Hallowe'en

Now for my second post of the day. This'll probably be a short one as it's not so much about something you can do in Milton Keynes, but something you can do wherever you are in the world.

Last weekend we invited a few friends over for dinner and what with it being so close to Hallowe'en, we thought we'd carve a pumpkin to decorate our flat with and cook a seasonal chicken and pumpkin Thai curry. We were quite pleased with the resulting pumpkin, designed by myself and carved with great skill by my husband, Paul.



We were quite surprised to learn that a couple of our dinner guests (who are from Sweden) had never celebrated Hallowe'en and upon doing a bit of research it appears that Hallowe'en is most likely to be of Celtic origin and the traditional practices of dressing up in goulish costume to go 'guising' and carving turnips or swedes into lanterns that originated in Ireland and Scotland have since been adapted by the North Americans to the modern trick or treating and carving of pumpkins into 'jack-o-lanterns'. It is not really celebrated in this form across the rest of Europe, although most European countries celebrate All Saints Day on the 1st of November.

My memories of Hallowe'en from living in Glasgow involved going to costume parties where you would play games like dooking for apples and going guising, which involved getting dressed up in some spooky costume and knocking on your neighbours' doors where you would be invited in and have to perform some sort of party piece before being given sweets, peanuts (or monkey nuts as we used to call them) or money. In England the tradition seems to be very different, usually involving children playing practical jokes and committing acts of vandalism. Children who go trick-or-treating are also not expected to perform a party piece, but will instead knock on doors crying 'trick-or-treat' in order to be rewarded with sweets and money. I think I prefer the Scottish way!

Taipan chinese restaurant

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but well, y'know I've been busy with this and that and just haven't had the time... okay, you got me, I've just been a bit lazy of late so just to make it up to you, here is the first of two posts for today.

Before I get started, I just want to apologise for the quality of the photographs, but they were taken on my camera phone, which although good in a light outdoor setting tends to be a bit rubbish indoors!

Last Friday we decided to go out for dinner as we'd just been paid and had been living like monks for the last month due to the crushing poverty, so on the spur of the moment we booked a table at Taipan in the Theatre district. When I say 'Theatre district' what I really mean is the quarter square mile of central Milton Keynes that contains a range of chain restaurants and bars (T.G.I Fridays, Slug and Lettuce and the like) and also happens to have a theatre. It seems to be the favoured weekend drinking location for MK types as there are also a couple of nightclubs there.

We'd been to Taipan before and had been fairly impressed by the food which, having grown up in Hong Kong is not a compliment I bestow very often on a Chinese restaurant, so we thought we'd go back as it's been a while since we last visited.



The décor is pretty minimal for a Chinese restaurant, but I like it. Gone is the usual flock wallpaper to be replaced by white painted walls. Large Chinese banner-shaped artworks adorn the back wall flowing down from the one and a half storey high ceiling and light fittings that look like a modern take on the traditional Chinese paper lantern help to keep the whole restaurant bright and airy.



We ordered Cantonese style roast duck, a chinese mushroom, crispy pork and eel hot pot and a side dish of pak choi with oyster sauce accompanied by plain boiled rice and washed down with Chinese tea. The duck was beautifully cooked being succulent, but not too fatty and full of flavour. The hot pot was really tasty, but not being much of an eel lover, I left most of that for my husband. It's kind of an acquired taste I suppose, but I just find it overly fatty. The one fault I found with the food here is that there's probably a bit too much MSG (monosodium glutamate - a flavour enhancer used in Chinese cooking in place of salt), as by the time we were three-quarters of the way through our meal, I was beginning to get tastebud fatigue. Still, it all makes for a really tasty meal and we even ended up taking some of it home for dinner the next day. I can't wait to go back there to try out their dim sum!

Taipan, Milton Keynes