Clams in seafood sauce trigger memories of the Mediterranean. [Photo by Pauline D. Loh/China Daily]

Sugar, spice and everything nice

Sweets for the season

The soup of the day was a tomato seafood soup that is clearly homemade from fresh ingredients. It was a tad tart but that only served to whet the appetite for the procession that followed.

A beautiful salmon tartare with mango had us licking our forks as we collectively dipped into the pile. It was a pleasure to look at, served on floral ceramic platters that immediately brought us mentally to the Mediterranean.

A beef carpaccio with thinly shaved manchego cheese followed, but I had my eye firmly on the baby octopus sauteed in olive oil. It was juicy and tender, and every mouthful was a burst of sunshine that matched the warm rays filtering through the windows.

Then what we'd waited for arrived: two pans of seafood and meat paella, steaming hot with crusty bits that were redolent of meat and seafood juices.

Paella was accompanied by a duck-leg confit leaning on a little pile of smoky mashed potatoes. Fork-tender rich red duck was covered by a crisp skin, and the duck disappeared almost as fast as the paella.

Even as I was chewing on my last bite of duck, I had one eye on the cast-iron pan of clams in seafood sauce. This is my memory of the Mediterranean.