So Oakwood is on Twitter now. Havent been looking at Twitter much recently, something a bit awry with the service, but it came up just fine tonight. Aussie food promotion in the Oakleaf restaurant with crocodile, ostrich and kangaroo on the menu. Sadly there was no kaola bear or wombat, but one cannot have everything in life and so why not give it a go. I have pretty much everything else I have set my eyes on, and many of them were much worse than the thought of a little croc.

Oakwood as become a favourite of recent weeks. Great place for a salad lunch and some quiet work after the gym, and the burger for dinner is supreme, but I have never tried the more serious food on the menu. Burger and avocado is pretty hard to beat. The gyn there is agreat as well, and so I have a feeling I will be spending a little more time in the place. If only I could afford to live there…

I had seen croc on the menu once before in Xanadu Sofitel in Xiaoshan, and they even had a live one in a pen in the restaurant, with a large sign saying DO NOT TOUCH: DANGEROUS. Well I never. I didnt try it there so Oakwood croc it is. The Aussie promo menu comes with a salad sp that was to start. Nothing much to write home about there. I green salad with Thousand Island is really just that. Nice plate though. The croc came out looking like nuggets of pork, and actually rather tasted like pork. I dont know if they shoot wild crocs in Oz, but it was pretty tough to chew on too. It had been cooked with strong flavours of onion and pepper and served with zuchini served over bean puree. That was pretty tasty. My poor date, who had originally been horrified at eating a cute little kangaroo, if only she knew, was tucking in with gusto. It had said BBQ’d but it looked braised, and brasied for a very long time. Was tender and the sauce it came with delicious. I had heard that kangaroo meat was very lean, although this piece had a fair amount of fat on it. Good – I think it might have been dry without.

As an overall view, I think there is probably a good reason that we dont eat more croc and kangaroo – it is much better at being exotic.

There was lamb and lobster and steak on the menu too, but we have a lot of that where I come from, so left it right there on the menu.

Will certainly be going back to Oakwood, their usual menu is perfect. And I hope that they will keep tweeting the new ideas coming in – I would have quite missed the Aussie dinner without it.

Here is an interview with the GM of Oakwood, Shanghai Daily.