Friday - Chinese Take Away - Old School Classics

It was a couple of pints post work, then a Chinese take away from Sweet Basil in Roundhay this evening. 

Jo has been against Chinese for a good few years due to some bad experiences, but I am glad I convinced her to try here as it was actually pretty good! The idea was not to eat too much as I am off for a Skipton for  a real ale and pork pie adventure tomorrow.  That didn't quite work out as we have over eaten massively!  Tonight's Chinese was complimented by a bottle of pink champagne which complimented the food perfectly (and impressively was a Christmas gift, which has survived until August (thanks Nic and Audrey!)

Pink champagne - perfect treat after a long week

Over to Jo for the take away review.........

We went to Sweet Basil in Roundhay for dinner years ago.  It was the scene of a very funny but inappropriate debate between me, Joe's mum and his brother so it has always held a special place in my heart.

Sweet Basil on Roundhay Road - worth a visit

It serves both Chinese and Thai food but Joe convinced me to stick with Chinese tonight, for a change.  We started off with crab and sweetcorn soup which was lovely.  Enough for two, glutinous and very tasty. We then had chicken with peanut and chilli hot bean sauce which was awesome (we usually steer clear of bean curd dishes as we are wimps, but this was amazing!) and chicken in sweet and sour sauce.  This caused quite a debate as I was dead against sweet and sour sauce (bad memories from childhood) but this was a pleasant surprise - much lighter and the vegetables were crunchy but well cooked.  Overall, it was a really good alternative to our usual Thai or Indian takeaway, and you get some very satisfying prawn crackers.  Thumbs up Sweet Basil.

Prawn crackers the size of saucers

Crab and sweetcorn soup

Sweet and sour chicken

Peanut and chilli hot bean chicken - words all in the wrong order but really good!

As an addendum to last night's post, the carrot cake was really nice but really moist.  It might have benefitted from squeezing some of the moisture out of the carrots before mixing them in!  I have updated the recipe.