MY LEFT eyebrow shifted upwards as the cell phone vibrated by my side.
I kept it on silent so not to break my concentration on the newly-arrived boxed set of Shoestring, the ace radio detective.
One glance away from Trevor Eve and I saw it was a call from the Moll.
To pause or play on?
I chose to pause. I have a lot of time for Toots. Shoestring can wait.
“My dear, I was just thinking of you,” I smoothed.
“Really, Tec? Cos I’ve been ringing your bell for ages and there’s no response!”
The Moll has indeed been ringing my bell for some considerable time now, but I must investigate the front door.
“I’m ready!” she gushed, so it was time to stroll Glasgow’s sunlit streets and head for a charming city centre restaurant where everything is perfectly turned out every time.
“I knew we’d been here before,” said the Moll as we sashayed from Sauchiehall Street into Hope Street and headed down the hill for a lunchtime of kitchen love.
“Would you like some serene Asian fusion, my dear?” “Oh, Tec! And I thought the Glasgow fair was finished for another year!”
Opium is sublime. It is the dream of our host to captivate the palate with a merge of cultures and cuisines from China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
The Moll and I have dined here before. Today, we’re selecting from the lunch special menu and could have easily spent a long time trying to choose.
“That Beef Rendang Puff sounds brilliant!” said the lady in red, not for the first time oozing glamour.
The rendang is a mixture of beef, red onion, cooked with Malay dry curry paste in a puff pastry and, when it arrives, it is a picture perfect plate.
“Oh! This’ll keep me quiet for a while!” she said. I mused whether to order her another.
I like ribs, although I only eat them when I know they will be succulent, fall off the bone and melt in my mouth with a wave of sauce that satisfies.
The ribs at Opium are bathed in a generously fruity plum sauce lifted with cinnamon.
Moll looks, flutters her nylon lashes, taps her Littlewoods nail extensions (she’s hoarded boxes of them) and asks: “Enjoying them, doll?” “Oh, yes.”
My dining partner was on orange juice while I partook of Adam’s Ale.
I selected the satay beef soup noodle, an exquisite home to egg noodles topped with sliced beef, peppers, Chinese leaf lettuce in a stunning satay broth
Moll, after some deliberation, plumped for the Classic Chicken Curry.
It combines the tastes of baby potato, sugar snaps, carrots and onions and is caringly served with steamed jasmine rice.
The fragrance just lifted from her plate, did a pirouette and enticed her to begin. Her lips pursed, her eyes closed, she made a little noise that sounded like a sigh wrapped in an “m”.
“Ah just thought I’d gone to heaven there,” she said as she opened her eyes.
“And here you are my dear, behold, the living proof that you have.
"Don't push it Tech!"
My smile concealed my slight hurt and a thought that Eddie Shoestring would never put up with this.
But then the Moll is a bit like Jessica Rabbit.
She’s not at all bad. She’s just drawn that way.
Lunch Menu
Two courses £11.50 per person
Orange juice (2) £4.40
Total £27.40
Atmosphere – 4 stars
Food – 4 stars
Service – 4 stars
Opium Restaurant
191 Hope Street, Glasgow G2 2UL
0141 332 6668
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