stacked high and quickly snapped up. Waiting on staff ask what kind of tea we want to drink offering a vast array of jasmine tea, oolong tea, pu-er tea and green tea which helps to wash down the dim sum. The noise of the chatter of the diners is deafening. It’s a busy, frantic affair and there is an air of organized panic in the restaurants, which adds to the excitement and entertainment. Dim sum is an overwhelming introduction to the Chinese nation’s love of food, gregariousness and cheerful chatter.
I love dim sum. There are over 200 dishes to choose from. One Cantonese saying goes that anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies is edible. Another says that the only four-legged things that Cantonese people won’t eat are tables and chairs.
The range of cooking skills required to make dim sum is vast. There is usually a dim sum master overseeing his section of the kitchen and there is a real art involved in making the dishes. Some dishes are steamed, others are fried. Some are baked. The variety of tastes is also mind boggling – sweet, sour, savoury and chilli.
(Left: Har Gow, Right: Siu Mi)
There are firm favourites such as “har gow” (prawn dumplings wrapped in translucent rice paper), “siu mi” (pork dumplings) and “char siu bow” (pork buns in a white fluffy dough). If you are feeling more adventurous, an eye opening experience with a stronger flavour is “fung jow” (chickens feet in yellow bean sauce and chillis). One caveat – this particular dish is not for the faint hearted. The sweet dishes for dessert range from the egg custard tarts which are extremely delicious to sago pudding or mango pudding which are refreshing and a great ending to the dim sum experience.
(Me (Left) learning how to make dim sum with my sister (centre) and mother, Mabel (Right))
A meal in a restaurant opens the taste buds, but cooking dim sum for my friends and family widens all the senses. I learnt the authentic recipes from Guangzhou and used them at Sweet Mandarin. Together with my sisters, Helen and Janet we made every dim sum from fresh. Stuffing and shaping wontons was the real family enterprise. We made the stuffing from a light prawn mince and wrapped the teaspoon of filling with a fine egg based pastry. We all left our individual stamp on the won tons in the way we crimped the edges. I added a flamboyant tail on these wontons, which can then be dipped in the sweet and sour dip. My everyday rituals of properly selecting produce, cooking and presenting a meal, which I have inherited from my family, have given me an insight to see the meaning of my own cooking as a metaphor for life.
I would love to share with you our recipe on making this exquisite dim sum.
Ingredients
For the Prawn Filling
250g pack shrimps
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp potato starch
1 egg white
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Hot vegetable oil to lightly fry the wontons
Ingredients for the Wonton Wrappers
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1 tsp potato starch
1/4 cup of water
2 cups of plain flour
Dressing for the wontons
Serve with Sweet Mandarin’s The General Tse’s Sweet and Sour Sauce
Method to make the wonton pastry
1. Kneed the ingredients together into a ball. The consistency is dough like.
2. Leave in the fridge for half an hour.
3. Roll out into a very thin sheet (as thick as a piece of paper) with a rolling pin ensuring there is plenty of flour to avoid sticking.
4. Cut into squares 3inches squared.
Method to make delicious and easy wontons
1. Put all the prawn mixture into a food processor and mix thoroughly.
2. Shape into balls the size of walnuts.
3. Place the filling balls into the centre of the wonton wrappers. To make the tail, gather the four edges and twist together.
4. Heat oil
5. Place wontons in hot oil for 5-6 minutes or until cooked through.
6. Drain from oil.
7. Serve the wontons with the Sweet Mandarin’s General Tse’s Sweet and Sour Sauce.
Sweet Mandarin Cookery School teaches a Dim Sum Masterclass. Its been so busy that we’re full till October 2010 and I’ve had to add an extra date for the people who really really really want to learn. So here’s a date for your diary: 8th August. Its first come, first served. For more information, go to www.sweetmandarin.com To book your place on the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School click here or email lisa@sweetmandarin.com
We recently held a Thank You Dinner for our longest standing clients – those who through generations have frequented my Grandma’s restaurant, my Mum’s takeaway and now us at Sweet Mandarin. (Click here for the video created by an incredibly talented friend, Lisa Chan)
As I was serving these wonderful folk, my heart twinged with sadness and longing. Unlike my grandma’s and mum’s businesses who have loyal regulars every single week – on the same day, at the same time – ordering the same dishes (‘Usual please’) for the last 50 years – being located in the Manchester city centre area – the population is far more transient.
Nonetheless, I value my regular customers and corporate clients and set myself a personal challenge to get to know my regulars with a view to build a lasting legacy for Sweet Mandarin and future generations. Helen, Janet and I want to invite you to my very exciting events see below. Who knows, maybe after my 50 years, our grandchildren can invite you, our regular customers to a wonderful event like the above.
July Events
13th July 6-8/9pm Rich Dad Poor Dad Cashflow Game (free)
18th July 6-8pm Twitter v Flickr Meet Up (free)
10th August 6-8/9pm Rich Dad Poor Dad Cashflow Game (free)
When we received the news that we had made it to the Final of the F Word’s Best Chinese Restaurant Competition we were estatic (Watch us battle it out here). Thanks to our wonderful customers who nominated us, we were on the map a la Gordon. However, before Gordon, we were and still are are the third generation of women restaurateurs and have always had great families follow us generation after generation. Their gran knew our gran (who set up her restaurant before Chinatown was established), their mum knows our mum and now the third generation visit Sweet Mandarin.
Nothing had quite sunk in even when a black car picked us up at our home to drive us to the studios in London. Having not slept the night before didn’t help when we were faced with 50 chicken breasts and about 100 pieces of squid to cut in the F Word kitchen – and we had an hour’s prep time to get through the mountains of ingredients.
I was cutting away in my own little world when suddenly this voice said ‘Hello Lisa!’ It was Gordon Ramsay. He was so tall and I was so shocked that it was the man himself that I nearly cut my hand. It was at that moment that it finally sunk – I was in the competition headed up by Gordon Ramsay to find the UK’s Best Local Chinese Restaurant and after three generations who have endured rollercoaster after rollercoaster it was a chance for me to restore the family name. Then I got nervous. I finally realised that this competition was real and was shocked that Gordon knew my name. I’ve seen him on the TV, but for him to know and praise me was a chef’s dream come true. It was a true honour to cook with him and a huge accolade to get 82/100 mark for the Mabel’s Claypot Chicken (my mother’s recipe which we serve at Sweet Mandarin). When we won the Best Local Chinese Restaurant Award 2009-2010 I had tears in my eyes. To my dear customers and to all of Manchester, this trophy is for you.
If you want to pop over for my mum’s claypot chicken, please book a table here
Today is my darling’s birthday. Happy Birthday :0) He shares his birthday with Henry VIII (you better not get six wives!!!)
At Sweet Mandarin, we love and welcome birthdays. If you are celebrating your birthday at Sweet Mandarin, let us know and we’ll arrange to surprise the birthday girl or boy with a cake on the house. You can even eat the whole thing with your hands if you must.
We can cater for parties of 2 to 80. If you need balloons, table decorations, banners or special requests, let us know and we’ll try our best to make your birthday party a most memorable night. If you are looking for a perfect gift, don’t forget our memoir, Sweet Mandarin. And we’ll sing Happy Birthday to you. That’s why Birthdays are my #978 Sweet Nothing.
About Happy Birthday To You
“Happy Birthday to You”, also known more simply as “Happy Birthday”, is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person’s birth. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, “Happy Birthday to You” is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and “Auld Lang Syne”. The song’s base lyrics have been translated into at least 18 languages.
Here’s a picture of Janet’s third birthday.
Front row L to R: Helen, Janet, Lisa
Back row Jimmy and Mum
Twitterers (T) (photo 1) Meet the Flickrs (F) (photo 2) could be come Jazz Hands Extravaganza (photo 3)
I Tweet (a lot), I Flickr (quite a lot), I Eat (all the time). I host Tweet Up meetings for Twitterers and Flickr Up meetings for Flickr, so I’ve decide to link up these two groups. It could be a smash hit with splattering of photographic evidence (check out the third photo with the aptly named Jazz hands effect lol). Or it could be a bit like the first school disco where each group cliches to their own – the Ts verses the Fs. Its worth the experiment. So here is its my friends, I’m hosting the first ever Twitter Meets the Flickr Tweet Up @sweetmandarin.
Date: Sunday 18th July
Time: 5-8pm
Cost: Free
Bring: Blackberry/Phone/Iphone/Camera/Your own sweet self
RSVP: lisa@sweetmandarin.com or DM me on Twitter @sweetmandarin (oh and please follow me)
Food: I’ll sort out the dim sum
Drinks: Pay as you go
Reminder: There is a Threewitter party beforehand from 1-5pm at Madlabs. Have your cake and eat it! Here’s the Threewitter link http://threewitter.eventbrite.com/
Sometimes, we all have off days, weeks, months or even years. During these low times, life feels stagnant, where we’re not quite ourselves and it feels like the world is conspiring against us. Some people internalise things and don’t express their feelings, their emotions, their thoughts – and after a while it all gets too much for them. There is a combustion of sorts and people do stupid things.
My friend is going through a tough time at the moment. I don’t know whether its depression or whether there’s some sort of eating disorder going on but I’ve noticed she’s not quite the same, and that sparkle has faded. She’s also become silent in person, on the text and even on Facebook (and she’s a prolific Facebooker).
So one day at Sweet Mandarin, we sat in the cozy alcove, brewed a big pot of Jasmine tea and we just talked. It was as if I had unplugged the plug that keeps the ocean within its surroundings. She cried and cried and cried. We went through about a box of Man sized tissues. She admitted she was a mess – she wasn’t eating properly, she wasn’t sleeping, she wasn’t taking care of herself and that she felt lonely, worthless with thoughts of suicide.
It hurt me to hear she was in such a bad way, and I cried because at that point I felt helpless and I feared she would harm herself. I sat with her until she became peaceful and we set out three small action points for her to put her life back on track. Number 1 – meet up once a week and have something to look forward to. Number 2 – talk to someone everyday for 5 minutes. Number 3 – eat properly.
I know these actions might sound small. But sometimes, we need to focus on the small things to get through day by day. Life is hard but we got to try and keep going because there are beautiful moments, sweet nothings that can brighten up our world.
I saw her the next day and some colour had re-appeared in her cheeks. I knew then that she was ready to love herself again and fight for her self esteem and happiness. There is always time for a heart to heart and that’s why it makes my #982 Sweet Nothing.
I found the location for Sweet Mandarin in October 2004 when it was a derelict car park. I’d been sweet talked by the developers that the area was being regenerated and that the Crowne Plaza would be opening literally next door to our building – at most a five second walk door to door. So I signed the deal and have hung in there waiting and waiting and waiting for 5 long years. Finally, after surviving beyond the odds, last year, a shiny new building was errected and became our latest welcome neighbour.
The Crowne Plaza crew namely Bob and Robin are a very friendly bunch who have the same ethos as us; to deliver a great experience to mutual clients and make them feel at home from home. They go the extra mile, and have even done that for me. Not only do they recommend their clients dine with us (we welcome you with open arms), but Robin has been that knight in shining armour when I was stranded during the snow blizzards in Manchester (thanks to freak global warming weather).
The snow was as high as the car tyre and I could not travel left, right, front or back. I just created snow circles and screamed like a girl. So I gave up on wokmobile and decided to stay at the Crowne Plaza. What a treat. The room was modern, clean, immacuate with a touch of elegance and luxury. I loved the piles of fat fluffy pillows and the power shower in particular. The next day, I was having breakfast and Robin walked past and asked what I was doing in the Crowne Plaza given that I am a Mancunian. I explained. He smiled and nodded and went on with his duties. After a sumptuous big breakfast and a good glug of coffee, I went to pay. ‘The bill has been settled Lisa. Thank you.’ I couldn’t believe it. Robin had paid for my stay out of his allowances and wouldn’t allow me to pay. Now that’s what you call a knight in shining armour.
Here’s their website – book there, its an excellent experience – home away from home http://www.cpmanchester.com/ and whilst your staying at the Crowne Plaza, book a table at Sweet Mandarin here, pop around the corner to visit me at Sweet Mandarin. It would be great to meet you and personally welcome to Manchester. Because of Robin and his generosity in my time of need, The Crowne Plaza makes my #984 Sweet Nothing.
#992 Sweet Nothing – Eating a whole lobster all to myself.
I love this diet that I’m on. Its called the See Food Diet. You eat what you see! I know that’s an ancient joke but it still tickles me. But seriously, it feels so ridiculously indulgent to sit there, roll your sleeves up and just dig in, eating the lobster claws first, then some of those yee mein noodles that have absorbed all that ginger spring onion and lobster goodness. Then I move systematically from head to tail, devouring each piece of sweet juicy lobster until the pile of shells form a calcium clankering tower of evidence that I came, I saw and I conquerored! So this eating fest is #992 Sweet Nothing.
#994 Sweet Nothing – Going for dinner with friends, and secretly paying for the meal – I love the expression of my friends when they realise.
They say that giving is better than receiving. I agree. Sometimes, when I go out with friends or family, I love to secretly pay for the meal – rather than haggle about who had an extra glass of wine – and just treat them. The favourite bit is the chain reaction when someone finally asks the waiter ‘Please can we have the bill’. The waiter will nod and smile (one hopes) and goes to the cashier who reports back that the bill has been settled. Waiter raises eyebrows – oh right and goes to report back to the table. ‘Sir, the bill’s been paid’. My dear friends at this point shake their head as if they have mis-heard and summons the waiter to repeat those golden words. When it finally settles that the bill has been paid, everyone looks around to figure out whose paid the bill. When they finally deduce that its me, they try to fight me with their £20 notes – ‘come on, take it’.
I calmly say ‘no’ and with my hands try to fend off the £20s that are being waved in my face. Finally everyone rustles the money back into their leather wallets and thanks me. For me, its the element of surprise and treating my dear friends that makes this act #994 Sweet Nothing.
#995 Sweet Nothing – Singing to Jon Bon Jovi Videos all night long and occasionally getting carried away as I play air guitar – oh and hogging the sofa.
Since I can remember I have always had a ‘secret’ crush on Jon Bon Jovi and he looks more and more handsome as he gets older. Well its only secret to Jon Bon Jovi and that’s because our paths have never crossed but I’ve declared it on Facebook – so Jon, feel free to add me as a friend and I’ll cook for you! If you are a friend of a friend of a friend, please tell him that its my life’s dream to meet him and cook for him. Sweet!
#996 Sweet Nothing – Winning a Tenner on the Lottery
The way I get my six numbers for the lottery is to read out the numbers in a calm monotone voice to the fat baby and if he squeaks or starts to babble, that number makes it way to the hotlist. Of course, sometimes, the fat baby might offer more numbers than is necessary, in which case I will then close my eyes and stab at the sheet. Which ever numbers are chosen become my lucky numbers for the week. I don’t really expect to make my millions by winning the lottery, but as the saying goes, you have to be in it to win it. When I win a tenner, I celebrate big time! Its vanilla creams, donuts, chocolate pots and lots of PG Tips tea.
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#997 Sweet Nothing – Receiving Orchids from a Private Admirer
I’ve never received flowers before in my whole life. So when Valentine’s arrived I tried to block it out of my mind – that day is not for me, its for my lovebird clients. As I walked past the packed queues at Hallmark I turned my head the other way but saw all those cuddly teddies reflected in the window. Even at the supermarket, which should have been a normal shopping day the aisles were turned into the Chelsea Flower Show with the rows and rows of absolutely gorgeous roses, lillies, carnations, tulips and orchids. My initial reaction was get out of there quick. Its just torture because no one has ever bought me flowers. And this year is no different. Well so I thought.
Its Valentine’s Day at Sweet Mandarin. This year its interesting because Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day. Its extra busy. Service has already started even though the sign says closed on the door. So I’m in and out of the kitchen helping my sister welcome our clients. I run back into the kitchen to prepare to cook. After a few minutes, my sister calls me ‘Hey Lisa. You got a delivery! Its flowers for you!’. Do you know what I did? Well I did what any self-respecting lady would do. I shook my head in disbelief then I jumped up and down in the kitchen, punching the air with my fist thinking ‘ About Bloody Time!’. Then I took a deep breath, walked out and acted as if receiving flowers was nothing special. Thanked my sister. Smiled at the clients who at that point were clapping!!! and waved at them to acknowledge their well wishes (felt like the Queen at that point). Grabbed my flowers and walked back into the kitchen. Oh my goodness that moment was sheer sweetness and makes my #997 Sweet Nothing. I’ll treasure that feeling for the rest of my life. Thank you God. I am loved!
#998 Sweet Nothing – Making one too many salt and pepper ribs – and having to eat it.
Oh my word. There’s an extra rib frying and its got my name all over it. There are times when one is busy that things like this happen – accidently of course. Once cooked up, the only path of this extra rib is either to be eaten or be thrown away. Well I can’t let this perfectly good looking rib go to waste. That would be scandalous. Its hot to touch but worth the pain. Holding it like a squirrel holding a nut, I bite into the rib, relishing in the crunch and a burst of sweetness from the tender pork rib. As I chew the mix of salt, spice, herbs infuse with the lip numbing chillies. In less than 10 seconds, I’ve devoured it and I lick my lips wanting more….
#999 Sweet Nothing – Meeting a client who has just flown in from Switzerland, taxi-ed from the airport to Sweet Mandarin and their sole purpose in visiting Manchester is to eat at Sweet Mandarin.
When I set up my little restaurant with my two sisters in November 2004, many people were sceptical that this business would work. For a start, we still got asked for ID when we went to buy alcohol and were unheard of in Manchester. However, we slowly built up our loyal following from the 20,000 residents on our doorstep and were prepared to do every task necessary to make it work – whether it be sweep up, lug the tables and chairs in a zillion different combinations depending on bookings, sell our houses to get financing and even sacrifice the love life (sorry darling!). So when we now get clients from Switzerland, Brazil, USA, France, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Cayman Islands and even Australia, we thank God for the blessings that are pouring down on us and try our best to look after all you lovely clients.
Alwyn and Cathy pictured here are a lovely couple whom I met on Twitter. Forget internet dating, lets talk internet dining. The first meeting with them was like meeting old friends. Gosh its amazing. After all this Tweeting, we finally meet. 140 characters becomes real instantaneously. The body language, the smiles, the face to face chat. It’s such an honour to meet finally and I can’t wait for Alwyn and Cathy to try my food. I cook for hundreds of people every night but there is still butterflies in my stomach – a mix of anticipation and excitement, a pinch of nervousness – I don’t want to let them down….but I’m gonna cook my heart out for you.
All I can say is the love that radiated in the room when they sat with us could have lit up the Blackpool Pleasure Beach at Christmas. To know they loved my food is #999 Sweet Nothing. These are the moments that give me a joyfulness so sweet that I want to burst into song. But I won’t burst into song, because that will cause the rain to pour. And we’re already in Manchester – rainy city, so lets not go there.
#1000 Sweet Nothing – The Last Ticket of the Night!
My job is the head chef at Sweet Mandarin. That means, I generally have to cook. And cook. And cook. Thank God I love cooking. Since we’ve opened Sweet Mandarin the tickets have flown in as soon as the doors open until the doors close. After a while, its dizzying – tickets just whizz in left, right and centre – soups, starters, second courses, mains, desserts – salt and pepper ribs dot the tickets, nearly every ticket orders our house special, the Mabel’s Claypot Chicken and don’t forget those sweet, light, lick-your-lips banana fritters drizzled with sweet syrup. Luckily, I’m at my best when the pressure is on and I suppose being a woman who can multi-task is awfully helpful. Phew! Control and execution are key to feeding the nation our delicious food and keeping clients happy. Having slaved away in front of rocket fuelled bunsen burners that heat to 750-950 degrees Celsius for hours my #1000 Sweet Nothing is cooking the last ticket of the night. I love you, my dear clients, but when the jobs done, I’m gonna love you and leave you.
I sometimes wonder where the week goes. I wake up, I work, I go to bed. Even on Monday which is my day off. However, there are so many sweet things that happen each day and I’m going to try to document them, even if to the outside world they are just minutae. Have you seen the movie, ‘Horton Who Hears A Who’ ? Horton (the elephant) ends up hearing a Who (a specie that is so small, their entire universe fits on a speck that rests on a clover). Sometimes, the world can go by at such an alarming rate and we don’t get to hear the sweet nothings, or savour the sweetness of life. I write this blog to introduce you to my world of sweetness at Sweet Mandarin.
#992 Sweet Nothing – Eating a whole lobster all to myself.
#996 Sweet Nothing – Winning a Tenner on the Lottery
