The Cantonese-Meatball Datenight Combination

I'm 13 for 13 in Fun February. It's hard to believe we're halfway through the month! On Tuesday my to-do list was quite long, so I scheduled in some vegging out time as a reward, catching the latest episodes of The Big Bang Theory, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Modern Family. On Wednesday, the fun was culinary - I made pizza for dinner. My favourite crust recipes can be found here. For toppings, I went with chicken, red onion and mushrooms. Yummy! And yesterday after work I had a friend over for tea. We both agreed it was great to have an at-home visit (Spaniards usually meet at a bar or cafe) and we plan on visiting more at each other's homes.

Today's fun was date night organized by Tall Guy - a trip to Ikea to pick up some furniture for Baby's room, followed by dinner at Royal Cantonese. We had a good time at Ikea - it wasn't too busy, we knew exactly what we were looking for, and we were on a timeline to get to dinner. Everything we wanted was in stock (I checked before, but we still ended up with the last bookcase!) and the checkout line wasn't very long. 

Baby's crib - safe and sweet

Next, we headed to Royal Cantonese, an out-of-the-way restaurant Tall Guy scouted out. It's well-known among Madrid's Chinese residents as having some of the best, most authentic Cantonese food in the city. Other patrons include famous Spanish actors, and even the old king's sister. A fun, low-key atmosphere, friendly service and good food made for a nice dinner out, worth the trek to Usera.

Royal Cantonese, Calle Olvido 29, Madrid

The menu was a mix of things we recognized (shrimp dumplings, Peking duck, Singapore Noodles) and things we weren't sure of (jellyfish salad, roasted tripe). Our waitress made some excellent suggestions - new things, but not too strange, since Baby doesn't seem to enjoy overly exotic flavours. My favourite dishes were scallops and rice noodles on the shell, a very flavourful meat and vegetable dumpling, the roast duck, and dessert - homemade egg custard tarts.