THE BIG WOK

It is not very often that I really enjoy myself eating outside my own kitchen. After a lifetime working in restaurant kitchens, managing hotels and pubs, battling with my own place in the terrible 1992 depression, returning to Spain to open my own outside catering business and sometimes cooking in private kitchens to feed the voracious guests I think that I have seen the good, the bad, the very ugly and the disgusting.

It was our first visit to the Big Wok in Antequera. We just happen to live at a walking distance to it but coming from outside of town you can park easily at Lidl or in the street outside the flats.

The greeting at the door is typically Eastern and makes you feel immediately in the mood for a good time. The staff is charming. We were directed to a very comfortable table by the window. The couches are sumptuous, the tables simple, the chandeliers dazzling. If it is your first time there then a hostess will explain to you how the concept works. Once at the table a lovely Chinese girl will ask you for your drinks order. They have Chinese beer, the best in the world although a bit pricey at 250 Euros and a good selection of wines and various teas and soft drinks.

We were celebrating and chose a bottle of white Adarga, Albariño 2003 from Galicia. Not cheap at 19.50 Euros but well worth it if it is a special occasion.

You are then presented with lovely plates and you go to the two islands in the centre and choose your starters from a cold buffet and a hot one. There is a wide variety of dishes from China, Japan and Thailand. Everything is mega fresh and presented in a way that you want to curl up on the floor and stay there all night. You can go back to the starters again but make sure that you have enough room for the spectacular main course.

The service is very attentive. Once your starter plate has been cleared you go to the main display, pick up a plate and choose from a bewildering array of raw fish, meat and vegetables. Then you take your plate to one of the five chefs in attendance and choose the sauce to accompany your choice of raw food.

The performance is brilliant. Your plate is emptied into a basket and the ingredients are quickly blanched in boiling water. Once drained the oil is poured into the wok, your choice of food is stirred by magic in the wok, the chef will demonstrate his skill at throwing the whole lot in the air and catching every morsel. Then he pours your choice of sauce in it, gives it a stir and decant the wonderful mixture into a clean plate.

It was delightfully fresh, simply cooked and thrown in the air for panache and with a smile.

We had lychees for dessert.

I wished we had taken the car.

Highly recommended by yours truly. This is not an advertising write-up.