Broken China

Our annual pilgrimage to Cropwell Bishop took place yesterday, to experience once again the delights of the Chinese food at the Wheatsheaf.

Last year, we had the "cheap" menu. The one without the aromatic crispy duck. Now for me, no Chinese meal is complete without crispy duck. So last year's performance was a huge disappointment. The cheap menu includes in its place some kind of deep-fried mince served in a lettuce leaf bowl. Totally no substitute. This year we all agreed we'd go for the more expensive menu. The one With Duck. Only guess what? The hoisin sauce was not real hoisin sauce. It was runny, vinegary, and had none of the distinctive flavour of hoisin. So even with The Duck, the meal was not up to the expected standard.

Sure the dim sum were nice. The ribs were nice. The mains were nice. But without a decent helping of duck, with proper sauce, it just ain't the same. Luckily, as always, the company was more than up to standard, so we still had a good time. If we were only going for the food though, I don't think I'd bother again.