Tranquility and taste twinned at Gemini

By pkemp

GEMINI CANTONESE RESTAURANT, TAMWORTH: Time was when Delia and The Galloping Gourmet were all you could good get when looking for food on television, but it's massively different these days.

You can't move now for Gordons, Jamies, all manner of celebrity chefs – and celebrities wanting to be chefs.

A particular favourite of your mystery diner is Chinese Food Made Easy.

With my Chinese cleaver still in its packaging for fear of a limb-removing accident, I might suggest that the title of Ching-He Huang's educational programme is misleading.

Yes, making Chinese food can be easy but making it as good as a restaurant still requires a level of skill that doesn't come easily to everybody.

Thank goodness, then, that Tamworth town centre still has Gemini tucked away in one of those awkward-looking newer buildings opposite the Globe Inn in Lower Gungate.

It's much less awkward-looking inside in the long, thin restaurant space. Most of the tables are on a small platform to the right, with a bar to the left.

Green and gold are the dominant colours, apart from the white tablecloths, and the place feels relaxed and tranquil.

The tranquility may have been helped on my visit by the fact that this was a quiet start to a Saturday evening with barely a soul in sight.

Or maybe it was the Chinese crooner pop that hummed gently in the background.

Swiftness and pleasantness were the key words as my partner and I were seated, menued and free prawn crackered in seconds (I'm talking literally and not in rhyming slang, by the way).

My other half is a sucker for prawn crackers, so Gemini had already won one of us over.

We were disappointed that no Great Wall white wine was available but a glass of something white and a bottle of Tsing Tao beer sufficed well enough.

The starters arrived almost as swiftly as the prawn crackers – chicken satay for me and some crab claws for my partner.

The breaded crab just melted in the mouth and worked well with the soy dipping sauce, while the four skewers of chicken pieces were generously covered in a nicely warming satay sauce.

They came on a bed of shredded lettuce which felt a bit superfluous except for presentation purposes, and it was a very substantial dish for a starter, leaving me wondering how much room I would have for the main.

Soon after, two very hot plate stands were whisked out for the mains to follow.

These were some char siu style pork for me and cripsy duck with mushrooms.

The pork was just as I had hoped – thin, small slices marinated in that mix of wine and spices that says char siu.

It came in on a bed of stir-fried beansprouts and veg, which I had with a side order of rice.

With such flavours, I'm probably a Philistine for wishing there had been some soy sauce on the table. But I did.

My partner's crispy duck looked like a breast sliced thinly on top of a mix of noodles and mushrooms. A satisfied exclamation of "amazing" accompanied its disappearance.

Well, not total disappearance.

Again the portions were substantial and the 'room for pudding' reflex kicked in about three quarters of the way through.

The puddings were mainly off-the-peg ice cream desserts, of which we had vanilla with chocolate and 'coconut supreme' served in a half shell.

A bit of an afterthought, really, and I could have lived without it.

But it's all about those big starters and mains which were simply fine.

Chinese food as you would expect, and made easy.

* The total bill came to £49.30.