Some people love the dimsum in Hong Kong, while others are more inspired by Hong Kong's signature skyline. In Hainan No. 1 you have the best of both worlds. Located at high level of iSquare in Tsim Sha Tsui, you can enjoy your Chinese food while overlooking the beautiful harbour.

This time we were lucky to try their special dimsum on the last day of the promotion period. The special dimsum included many of the old ones that you probably cannot find in today's Chinese restaurants.

Besides some of the typical dimsum like steamed rice roll 腸粉, this place also has fusion dimsum. These funny looking buns below are Japanese wagyu beef buns 和牛包.

Beijing Dumplings 京川餃子 is quite well done. I cannot take too much spicy things but this one is indeed a very good appetizer.

No one should miss the Crispy Roasted Pork Buns 雪山叉燒包. It is like a must for any yumcha session.

The first old dimsum was, umm, Duck Feet with Abalone and Chinese Yam Wrapped by Egg Slice. It is so hard to translate the names because the Chinese names are much more beautiful and poetic. 赤繩欣繫足, literally means Feet Tied by Red String. (red string is thought to be the connection between two lovers in Chinese culture). Yes, this is a name about relationship and love.

Anyway who cares. The duck feet was deboned and marinated, and then wrapped with abalone and Chinese yam slices before being steamed. The combination of different mixtures is very interesting: the soft skin from the duck feet mixed with fabrics of yam together with the chewy abalone. This shows the chef's understanding of food material and also his creativity in cookery.

The next one is 雞蓉乾蒸賣 Chicken Shumai topped with Crab Roe and Yolk.

Typical shumai uses pork and shrimp as the filling, but this one uses the meat from chicken leg. The outcome is a more tender filling, which probably means a healthier dimsum as it has less fat than pork shumai.

Another awesome dimsum is this, Shrimp with Quail Egg (彩鳳隱龍懷 meaning a Pheonix having a Baby). The shrimp is pressed into shape with half of quail egg stuffed in the middle. It looks beautiful and the crispy shrimp tastes wonderful.

The following one looks like beef shumai, but instead of using typical wrapper made with flour, this one uses leaf lard. Yes, it is 網油牛肉卷.

Leaf lard is the lard around the muscle of a pig, which looks like a net. During the cook, it will bring out the flavour from the beef when it melts into the beef.

Before the dessert comes, we had a little Soup Noodle with Fish. It is light and filling, perfect to be a finale while not stealing the spotlight on dimsum.

Instead of the typical Hong Kong dessert like Red Bean Soup, we order something more traditional. The Stewed Apple with Jujube and Snow Fungus 紅棗雪耳燉蘋果. I cannot believe they really put a whole slice of apple in the bowl!

My friend probably tried to be special and ordered this Banana Cake with Vanilla Ice-cream. Maybe that is a perfect way to show how special Hong Kong is, which is city with merged cultures of east and west.

The meal was definitely enjoyable. Everything was delicate and well thought of. I am glad that while they are keeping the standard of dimsum at a high level, they also try to do something more creative like the wagyu buns. At the same time, they bring back some old dimsum and rare dishes (like the Beijing Dumplings). The only thing to complain is the service. As we are ordering, it takes long for the trainee waiters to realize our existence even that we are sitting in the center of the restaurant. Many of them have no idea about the old dimsum menu, revealing the lack of training in the team. Nevertheless, the soothing and quiet ambiance with the amazing harbour view forces us to complain no more, and to me, the slightly higher price is worth it.

Probably only this ramen shop in Hong Kong can create such a buzz in the city. Butao 䐁王 was originally started in a back lane of the busy LKF area at Central, and every day, even till now, has a queue of people waiting for their ramen before the shop opens at 11am. The shop only sells 200 bowls a day, and after that they just close. The owner of the shop Meter Chen is probably very happy to see this after grabbing the award-winning ramen master Ikuta Satoshi from Japan to Hong Kong to start the business.

The shop starts its second branch in Causeway Bay near Times Square, and creates another queue too. The shop is a little bigger than the Central one, but still filled with customers. If you want to grab a seat, it is best to do so around 5-6pm right before people are getting off work.

There is not much to choose from in the menu, but I guess you don't need many options. Besides the signature Butao King (original pork bone broth), you can also choose Black King (pork broth dyed dark with squid ink), Red King (spicy miso) and Green King (an Italian fusion soup made from a pesto-like combination of olive oil and basil). The ramen is the thin Hakata type, and when you order you can choose how concentrated your broth is or how much spring onion in the bowl.

I tried the Black King and the ink does not take over the taste of the noodle and soup. (squid ink actually has no flavour) The rich fat-slicked soup is done by cooking the pork bone for more than 20 hours, and you know you have to finish all the soup before putting down the chopsticks. It is so delicious!

The noodle is wonderful, but the pork (cha siu) is the real spotlight item. The marbled meat is sliced thin, and it indeed melts in your mouth. Don't miss the egg too, which needs to be added separately. The egg with the half-molten yolk, which comes as a whole unsliced egg, is like cream of a puff, adding another climax to the bowl.

It is said that ramen's soul is in the soup, and while I agree to it, Butao King actually does everything well, from the soup to the noodle, from the pork to the egg. Everything combines to form a whole new ramen experience that you can taste climax after climax. The place is cramped but that is probably where good ramen can be found. If you try it, you will realize later that the long wait is worth it, and you know that you will queue up again very soon in the future.

Extended read: Timeout Review by Dorothy So

Seriously I've never walked to the end of Kimberley Road near the junction to Austin Avenue. For most of the time, I only wandered along the part near Nathan Road, and I realize that the scene is very different once you are approaching the end of the road.

Instead of street snack shops, restaurants and fashion boutiques, you will find shops selling and renting night and wedding gowns, and then a group of Korean restaurants and bars. Interesting enough, many of the Koreans seem to know this place for a long time and gather at these dining locations. Signs and menus at the doorstep are filled with those strange alien-like Korean characters, and people are mumbling in the sound that I cannot identify (I have trouble distinguishing spoken Korean and Japanese). Eventually we go into this restaurant which has two Chinese characters above the door.

李家 Chicken HOF & SOJU is a strange place. It is bright outside but so dim inside. Playing music videos of the famous Korean artists (I only know Girls' Generation and Kara), you feel like you are in an undecorated restaurant in South Korea. No doubt we start the meal with a Hite beer from South Korea, which tastes weaker and lighter than normal beer. It has less bubbles too, and I feel like I am drinking water. However, I like it.

One of their famous dishes is the Deep-fried Chicken with Spring Onion. Even that the chicken is the major thing on the plate, the spring onion is surprisingly delicious.

I cannot take much chilly thing, but I just fall in love with the chicken. It is definitely a must-eat item! Crispy outer with tender meat inside, you just cannot stop eating, and it is perfect to go with a beer!

Then we have another great dish, the Seafood Soup. However, we are tricked. The staff, who is a Korean speaking with just a modicum of English, said the soup was only a little chilly. It turns out later to be a super spicy thing!

After having just a few slurps, I feel my stomach burning. Despite the overwhelming spicy sensation, I can still taste the juice of seafood in the pot. Inside you can find shrimps, crab (a full one without the top shell!), baby octopus and mussels, and it is truly a seafood soup unlike the soup in some places which are more like seafood-flavoured water done with food additives and heavy condiments without any actual seafood.

There is a reason for Koreans or probably some local people to come back. There are not many things to choose from in the menu, but the food is delicious in big proportions. The music is a little too loud but you can choose the corner tables, and the high backs of chairs will shield you from any possible disturbance of other tables. Even if you are not into kimchi or chilly pork, you can still enjoy the deep-fried chicken with a glass of beer. Seriously, that is one of the best combos I have had!

Located at the JIA boutique hotel, the Drawing Room is definitely a wonderful continuation of the previously renowned Opia restaurant. I guess Timeout Magazine wrote a wonderful article about this place, and I would use it to for this blog before writing my notes on the food.

"There was a time, not so very long ago, when those looking for a classy and contemporary dining experience in Causeway Bay would gravitate naturally in the direction of JIA Boutique Hotel. But since the lauded Opia closed last year, the area seems to have lost some of its culinary cachet, forcing the glitterati to head back to Central and TST in search of sleek thrills.

Well, now they've got a reason to return in the shape of The Drawing Room, the casually elegant new dining concept from the Austro-Italian double-act of Roland Schuller and Bombana Umberto. The joint owners (executive chef and culinary director, respectively) have some serious form in the restaurant game, and it shows with a place that’s clearly the result of many well-spent hours on the drawing board.

Décor-wise, they've hit the bullseye with an interior that is both swanky and comfortable, combining an abundance of well-placed mirrored surfaces with tasteful soft furnishings decked out in a palette of creams, browns, copper, and bronze. A few carefully chosen pieces, such as Hong Kong artist Man Fung-yi’s signature chain-mail-tunic works, ensure the space also has a touch of soul to go with its ample swank. The main room isn't huge, but the place seats 36 while there are also two private rooms and a separate chilled bar area.

Settling down into a natty chaise-lounge-style couch, we were immediately impressed by the wine list. It wasn't the selection of 300+ bottles that caught our eye, but rather the prices. We've got use to forking out upwards of $400 for a standard bottle of wine at most restaurants, but The Drawing Room has tipples as low as $220, with roughly half the list under $500 and the vast majority under $1000. Their mark-up, explained the manager, is between 80-100 per cent, as opposed to the 200-300 per cent tacked on by most eateries at this price point, something which instantly earned them a stack of Brownie points in our eyes."

Now that you know about this amazing place, we will let the pictures speak. The bread is not warm, which is a little disappointing, but the small appetizer lightens me up.

Then the appetizers arrive. Mine is a Slow Cooked Egg with Bluefin Tuna Belly Tartare, and Porcini Mushrooms.

...while my friend had a Pan Fried Quail and Foie Gras with Hazelnut and Cherry Sauce.

Both are very delicately prepared, and I am very much surprised by my tuna. There is no fat at all in the tuna, and no trace of fishy smell. Instead it is like beef!

The French meal, as you can guess, happens in slow motion. After more than 20 minutes the waiters bring the entrees to our table. We have the Vegetable Risotto with Cheese and Duck Breast, and Homemade Tagliolini with Lobster and Confit Tomatoes.

I fall in love immediately with the pasta, which is smooth like typical angel hair but much chewier. The slightly tough texture makes a very interesting contrast with the crispy lobster. The portion looks small but is actually smaller at the right size to make you long for it more.

The main course is the Roasted Colorado Lamb Rack with Artichoke, Purée and Green Olives. It is not as surprising as the others, but still very well done. No part of it is overcooked, and I like the way they out the mustard on the skin side to cook.

The dessert is as exciting as the previous dishes. The Apple Tart doesn't look like anything I saw in the past! Served with vanilla ice-cream, this is definitely one of the best apple pastry I have ever tried! My friend chooses a Chocolate Tart for her dessert.

After the meal, you are served coffee or tea. The waiter actually comes with a big boxes. Instead of printing selections on a paper menu, this restaurant chooses to display all the options for you in a more realistic way. When the tea pots come, the waiter also brings up a tray of cookies and candies.

There is hardly anything to complain about here. The excellent food under carefully designed deco together the warm services, the Drawing Room no doubt draws your full attention once you enter. Not many people find the prices affordable, but if you can spend, you will find this gastro journey is definitely worth the money.

I never thought that you could find a quiet place in the bustle of Mongkok district. This area is always crowded with hawkers shouting and teenagers swearing everywhere, and most of the restaurants are fast-food ones or cha chaan teng. If you want to have a less noisy place for some friendly conversations, some upper-floor cafes can do. However, this cafe is nothing like that. It is a place where you can find a taste of German cuisine!

I am quite surprised to come to BigPack Cafe, situated right above the Nike flagship store. Most of the people taking the elevator go to the Nike shop instead of to this restaurant. Make no mistake at all, here you can find pretty amazing German stuff here!

Like the name suggests, the place has a lot of big backpacks on the wall. Decorated with timber panels and wooden chairs, BigPack Cafe does look like a warm hut in the maintain area. Next to the entrance is a long bar table where many different kinds of alcohol are served, including the Germany black beer (schwarzbier).

Of course, juices are also available. I cannot believe they really serve fresh apple juice and mango juice, along with orange and watermelon juice.

The breads are hot, served with a slice of butter which is frozen in the fridge with the little bowl.

The starter is Potato Fritters with Salmon, which is amazed good. The fritters are not oily at all after deep frying, and the sweet honey mustard is a good companion with it.

The Green Mussels seem unrelated to German cuisine, and are a little unsurprising.

Kase Spatzle (chef homemade pasta) with Mozzarella Cheese and Cream is interesting. The whole pasta is not heavy at all even completely topped with beautiful cheese. It is chewy and the unevenness of the noodle (not sure it is really called noodle as it is more like shredded pasta) gives a funny texture. The next dish of meat is quite salty and this light pasta actually goes very well with it!

The main course finally arrives. They said 20-30 minutes were needed to prepare this platter, but actually it took only 15 minutes. The glass plate is filled with meat which includes the famous Roasted Pork Knuckles, ham, pork steak and Frankfurt sausages. I must advise you that if you should only order this if you have four people on the table, or else this can be a really harsh food marathon for yourself.

The meat is very well done, especially the pork knuckle and ham. The roasted knuckle has extremely crispy skin with juicy meat underneath. There is inevitably fat in between, but the fatty layer is quite thin. Much of the tender layers is preserved well, making me feel like enjoying Chinese beef brisket.

The only negative comment from me is probably that the meat is overall too salty. Even if this is "traditional" as they call it, it is a little overdone. Or maybe they expect you to enjoy the knuckle with some light pasta. However, that is still minor and the meal is enjoyable, and one will hardly expect food like this to be found in Mongkok area. If you are in that area next time, and if you want to take a break from the traditional Chinese noodle from cha chaan teng, come up to BigPack Cafe. You will not be disappointed.

It is pretty harsh in Hong Kong to set up any food business. You have to keep up with the trend by being very good or different, and then by continuously being very good or different. The Cantopop restaurant I visit nearly 8 months ago is gone and is now replaced by a western restaurant called Linguini Fini. As the name suggests, it is all about Italian food, and pasta is no doubt the spotlight.

The restaurant has two floors, connected by a graffiti-filled back-of-house staircase. The lower floor turns into a bar after five, with sofa booth seating on two sides and stools in the middle. Upstairs are less blaring dining area, though you should not expect a quiet place for intimate conversations. The deco is cool with beautifully designed menus and posters. The bread box is funny, but the bread is hard like high-density foam for construction. I wonder if it is bread.

Before the main course we get ourselves a Casear Salad using local romaine, Pamigiano reggiano and anchovy vinaigrette. Not bad but the portion is for one person only.

The pasta is served on a big plate but the size is more for girls than for men. The signature Class Linguini Fini Podmodori doesn't taste special to me. The texture is a little chewier than typical pasta you have outside, which is actually fine with me. Some people may complain about that but after trying the orignal pasta from Italy, I believe pasta texture should be rougher. But still, it has no wow factor.

The Spaghetti Carbonara was, like the previous dish, not outstanding at all. It looks ordinary, and tastes ordinary.

And so is the On Top Of Spaghetti, which is just spaghetti with homemade meatball. To be honest, the meatball is most interesting thing on the table because it is huge! With shredded cheese all over the top, it looks like it has some kind of white mold!

The garlic bread on the side is however not garlic enough, and it tastes bitter like charcoal. At the end of the meal we also ordered a Picante, a pizza with mozzarella, spicy sausage, tomato and chili. This one is probably the best among all the others, as the thin bread is crispy with sizziling hot topping. The ingredients are typical, but they are all well balanced over the pizza.

It is a bit disappointing to see the effort to create an eye-catching brand with beautiful graphics and interesting interior layout, but not any attempt to pay more attention to the food. There is no surprise here on the plates, but everything has a passing mark. It is nonetheless a great place to hang out with friends who don't mind paying a little more for the music on the ground floor, yet don't expect something awesome, and you will have a great evening here.

Many of the customers have probably missed the Tipsy Peach Cake at LGB. The peach-cake with a layer of jelly on top looks ordinary but embeds extraordinary flavours. To be exact, it is not the flavours but the layering of them.

The cake is extremely light and it seems like the taste of peach is only supported by the jelly top layer. When you put a slice into your mouth, it is like the vanilla arrives first, and then the peach, and they finally well mix together before you swallow. The cream on the dish looks like a display of high cholesterol, but in fact it is a sweet-free whipped cream. It forms a wonderful combination of texture with the cake: soft cream, spongy cake and jelly. This is no doubt a great little dessert after dinner, a little sweet and a little taste of spring!

At the end of every year of Chinese Calendar, all the members in a family will gather and have a great dinner together. During the whole year everyone was probably separated and working on their own, and now the new year is coming and it is time for a reunion where everyone can share both their earning and stories with their parents.

No doubt, family is one of the biggest things in Chinese culture, as that is where everyone is originated from. This is just like the Thanksgiving or Christmas day in western culture, and nothing is warmer than having all the family members back in one place.

Reunion dinner is always a big thing, and many of the dishes have lucky names for better luck in the new year. No worry if you don't want to name your dishes at home, but at least do eight or nine dishes but not four. Eight sounds like "fortune" in Chinese, while nine means "endless" (nonstop fortune). Four sounds like "death" and of course should be avoided

This day is certainly the busiest day for my mum in the year, because making nine dishes in a row serving only four of us (including herself) is definitely an arduous task.

This time we had tiger prawns (middle) and chicken (foreground). Of course there were vegetables (furthest).

Since reunion dinners are big event in China before Chinese New Year, some of the food will have precious ingredients. Many different kinds of rare and expensive food are saved till this day. Nowadays, abalones (above) are not that expensive, but still considered as one of the spotlight dishes.

Below is stewed sea cucumber, fish gas bladder with winter mushrooms, certainly another expensive dish.

In fact, this was one of the most expensive dishes in my reunion dinner, the steamed tiger grouper (above). These days such sea fish are hard to find in my city, and most of them come from fish farms but not the ocean. For sea cucumber or abalones, we can buy in advance like months ago at a cheaper price, but you cannot do the same for fish. Fish have to be fresh, and when they are so popular in the market during Chinese New Year period, prices for real sea fish will no doubt go up.

We also had some deep-fried oysters with some seared scallops (below). Chinese people like to have such food on the table as it is golden yellow, symbolizing good fortune in the new year.

The reunion dinner is big, and is also the happiest meal in the year. You have so much food on the table, and most importantly, everyone is here after a hectic year and gathers around the table for the warmest dinner. Isn't that the best time of the year?

Sometimes, a relaxing weekend can be just so easy. A cup of coffee from Nespresso machine, then some little snacks from La Madeleine de Proust, that makes the perfect afternoon.

I am no doubt a true fan of traditional Chinese food. Unlike many other cuisines, Chinese food has so many variations that you can make tons of good food with just one ingredient. For example, you can find fried or grilled fish in western food, but you have more than eight ways to cook a fish. Such cookery magic captivates me, and I am always ready for surprises by the Chinese restaurant chefs.

If you are a foreigner, I can tell you that the thing you see in your city which is called Chinese food is probably just crap. Fried noodle and sour and sweet pork? Yuck. That's why I so want to invite you to visit my little city Hong Kong, and this will be the place I will introduce to you for the real Chinese food, Tai Fung Lau 泰豐樓 (泰豊廔).

It is one of the oldest restaurants in Hong Kong that serves mainly Beijing cuisine. Don't expect modern and trendy design here. Instead you will enter a world of 80s with old chairs, pink table cloth and ceramic wall tiles. Even the plates are the old plastic ones that appeared in nearly all homes in 1980s.

We started the dinner with this Wok-fried Tofu (鍋塌豆腐), which is a famous Shandong dish. Fried but with little oil, you can actually smell the egg when it is brought onto the table. It was fried but amazingly light.

Who could miss the Peking Duck when they were in a Beijing restaurant? Crispy with little fat, this is probably one of the best ducks in the town.

The Wonton and Chicken in Stone Pot (砂鍋雲吞雞) surprised us, not with quality first but with quantity. This dish was not expensive but in the pot you could find more than 10 wontons and one huge chicken leg! In a world where many restaurants like to rip people off with smaller dishes, it is hard to find a place like this to offer what you have paid for. And yes, a whole chicken leg!

We thought we would had some dessert before leaving this great Chinese restaurant, but it came before we ordered it. Souffle Egg White Balls with Red Bean Paste (高力豆沙) was great, and they were huge. The whole thing was not overly sweet, and it was actually the sugar that made it sweet.

It feels so good to be in the 80s ambiance enjoying traditional Beijing dishes. Nothing is expensive here , and every dish is big. Right, you get what you pay for, and more! I like the fact that there is nothing fancy here. You have the true taste of the old days in a comfortable place: no extra deco, no extra design, no fusion or so-called modernized food. You will realize that the best food exists in its simplest form with no additives, and Tai Fung Lau will prove it to you.

It is funny that in Hong Kong, many cool Japanese restaurants hide themselves in the commercial buildings, usually the old ones. You feel like you are going into the building for a meeting, but actually you are looking for good food.

These places however are not cheap, and when the price is high, you expect much more than just ordinary ramen or skewers. You cannot sell by displaying crazy skills because you are in a room without display windows, and you can only sell by food quality.

Kozy Okonomiyaki Teppanyaki is open only for several months, but it sounds like it already made some noisy in the city. You may not be lucky to get a table now at such a popular but small restaurant, but sitting at the counter is not a bad idea, as you can enjoy the cooking show by the chefs.

The menu was not big with only one page, but you can probably find what you want to try, from meat to seafood, from omelet to okonomiyaki. For drinks, you can choose from the typical kyoho grape soda to the rare Calpis drink (rare in Hong Kong).

The ingredients look unsurprising, but they are all fresh. The chefs definitely know how to do teppanyaki well, as the vegetable is still fresh and juicy after being pan fried for quite some time.

I didn't have much expectation on the omelet. The cheese omelet looked just like the usual omelet you saw before, until you found melting cheese inside the egg. The half-molten egg layer with the melting cheese was like a bite of Heaven!

The green salad with Japanese-style poached egg was a letdown. The egg was overcooked while the condiments were not well mixed with the vegetable. That's why we decided to put our full attention to the seafood.

The tiger pawns were awesome. The chefs did not waste the legs of the pawn. They removed the leg part with the shell from the body, then pressed them hard on the griddle so that it was made into a yummy chip. That was amazing!

In no way should you miss the oysters. They were big and juicy, and with only salt and spring onions, the oysters tasted even better than the shrimps!

Okonomiyaki was well done too. It did not break when the chef moved it onto my plate, and the air was filled with the smell of egg and teppanyaki sauce. The oden was however only so-so, and definitely not a spotlight item on the menu.

With all the chefs coming from Japan, you can be sure you are tasting the very traditional and high-quality food from the griddle. The restaurant is small but cozy, and the chefs are kind and skillful. They don't mind chatting with you while handling the food on the hot plate. If you do visit, I would recommend sitting at the counter, but be quick as there are only eight seats!

Sun Dou Ke 新斗記 may not receive that much attention like those popular high-class Chinese restaurants at the hotels, but you can always see a queue in Cheong Lok Street. Even more, its recent one Michelin star (2012) places it right under the spotlight, and now you can only get a table by making a reservation in advance.

There is nothing fancy here, from the items in the menu to the ambiance. The Hong-Kong-style glass fish tanks and the brick walls remind me of the old days of this town, and I wonder if they can bring back the great flavours from the past too.

However, nothing is completely old, because there are also some modernized Chinese cuisine. We started with the Marinated Goose Feet (涵水鵝掌) and the Baby Pigeons in Soy Sauce (鼓油皇乳鴿).

The baby pigeons, according to the menu, is the "heirloom" of this restaurant. This looks much bigger than a baby pigeon! The soy sauce did not overwhelming the dish at all, and the meat was very tender. Indeed a very traditional and well-done starter.

Sweet and Sour Pork (咕嚕肉() is no doubt equally popular among both local and foreign people, but this place did it just right.

The Big Fried Shrimps with Soy Sauce (鼓油炒蝦) took me by surprise. It was delicious as all the flavours went into the meat of the shrimps. The shell was fried so crispy that you so wanted to eat it together with the meat.

Pipa Tofu (琵琶豆腐) is also one of the common dishes for Chinese people like us, but the chefs here didn't do it sloppily. The pork mixed with the tofu was not tough and matched with the soft texture of tofu. It was deep fried but nothing felt oily. Same for the next dish, the Deep Fried Fish Fillet with Corn Sauce (粟米斑塊) was also tasty. It is rare to see such a big piece of fish these days, as many restaurants tend to reduce all the ingredients in size. Instead of pouring the sauce over the fillets, they were served separately, and that helped to keep the fillets dry and crispy.

The Roasted Suckling Pig (燒乳豬) cannot be missed. For those who are too scared of the fat under the crispy skin layer and of the lack of meat (some just have the skin layer with fat underneath), you can be sure that this pig will not disappoint you.

The Ginger Fried Rice with Crab and Egg White (蛋白花蟹炒薑飯) was surprisingly well done, and they managed to make it good without adding too much oil. The only thing is that they need to provide us some tools to finish the crab, as the chopsticks alone couldn't do the job, obviously.

Others were not bad, and we also had their famous Fried Noodle with Soy Sauce (鼓油皇炒麵). It was however overwhelmed by the pig lard, and I felt like throwing up afterwards.

Thank God the noodle didn't ruin the whole meal, as everything else was above standard. I like the fact that the restaurant didn't do fancy deco on the food, or any fusion that mix and mess up the food. What they do is merely cooking the ordinary dishes in a professional way. When a local like me tries them, I can immediately recognize it and feel excited about it. If you are not familiar with our local cuisine, you can be sure that this is the place to bring you the true taste of Cantonese food, and that you will be very much amazed.

Let them eat cake! That's the slogan from the renowned bar and restaurant Sevva, and yes they really want you to eat their cakes!

If you know a little bit about history, you should know that "let them eat cake" is a quote from the famous Austrian Queen of France, Maria Antoinette. Actually, while most people attribute this quote to her, there is no evidence that this line was exactly spoken by her. It was a line said by a "princess" after knowing that the peasants had no bread to eat.

Out of the history class, we only know that we can definitely eat some cakes, especially if they are from Sevva. Interesting enough, many people who know Sevva don't know about the cake counter, unless they have really gone there asthis counter is situated right at the lobby.

Some people may think I am crazy, and yes I am because I bought this cake to celebrate my birthday instead of people buying it for me. This is not any typical cake, and this is only available from Sevva. It is Maria Antoinette's Crave!

This crazily colorful cake is probably one of the most popular cakes on the shelf, and I guess no other shop makes such a cake. With the macaroons and cotton candy all over it, this cake is like many girls' dream come true.

Every bit is edible, including those pearl like balls.

It is normal if you think this is very sweet after looking at all those colors and the cream and the cotton candy. You are right that it is sweet, but only for all the things you see on the outer layer. Beneath the cream is green layers with mixed berries, which are incredibly light. That is perfect to mix with the sweet macaroons, and I am so amazed by this combination. The chefs don't just care about the look, but also pay much attention on how ingredients of the cakes are mixed together.

We had a little mistake here. The cotton candy part should fall right onto the top surface of the cake instead of standing like a tree. It was a takeaway cake and so they separated them apart for easier delivery. I didn't cut off the excessive support and so it looked like the candy was hanging in the air. Anyway, it still looked very impressive. If you love cakes, you will definitely love this one, and if you love this one, I am sure you will love Sevva!

Man Yah is a strange place. Located in an "oriental" hotel selling Chinese food, this restaurant has more foreign customers than local people, and things are served in a foreign manner. However, the lack of typical Chinese tea restaurant characters, including the noise and fast movement, does not seem to be a big problem. I don't mind Chinese food served in a western way, as long as the food is excellent.

The place is not big, holding only 10 tables as far as I can see, but everything is elegantly decorated. It looks a little old with those scratched wood panels and metal teapots, but at the same time very modern with the sharp colors like pink table cloth. It is weird that Man Yah is only accessible through that tiny door next to the MO Bar, as if this is a secret hideout.

We did not come here for the Michelin star, as the stars don't mean anything to me now. We came here for only one reason: in search of good food.

Seriously, you can find all different kinds of Chinese food in Hong Kong. Great tea houses and Chinese restaurants are everywhere, so what is so good here that attracts both tourists and local people to come and eat?

The meal started with the typical honey barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒皇). The amazingly well-prepared meat was so tender and contained nearly no fat, and I was already addicted to it.

The next dish was the must-eat Sweet and Sour Pork (on the menu it said US pork, not sure why it has to be emphasized) (懷舊咕嚕肉), something that the foreigners just love to order. It was amazingly light even with that kind of sauce, while the pork was still all juicy after the deep-frying.

The Deep Fried Spiced Prawns with Chili-garlic Sauce (醬燒脆蝦球) looked unsurprising, but you know it wasn't normal prawns. Inside the crispy layer was a huge prawn, big, fresh and crunchy. Nothing more nothing less, and that's why it is so good.

Then my favourite came, the Sliced Duck (half).

Again, it looked really ordinary, but below the thin crispy skin layer was just a tiny layer of fat, perfect for those who take health too seriously. The duck meat was not rough at all, and the portion was in the right size.

Finally, we wrapped up the dinner with this Braised Rice Casserole, with Conpoy, Octopus and Ka Mei chicken (瑤柱章魚嘉美雞粒窩仔飯). When it was opened, the air was filled with the smell of octopus and conpoy. It was indeed mouthwatering.

The best part of this rice was that it was not oily at all, and even with the heavy ingredients (conpoy and octopus can make some really heavy sauce), the rice was not too filling. Everything was blended in nicely. Following was the dessert, Sweetened ginger tea, with Glutinous Rice Dumplings with Peanut Filling (薑茶手搓湯丸). We also had the complimentery dessert set, a coffee jelly and a small cake.

Dining at Man Wah was a relaxing and high-class experience. Somehow I did not expect much from this kind of Chinese restaurants because I doubted if the big price tags was more related to the deco than the food. However, the quality of food is unquestionable, as seen from the food above. The food we ordered is not fancy at all, just ordinary Chinese food, but they still excite the diners with their care in preparing and cooking the food. It is like each dish is carefully tailored, and with just that kind of obsession, Man Wah is certainly one of the best in the town.

Those who look for the greatest pasta in the world would definitely know the big name of Michael White. Coming from New York, he is not a native Italian at all, but his interpretation of Italian cuisine has inspired and captivated different people around the globe. Now, you don't need to visit Osteria Morini or Alto in New York, because he has opened his shop in Harbour City, Hong Kong!

Al Molo took the place previously occupied by Habitu Ristorante, and brought a New York touch into the busy shopping mall. If you don't mind, you can also choose an outdoor table so that you can enjoy the spectacular signature skyline of Hong Kong.

If you are looking for just spaghetti, I suggest you having another look at the menu. They serve more than typical pasta (though they also come with extraordinary quality, making them not really that typical), and you can find some rare types like fusilli. Even the ingredients are carefully chosen: while most of the restaurants only use two kinds of flour to make the pasta, Al Molo uses four, and by varying the proportion of each during the mix, you can have different kinds of soft and hard pasta.

The starter was a Fior di Zucca - squash flower fritters, buffalo mozzarella, anchovy, fresh tomato passata. Interesting combo, and it worked well.

Maccheroni - cured pancetta, carbonara sauce, black pepper. This is a must-eat item. The short pasta was very chewy, and the carbonara wasn't too thick or heavy. It looked ordinary but you will definitely love the texture and fall in love with this.

Osso Buco - braised veal shank, bone marrow, saffron risotto, sautéed spinach. You didn't expect much from a risotto in a pasta place, but surprisingly it was very well done. The rice was great, and while the creamy sauce was thick, the portion was small and just right, making the whole thing not too filling. The meat was tender too, and the bone marrow inside was actually the real exciting centerpiece.

Fusilli - spiral eggless pasta, zucchini, tomatoes, basil pesto. It is not easy to find this kind of pasta. I missed it much after trying it in Italy! I didn't expect at all that this veggie fusilli was this great, light and chewy.

Pinosini - squid ink angel hair, seppia ragu, leeks, spicy n’duja. Some people may not like this thinner relative of spaghetti, but will find this pasta pretty interesting. Angel hair is of course nothing new to me, but I haven't seen this curly kind. The texture was a little harder than the typical angel hair, and the ragu sauce was a good mix with the spicy flavour.

Of course we didn't have enough, and added my favourite Quattro Formaggio to the table. It was not bad but obviously not as good as the pasta.

There was no question about the quality of pasta and food here. On top of the excellent quality, you can also find good amount of creativity in the dishes. While you are amazed about how the flours are mixed to form different pasta of unique textures, you will also be excited about how the ingredients and sauces are prepared, which truly bring out the best of the noodles. Together with the marvalous view of Victoria Harbour, Al Molo is certainly the best place to enjoy top-notch Italian in the busy Tsim Sha Tsui area in Hong Kong.

Some people like to eat out, but many of them still like the taste of home better. Of course, no MSG, no extra coloring, no fancy deco, and most important, no extra cost. Cheap but good, who doesn't love that?

I eat a lot, but I am not a pro in cookery at all. I actually cook for only a few times, but this is about to change. When you start to appreciate food, you also start to appreciate the skills and effort in cooking. You realize that the chefs spend so much time in finding the right ingredients, and in preparing the food before putting them onto the stove. I believe, you always have to put your heart into it in order to make a dish that people are crazy about.

This is just a little attempt for me, pan-fried mackerel with miso. It is not hard to make at all.

Of course, still far from the quality of this Ox-tail in Red Wine Sauce by mum!

Yummy!

Madam Sixty Ate is a newly open restaurant in Wanchai, and is a wonderful place to visit. Since I am not a good writer and at the same time I found this wonderful article from Time Out online magazine about this place, and perhaps I will let that author do the wording this time, supplemented by my own pictures.

All the words below are from here.

Madam Sixty Ate isn’t just a restaurant. It’s a gastronomic narrative that’s brimming with quirky little details and fun personal touches. Located on the first floor of the swanky J Senses complex, the elevator opens up to a massive painting of a pig in wooly attire. From there, you’re presented with two options: enjoy a bespoke cocktail in the study room-themed bar and lounge area, or head straight into the dining room for your feast. If you opt for the latter, you’ll be guided past the long open kitchen where chef director Chris Woodyard (former culinary director at the W Hong Kong and chef-owner of Three Clicks West in Annandale, Australia) and head chef Andrew Braham turn out stunning pieces of edible art.

There’s a seven-course tasting menu but we strongly recommend you go à la carte as this is where some of the best dishes are hidden. The ‘paella for Pedro’ for example is an excitingly different iteration of the iconic Spanish dish. Pieces of mussels, rabbit and sashimied shrimp are arranged ever-so-carefully around cubes of chorizo, puffed rice and popcorn. The whole thing is laid to rest over a narrow strip of powderised dried tomato and embellished with crunchy sheets of black squid ink. Every bite is a new layer of textures and flavours; every bite tells a different story.

Top: Port marinated terrine of foie gras, house raisins, pistachio powder and beets; bottom: Torched prawns, prawn toasts and tomato pepper ragout.

Other starters feel less thrilling compared to the paella. The trout ceviche arrives as a gorgeous composition on the plate with folds of translucent, pink fish decorated with fresh herbs and smears of citrus sauce. This looks better than it tastes though. The fish is dry and underseasoned, devoid of the tang and spicy kick that defines your typical ceviche. We sampled another signature app, this time from the ‘charcuterie’ section – a foie gras terrine served with tonic water gel, zested orange and two thin slices of spice bread. The foie is subtle with a smooth consistency that spreads easily. It’s delicious in its own right but is easily overshadowed when devoured with the fruit-studded toast.

Bonito Marmitako, seared bonito and mussels and chorizo with ragout of tomato and piquillo pepper.

Thankfully, Woodyard and Braham return to peak performance when the mains roll out. The restaurant’s take on the Basque Country’s marmitako fish stew is plated like a miniature seafood garden. A large hunk of seared bonito sits proudly atop a bed of mussels and chorizo sausages. The fish is stellar – the oily flesh is milky soft and imbibed in the spicy, zippy flavours of the tomato and piquillo pepper consommé. The skin is crisp, with a thin film of gelatin underneath that melts on the tongue.

Twice cooked lamb loin on chestnut and Ossau Iraty tart finished with lamb jus.

The ‘pig in sheep’s clothing’ is another fun offering. A fatty slab of Mangalitsa pork belly is slow-cooked to show off its wagyu-like qualities. The meat is then garnished with curls of crispy pork crackling and an insanely satisfying lasagne laced with plenty of cheese and tender pork cheeks. This is definitely a keeper.

Blobs of vanilla mousse and milk sorbet temper the tart fruit.

Creativity is kicked up yet another notch in the sweets selection. We guarantee you’ve never had a mille feuille the way Madam Sixty Ate does it. The whimsical plate starts with an extrusion of rice pudding mousse stabbed with crisp shards of dehydrated and candied apples. Blobs of vanilla mousse and milk sorbet temper the tart fruit and round the dessert off on a mellow note. If you only have room for one dessert though, make a beeline for the honey parfait – a messy, sweet and salty medley of chocolate mousse, crushed chocolate flakes and salted caramel on crunchy, sticky bits of crumbled honeycomb.

Honey Parfait with Chocolate Mousse, crumbled honeycomb and popcorn

There’s plenty of heart put into Madam Sixty Ate and this shines through in both the excellent food and service. A meal here is a fun and exciting experience and it’s something we’d happily try again sooner rather than later. (by Dorothy So)

Hong Kong is a wonderful place, where you can find all kinds of delicacies. From Chinese to Italian, from French to Mexican, you can find them all just in this town, and some of them are even the best of the world. However, where is Hong Kong stuff?

Of course we have great Hong Kong food. No, it is not dim sum, not wonton, but dai pai dong! Yes, there is no comfortable armchair, no fancy decoration, no high-end food, but it has what the other luxurious restaurants don't have: a taste of Hong Kong!

There are many dai pai dong in Hong Kong, and most of them are now moved to the interior, usually in the modernized and air-conditioned wet markets. Among them, the famous Tung Po is definitely a place shouldn't be missed. Situated on the topmost floor of the Java Road Municipal Services Building, this dai pai dong is always a popular spot. If you don't make any reservation, I am sure you have to wait outside for an hour to get a table. People don't just come here for food, but for music and dance!

That is one of the staff in the restaurant, and it seems that he gets high every night around 10, holding bottles of beers and dancing around tables. Of course, he is still sober, and don't try to leave without paying.

We don't drink beer with glasses here. We use bowls!

It is definitely different from drinking with glasses, and we feel like we are back to the old Chinese eras in which people talked boldly like kungfu heros! The Asahi beer tastes really good, and even better with this...

Deep-fried baby pig knuckles are perfect companions with beer. They have little meat and under the crispy skin layer is just cartilage and stuff like that. Fat? Most probably gone in the deep frying process!

The next dish is also a great companion of wine. If you are a foreigner, you probably won't like this, it is deep-fried frog legs!

For your knowledge, it is a kind of frog commonly known as East Asia Bullfrog, found in many parts of Asia. It is not disgusting like you may think, and it tastes like chicken actually, but softer like fish. It is truly yummy stuff!

Next is a signature dish in Tung Po, the pitch-black Cuttlefish Ink Noodle with Cuttlefish Balls!

It is so dark that it stinks all your teeth and lips instantly, making anyone know what you have just eaten. I was taught that you should not brush your teeth after eating this because the brush will push the stink further into the enamel. Anyway, this is good stuff!

The other dishes are pretty ordinary but they are all great. They are Deep-fried Chicken (風沙雞), Fried Shrimps in Egg Yolk (黃金蝦) and Edible Chrysanthenum in Hotpot (沙鍋皇帝菜).

People in this place are all very high, and I guess it is not just because of the alcohol but also the whole atmosphere. Those who serve you come to your table not only to add more beer into your bowl, but also drink with you! After 10pm, they sometimes may get some beats up with their loud speakers and subwoofers, making the whole place like a disco. That is like a climax for the meal!

This is the beat of Hong Kong, and this is the place to feel Hong Kong!

There is nobody in the town who doesn't know about "Ah Yat". The famous chef Mr. Yeung (楊貫一) is the creator of the internationally renowned dish "Ah Yat Abalone", and the master chef at the Forum, one of the most prominent Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.

However, all these by him come with a big price tag, and his new restaurant sounds to take a little different road to attract more audience. Ah Yat Harbour View is on the top floor of iSquare in TST, having a spectacular 270-degree view overlooking the Victoria Harbour. The food is not expensive at all, but has the same high standard from Ah Yat.

The menu is not huge, and some of the typical traditional dim sum are also missing. However, most of them are quite affordable, making this restaurant like an entry place for the whole Ah Yat series. Of course, you can still order an abalone or other high-end food for lunch, but not for me.

The dim sum was overall okay, but not surprising except this one above, the shrimp dumplings (har gow). It was simple but amazingly well done with chewy translucent wrapper and big shrimps. No wonder it was named "Ah Yat Signature Har Gow".

The next dish, Homemade Sausage Rolls, was delicious too. It was not completely homemade, but the pork was minced by hand not machine. Wrapped by a crispy outer layer, the meat was mixed with shredded vegetable, forming a nice combination of textures.

Not many places can do the molten custard buns right, but this place did a good job.

Then we had these "volcano buns", named because of their look. These are actually mini version of the Mexican buns (Hong Kong style) with chopped roasted pork inside. They were not bad at all but took more than 30 minutes to arrive on the table.

Originally they missed our order, but then they said these buns were not easy to make and the chefs were still working hard on them after 20 minutes. We were a little impatient but seeing the other tables were also waiting, we didn't really make a big deal out of this.

Most of the items on the menu were ordinary dim sum you can find in other Chinese restaurants, but making the ordinary extraordinary is the hardest cookery, and the chefs here did surprise us. All the food on our table look typical but tasted very good. The wonderful harbour view did not steal the spotlight, and so you can imagine how good the food is. Be sure to make a reservation before going, as this place is already very popular!

Last but not least, we then went to Smile for a big finale...

Nothing is better than a decent meal at home. Home sweet home. I am too lucky to have a mother master chef, and enjoy one of the greatest glutinous rice in the town.

Yummy!

There is definitely no doubt about the quality of food in this three-Michelin-star restaurant in Macau. Located inside the long-established Hotel Lisboa, Robuchon a Galera is a place of elegance and style. We did not make any reservation for dinner, but easily found a table next to the window. It turned out that the restaurant was pretty empty that night, but be reminded that it is usually full during lunch time because of the much more affordable lunch set it offers.

In order to try most of their signature dishes, we decided to have a tasting menu for dinner, with a little tweak to it. We removed an omelet dish and added back a foie gras dish for extra pleasure.

We knew it was going to be a marvelous dinner because of the first dish, the bread! Every piece was heated and different, though I was worried if that would take away too much space from my stomach! Then the starter arrived. The warm cheese puff was so delicious that I didn't think just one was enough for my gastro-need.

The next dish was Le Cerise Burlat, which is a cherry gazpacho (cold soup) with ricotta cheese sherbet and pistachio flakes. While I wasn't a fan of sour and cold soup, I think it was not bad at all.

This starter was amazing. It is Les Saveurs Iodées, which is caviar, sea urchin and crab meat in delicate crustacean fine jelly with fennel cream. We started with the lighter crab meat first, and then the sea urchin. The uni was unbelievably fresh without any fishy smelly, while the caviar was no doubt of high quality. I wasn't sure about the jelly at the bottom because it didn't at first look eatable but I didn't like it anyway.

The main course followed, and instead of L'Æuf Organique, we got ourselves a Le Foie Gras.

The original L’Æuf Organique is a "slow cooked organic farm egg with sautéed girolle and lettuce veloute under a fine crispy tuile". We decided that this dish would be less interesting than the others and so we kicked it out. The subsituted main course was indeed far more impressive! Le Foie Gras had three parts, and the first is the Pan Fried Foie Gras in Fresh Cherry Compote with Kirek's Beer Reduction.

A pretty typical way to do foie gras, but still very nice. The next part is the Steamed Foie Gras in Vegetable Mille-feuille with Fruffle Emulsion. I never tried steamed goose liver, but this one was not bad. The only problem is that the layers collapsed once you lifted it up with your fork.

The final part was Fine Ravioli in Fresh Sorrel Veloute. It was an interesting combination because the pasta dough added a different texture that the foie gras did not have. The dough didn't have much taste and so allowed the foie gras to express itself fully.

Then we were back to the preset menu. This one, called La Truite de Mer, was a Confit Sea-Trout with Ginger Broth and Lightly Smoked Cream.

The fish was nice, and the interestingly it was thoroughly cooked but maintained the softness of an uncooked fish meat.

L'Agneau was French Lamb Au Jus with Herbs Salad, served with Mashed Potato. Yes, that is the signature creamy mashed potato from Robuchon!

And it was a little bit hard to believe that it was lamb, because it looked like two pieces of thin steak. The lamb meat was tender, but again, the mashed potato completely stole the spotlight.

After the hot dishes, the meal didn't just end. While we expected dessert as on the menu, we were offered so many kinds of desserts! To begin with, we had Le Yuzu Vert, a Green Vuzu Granite with a Lemon Grass Jelly and Cloud of Cachaca. It was not too sweet at all, and just a little sour to boost our appetite, making you ready for the next round of sweetness.

And the dessert session went on! Two carts came for us to choose desserts, which they called La Symphonie des Douceurs. We picked up this signature Naplonean cake and Opera cake, and then a Mini Creme Brulée.

That Napolean was truly classic, with every layer to be so crispy. It was not as sweet as I thought, but the creamy layers went very well with the crispy ones. To add more, I also tried the Coffee Truffle with Dark Chocolate.

It was an amazing night and we were so full after this 8-course dinner. I must say that everything in the meal was so well done that you could taste all the effort by the chefs. The ingredients were not any hard-to-find materials, but they were prepared, made and cooked to delight your taste buds in an unexpected way. The cookery was second to none, and I can now see why people keep coming back again and again.

When we left, we received a bag of souvenirs, and I would guess it was a cake, something that other restaurants also gave out. However, I never thought it was this big!

OMG, that was huge! It was filled with cheese and rich smell of eggs, a wonderfully made cake!

Some people went to Robuchon for the stars, but if you are a truly gourmet, you cannot miss this place either. No matter how many stars this place has, you cannot deny the exceptional cookery and amazing cuisine Robuchon a Galera offers. Be there and enjoy a meal that stimulate your mouth and tongue, and reach a new level of food standard!

If one is to talk about great food with great noise, this is the place. When I said noise, I mean publicity. Harlan Goldstein, being one of the most renowned chefs in the town, opened Gold a year ago and tried to elevate French cuisine to another level. It attracted so many different people since the launching day, from celebrity to food gourmets.

There is no doubt about the quality that Harlan offers. Besides his famous 990g Big G Fiorentina Porterhouse Steak, you can also find many signature dishes of seafood and pasta. If you are not sure what to offer, a HKD990 tasting menu is not a bad idea at all, which comes with 13 courses.

The restaurant was mainly in brown and yellow colors. An oval-shaped bar counter sits at the entrance, and then around 30 tables inside under a curvy chocolate-colored ceiling. The deco certainly sets the mood up, but I was more attracted to the menu.

The bread is probably the only problem I have with this place. It was not warm, and while the pesto coming with the bread was nice, it didn't help with the bowl of cold bread.

Very soon, the appetizer arrived. It was Scampi with Black Truffle Sauce and Orange Slices. It was fresh and I loved how the truffle brought up the flavour of the scampi, yet struck a nice balance with the orange.

The first main course we had was the Spinobellii with Smoked Eel topped with Caviar. This pasta, with a name invented by Chef Harlan probably, was something between spaghetti and angel hair, but a little tougher than both of them.

You would be very surprised by the crunchy texture of the eel. I fell in love with this dish as the flavour of the garlic and black pepper went deep into the pasta and the fish. That was so different from merely mixing the ingredients in a bowl. The portion was not big but definitely perfect for me since we had two main courses yet to come.

The Slow-cooked Colorado Lamb Rib was wonderfully executed. The dish was served with Porcini Truffle Mushroom, broccolini and roasted garlic.

Just from the taste of the lamb you might not be surprised because it was at most very good meat. However, when you felt the soft tissue, you would start to be so amazed by the skill of slow cooking. The inside was so tender that it was like just thoroughly cooked. The most amazing part, though, was the roasted garlic.

The garlic was incredibly soft and light in the mouth, contrary to what I expected garlic should be. It felt like mashed potato!

Finally, the real awesome part of the meal came, the Melt In Your Mouth Scottish Salmon served with clams, spinach, garlic and white wine sauce.

At first, I thought the "melt in your mouth" part was only a gimmick, or more like a exaggerated description of the dish. However, it was real. It was so soft that you could simply use your fork to tear the fish apart. It was indeed very tender, and like the lamb, the fish was just cooked before the tissues inside started to contract due to excessive heat. I was told that it was cooked at 60 degree Celsius for more than 10 hours actually, which could then preserve the texture and the juiciness of the fish. That was the best salmon I have ever had in my life.

The desserts were no sloppy things here. Chef Harlan actually reinvented them by introducing new ingredients and arrangements of them in the dish. We ordered the Tiramisu - The Way We Like It and the Chocolate Chip Panna Cotta.

And like the name suggested, this was really nothing like the tiramisu you would had before in other restaurants. Each layer was really distinct and the middle coffee layer was really melting! Good thing about this was that it was not too heavy. It was creamy but not overwhelming creamy, which made it a wonderful dessert after dinner.

The Panna Cotta was beautifully prepared. Topped with Amaretto Foam, the dessert contained three layers of Cranberry Jellies, Nutella Gelato and Crumble Crunch. It looked like a funny combination at first, but I was surprised by the interesting flavour and textures when I had my first bite. For this, you could not enjoy the true taste if you ate it by layers. Go through the layers with your spoon, pick up one big spoonful, and enjoy the taste of Heaven!

I must say that while this HKD900 meal was not cheap, it was very much worth it. I appreciate two major things here. First, the ingredients were all very well selected and prepared. Everything was fresh and chosen with great care, and you must realize that that is very important and you cannot lie about it. Bad ingredients will make bad food. No disguise at all.

Second is their way to prepare the food. The chef really thought about the combinations of ingredients, which required great understanding of the food, its flavour and its texture. With the right mix, each of them can enhance the other ingredients, forming wonderful experience for the tongue.

What you see here is not very rare kind of food. Pasta, lamb and salmon, nothing really hard to find. However, bringing them to the next level instead of simply cooking them into edible stuff is not easy. You have to bring out the true flavour while creating a new experience for the guests. Chef Harlan really did it, and he did a great job too.

No wonder there are so many people admiring the extraordinary skills of this larger-than-life chef. I would no doubt give all my five stars to him and his restaurant, and I can't wait to revisit this truly golden place in the coming days!

Located in Happy Valley, Brown is a new comer. The owner claimed that most of the food, wine and interior decoration were mostly in brown color, and hence the name. Interesting enough, this place serves nice breakfast sets in the morning, and turns itself into a bar in the evening.

We came at around 2pm but we ordered breakfast sets. I so wanted to try their awesome eggs benedict! I was not really a big fan of ham and so I tried the eggs royale instead, which had salmon instead.

The eggs royale did not just look good but also tasted good. The egg was creamy while the sauce was light enough not to steal the spotlight of the salmon. My friend ordered the Egg and Steak set for herself, and surprisingly the steak was pretty well done too, and so was the scrambled egg.

Even that the green apple juice was a little small for me, the whole set was quite satisfactory. I am not sure if I will visit, only because of the shop location. However, if you have a chance to visit Happy Valley, do stop by and try their breakfast. No problem if you come late, as Brown transforms itself into a nice bar by the evening, but of course, these awesome eggs benedict are served before the sun goes down.

The Flying Pan (beware, worse website ever) was once a really hot pan when it landed in Central. Being next to the bars and being a 24-hour restaurant, this is actually a perfect place for those who want to have a little food after an alcoholic night. However, the Flying Pan is famous for their breakfast instead of other kinds of late supper, probably most of the visitors are late drinkers who don't need any sleep till the sun rises.

The branch we visited was not in Central but Wan Chai, where there were still quite some bars in this area. Located on the second floor of an old building, this Flying Pan looked so old as if it was here for 20 years already.

Without hesitation, I got the Eggs Benedict with Salmon (or Eggs Royale) for myself, which came with salad and fruit. That was surely one big breakfast!

The egg was not bad, but the Hollandaise sauce was a little too thick, and a little sour too. The muffins were okay but the salmon was a bit too salty for me. It was not bad, and the portion was just right for me. LIke the eggs royale, the salad was a bit ruined by the sauce.

Compared to those I had in Classified, these eggs royale certainly have some room for improvement, and so does the service here. Maybe it was too early when we visited, but it was not an excuse for bad service. We were left unattended when we were checking out, realizing the waiters were chatting around one table at the end of the room. I am not sure if I am visiting again, especially when there are more and more places doing better breakfast like this, though not all of them open 24 hours. I guess that will be one selling point for Flying Pan, hopefully not the only one.

Sometimes it is not easy to find a good place for high tea, not because of price but people. You won't believe it, in Hong Kong tourists from mainland China crowded out all Hong Kong people on the streets now. They come with huge amount of cash and buy anything without hesitation, and when they are tired, they start to occupy all the restaurants. Wait, they don't just go into any restaurant. They choose the luxurious or high-class ones, and yes, the hotel restaurants are their favourite.

I am much disgusted by low level of civilization and culture presented by these Chinese people from mainland. They completely ruin the splendidness and grandness of the place by the way they talk and walk. It horrifies me when I see the long queue in Peninsula, with all the people in the line are Chinese mainlander.

The same happened at the Lounge in Four Seasons too, but thank God there weren't that many Chinese people at the time we arrived. We came here for high tea today, and I must admit that I didn't hear of any special or signature dish here before and so I came totally because of the name of Four Seasons.

The high tea set was not very expensive, and a Duetto set for two was an even better deal, pricing at just HKD410 (with 10% service charge). The high tea set included the typical cakes and sandwiches, as you can see here.

The toast with ham (left of the middle mini egg salad hamburger) was pretty good, while other things in this lowermost dish were just so-so.

The scones were tall, but a little bit too hard. The cream butter that came with the set, however, went great with the scones, and so did the jam.

The topmost layer was the sweetest part, the cakes and macaroons.

Not bad, but the tea set lacked surprises. It was great, but it was not so amazing that you wanted to try again several times more. The coffee and hot chocolate were okay, but again not that remarkable. However, the place was comfortable, and I like how it was separated from the main lobby, cutting off all the noises so that you can sit back and enjoy the tea. The huge windows allowed great sunlight to come in, adding. While the Lounge may not surprise you in different ways, it is still a perfect spot for a relaxing afternoon tea catching up with friends.

There are many new restaurants along the Canton Road in TST. Busy Suzie is one of the few with interesting interior while serving you high quality Japanese food. Located in 1881 Heritage and designed by Patrick Gilles and Dorothée Boissier, this place is a circular space on plan, with tables and sofa seating on one side, bar table and cooking area on the other side. The dark color scheme mixed with light wood, bamboo and sand materials creates a moody and modern ambiance that certainly reminds people of a contemporary Japanese style.

Food is all made from excellent materials imported directly from Japan. Their signature dishes are robatayaki, and here you can talk to chefs, who all come from Japan, when they are preparing your dishes.

Today we came here for lunch, and with just HKD350 you can enjoy a lunch buffet set. You can order anything you want, and have a complimentary drink (coke, ulong tea or sake). Yes, this restaurant is famous for its expensive food, but this lunch set is certainly a good deal.

First came the complimentary abalone and fish sashimi, followed by foie gras and beef robatayaki.

The oyster and mushroom tempura were not oily at all, and the latter one was especially well done.

After having a second round of foie gras, we also had some robatayaki of scallop, sea snail, tiger pawn, cod and eel.

We ordered a softshell crab roll, thinking that it would be something like a handroll, which ended up to be just a simple sushi roll.

The robatayaki asparagus and squid were nice. Grilled vegetable is not easy to do because once overcooked it will be very dry.

Finally it is the dessert. The matcha ice-cream was great, but the yuzu jelly was even better with its refreshing flavour.

Overall the robatayaki was fantastic but the menu lacked creativity and surprises. Yes, the food was fresh and the chefs' skills were excellent, but I guess the chefs can do more by combining different types of food to create interesting dishes. The high price is also another problem. While it is nothing wrong to target rich customers, some of the items are just unreasonably expensive to me. A little pudding costs HKD100? That sounds too much like a ripoff instead of a high-end dish.

However, this lunch buffet is certainly very attractive to many people, as you can try so many different kinds of robatayaki at such an affordable price. Perhaps you have a lot to spend and choose to come here at night, but I would say, save some money by coming at noon. It is really a bargain, and remember, just stick to the buffet and don't order any more a la carte.

This Chinese restaurant has witnessed the last 70 years of prosperity and changes in Hong Kong. Located in Wan Chai, Asiana Restaurant (喜萬年) is probably one of the few established restaurants in Hong Kong. Many people still visit this awesome place for lunch and dinner, and no doubt you should make a reservation before visiting Asiana.

Tonight we came here to celebrate the Father's Day. Most of the items on the menu were actually ordinary Hong Kong or Cantonese food but all were of high quality. We started the dinner with two dishes, the Chicken Feet in Vinegar Sauce (白雲鳳爪) and Roasted Pork with Honey (蜜汁叉燒).

We of course ordered the amazing Roasted Suckling Pig, since this is why this restaurant is so famous. It was so nicely done, and it was not common to see people putting a red bulb in the pig's eye!

The Tempura Grouper Slices wasn't really tempura but merely deep frying, but was also delicious and surprisingly light without much oil.

The Baked Egg with Fish Intestine is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but is one of the signature dishes in Cantonese cuisine. It looked like normal baked or steamed egg dish, but actually had fish intestine mixed inside.

It was better than I expected, but probably the chef mixed some bladder juice of the fish too and so it had a little bitter taste.

The old restaurant has a reason for standing still over such a long time: it still delivers high-quality food while preserving some of the traditional dishes which are probably extinct in other places. The food does not only bring gastro pleasure but also memories of the past. It is the taste of the past, and the food takes us back. If you want to get indulged in the old style of Hong Kong, you should definitely come to Asiana.

People who visited Hong Kong before should be familiar with cha chaan teng (茶餐廳), and some probably fall in love with them already. Cha chaan teng is actually a typical Cantonese type restaurant serving large variety of affordable food. Here you can find so many different things, from pineapple buns for breakfast and tea, to roasted pork rice for dinner. They have so much to offer that Hong Kong people just love them.

Because cha chaan teng is a place of fast serving, few of them are really decorated and polished to be a high-class restaurant. Only recently some of the cha chaan teng started to take a high-profile direction and have their interior completely renovated to be so modern and slick.

Cantopop, located in Central, pushed the upgrade even further. It is a collaboration between the famous lady chef of Yin Yang, Margaret (徐蒝) and the renowned Italian restaurant Posto Pubblico, and they are to guarantee the best ingredients for their food in Cantopop. The vegetable served here is organic, while the eggs here are also lain by chickens which listen to music in the farm! Margaret explained that the music calmed the chicken down, so that the chickens were happy and bad better appetite. The eggs they laid would be of higher quality. The restaurant also insists on not adding any MSG to the food, and what you eat here will be truly healthy and original.

The rice dishes looked really different from the unpolished kind in other cha chaan teng, though they tasted good. I however think that they should add a little more salt (hey that's not unhealthy to have a little more salt to bring up the flavour, right?). The roasted pork did not really have the "roast" taste, probably because they used a different way to make it.

I thought beef shank sandwich was already extinct in Hong Kong except in a few really old traditional tea houses, but I was glad to find it here on the menu. I am not a fan of cool sandwiches actually, but this one was not bad at all. Cold thin slices of shanks mixed with vegetable were sandwiched in the bread. Again, Margaret also advocates a healthier eating habit by introducing more green in the food, and so even in sandwiches she adds some vegetable, which also adds a nice crispiness to the sandwich.

The Ovaltine ice-cream was certainly interesting. Made by their own kitchen , the ice-cream was served with a slice of toast, which reminded me so much of a breakfast! Yes, toasts with a hot Ovaltine in the morning are probably part of the memory of most Hong Kong people here. That slice of toast here was indeed a very thoughtful and tasty addition to the ice-cream.

Overall, this place was not bad at all. Food was a little too light in flavour for me, but everything was clean and well thought of. From how the food was served, you can see the details and care from the chef. Using organic food and adding more vegetable to the menu are definitely attractive to those who put their health on the list of priorities, though the big price tags do not seem to make too much sense. Still, it is great to see an evolution coming along for the traditional dining place in Hong Kong, which is no doubt an important piece of our collective memory.

The Langham Hotel group is probably very proud to have two awesome Chinese restaurants in two of their three hotels in Hong Kong. The one in Mongkok Langham Place hotel is called Ming Court, which is extremely good. The other one in The Langham in TST is called T'ang Court. Both are named after the two prosperous dynasties, and both received two stars from the Michelin Guide 2011. Today we came to T'ang Court, which was awarded as one of Top Ten Best Hotel Restaurants by the US magazine HOTELS.

The restaurant was not splendid as I expected, probably because of the still-not-renovated hotel interior. The whole place still had the mood under dim lighting, and the silky fabric in the ceiling added a little elegance.

The starter was Suckling Pig Knuckles, which was not bad at all.

Of course, the first main course we ordered was the famous Baked Stuffed Crab Shell (釀焗鮮蟹蓋), which won several awards, but before that we also had a little starter of Sliced Roast Suckling Pig (片皮乳豬件).

It was a little disappointing as the meat underneath the crispy skin did not have enough flavour. Then the stuffed crab shells came.

This was truly an awesome dish. The outer layer was in golden color and was not oily at all. The filling was not just crab meat, but a mixture of onion slices and shredded radish. Therefore, the texture was incredibly crisp and not overwhelming rich (if just crab meat, it would be too heavy). I also appreciate the portion because it was just enough and made you so want to have more, yet if you get one more it would be too much.

That reminds me of a good quote by a food critic: good food always come in good portion that only satisfies you by 70 percent. You want to have more but once you do it is too much. That in the end will make you come back to this restaurant again. THAT is good food.

So true.

The next dish was the Sautéed Prawns and Crab Roe with Golden-fried Pork and Crab Meat Puffs (露皇金銀蝦). I guess the name explains it.

Extremely well done, this was an amazing dish. The puffs, again, was not heavy at all, and I was so surprised by the interesting contrast of textures of the two items here. Served with baby asparagus, this dish was truly delicious.

The next two were the Roasted "Lung Kong" Chicken (脆皮龍崗雞) and Braised Beancurd with Seasonal Vegetables and Black Mushrooms (北菇紅燒滑豆腐).

Typical dishes but still above average in quality. The last main course was the Fried Rice with Shrimps and Portuguese Sauce, and was surprisingly good.

It was easy to overcook this and make the rice too sticky with the Portuguese sauce, but it didn't happen here. Even better, all the ingredients were so fresh: the grapes were juicy and fresh, while the shrimps were so crisp.

Updated: I missed the dessert part! It was a Red-bean Coconut Jelly, while the waiter also served us a complimentary Tiny Egg Tarts. They were both good though the egg tarts should be served hot not warm.

Most of the dishes here were actually ordinary Cantonese food, and probably not difficult to make, but when you carefully taste each of them, you can see the details and the huge attention the chefs paid. Half of them were fried dishes, but nothing was overly oily. All the ingredients were fresh, and that is the main reason why all the food here was so amazing. Sometimes, you don't need fancy materials or ways of cooking. If you just use fresh ordinary ingredients, and cook with great attention and effort, the end product will still be of high standard. I believe that is why T'ang Court can still stand firmly within the top Chinese restaurants in the town.

As many of you already know, tonkatsu or Japanese pork cutlet is just too popular in Hong Kong recently. An array of tonkatsu restaurants arrived in different shopping malls and food towers, including the famous Tonkichi and Bairin. It looks like another famous Japanese shop also wants a share of the pie, and here comes Saboten (勝博殿).

Started long time ago in 1966 in Japan, Saboten was one of the shops from Green House Foods. Currently over 400 shops are open in Japan, while you can also find their shops in Taiwan and South Korea.

Instead of boring you to death with history, we shall just start with the food. Like other tonkatsu restaurants, you grind your own sesame to make the special cutlet sauce. However, black sesame is used instead of white one, though I didn't know how different it was.

Also, there were pre-dinner snacks too, which was typical Japanese tsukemono (pickles).

Before trying their normal pork cutlet, we ordered the chef recommendation: pork rolls, and there were three types. This one was the cheese pork roll, which also had some ham inside.

The other two are apagarus roll and ginger pork roll. The first one with cheese was quite ordinary, but was the most tasty one, while the other two were just so-so. However, all of them were very well done and the rolls did not collapse upon your bite.

After that we had a set of assorted deep-fried items, which included the tonkatsu (pork cutlet), tiger prawn, cream crab cake and the pork loin.

Since it is a tonkatsu restaurant, it is important to see how good the pork cutlet is without any fancy thing on it. The pork was surprisingly tender, and I like the breadcrumb layer too. Unlike Tonkichi, this was thicker but didn't have that fatty feel. The meat had a little fat around the edge but I liked to have my pork with some fat. I think I like the cutlet at Tonkichi better, but this one is wonderful too, and it is much better than the cutlet in Bairin!

While the pork was delicious, one must not miss the creamy crab cake. The cake was incredibly tasty, with the cream mixed so well with the crab meat inside giving a smooth texture, contrasting with the crispy outer layer. It is definitely a must-eat item!

Last but not least, the rice was great here too. You can choose to refill your bowl with white rice or wheat rice at no extra charge, and same for the pickled starters and cabbage salad. The wheat rice was a nice choice for those want to be a little healthier.

The place was amazing, and I appreciate all the details and services besides the wonderful food. Sometimes, when you visit a tonkatsu restaurant, you will probably think that tonkatsu is the main dish, and all other items on the menu are just gimmick and won't live up to a standard. However, that is not the case in Saboten, especially for the crab cake. I am not sure if this is better than my favourite Tonkichi, but Saboten will no doubt be the biggest competitor again it!

There aren't a lot of Chinese restaurants which have great Beijing cuisine, and Dong Lai Shun (東來順) is definitely one of the few best. Located at Royal Garden Hotel, this restaurant offers authentic Beijing dishes, from the famous Beijing Duck to the hard-to-find Mongolian mutton. It is in the basement of the hotel next to the beautiful pool, certainly a kind of pleasure to enjoy Chinese cuisine with the sound of water as if you are dining in a Chinese garden.

The dinner started with the Smoked Duck Egg, a common but well done appetizer. The molten yolk was absolutely adorable. Who cares about calories now?

 The next one was Crab Cakes on the Shadow of Crane (蟹湖鶴影).

So beautiful, but what you are to eat is only the crab cake part. The waiter carefully moved the cakes onto the plates, and took away the whole dish after the serving. What a big opening! The crab cakes were wonderfully made, with the crab meat and roe so well balanced in proportion. Everything was mixed and then placed on a rice biscuit. Beside it was a ginger jelly in a shape of a crab, which was to clean your mouth after finishing the heavy crab cake.

And then the Crab Claw on Steamed Egg White with Chinese Wine came. I can't describe how delicious this was: huge meaty claw on amazingly smooth egg white, my god!

This is the dish that you would not miss when you dine in a Beijing restaurant, the Peking Duck, and of course it came with the chef's duck slicing show in front of your table.

The duck was wonderful, and the chef was smart to cut different parts of the duck to cater for different needs: if you want more fat, you have it; if you want just meat, you have it too; just skin? You also have it too.

I was surprised to find the purple turnips in the vegetable that accompanied the duck, since it could only be found in some old Beijing restaurants. The turnip sticks went red after drying up on the plate, and even though they did not really add any flavour, they added some nice texture to each pancake wrap.

The remaining portion of the duck wasn't just thrown away but instead had its meat shredded. The second part of it was the Lettuce Wraps with Minced Duck Meat, which was also delicious. Completely different from other ordinary restaurants, here each leaf was cut into a cup shape so that you could just put the minced meat right into it. In other restaurants, they just gave you the leaves and let you figure out how to wrap the meat up.

The next dish was really surprising to me. The Hand-grasped Mutton (手抓羊肉) was considered as one of the most popular dishes in China, and this one was made from Inner Mongolian black-headed goats. After being stewed for a long time, the mutton was still very tender and you can actually tear off the meat easily with your hands, and hence the name. Of course, we use chopsticks here, but we still tasted its traditional flavours with the sauces prepared with secret ancient recipes. It was amazingly tasty!

The final was the Fried French Beans with Minced Pork (乾煸四季豆).

This is a wonderful dinner of high quality. You could see the details, and the careful attention to not just the appearance of the dishes but also the construct of gastro-repertoire: the textures, the layers of tastes, the smell. I always think that such elegant cuisine would lose its raw taste since the food was repackaged and some portion of traditions would be sacrificed, but it didn't happen in this meal. Everything was excellent, and it certainly has its reason to be one of the best Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. The Royal Garden Hotel is an old establishment, but together with Dong Lai Shun, it has three amazing restaurants which will make it visit this place again and again!

(The other two are Sabatini and Inagiku)

There are just more and more pork cutlet places in Hong Kong after the success of Tonkichi (丼吉) and the recent Bailin (銀座梅林). Ichigo is a new-comer to Central, opened by the big chef Ito Hiroyuki (伊藤浩辛) who worked in the previous Grand Hyatt Kaetsu restaurant before. He has been doing great Japanese delicacy for more than 30 years, and quality should be quite assured. Located on the 11/F of the Loop building, the restaurant isn't big but diners can enjoy street view through the array of glass windows.

We ordered two simple sets for lunch and tried to see how different or great this place is. The Rice with Pork Cutlet and Egg (親子丼) looked great and tasted great too.

The second disk was only so-so. This Sliced Pork Cutlet in Layers with Cheese Filling (千層芝士豬扒) looked more like a gimmick. The crispy outer layer was well done as it was not oily and separated from the meat, while the melting cheese was tantalizing. However, the slightly tough pork was a little letdown.

I would imagine the layered pork would be softer in the mouth than a normal thick slice, but it turned out to be tougher. Perhaps I should not jump to conclusion that quickly, as I have to try other pork dishes as well, but still it was not a good start for me.

The salad was good, and instead of the typical soy sauce or plum sauce you could find in other tonkatsu places, you have sesame sauce instead. Rice was supposed to be refillable for free, but since the chef came from Fukushima, Japan, and to support the reconstruction of that area, any additional bowl of rice would cost HK, which would all be donated.

Overall, I think the quality is average, but it is definitely a great and surprising addition to the food scene in Central, where most of the restaurants are either sushi bars or tempura houses. Together with the affordable price tags, Ichigo will no doubt be another popular Japanese restaurant in the area where those who work here look for both good food and comfortable dining space.

Several years ago, the renowned Ritz Carlton building was demolished. I can still remember the whole process, because my office desk was facing it and I could see how it was pulled down piece by piece. The hotel itself isn't gone, as it reappears now in ICC, one of the two tallest buildings in Hong Kong. Occupying the topmost floors of ICC, the new Ritz Carlton brings back the high-quality gastro experience with its new array of restaurants. During its soft opening, we visited their interesting new lounge, the Chocolate Library.

The library, located on the 103/F, is probably one of the best places to enjoy a grand high-tea. Its spectacular view is no doubt one of a kind. Don't be distracted by the beautiful Hong Kong scenery, because the menu is also very attractive. While you can select the special tea set like I did, you can also find interesting a la carte like Chocolate Soufflé, and a large variety of tea including Earl Gray and Japanese Green Tea.

We didn't want to waste even more time on the menu, since we already waited for 90 minutes to go in. We just had the tea set for two, with the Signature Hot Chocolate. To be honest, this is the best chocolate I have even had: small but extremely rich, and the foam was an interesting addition. I thought only cappuccino would have that!

And let me explain what each item was. Center was the White Chocolate Berries Shot (Ivory White Chocolate 35% Cocoa), and the from top left clockwise: Berries Cocoa Tart, Guimauve (Manjari Chocolate 64% Cocoa); Chocolate Mille-Feuille (Caraibe Chocolate 66% Cocoa); Milk Chocolate Apricot (Jivara Milk Chocolate 47% Cocoa); Chocolate Orange Confit Macaroon (Guanaja Chocolate 70% Cocoa); Chocolate Framboise Tart (Manjari Chocolate 54% Cocoa); Cocoa Nib Chocolate Bread; Duck Foie Gras Terrine (non-sweet); Smoked Barbarie Duck, Cantaloupe Melon Confit on Walnut Bread (non-sweet); and finally Marble Cheese Cake (Coeut de guanaja 87% cocoa).

The Cocoa Nib Chocolate with Duck Foie Gras Terrine was amazingly surprising. The salty foie gras unexpectedly went so well with the chocolate, and the crunchy bottom layer also had an interesting texture contrasting the soft top layer. Wonderful!

The two tarts were a nice followup after the white chocolate shot, which was the least rich among the others. Oh yes, you have to be careful about the eating order because if you start with the richest chocolate, you will not be able to experience the others' true tastes as your taste buds are overwhelmed by the previous set.

Back to the tarts, I like the Framboise one. The rich chocolate mixed with the sour raspberry bits is unexpectedly pleasant in the mouth. The berries tart was however a little ordinary.

The apricot one was nice, but was also the least "chocolate" in the whole set to me since it was a little too light, and the apricot slice probably just covered up all the cocoa flavour. But the macaroon was delicious. The outer was not too hard, while the inside was soft and molten. The orange flavour was cleverly embedded in the layers of crunchy skin, nice!

The finale were the mille-feuille and marble cheese cake, which were both amazingly well done. I just fell in love with the cheese cake. Inside the tiny white bit, the cheese was so rich that it completely blew your mind away. The softness, the rich taste and the texture all formed a lingering sensation. The slice of 87% rich chocolate, without taking away the spotlight, added a little climax to the experience.

There is no doubt about the ambience of the restaurant and the wonderful view through the window. The restaurant design is open without doors or screens (except those for the kitchen) but at the same time allows intimate seating for different groups of people. It does not have a high ceiling but instead overlooks the Tosca restaurant downstairs, making itself look spacious and comfortable.

For the food, I think the chefs and managers worked really hard on the menu and the chocolate selection, but so far, even that I am content with what I have, nothing is extremely wow on my tongue. There is quite some room for improvement, or perhaps I missed the a la carte items which may be the wow ones. I would suggest more introduction on the chocolate selection, or maybe something more creative and crazy with its chocolate cookery (like the cocoa nib duck foie gras!). Otherwise, the beautifully packaged "book" tea set and concepts will just be gimmicks that won't last too long after the hype. Still, I think I will visit again for the great tea set, if not just for the spectacular view!

When you go to Sai Kung, the first thing on your mind will be seafood. Yes, nearly all the people who come to visit Sai Kung is coming for the local seafood. Located at the easternmost area of Hong Kong, the sheltered bay is renowned for a large variety of fresh seafood, from huge shrimps to lobsters, from butterfish to groupers. You can just find anything you want.

Most people will choose the restaurants close to the bus terminal, or at the entrance of the Main Seafood Street. However, one can also find some great local restaurants if walking further into the Sai Kung area. After passing the village houses, you will find Wing Wo, one of the biggest seafood restaurants serving the locals. Inside, under the ordinary Chinese restaurant design, you don't just find delicious dishes, but also a sense of homeyness.

Besides seafood, one must order this signature dish, the Hand-shredded Chicken (招牌手撕雞).

The cold appetizer also contained nuts, shredded jellyfish, carrots and crunchy bits. It was light and perfect as a starter, but those who are too worried about calories or fat will probably need to skip this, since there was quite some chicken skin inside.

The seafood soon arrived, and the first was the Fried Mantis Shrimps (椒鹽瀨尿蝦), and then the Steamed Abalones (清蒸鮑子仔).

The Steamed Baby Lobsters with Garlic (蒜茸蒸龍蝦仔) and the Steamed Solenidae (清蒸蟶子) followed. The latter one was especially delicious!

We did not order the seafood at the restaurant, but instead bought it from the seafood market next door. Here, you can select your favourite fish or shellfish from the seafood stalls, and then give it to the restaurants to cook for your dinner. Of course, it will all depend on the chefs if they can bring the best out of the fresh seafood, and at Wing Wo, they did a fantastic job. We chose steaming for all the seafood because that was the best way to keep the true taste of the clams and shrimps without overwhelming the flavours with excessive condiments.

After the dinner, the waiter served us a traditional dessert, the Osmanthus Jelly. It was surprisingly good and light, and unlike those in other restaurants, was only slightly sweet, making it a perfect dessert after the seafood.

While restaurants like Loaf On may have a lot of great reviews from food critics or even a star from Michelin, Wing Wo also has its attractive side. One thing you may not get from other places is the warm service from the owner and the special ambiance created by all the local people in the restaurants. Except some few tourists, more than half of the customers here are local people. With them, you feel like you are really dining in Sai Kung, not in just a flamboyantly-designed tourist-driven restaurant. No doubt I have found the right place to have the best seafood tonight!

This fancy steakhouse with a funny name is located on the 21/F of The One, and we knew that it would not be a cheap place. We arrived here around 1 on Saturday, and there were less than 20 people inside. We picked a table near the window, from which you could overlook the whole harbour (only partly blocked by the ugly high tower called Masterpiece, which was a piece of shit in terms of architecture).

In the end we decided to ordered a Classic Caesar Salad and 12 oz Wooloomoolook Rib Eye Steak with a Sauteed Wild Mashroom Side, both to share. The lunch started with a huge piece of bread, which was pretty well done, while I liked the creamy butter very much too.

And then the salad came. Interestingly, it looked huge too as I had never seen such big bread crumbs!

The Wooloomooloo Rib Eye Steak was actually a rib eye steak marinated with Cajun sauce. When it came, I could smell the char from the top of the steak...

The beef should be medium done but turned out to be a little bit overcooked. However, the meat was still tender and evenly flavoured. The portion of fat was little, perfect for me who just wanted the meat. The quality was high but nothing was surprising, and the four choices of sauces were nothing special either. The side dish was good, but I should have chosen the cream corn side since one of the four steak sauces was mushroom already.

Overall the meal was satisfying, but rather overpriced. It cost a little more than a meal at BLT, but the steak from BLT would be of even better quality. A meal in Bistecca would be even cheaper but much better beef. Perhaps, much of the cost went into the spectacular view, which was the main attractive point. That was why quite some people chose to come here and went into the viewing deck for a drink instead. Still, this place is high up there and hardly disturbed, and is perfect for a relaxing brunch or lunch place.

Alright, we finished our dinner at Lau Pat Set, but we were actually not full yet. We bought some snack near our hotel and got some interesting instant noodle and drinks.

Yes it is the Laksa noodle and Tom Yam noodle, which is exclusive here in Singapore. With such hot noodle, we needed some herb tea for sure to cool ourselves down.

The next day after breakfast we went straight to Orchard area again for some shopping, which turned out to be a boring walk since most of the shops were the same as those in Hong Kong. Therefore, we just wandered around till we arrived at the Mandarin Hotel. Wait, that was exactly the place for the best Hainanese chicken rice in town! That's right, we went up to the Chatterbox!

Probably too many people occupied the lift lobbies of Mertius Mandarin Singapore when Chatterbox was still on the 38-39/F, now the restaurant was moved to 5/F, away from the hotel lobbies and separated by a corridor of art gallery. When you arrived, you might think that you had gone to the wrong place, because Chatterbox looked much like a food court.

Still, it didn't stop the amount of people every day to visit and try the best Hainanese chicken rice in the town. The main chef from Germany (correct me if I am wrong) came to Singapore long time ago and refined this famous dish with his own twist, further bringing out the essence and taste of the original Hainanese chicken. From the chicken to use, to the bowl holding the rice, everything was well thought of. The chicken was tender and juicy, and the meat color was so even. I love the rice, which was cooked with chicken soup just to the point. It was not oily, not too wet, not too hard. The soup was surprisingly light, and was a perfect finale.

I heard that the food was still of this high quality after the move of the restaurant, but obviously when it was still on 38/F, one could enjoy the food with a spectacular view, and that would definitely add some spice to the whole experience.

In the afternoon, we went to another famous food stall. Yes, if you haven't been to this place, you actually haven't come to Singapore at all.

The little shop was located in a place called the Chinese Complex (Google Map), and even that it was not close to the city center, and even that it already had a lot of branches, many people came to this place still to look for the most original and raw taste of the kaya toast. Yes, that is what it is famous for, the kaya toast (咖央多士).

Before the toasts came, you would be given a dish of raw egg. You mixed it with black soy sauce and black pepper, and while you could just eat it, some people chose to dip their kaya toasts into it. All up to you, but I am sure that not many people are fond of this.

Yes, this is it, the best kaya toast in the town. That was not normal toast. It was toasted so powerfully that it was all dry and felt like crackers. It looked like normal toast, and the surface didn't seem to be heavily burnt, but it was crispy like biscuit! The kaya sauce mixed with a thick slice of cold butter was sandwiched between the toast, and the whole thing was so yummy that one set was not enough!

To extend the kaya joy, we also had the kaya French toast. In Hong Kong, we had our French toast with honey and butter, but here we replaced them with kaya sauce, and it was not a bad combination at all

We had a stroll at Clarke Quay in the evening, and looked for the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, one of my friend's recommendations (Google Map). After searching for 30 minutes, it turned out this restaurant was just next to the new Clarke Quay shopping center!

The restaurant was so full that we, not making any reservation before, had to wait for 90 minutes to get seated. Thank God we had a outdoor table near the river, since we would like to have a special setting for delicious seafood instead of having the dinner surrounded by four walls.

The Scallops Wrapped in Yam Ring (荔茸帶子) started our dinner. It was not a big surprise but at least it tasted great. It was not easy to keep the tenderness of the scallops but here the chef did it well.

And yes, that's the Deep-fried Prawns with Oatmeal (麥皮炒大蝦) again! I liked it so much that I had it again. Here the colors looked paler than the one we had before, but was obviously less oily. However, I like the previous one more because that one had a stronger smell of spices and smoke, because it was done in the big wok at the hawker center.

Then we had the signature dish from this restaurant, the Jumbo Black Pepper Crab (黑椒大蟹). It was so spicy to me and I just sweat all over my body (that's my reaction to chilly things!), but it was really wonderful. The crab was big and very meaty, and I was pretty sure that it was cooked for quite some time since all the flavours had gone into the meat through the shell. Awesome!

Finally, we walked a long way to a shop famous for the Singapore-only dish, the Bak Kut Teh, or the Pork Ribs Soup (肉骨茶).

We didn't just go to any bak kut teh restaurants. This place, is the place, the Ng Ah Sio Pork Ribs Soup (黃亞細肉骨茶) (Google Map). Some people might think that this restaurant was too arrogant since it closed at 2pm sharp every day, but when we arrived we saw the new opening hour setting, offering the delicacies till 5pm. The place looked like a dai pai pong (hawker center) but the waiters took your orders with PDAs.

What is this bak kut teh actually? It is a soup prepared with pork and ribs, and a lot of herbs and spices. Usually, it has a strong taste of Chinese medicine (which is also herbs) but here th soup has a really strong smell of black pepper, which is quite overwhelming. Some people like to add some other condiments like the black soy sauce, but we enjoyed our soup just with youtiao (or strips of dried dough) dipping into it. (on the right behind the soup) The dishes were nice, though sitting next to a construction site wasn't that pleasant (but we had no choice, haha). If you want to have a more complete meal, do try one of the large range of tea on the menu. If you want to try more than just the pork ribs soup, you can also pick other pork dishes like the pig knuckles and skin.

One of the famous Singapore food is this pandan cake (斑蘭蛋糕). Its interesting green color with the special smell makes it a hot item for tourists and visitors. We bought this cake from the renowned bakery, the Bengawan Solo (and we bought at this airport branch. They have 4 shops in just one airport!).

Compared to those pandan cakes in Hong Kong, this one from Bengawan has a lighter taste, and a richer egg flavour. Pandan cakes are from Malaysia actually, and the owner of this shop, Anastasia, is also a Malaysia. You can be sure that this pandan cake is the original one with the true taste of Malaysia.

That's it for now, and hope you enjoy it (and feel hungry!) If you are going to Singapore, don't miss these good dishes. Perhaps you can just save this guide with the web addresses inside, and hunt the food down!

When I went to Singapore, food was definitely one of the most important things on the agenda. There is no doubt about that since everyone who has been there knows that Singapore is famous for the cheap but delicious cuisine, which I believe is a twist from Malaysian and Chinese food.

The first thing that would probably come to most people's mind is the Hainanese Chicken with rice, and interestingly it is not from Singapore but Hainan Island in China. We visited the Yet Con Restaurant (逸群雞飯餐室) (Google Map) which was founded in 1940 and is now the oldest restaurant selling Hainan chicken.

I would not say this is of high quality, but together with the style of the restaurant, this Hainanese chicken really tasted like the 60s: old style, light-taste meat, simple but strong sauces (namely the three sauces: ground ginger, sour-sweet sauce and black soy sauce) and very light soup. What is interesting was the rice, which was cooked with chicken soup. The soup is light but at the same time has rich flavour of chicken, probably made from fresh vegetable with chicken organs.

After a long walk in the city around the Marina Bay area, we arrived at the Sands, famous for the long surfboard-like roof deck connecting three towers. We had a nice tea in the shopping mall down there in the podium, and when I say tea, it is really tea, from a tea company TWG.

We ordered the coconut tea, which was pretty nice. It smelt good with the strong coconut flavour. The smell at first didn't carry through to your mouth, but then revived when it reached your throat. The whole flow was very interesting. And you see the two ice-cream scoops, right? As you can guess they were tea ice-cream. The darker one was Lung Cheung tea, and the other was Alexandria Tea Sorbet (green tea with mint). The Lung Cheung one was nothing like Lung Cheung tea to me, but the sorbet was good. There were other flavours and you could probably find your favourite from there.

At night, we went to the famous Lau Pa Sat (老巴剎) (Google Map) hawker center where you could find all the cheap but nice street food and satay skewers under the Victorian-styled cast iron structure. Before the skewer platter, we got some tung choi (or water spinach 通菜) and a dish of Deep-fried Prawns with Pan-fried Oatmeal. This prawn dish was awesome!

The deep-fried prawns were very well done and juicy inside, forming an interesting contrast with the crispy fried oatmeal. The inside was salty but the oatmeal was sweet. Wonderful!

The skewers, however, were not up to my expectation. Even that I like the smell of charcoal, the meat was a bit too dry. The whole dish was fortunately saved by the yummy satay sauce. Otherwise, I would not pick this dish again.

Lau Pa Set, regardless of the food you would choose, was a nice place for quick meals or primitive eating experience in Singapore. The meal wasn't long and so we went back to the hotel early that night. We actually wanted to go back earlier because of the air-condition, which was just like oxygen to us under such unbearable heat.

The next morning after a great breakfast we went out again and checked the most famous resort district of Singapore.

As you can guess, that's Sentosa of Singapore, which was recently transformed into a place of sunshine and beaches. Also, you can find the Universal Studio there, attracting millions of tourists every year. It was small but everything was designed and decorated nicely. While most people would think that the restaurants and food courts in theme parks were no good, this place actually had a high-standard steak house, the KTs Grill. (Google Map)

We had a Char Broiled Rib Eye steak to share, and the medium-made beef was very well done. The smell of char with that of the half-cooked steak was just tantalizing, and baked potato with Provencal tomato both made a perfect match with the steak. On top of that, we added a sauteed mushroom as well, which was delicious.

In the evening, we arrived at Orchard Road, where you can find many shopping malls stuffed with name-brand shops and high-class restaurants. However, we didn't visit those dining places. Instead, we hunt for food in one of the food courts, where you can also find some tasty Singapore food.

This place called Food Opera was situated inside the new ION Orchard, and here you can find different kinds of food stalls. Among them, you will see this excellent fish-ball noodle, from Li Xin Teochew Fish Ball Noodle (立興潮洲魚圓面).

Another famous place was the Sergent Hainanese Chicken Rice stall, which had branches all over Singapore.

The chicken was tender, but I loved the rice more, which was prepared with chicken soup instead of the typical lard or chicken fat. The fish balls were still the best in the whole dinner because they were unexpectedly chewy and BIG! However, the most surprising part in the meal was this, the lemongrass drink!

One would think this is a strange drink, water mixed with lemongrass. Not really, this is sweet and you can smell lemongrass. It was light and perfect for such hot weather. It was just two dollars (SGD) and was a much better drink than just coke. Now I miss this drink very much!

We will be back in part 2 for the remaining food journey!

Yes, it was my favourite place for steak, and it is still my favourite place now! Tonight we came back to look for the delicious steak we ate some time ago, and of course, we retrieved the same wonderful taste!

The meal at Bistecca started with a pan bread with herbs and dried grape, but obviously we were not looking for this. If you are really starving then go ahead, otherwise you are advised not to take any.

Now this is why we were here. We chose our favourite Delmonico 24oz steak, chicago grilled. From the menu, "All our meats are carefully selected from premium butchers, aged for optimum tenderness, rubbed with sea salt
and Kerala peppercorns, charcoal grilled and drizzled with Tuscan olive oil and lemon for optimum avor."

And no doubt this is the perfect steak in town. The meat was so tender and juicy, with the other layer charred and crispy. Some people may want less fat, but hey this is what true steak is about!

We also had a Chopped Salad with Avocado, Provolone Cheese, Olives, Lettuce, Tomatoes. Not bad and the sour salad made a good balance with the meat. Perfect combo.

This was an amazing dinner, and we had no complaint at all. If you are looking for a wonderful steak meal, Bistecca is your first choice. However, tonight the dinner didn't end here. We had a great finale at the recently-open 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo.

The beautifully designed restaurant stars the famous chef Umberto Bombana, who was once in charge of the Italian eatery of Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. His return is certainly greatly anticipated by all of us who love to get indulged in his masterpieces.

This time we had ourselves seated in the outside lounge area and ordered dessert only. The first was Tiramisu cake with chocolate tart, and the second was chocolate souffle with orange ice-cream.

I had the latter set, and it was just brilliant. The chocolate souffle was so rich, and the orange ice-cream was light. The combination of hot and cold, rich and light was very well done. I cannot believe that even just such tiny dishes, great care was paid to make sure the food looked right, smelt right and tasted right. Everything was perfect from visual to gustatory aspects.

What a night!

The Civil Square at Elements is a pretty enjoyable area, which you can find several high-end restaurants with outdoor dining space. Yamashiro is among one of them, and is the only Japanese restaurant there.

Of course, with that kind of setting, this restaurant is not a cheap one. However, you will probably enjoy the comfortable and moody environment with the brown and gold color scheme, furnished with wooden tables and bar counters. Food is not something you should worry about because the menu has all the fresh seafood sashimi for you to choice, and all the sushi were done by the chefs only upon ordering to guarantee the freshness and texture of the sushi.

Tonight I was having my last birthday meal, and yes this is a belated one across the new year! We started the meal with a bottle of sake, and I can guarantee a really good sleep after that...

The starter dish was an assorted sushi platter (山城寿司盛合せ), on which you can find typical sushi like salmon, uni, toro and fish roe. I have to say, all of them were of very high quality. The fish ones were very good, and it looked like the chef only picked the best part of the fish which had the perfect fat to meat ratio.

Then we had this special vegetable dish which was only available in this season of spring. It was something like budding brassica rapa imported from Japan. It was indeed very sweet like the waiter said.

This was the best out of the whole dish, the Grilled Oyster with Miso Paste (牡蠣館燒).

And let me tell you, this is perfect, just perfect. The combination of sweet miso with the taste of oyster was very interesting, as the paste balanced the salty taste inside the shell well. The oyster was unbelievably juicy and the inside was still very soft after the grill. This was pure delicacy! Five star and a must-eat item!

After the seafood we had this nice vegetable dish with some fish meat in. It was the Deep Fried Layered Salmon and Beancurd with Special Sauce in Hakata Style (鮭博田豆腐)。

On top you could see the mushroom fresh from Japan, and the roll-like thing was actually a piece of salmon stuffed in the middle of a piece of tofu, and finally wrapped up by seaweed. This was wonderfully tasty, as both the fish and beancurd were very soft. The seaweed gave it a nice contrasting texture instead of just being a decorative element.

Before the teppanyaki fried rice, we couldn't help but ordered two uni handrolls (ウニ手巻). This was nothing but delicious!

And the final hot dish was this sea urchin fried rice.

This was no ordinary fried rice. The fried sea urchin was crispy in texture, and the teppanyaki was very well done as the rice completely absorbed the amazing taste of the uni. The overall rice was not oily at all, which was even better for such a picky person like me! This was a five-star fried rice!

Wow! Yes, I swear you just wowed. We had this finale called Sweet Five. I thought it was a different kind of dessert on the menu but it was actually a selection of the five most popular items on that menu. From top in clockwise direction: matcha and red-bean ice-cream set, molten chocolate cake, strawberry cake, Japanese peach jelly, and wasabi creme brulee! The last one was odd enough but was unexpectedly tasty. The molten chocolate cake definitely melted my heart with its extremely rich chocolate inside.

This dinner was wonderful and I didn't really know there was such a great Japanese restaurant in this shopping mall. Everything had high quality, and all of them was really fresh food besides the attractive presentation. If you can afford it, I will certainly recommend you to come over and have a try. Thanks again to Dennis for this dinner!

I believe when St. Valentine was saving the lovers during his time, he never thought this day of honoring his deeds would become such a day of commercialism. In Hong Kong, the 14th of February is overrated, but I guess those in love, especially the girls, don't care anymore but demand the best  that their boyfriends can offer. Obviously, the whole event becomes a showoff party of wealth.

I care less about this day actually, but I still had to arrange a dinner. Since I always wanted to try this Japanese restaurant, I just took the chance and dined here on Valentine's Day. Kaika is located at the 19/F of the newly established shopping mall with a ridiculously funny name, The One. On that floor, there are only two restaurants, this and the famous Harlan's, and both of them are under the same group. As one can guess, both restaurants offer high-quality food with exorbitant prices.

Well, at least we had a wonderful window seat. The table was set diagonal to the window, with two seats facing the excellent view towards the TST East area. Despite the expensive dinner set (no a la carte on that day, just one set that you can order), the whole restaurant was full. Most people dressed up well, and thank God I was in suit due to work, while my lady was gorgeous in her pink dress. Of course, as I always say, the best experience comes from who you are dining with, not just what you order to eat.

The dinner started with a set of interesting appetizers, including  Sake Steamed Fresh Prawn (川海老酒蒸し), Chicken Wrapped with Carrot & Leek (鶏文銭巻き), Japanese Ginger with Sweet Vinegar (みょうが酢), Tuna & Sea Bream Marble Sushi (紅白団子寿司) and Japanese Sweet Egg Roll with Shrimp (伊達巻).

The best one was the second one, the chicken wrap which was like a slice of chicken sausage with leek inside. The shrimp was good, while the others were so-so with any surprise.

The second dish was a plate of sashimi, which was shaped as a pair of roses. Nice presentation, and both the salmon and tuna were fresh and tasty.

The main course then began, and it was a set of teppanyaki, the signature dish in this restaurant. Foie gras in Blueberry Sauce (フォアグラブルーベリーソース) started the course, and it was very well done. The slice of liver was fried just at the right amount with the outside crispy, and soft and melting in the inside. I like the use of sweet and sour blueberry sauce, which balanced the oily taste of the foie gras.

The next one had a great look too, the Turbo Whelk which had its meat sliced and fried.

Again, it was wonderfully prepared, since teppanyaki-ing seafood was never easy. You have to cook it thoroughly without losing the water contents. As you can see, the whelk here was a little burnt, but it was juicy still.

A salad (焼き野菜) then came to clean your mouth for the next dish.

This was the main dish, the Australian M8 Beef Steak (豪州 M8 80G). IThe meat was tender, and teppanyaki-ed just right. It was a little fatty, but was balanced well with other teppanyaki-ed vegetable on the same plate.

After the meat, the fried rice and sushi came. The original set included the rice, but the sushi cost an extra 88 dollars.

The fried rice was not one done in a wok or pan, but was also teppanyaki. The sushi was of good quality but unsurprising with the typical toro, scallop and uni as ingredients.

The finale was the fruit plate featuring the Japanese melon, strawberries and cherries. It was for the chocolate fondue but of course you can have them without the chocolate cover.

Each Valentine Dinner set had a complimentary cake set, made by the cake shop Carousel under the same restaurant group.

The two cakes were nicely presented, and were pretty well done despite their ordinary flavours. The chocolate mousse cake was rich, while the pink cheese cake was surprisingly light. The two contrasting tastes created an interesting finale for the whole dinner.

This dinner to me was overpriced, but it was not just only on 14th February. Dining at Kaika is not a cheap event at all even on weekdays. Yes, they are really offering wonderful Japanese food, especially those directly imported seafood from Japan, but you can probably enjoy the same kind of food in other restaurants at a lower price. Interestingly, the lunch sets at Kaika are not expensive, ranging from just 0-200. In any case, with the spectacular view from this restaurant over the TST area, tasting sushi and teppanyaki at Kaika is definitely a unique experience that you cannot find in other places.

The Summer Palace is not just famous for its one Michelin star or its location in Hong Kong Shangri-la hotel, but also its high-quality Chinese food. It is probably easy to trick the foreign tourists, but not us who have Chinese meals nearly every day. Tonight, we were here to see if the heavy price tags were justified by what they offered.

The palace-like restaurant was splendidly decorated with gold and red panels and wood features, forming such formal and elegant ambiance. The place was comfortable, though I think the distance between the tables could be a little longer.

Our dinner started with their signature starter dish, the Suckling Pig Slices (化骨乳豬件). The crispy skin and juicy slices sandwiched a piece of Chinese bread, allowing you to taste the textures of each one by one: crispy to soft and to juicy. This is an excellent starter indeed!

Then we had Crab Claw on Winter Melon (蛋白冬瓜配蟹鉗) and Baked Stuffed Conch with Curry Filling (焗釀響螺). Both were huge and delicious, while I like the crab claw more. Its soup was surprisingly well done, which contained all the essence of both the crab and the melon.

The vegetable came shortly, which was the Bean Shoot with Bamboo Shoot and Shrimp Roe (帶子竹筍湯豆苗).

Another signature dish, the Crispy Deep-fried Chicken (脆皮炸子雞). Indeed, the skin was extremely crispy while the meat was so tender. This is unbelievably good.

Finally, an interesting fusion dish, the Short Ribs in Foie Gras sauce (鵝肝牛仔骨). It was an interesting combination and I'd never imagine it would work!

The finale was another signature dish too, the Mango Pomelo Sago (楊枝甘露).

The look was just like the ordinary sago you can get in other restaurants, and you will find it different once you put your spoon in. Yes, it is so thick! It uses 100% cream and coconut milk, and you can be sure that the chef did not add water in. It is just too good to describe!

Overall, the food was of high quality but lacked a little creativity. Everything was very well done, though I don't agree with the high prices. However, if you are looking for a decent place with great Cantonese delicacy, this can be one of your choices. For me, I would instead visit their Japanese restaurant, Nadaman.

I am an early bird, and so I usually have breakfast and lunch but not brunch. The combination of the two meals will only, to me, upset my biological clock for the whole day. However, looking at the mouthwatering photos from a magazine featuring the brunch offered by Classified made me so want to go and try, and, here we go!

This Sunday was beautiful, and we were lucky to reach this place before 11am as the breakfast menu would be replaced by a lunch menu. Yes, it is not really a brunch but Classified was famous to be a brunch spot! Anyway, we ordered 4 things for two people, because we know that each dish was not big while we also wanted to try more on the menu.

The restaurant was pretty open with two sides fully opened to the street. Decorated with dark wood, the British style place had a huge wine shelf featuring more than 200 kinds of wine and tables with non-flat surfaces. Everything created a cozy and comfortable ambiance with being too high-profile. Before the food came, our hot chocolate arrived, and they were huge...

The chocolate was rich and it did not taste like chocolate made from powder. Then the signature dishes came, namely the egg benedict and egg royale.

They both consisted of half English muffin, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce, but the first one had ham in between while the latter one used salmon. I like the first one more, which was the original flavour, but the salmon one tasted good too.

We also ordered the English sausages (or bangers colloquially) and baked bagel with cream cheese on top, which were not that exciting but still delicious.

Everything served on the table was good and the environment was comfortable, perfect for a Sunday. Of course, the best part is that you have a friend beside you to enjoy such a relaxing weekend. That is what makes every meal most enjoyable!

Ser Wong Fun is probably one of the most famous local restaurants around the Central district in Hong Kong, and one of the very few that actually has a special story behind. Ms Ng took over the restaurant from her parents, and was the key person for the recent renovation in both the interior design and management of this place. She is the youngest daughter in the family, and while she was offered a decent job at one of the banks, she decided to quit instead, and run the family business. She understood that just offering snake delicacy was not enough for the restaurant to grow, and thus revamped the menu and introduced traditional Chinese food besides the original snake menu.

Very soon the formula was proved to be correct. Her mother is still helping the restaurant every day, and both of them treat the customers like family. Indeed, when you walk in, you will receive the warmest welcome from them.

This time, we won't be satisfied with just the snake banquet soup, something that this place is famous for, and we also ordered a bunch of yummy dishes. Still, we start with the famous snake soup.

For those who never try snake before, you can imagine it as chicken meat, but a bit tougher. The strong smell of snake may not be appealing to some people, but the extra ginger and chenpi (sun-fried mandarin peel) will balance out the fishy smell. People like to eat snakes during the autumn time as snakes are considered a "warmer" for the body. We also got a nice homemade soup made with pear and coco de mer.

The main dishes then follow. The tofu with squid slices baked in earthpot was very good. The tofu tastes light, balancing well with the rich sauce, and it is a perfect match with hot rice!

Don't mistake the second dish as chicken in lemon sauce. It is actually duck! The duck meat is so tender and it tastes amazingly like chicken, and out of our surprise the deep-fried meat is not oily at all!

Probably the best here, the stir-fried glutinous rice with duck liver sausage is definitely a must to eat at this moment. Unlike many other places, the rice here is not overly oily, and the rice really absorbs all the flavours from the sausage and soy sauce. It is just wonderful.

The star in the menu is actually the fish head with marinated ginger and bean curd baked in an earthenware pot, but we are too full to try it. We are sure that we will go back very soon and try the other parts of the menu. I am very satisfied with what I ate here, as everything is not fancy Chinese food or funny fusion cuisine, but just traditional home dishes with high quality. I can't say just the snake soup can keep the restaurant alive, but I have to agree that the transformation led by Ms Ng is very successful. Some people may find the place too crowded, but I like it this way as it feels like everyone is dining together like a big family. That's what Chinese food is all about.

Yes, we are too full, but when we are about to go into the subway, I am just too tempted by the gelato from Holly Brown...

What a finale!

Just a little sweet treat during Christmas, I got some great chocolate from the La Maison du Chocolat and some great macaroons from Ladurée.

There is no doubt about the quality of chocolate from La Maison du Chocolate, and you can check my blog about their extremely delicious Delice cake. The box here contains chocolate-coated almonds, while the bag is a block chocolate with pistachio.

The macaroons are good, and they are crispy on outside and soft inside. I like the fact that the whole macaroon is not too solid, with a lot of space inside giving a spongy feel. Also, the core is soft like cream, contrasting the hard and crispy outer layer. That combination is very interesting.

Ladurée only opened a little counter in Joyce (Central branch) for a while, and when I was queuing up for the order, I realized the other people are all rich women. I also heard that the champague and bottles of water by Ladurée were all sold out quickly after a week or something, and I cannot believe the attractiveness of Ladurée can actually exert over this city from Paris!

Christmas Day is definitely a very special and boisterous moment in the city. Most of the streets and major shopping malls are filled with crowd, and finding a place to sit down and relax is not easy. Today we got away from the hustle and bustle, and found our peace of mind in this nice lobby lounge of InterContinental hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Of course, we expected a special price tag on the original afternoon tea set since it was Christmas Day and everyone would try to take advantage of that and add a little in the price lists. We picked a nice sofa seating in the center of the lounge area. The tables were actually close to each other and some may not find that comfortable, but with the super high ceiling, one will definitely appeal to the ample space here.

All the food in the tea set arrived together. The scones looked really nice, but I wasn't a big fan of it until I found the scones extremely delicious with the excellent devonshire clotted cream they serve. Some people actually visit this lounge because of this cream!

The cake tray was a simple rack with a circular support. The three layers, from top to bottom, held the cream and earl grey jelly, sweet cakes and non-sweet pastries.

I must say that each cake was very well done, and I love the duck liver pâté with toast most. The crab meat mini-burger was wonderful too, while chocolate lovers like me would be crazy about the rich dark chocolate cake.

The main reason why the tea set was expensive is the mariage frères tea they use. I chose Fuji Green Tea, and it was really rich and smelt different. Since the staff continuously refills your teapots, you can just sit here for the whole afternoon to enjoy the tea and pastries.

The overall ambiance was nice but a little bit noisy because of the huge open space. While you may find really little decoration especially in such a joyful festive season, but for those who want to indulge themselves in good quality tea and cakes together with unbeatable sea view and live band music, this lounge will be the excellent choice.

Yes, we visited this place again right before the Christmas. Too bad it was nearly full and we were assigned to a table we called "the Pizza Hut table", which was so close to the others on the two sides as if you are sharing it with the other diners. We would like to switch and finally got ourselves seated in a table right at the entrance. We didn't want to others' conversations to interrupt our Christmas Eve dinner, and guess what's more: we have a Christmas tree right next to us!

The design of 798 is similar to that branch in Times Square, Causeway Bay, but it was more cozy probably because of the low ceiling level. There was not much to choose on this day, because every menu was preset to be this special set, and we simply started the courses once seated.

The teasers were arranged in a row on a long dish, which includes Cherry Plum Tomato in White Win Gelee, Seared Scallop on Crispy Potato Cake, Truffled Duck Liver Pate and Pistachio-crusted Swordfish Belly. The pate was my favourite, with the rich duck liver on the crispy toast. The fish though was too dry and tough. Overall it was nicely presented and creative, and the portions were all right.

The warm-up dish was a Lobster Bisque with Crab Soufflé. They were surprisingly tasty and interesting. The top of of the bisque was cold, and while I thought I would hate it because of that, I found the hot soup at the bottom, which formed an intriguing texture with the top foam. The soufflé was good too, as the light puff-up balanced the rich taste of the crab purée below.

My lady chose the Champagne Risotto of Maine Lobster with Salmon Roe and Fava Beans, while my main course was a Australian Wagyu Beef (M5) with Cannellini Beam Purée, Roasted Figs and Brandy Sauce.

The risotto was a little too creamy for our taste, but it would be perfect for cheese lovers. The lobster was supposed to be the spotlight but it failed to be outstanding. The steak was just so-so, and I must say that the starters were much better than these main courses.

The final light-up dessert came, which was the Bombe Alaska. It was a Raspberry Sorbet, Cherries, Mini Meringue smothered in fresh cream and more meringue and passion fruit, flambéed on the table.

The visual was entertaining but the taste did not equate to that. The cream was not rich and milky enough, though the raspberry sorbet was not bad. Still, the overall dish was more about eye-candy than being truly tasty.

The restaurant, like many others, was fully booked on Christmas Eve, and required you to deposit to secure the reservation. The set dinner was not cheap and I definitely expect more than just these dishes. They were all okay, but had a lot of room for improvement. My previous experience in 798 Unit was not bad at all, but this time I was, to be frank, a little disappointed. Perhaps next year I should still have my special dinner at a more high-class restaurant like those in renowned hotels, as I for sure don't want to ruin my night at Christmas Eve.

We came back again to this cozy Japanese restaurant in World Trade Center, Causeway Bay, for a belated birthday celebration. I won't repeat but go straight into what we ordered. First, we got the tuna sushi again.

Following is the Grilled Saba, which was huge and very rich in oil. If it is good saba, it should be oily and you don't need to add oil at all in your pan.

Then my favourite, ox tongue skewers...

I wasn't to order this sirloin beef teppanyaki again, but since my friends were drooling over its image on the menu, we just had it as well.

We also ordered a set of assorted skewers, which had octopus, chicken meat, chicken cartridge, chicken wings and pork with cherry tomatoes. The last one was amazing, with salty bacon wrapping around the sweet and sour tomatoes, good combo!

And now it is the main dish of the night, also what this restaurant is famous for, the Beef Offal Hot Pot (牛腸鍋)! For those who find internal organs disgusting, please stop here, or else just scroll down!

That is what it looked like after being cooked, and it was very chewy, so chewy that it was just tough and hard to swallow. The taste of it was not bad at all, but very fatty and you could see a layer of fat and oil floating on the soup in the hot pot.

This beef offal hot pot is considered as precious dish by the Japanese women in their countries, as they believe it helps improve their skin quality. I have no idea but I don't think I was too okay with it because I got diarrhea that night! Maybe I am allergic to internal organs but it is probably just this time. In general the food was all good and I must say the skewers and sushi were wonderful. Don't miss them if you visit!

I have been to 798 Unit & Co several times, and I must say it was a pretty nice place for a relaxing evening with your colleagues or friends. Pop a bottle of wine, get some breads and salad, chat and talk, that's what life should be, and that's what 798 is about.

Tonight we came here for a nice dinner and even though the table was not good (right next to the entrance!), the food was up to standard and the ambiance was moody and comfortable, perfect for a relaxing evening. Our dinner started with this Classic Caesar Salad topped with Poached Egg & Crispy Bacon.

It was a light salad and the I liked the fact that it had very little salt and only let the bacon do the salty part. It was a wonderful combination. Then we had the Escargots done with blue cheese, herb-butter and garlic-butter. For those who like and eat escargots, you can imagine how delicious this dish was.

We have two mains, my favourite Pappardelle with Mushroom & Black Truffle Cream, and the US Prime Rib Steak with Baked Idaho Potato. Some of you may not put pasta into the mains category but to me it is a main course. Anyway, this pasta is not small at all!

The pappardelle was good and creamy, and with the black truffle it wouldn't go too wrong, though it was not easy to use a fork to handle such creamy and fat pasta. The steak, however, was a little disappointing. The meat was a little overcooked and tough, and the presentation was a bit sloppy. The potato was okay, but it couldn't save the overcooked steak.

As usual, the dinner wouldn't be complete without dessert, but instead of ordering from the menu, we went to another place for something new. Crumbs was a little shop which always has a long queue. Maybe it is just recent but probably short-lived hit, maybe it is really the good yogurt, in either case we are attracted and determined to try it.

We got two simple regular size yogurts with mango topping, and they were smooth like soft ice-cream. The yogurt was a little more sour than that of Yo Mama (see previous blog), but overall it was still sweet and delicious. I am not an expert of yogurt and so I cannot say too much about how to distinguish good yogurt, but the smooth texture definitely turned me on and made me visit again in the future. This is certainly a healthier sweet treat than those ice-cream and cakes on the 798 menu!

It is probably not very usual for me to visit this place again in less than 3 months. Those who visit the Press Room are mostly foreigners, but the food here is certainly decent to attract picky diners like me.

This time we came here around seven thirty without making a reservation. The place was pretty full leaving only some high tables for us. We were told to have a drink first and wait till someone left, but in the end we just ate at that high table because we were too hungry.

Before talking about the good food, I am going to talk about this unpleasant experience we had before the dinner. We couldn't believe that the waitress forgot our orders completely. After she took away our menu, we waited more than 45 minutes before sensing something was wrong. We asked and realized that she actually forgot our orders! The manager apologized and offered us another round of red wine for free, but to me, that is too big a mistake for a waiter in such a high quality restaurant to make. That is unforgiveable, and I sincerely hope that it won't happen again.

Back to the food, we decided to have one dinner set from the menu, and added one main before completing it with desserts. We had the Foie Gras & Chicken Liver Parfait with Toasted Walnut Bread again, and you can see it in my previous blog. Then the main course came, the Grilled Sea Bass with Vine Tomatoes and Salsa Verde.

The fish was tender and the fettuccine coming with it was also not bad. I like the sauce most, which was the Italian green sauce made with parsley vinegar, garlic and olive oil. It truly enhanced the taste of the sea bass. Then our chicken arrived, which was the Herb Roast Spring Chicken with Morel Cream Sauce. It was delicious!

The chicken was so succulent with the skin roasted to have this beautiful grill smell. It was extremely well done, and we even finished off the vegetable in the big pot. After that, we were pretty much done, and immediately we checked the dessert menu for a nice finale.

We ordered the Banoffee Sundae and Chocolate Marquise, and both were great sweet things. I like the sundae more just because I like ice-cream, but the marquise was not bad too, and was surprisingly not heavy.

Overall the food was wonderful, but having our order missed was absolutely no good. That for sure deducts a lot of marks from me or else this is easily another A-minus dinner. Still, I visit restaurants primarily for good food and so I am sure I will come back for the third time, though I won't stand anymore if  my order is missed again!

When it comes to food, the grand and renowned hotel Peninsula can always deliver the best from their kitchen. On my birthday, my lady and I went to Chesa to revisit the authentic Swiss food. Yes, I have visited this place before as you can check my previous blogs, but this time I brought back some better pictures!

The bijou restaurant had only 10 tables. Decorated with wooden ceiling panels and classic fabrics on the table and sofas, this little place resembles the interior of a little chalet in the Alps. From the little candle to the patterns on the cruets, every detail makes this place like home.

Before the Swiss main course we had this French starter, Pan-fried goose liver escalope with glazed fig and Cassis sauce (Escalope de foie gras poêlé aux figues glacées, sauce au Cassis 煎鵝肝配糖無花果及黑醋栗汁). I don't think I need to elaborate on this dish, since it wouldn't go wrong if it was foie gras!

The spotlight of the dinner arrived shortly after the starter. It was Fondue Vaudoise (Traditional Swiss fondue with Gruyère and Emmental, served with baguette 傳統瑞士火鍋配以格魯耶魯芝士、埃文達芝士及粒切法包). When we were ordering, we were struggling between that and Fondue au Gorgonzola aux champignons (Fondue prepared with Gorgonzola and sautéed mushrooms, served with rye bread cubes 瑞士火鍋配以藍芝士、嫩煎磨菇及祼麥方包), but with thorough explanation from the kind staff, we decided to go with the former one.

The cheese was mixed with some kind of wine, giving it a slightly bitter taste, though the bitterness went away when the cheese cooled down on the bread cubes. The cheese was wonderful and surprisingly not heavy at all. As you may have guessed, this fondue set was more than enough for two people to share as the bread was quite filling.

We also added one meat, Pot-au-feu au joue de boeuf, légumes racines et raifort (Beef cheek pot-au-feu with root vegetables and hint of horseradish 法國傳統菜肉煲熟牛面頰及菜根再灑上辣根碎).

This dish was extremely light and fresh, with the meat being so tender and tasty. I think we made a good choice because this light dish matched the rich Swiss fondue perfectly. The beef was so tender that it was better than any good beef brisket I tried before in the town. Excellent!

The Swiss fondue before that wasn't thrown away by the staff. It was actually placed quietly on the side and left boiling. After some time, everything was dried, leaving only the "pan-fried" cheese bites. It was actually one of the main reasons why people ordered this fondue, because these crispy cheese crumbs, though a little too salty, were perfect companions with beer or other kinds of wine.

We did not order any dessert this time because we already had something else reserved in the fridge. Although their chocolate house cake was very famous and delicious, I had to leave some space in the stomach for the special birthday cake from Peninsula's Cake Shop.

It was a chocolate mousse cake, and even though it looked plain, it was the best thing I had tonight! A cake with your name on it was definitely a win on the special day of mine. Again, this little restaurant was still high in the standard, delivering superb food and drinks for both food gourmets and ordinary people who just wanted to have a taste of heaven. While Chesa's Swiss cheese fondue is already one of its kind in Hong Kong, its cozy and elegant interior design will certainly give you a unique and wonderful experience. People say if you live in Hong Kong, you must visit Peninsula, and I say, if you visit Peninsula, you must visit Chesa!

Some time ago I recommended Awfully Chocolate to you, and I got mixed reviews from my friends. Some thought their cakes were really awesome, but some didn't think so. Of course, I think they are no chocolate lovers, but while questioning if they really know what good chocolate (or good chocolate cakes) is, I think they shouldn't have a different opinion than mine if they see this.

This is perhaps one of the best chocolate cakes ever in the town. Delice from Le Maison du Chocolat is nothing but pure chocolate, using all the great dark chocolate from their own store.

Made with fine almond and layers of rich chocolate, this luscious cake is plain sensational. It is rich, but isn't too heavy at all. At least, you don't need to drown yourself in several bottles of water after one bite of it. The lower layers are lighter chocolate cake while the richest layers are the top layers, covered by rich chocolate sauce on the very top and decorated by a thin piece of colored chocolate which looks like a cardboard banner. The proportion is just right, and everything is well mixed too. You can feel different layers of chocolate melting in your mouth, and you know this is no ordinary chocolate cake!

At HK0 (1 pound; 340 for 1.5, 440 for 2), this cake costs a bit more than any other chocolate cakes but you know why it has such a price tag. If you love chocolate, you must try this. If you are not a fan of chocolate, I think you should try it too and change your mind!

Suddenly everyone is talking about the old buildings in Hong Kong. It seems like people here try to preserve every old and traditional buildings in the town, and therefore react quickly or even protest whenever they hear about demolishing a century-old edifice.

It is my second time visiting OVOlogue, which is a fairly fancy Chinese restaurant by the group OVO located right inside an old tenant house in Wanchai. This is not any ordinary house, but a famous pawn shop actually. Some people, after seeing the so-called revitalization of the building, criticized the government that they should have made it into some kind of museum, so that the public can have a look and experience what these old but special buildings, instead of turning them into profitable shops or restaurants. In any case, we don't want to talk more about that, since we are more concerned about the food in OVOlogue, not the memory this building would recall in our mind.

After a year, there wasn't much change in the interior. The ceiling was still the old but re-polished wooden structure, and the floor and lower part of the walls were all cladded with dark wood. The space was simple but decorated with many pieces of sculptures, from old teapots to metal ashtrays. In the main room, a projector ran a looping slideshow showing the old times of Hong Kong, bringing back those memories to the customers. Of course, we don't have any doubt in the style brought by OVO, as OVO is always one of the most sophisticated deco companies in the town. Right next to this restaurant is already their branch of OVO, called OVOhome, offering famous designer chairs and trendy home deco pieces.

The choices of food here were plenty, but most of them were typical traditional Guangdong and Shanghai cuisines. Still, they were beautifully crafted like the furniture they sold next door. The dinner started with some shots of fruit punch, while we also ordered one tea, the Ginsen Oolong 人參烏龍. I didn't have any expectation in the tea since I didn't think it was some kind of high-class tea, but it was incredibly wonderful. I believe they did use the top-notch oolong, which was the only best oolong that could leave traces of sweetness in the back of your tongue. Wonderful!

We started our dinner with a dish of Coffee-Smoked Duck Eggs, and it will probably scare off any person who has a problem with cholesterol. I had the best smoked duck eggs when I was in Ye Shanghai, but this one wasn't bad at all. It was less salty then those in Ye Shanghai as they here replaced the salt with caviar on the half-cut eggs. The overall taste was lighter, perfect as a starter.

Then the dishes came. The first was the Deep Fried Garoupa Slices, which looked heavy but were surprisingly light and tender inside. The Golden Garlic and Spicy Salts on the fish added an interesting flavour to the dish too.

The OVOlogue Chicken Hotpot was not big but tasty. The meat was tender while the baby onions in the pot were unexpectedly delicious, going so well with the chicken.

We wouldn't miss the vegetable, and so we got ourselves the Dry-fried String Beans. It was nothing special but up to standard. The OVO Signature Fried Rice came too, and it was good.

It was basically a simple fried rice with shrimps, small scallops and crab roe. It was unexpectedly light and not oily, which is the first big criterion of good fried rice. We of course didn't end the dinner without desserts. We ordered two interesting dishes, the Osmanthus Jelly Cake and the Custard Mochi with Shredded Coconut.

I liked the osmanthus cakes a lot, which was and had a really pleasant aroma. The cakes actually had mango flavour too, forming an interesting fix with the floral smell. Finally, my Chinese birthday buns came and gosh, there were 8 of them!

If you want these birthday buns, besides the coupon you also need to book in advance, allowing two more days to prepare them. That way I think they actually made the buns themselves instead of buying them from other places. It didn't taste like frozen types in the supermarket either. Everything was good, and was surprisingly inexpensive. The menu looked scary with nearly $1000 menu set, but if you ordered separately and if you had several friends coming with you, the overall budget would be just around $200. After all, I think you have to pay a little bit for the sophisticated interior design and 80s-style ambiance, and I would say OVOlogue is definitely a place worthy for a try.

If I talk about pork and Japanese food, pork cutlet is probably the first thing on your mind, right? However, that's not the only way how the Japanese does with their well-bred pigs. The traditional way of preparing the pork on rice can be interesting too.

Noren is a little shop in TST East, and while the name means typical Japanese fabric divider in front of the doors, it probably has nothing to do with fabric or interior design, as it probably cares more about good food. The owner of the shop is a kind Japanese gentleman, who greeted us right at the door. We sat down and were immediately offered the menu, which was short with less than 15 options. I didn't care much though, because I knew why I came here. "Pork on Rice Set, please!" Done!

And the meal came surprisingly quick, just 10 minutes!

The bowl didn't not look special, but was unbelievably delicious. The thick slices of pork with teriyaki sauce on it were mouthwatering, and the rice was well cooked. The set came also with some seasoned vegetable, some sliced daikon and a bowl of miso soup.

I came here upon a recommendation in a food magazine, and now that I have tried it, I think this place is a little bit overrated. The meat was not that wowing as people may have described it, while the set looked typical. However, I liked very much what I saw and ate. Maybe it is the presentation of food and ambiance that made me fall in love: cozy, pleasant, and I feel like I am eating at home. The pork and rice were ordinary things, but they were made from good ingredients and there was no exaggeration in the taste: you eat the pork and it tastes like pork with no special sauce or flavouring. Everything was light and I felt so content after the meal. No fancy things, no high-end kind of ingredients, no MSG or extra salt, this is the kind of meal I have been looking for!

We also ordered one bowl of udon with sea weeds. Again, nothing special but well prepared.

If you are looking for a break from the luxurious restaurants or a homey place for a warm dinner, try Noren. I think it won't let you down.

Talking about the best Japanese restaurants, I have only several choices. I still have Ignagiku at the top of my list, but Nadaman from Shangri-la Hong Kong hotel is definitely close to the top.

Nadaman is one of the famous dining groups in Japan serving a lot of traditional and high-quality dishes for many years. Hong Kong Shangri-la is the first place to extend the Nadaman dining group outside Japan. For those who has visited Nadaman before, they'll definitely remember their famous teppanyaki, which is prepared by the chef right in front of your dining table. However, today we ordered something else, something more formal and traditional.

We ordered two sets, Yorokobi and Beef Shabu Shabu Kaiseki. Our meals started with some typical Japanese cold dishes including some sashimi, which was very fresh and good. And then the tempura came soon after we finished the appetizer. Wonderfully prepared, this tempura was not oily at all, with the outer crisp being just right.

My main course came first, which was the Sirloin Steak with Teriyaki Sauce. It came in a set, which contained a bowl of rice and some seasoned vegetable. My lady's Shabu Shabu also arrived, and it included a lot of vegetable for the big pot.

The portions all looked small, but they were actually just right. The beef for shabu shabu was thick slices, and so was the teriyaki sirloin. All the beef was of high quality, as you can see the fat-to-meat ratio in the shabu shabu beef. I liked the rice too, which was the sticky Japanese type.

The meal ended with a typical sponge cake and green tea ice-cream. The cake was nothing special, but I liked the fact that it wasn't too sweet. That made a perfect finale for the light dinner.

Nadaman does not need to do anything fancy to keep the customers. Its major attraction is the high quality of food that doesn't change over time. Those dinner sets are simple but delightful Japanese delicacy that makes you want to revisit it again.

When people visit the World Trade Center in Causeway Bay, most of them will probably think of Tonkichi for dinner. Yes, it is a great place but if you are looking for Japanese food other than deep fried delicacy, you can visit this restaurant Dojo Hakata.

Inside you will find yourself a little bit out of this world because the dark wood interior design and some Japanese people who probably come here quite often both make you feel like you are in an izakaya in Japan! To be honest, those Japanese customers make me feel confident about the food served here, and I recalled what a recent magazine said about this restaurant. If you are looking for the famous Japanese-style hotpot with ox intestine, you are in the right place as there are very few restaurants in town serving this dish.

I am not a fan of that though, so we ordered something else. Let the meal begin.

The skewers of ox tongue and chicken gizzards are nicely done, and seldom do I see ox tongue skewers with a lot of spring onion on top. The textures of the meat and spring onion together formed an interesting feel in the mouth.

The tuna sushi rolls was up to standard though the salad dressing seemed a little too excessive and overwhelmed the fresh tuna. The sashimi however was surprisingly fresh. The scallops were divided by lemon cuts, forcing the fresh lemon smell into the meat of the scallops. Wonderful!

We ordered the beef teppanyaki too, which was not entirely Japanese. At least, I don't think the meat came from Japan. The beef was not seasoned at all except a little salt and sliced onions. Perhaps they were confident about the quality of the beef and tried to let it be the spotlight, but it turned out to be a letdown. I would make it just pass in my scoring list.

Overall the food was well prepared, but we didn't order too much and try the other chef recommendations, which would probably be even more delicious. I think I will get the hotpot next time and see how the ox internal organs taste. To end the wonderful dinner we went to Yo Mama for a finale, and yes, it is all about yogurt!

The yogurt was great and smooth like soft ice-cream, but it was not cheap at all. Just the regular size costs , and the bigger one is 32! You can choose the topping in their over 15 choices, and here I added mango and roasted shredded coconut. If you are looking for a dessert but stay away from too much fat, you can visit Yo Mama and have a healthy sweet treat!

When autumn comes, it is the time for Shanghai hairy crabs to dominate the menus of many restaurants in Shanghai. These crabs are considered as one of the most precious food in China just like shark fins but probably even rarer as the crabs are seasonal. The main point of good Shanghai hairy crabs is the female's rich roe, which tastes very much like egg yolk. Now, let's take a look at this crab set at Wu Kong Shanghai Restaurant. Yes, we had this last year, and we have this annually! However, each year the set was updated a little bit, both in the contents and in the price tag.

The meal started with the Braised Hairy Crab Meat in Shark Fin Soup. Just the appearance can tell you that the soup was very rich, but the portion was just right to begin the meal, not too heavy or too much. Everything was made just right.

Then the steamed hairy crabs came. The staff skillfully removed the inedible parts like the gills and then cut the crabs into several parts for our easy savoring.

As you can see, the roe part is extremely rich and tasty. The meat, however, is just okay. Not because of the quality of meat, but because it is so little and difficult to eat. One has to really crunch the whole shell in order to get the tiny bits of crab meat out. Still, the "yolk" is so delicious that I don't mind having another one (if I don't need to "dismantle" the creature...it is not easy!).

Then the finale arrived, which came in a set of three different dishes.

In the front, you can see the Hairy Crab Meat with Pork Dumpling and the Hairy Crab Meat with Steamed Sticky Rice. The one in the back was the Boiled Pea Sprouts in Superior Soup. Oh, these names are directly from the menu, and I think it is a little misleading. It was not just hairy crab meat, but actually with hairy crab roe too.

The best was the sticky rice with the rich roe on the top. It looked heavy and it was heavy, but the portion was very small and so it wasn't too much for anybody's stomach. The dumpling was a little letdown. The skin was too thick and the inside was not hot enough. It was mostly pork in the filling which overwhelmed the taste of crab meat completely.

The dessert was the same as that of last year's set, the Rice Dumplings in Ginger Tea.

Everything was good and okay. I didn't expect anything more as it was nearly the same set from last year with a little change. At least, they managed to keep the same quality. Again, this meal is obviously a high-cholesterol one, and I think it is not too bad for my health if I only have this once a year...anyway, if you are looking for a decent Shanghai hairy crab meal instead of just pure shell-cracking, I would definitely recommend this to you. Just make sure the sticky rice is still part of the set!

Alfie's By KEE is what you would expect when Alfred Dunhill is mixed with the famous private club in this town Kee Club. Designed by Gavin Tu in collaboration with Christian Rhombery, Kee's founder, this restaurant has a modern British style featuring leathered seats and warm red patterns on the wall. You can find old vault covers on black glass wall, accented by small spotlights in the ceiling and a tank with goldfish, which appears to be an interesting twist to fuse Chinese style with the existing British ambiance.

[ Image from LifeStyle Asia ]

For the food, one can expect a full British meal: from Full English to Fish and Chips. Today we came here for lunch and tried the British flavour in this hip place.

The cream soup looked beautiful and yummy. Surprisingly it was not heavy at all and served as a wonderful starter for the lunch. My Fish and Chips arrived then, which appeared to be a polished version of what I had before in London. Served with crunchy fat chips, the deep-fried cod was huge and delicious. The outer layer looked unhealthy to many of you probably, but inside the fish was very light and well done, forming an interesting combination with the crunch in your mouth.

The another main course, the Lamb Chop, was nice too, but the best part of it was actually the risotto at the bottom, which was not too wet or too hard like raw seeds.

The whole lunch was satisfactory, and the portion was big enough to fill your entire stomach. The finale, however, is actually the coffee that came at the end of the meal. It was very rich and, unlike many other restaurants, had no sour taste at all. We talked to one of the staff, who was kind and helpful, about this amazing coffee, and she told us that it was from Illy! No wonder! The price tags may be a little intimidating to some people, but with the beautiful interior design and good services, it is definitely worth it. Situated in Prince's Building in Central, Alfie's by KEE is obviously targeting the regulars or alike from the Press Room or Classified, and if you are only looking for an after-work drink, this place will do it well too.

Yes, I have been here for many times, and I just love the food here even the price tags are all double of the original in their main branches in Taiwan. There are many restaurants doing good steamed pork dumplings in Hong Kong, but I still like those in Din Tai Fung because of the good quality that is never change over the time. You can be sure that the next visit will be equally enjoyable and the food will taste the same good.

Today we had lunch at the Causeway Bay branch, and was lucky to get a big table for two families without queuing up for too long. Obviously, we knew what we came here for, and immediately ordered the delicious dumplings...

Yes, this is it! The dumplings! Wait, this is not the original one, but the Steamed Pork Dumplings with Black Truffle! Yes, it is a beautiful fusion of east and west, and it tastes surprisingly good!

Then we have some vegetables and noodles, but what attracts me is the two big buns, the Steamed Vegetable Buns.

I always like the buns in Din Tai Fung, because they were always very well done from the skin to the filling. Then we had an interesting finale, the Steamed Chinese-style Layer Cake. Yes, I have no idea what it is, but it has red bean paste inside.

This cake tastes funny, and I have no idea how to describe. It is thick and chewy, but it is nothing like a hardened spongy cake or brownie. I guess you have to try it yourself. It is not bad, but obviously not my cup of tea.

Still, the whole meal was very satisfactory, and I can't wait till my next visit. Oh, I must say that if you are coming to this place, remember to try their noodles and vegetable. They may look very typical food but they are extremely well done. The noodles are all so light that you can finish the soup too without worrying about taking in MSG. The vegetable, while a little oily sometimes, is mostly free from MSG or too much salt. Therefore, if you are looking for a light and healthy meal, Din Tai Fung is definitely one of the best choices!

Those who know Hong Kong probably know about the famous link ]" target="_blank">egg tarts. Most of them are in a typical tart shape, but there are more and more variants because people these days are not easy to please anymore. Talking about special egg tarts, I realize that I have a Yamazaki bakery right next to my place. They sell this really interesting egg tart, which is in a cup shape!

Yes, there is a spoon for you to eat the tart as if it is a cup of jelly. It tastes good, and the egg custard is very rich too. If you need a break from traditions, come and have a try! Remember to eat the "cup" too!

Hong Kong is a great city, and as you can see from my blog, this city has so many good restaurants that you can try different cuisines every day in a year without repetition. However, I realize that Chinese cuisine doesn't actually hold the biggest share in this food world. Good Chinese food is everywhere but if you want to have a decent place to sit comfortably to enjoy Chinese delicacy, it is not that easy. Either that will come with a big price tag, or the food is just not as good as the food it serves.

Chao Dynasty is one of the few recently-open Chinese restaurants which serves affordable food and provides a decent eating environment. What makes it different is not just better food but better fusion food. Yes, it is not traditional Chinese food but it is a twist from what you may have tried before. Let me show you.

Tonight we started off the dinner with the Salt-roasted Chicken. The chicken was unbelievably tender especially the breast part. The taste of herbs and salt went into the meat instead of just superficially flavouring up the skin. The best thing to me is that every part is thoroughly cooked. No blood coming out. That is very important for a good chicken dish!

Then the Sweet Corn Soup came. This is not especially remarkable but still well done. At least, it was not watery at all.

The main course arrived shortly after the soup, and this is the fusion I was talking about. It was Boston Lobster on Inaniwa Udon with Cheese. Yes, it looked familiar to you because it was not new except the noodle. This dish was usually done with Yi-mein (flat egg noodle) but the chef here replaced it with Japanese udon.

The look was all fine, but we were not sure about the taste at first. However, the combination was surprisingly interesting and delicious. The udon was cooked well and was not too sticky, especially even after it was mixed with the heavy cheese. The lobsters was good but again not remarkable, though it still made a good pair with the udon.

Our finale was tofu, and it was made with soy milk. We believed it was Japanese tofu but we were not sure, though it was very smooth and light. The crab eggs over the dish did not really spice up the dish, and could probably be replaced by other kinds of herbs or even black truffle slices. However, it was definitely a good dish for a bowl of rice.

Overall the food was good and up to standard, but the outcome of fusion was not too surprising enough. The udon with Boston lobster was interesting, but was not remarkable enough to secure diners' second visits. Still, with the affordable price, Chao Dynasty is definitely one of the places for a casual but decent family or reunion Chinese dinner.

The Press Room is one of the great places that many of the foreigners love to visit in Hong Kong. This place, decorated with dark wood panels and lit indirectly by uplights, is filled with western kind of atmosphere. The big blackboard and the huge glass container at the entrance showcasing their fresh seafood are definitely their signature.

Today we came here for a nice dinner, and I liked what I saw when I arrived at the restaurant, greeted by the smiling staff. We were led to a sofa seating at a corner, where I could have a full glance of the place easily. We looked at the menu and were amazed by the choice of food and drinks listed. It took us 15 minutes to decide what to order.

The first dish would be the bread, and I told my friend that if the bread was good, that meal wouldn't be too bad. If the restaurant put some effort in the simplest dish, that means other bigger dishes would also receive the same amount of attention and care. The bread here was quite well done, and I knew this meal would be a nice one.

Our salad took quite some time to arrive, but it turned out to be a nice one. This is the Roast Portobello Mushroom, a mix of wild leaves, summer herbs and truffles.

The starter came later, which was the Foie Gras & Chicken Liver Parfait with Toasted Walnut Bread.

This was very delicious. The foie gras was not too fatty or fishy, and went surprisingly good with the sweet seasoned vegetable. We actually asked for two more pieces of bread to finish this dish off.

Our main course, the Châteaubriand, followed right after the starter. The grilled, dry-aged US prime tenderloin was served with both béarnaise  and pepper sauces. The meat was medium done, and was so well prepared to have a crispy layer outside with inside juicy.

The beef was very tender that each bite was a step to heaven. I appreciate how the meat was prepared and sized because the portion was just right to make you full but not too full to make you throw up. The broccoli topped with cheese was a perfect complement to the dish, while the little potatoes and grilled tomato balanced out the tenderloin well. No wonder they marked this in the menu as a chef recommendation.

We enjoyed the dinner very much, and everything was wonderfully set up. The service was great too, and I think that is the most important thing besides the quality of food as bad services can ruin a meal completely even if the meal is made with precious black truffles and expensive abalones. I am sure a revisit will come very soon, and I will definitely try the dessert menu next time! Yes, I was already too full after the tenderloin!

Now the best is coming, and they are all in Tokyo. Yes, we got the best meat here, so get ready!

六歌仙燒肉店 [ Official Site ][ Google Map ]
Barbecue is not uncommon in Japan, and there are so many different barbecue shops you can choose from. You though should not miss this one where you can find the best meat and seafood for your barbecue. This is in Korean style, but is probably better in Japanese services and ambiance. We had high-quality wagyu beef, ox tongue and baby lobster for our grilling pleasure. The excellent beef in rice soup and crab-meat in rice soup completed the whole wonderful dinner. This place is not cheap, but we know good food always has a price. It is worth it!

Godiva Concept Shop [ Official Site ][ Google Map ]
I actually don't think Godiva is that good anymore, but their concept shop attracted me so much that I couldn't help to pay a visit. Inside, you can find the walls and ceiling melting with chocolate, making the whole room so mouthwatering. Even though the chocolate was just so-so to me, the drinks were still well blended and great. We tried the banana chocolate decadence, and it was surprisingly light and yummy, though the small size wasn't enough to quench my thirst.

ゲンカツ Genkatsu [ Official Site ][ Google Map ]
I have introduced you the best tonkatsu in Hong Kong, and I thought Tonkichi was already very close to top one, but sorry not anymore. If you visit Ginza in Japan, don't miss this wonderful place where you can find the best pork cutlet in the world. This is no ordinary cutlet but contains 25 layers of 0.5mm finely cut pork slices. At first I wondered if that would make the meat too tough and chewy, but it actually melted in my mouth! Oh my god, that is just too good to describe, and once you have a bite, you know there is no going back to other tonkatsu shops. The rice was also very well done, and it actually shone in the wooden container! Must-go place!

ねぎし 牛たん麦とろ [ Official Site ][ Google Map (Shibuya) ]
One day we went to Shibuya, and was planning to visit a famous skewer place. However, it was too full and we were too hungry to wait till 9 for a table, so we just randomly picked a restaurant for a quick dinner. We were too lucky to find this place, which is a fast food restaurant specialized in grilled ox tongue. The meal wasn't expensive at all, and those thick ox-tongue slices were amazingly good. They were grilled just right: crispy on the outside and juicy inside. The soup was great too because it was very light without MSG at all, which made it a perfect match with the rice and meat. We couldn't help but visit it again the next day!

That's it, I hope you enjoy it! Do visit these places with you are in Japan, because if you don't, your trip won't be a good one!

Alright, I am late. It has been some time since I came back from Japan. Some friends of mine keep bugging me about this food blog, and finally I got time to finish it. So, let the food p0rn begin.

味之時計台 [ Official Site ]
Not a very famous and high-end ramen shop, but here you can find some really good noodle. The ramen was pretty well done, and the meat was soft and juicy, and the great soup made a perfect match with the noodle. You may not expect high quality from chain restaurants but this one is definitely above average, making it a good choice if you are looking for a quick but decent lunch. ★★★

出拔小路 [ Google Map ]
In Otaru, I don't think you can find many places to eat except here. This place sits at a road junction and is a little complex containing several little shops. You can find ramen and skewer shops, but this ice-cream store may be the most famous: they sell this melon ice-cream! Yes, they put milky vanilla ice-cream into a half-cut melon! You can probably imagine how it tastes, and it is not something extremely special, though it is definitely cool and fun to hold a melon like that to eat ice-cream. (even cooler in winter!) ★★

鳥花雪 [ Google Map ][ Related Website ]
I never like soba noodle because they don't really taste good to me. Now I realize only the soba noodle in Hong Kong sucks. We visited the famous hot bath town Karuizawa in Hokkaido, and went to this little house which makes only 50 sets of soba noodle a day. After that they just close the restaurant. This is the best soba noodle I have ever had, and unlike that in Hong Kong, the noodle here really tastes buckwheat. It was pure delicious and went perfect with the special soy sauce. The tempura shrimps were excellent and not oily at all. This is definitely a meal that you should not miss. Five stars! ★★★★★

富田農場 Farm Tomita [ Google Map ]
This farm in Furano is all about beautiful flowers especially lavender, and that's why all the people come here in summer. There is no special food here except these two which are really interesting. The lavender ice-cream is definitely a must to try, and the melon bun is a bigger and more wonderful surprise. The whole bun smells like melon as its name suggests, and the inside is all melon cream! It is so milky but at the same time tastes very light. I enjoy that much more than any other souvenirs in the farm. ★★★

山頭火 [ Google Map ][ Official Site ]
This famous ramen shop is one of the best in the Sapporo town. The rich soup with sesame goes so well with the noodle which is filled with the smell of egg. The best, though, is the roasted pork. Put the pork slices into the hot soup for a while, and then place it in your mouth, you can feel it  melting on your tongue! Thank God you don't need to visit Hokkaido to enjoy this wonderful ramen, because they have opened one of the branches in Hong Kong! Find it in iSquare, TST! Of course, the Japan one is still better, haha... ★★★★★

梅八 [ Related Site ][ Address: 池袋東武 11/F Ikebukuro Tobu 11/F ]
Tonkatsu is definitely one of the Japanese signature dishes. This one is located at the food floor of Tobu department store, and that's why it often has a line of people at the outside. The queue however does not exist because of any excellent food, because we think the pork here is just so-so. It smells good but is a bit tough, and there is quite some fat in the meat (we thought only wagyu beef needs that much fat). Despite that, the meal is okay overall, and definitely not a bad choice for a casual lunch. ★★

なんつっ亭拉麵 [ Google Map ]
Ramen looks like...um...just ramen, yellow noodle in beige soup, right? This one has black soup instead. Winning the second runner-up in the TBS Ramen Competition 2005, this shop is about nothing but delicious noodle. They use a special sesame oil for their ramen, which is sesame oil mixed with fried ginger, hence the dark brown color. The soup is very well done, which is made from boiling pig head (yeah I know!), pork chop, pig bones, chicken bones and sea weed for a long time. That's why it tastes so good and rich! Definitely a must-eat place in Tokyo! Five stars! ★★★★★

Jean Paul Hevin Cafe [ Google Map ][ Address: 新宿伊勢丹 Isetan Shinjuku ]
I love chocolate, and everyone knows it. Since two years ago after I tried the dark chocolate ice-cream at Jean Paul Kevin in Omotesandō, I recommended it to everyone I knew. This time when I was in Isetan, I found this little cafe and it was also Jean Paul Hevin! No doubt I immediately ran inside and got myself a chocolate cake with a cup of hot chocolate. Everything was so good, and all the chocolate was rich and...rich! If you love chocolate, you should not miss this place, and if you are not a complete fan, go visit too and become one! ★★★★

Stay tuned for part 3, the best is yet coming!

Some people are just scared of macaroons because such French desserts are extremely sweet. Yes, they are sweet because then they can be a perfect match with the bitter dark coffee, which is a popular tea set for the French.

Macaroons are common in many cake shops, but the best in the town only happens to be in here, link ]">Le Salon De Thé de Joël Robuchon. Some time ago I already introduced you their excellent croissants, and I realize they also have the best macaroons in Hong Kong!

Interestingly, the mouthwatering macaroons are not the creation from a French chef but a young Japanese dessert chef Tadashi Nakamura 中村忠史. He was one of the great masters from the famous Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki and once stayed in the Robuchon restaurant in Roppongi. Here in Hong Kong, he is also the person-in-charge for all the excellent cakes and pastery. He explained that making macaroons wasn't easy because the blending of ingredients and the baking both required skillful controls, or else the macaroons would either explode or collapse. From the edge of a macaroon, you can see how good a macaroon is.

I bought sixteen macaroons, two for each flavour. There are mint, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, toffee and lemon. They are smaller than what I usually see from other places, and each of them costs only HK$8.

I must say these are pure awesomeness. The macaroons was so soft inside and crispy on the outside. Since I can take very sweet food, I don't find them overly sweet. I especially like the vanilla one, which has some cream inside called ganache, making it taste just like ice-cream! Oh yes, I put them into the fridge before placing them onto the plate as instructed by the staff from the dessert shop, and the macaroons certainly taste even better in that way! I never know such a trick!

This little black-and-red dessert heaven is definitely a must-go place. Later I will come again and try their dessert tea menu!

There are many chocolate shops in Hong Kong, from the now-everywhere Godiva to the recent Agne's B Chocolate. However, not all of them impress me because I am not just looking for candies but fine chocolate. Yes, I am picky because I just love chocolate! Good chocolate is not just about good raw material, because special skills and much imagination from the chefs are the key to make excellent chocolate that makes people crave for more.

Some months ago I got some chocolate from link ]" target="_blank">Thomas Haas, and it was pretty good. The chocolate was very rich and the texture is smooth. I like the  tray design of the packaging, and the irregular cut on the chocolate adds an interesting visual effect to the candy.

Today I visited link ]" target="_blank">La Maison du Chocolat at Prince's Building, which is now a subsidiary of the largest international French food group Soparind Bongrain. I got myself my favourite chocolate, a bar of 74% cocoa.

This chocolate, coming from one of the finest Parisian chocolate brands in the world, is nothing but pure cacao delight. The chocolate is very rich and smooth, and just one bite is enough to bring you to Heaven.

They also have a extremely delicious ice-cream. I tried their Tonka Chocolate ice-cream, and that was an unforgettable dessert experience. It tasted like cold molten chocolate instead of chocolate-flavoured ice-cream! Doesn't that make you drool now?

My top one chocolate ice-cream is still the one from Jean Paul Hevin in Japan, but if I cannot fly to Japan to quench my thirst, this one from La Maison du Chocolat can do the job for now. If you are also a chocolate lover, you must visit this shop and try the world-class chocolate candies, truffles and their famous eclair!

This little restaurant does not sell only Japanese food. You can find different kinds of chicken parts here, from typical chicken teriyaki to  rare chicken tenderloin, to chicken tail, to chicken neck and heart. Yes, you may not even know what they are or how they would taste, but they are all in the menu. The chickens are no cheap ones from Chinese. Some come from Yamaguchi, Japan and some are the famous blue-foot chicken from France. With all these excellent ingredients and great chickens, this menu is surely an aristocratic one.

Cladded with light wood panels and decorated with wooden screens, the restaurant is divided into several small pockets, perfect for a more private dining session. We started our meal with some tofu appetizer and one glass of fruit wine, which got our taste buds ready for the coming gustatory delights.

Most of the people in Hong Kong are scared of this dish, chicken skin, and deep-fried food is definitely a no-no. They are afraid of getting too much fat but most of them are overweight already. Anyway, this dish is a combination of both ends of evil, the deep-fried chicken skin. It turned out to be less oily than I expected, and was a perfect snack for wines.

M favourite skewers arrived, and the first one was the chicken breast. The meat was not tough at all, and was surprisingly juicy. Then the chicken wing skewer also came, which was good.

In such a chicken shop, you should never miss the famous chicken with egg on rice. It was not a big bowl but tasted wonderful. The egg was not thoroughly cooked and actually blended well into the rice, making the whole bowl smell so good!

While chicken was the main course in this meal, we also ordered some fish. The grilled sanma (秋刀魚) was not bad, while the sushi was very fresh too. Again, like I said before, uni is the key to check how good the sushi or sashimi is. Surprisingly in this chicken specialist place, all the sashimi and sushi were all fresh and delicious.

The smoked eel and egg sushi didn't really impress me, but luckily they were merely the supporting players here.

The whole meal was comfortable and relaxing, and the quality was indeed above average. The price tags that came with the food may not be appealing to casual diners, but if you are looking for a cozy place with some light and tasty Japanese dishes, come and try, let alone the fact that they have so many chicken delicacies that you can't find in other restaurants. If you like Japanese wine, they also have quite some choices for you too. Definitely a place to be revisited in the future!

It was a special night as it was my mum's birthday and also Mother's Day. Yes, it was already a week after Mother's Day but my sister just flew to Australia, and my mum didn't mind at all to postpone the celebration.

So we had our double happiness at this wonderful restaurant. Located at Lee Garden, Lawry's the Prime Rib is so famous in the town because of their excellent beef, and their signature silver "meat" cart. This restaurant only came to Hong Kong in 2006, but already received a lot of positive feedback, and it seems its other dishes are just as good as its ribs.

The place is very elegant and I love their booth seatings a lot. It is huge and everyone can sit comfortably in these booths. Since the booth is big, you don't feel like being listened closely by the guy in the next booth. The high-backed chairs in burgundy velvets and dark wood formed this comfortable Old-English style environment, alerting the taste buds to the coming gustatory delight. The main feature of this restaurant is actually their beef cart, a silver UFO-like cart in which you can find different ribs and sauces ready for your order.

Okay we will come to that later. Let's take a look at our starter...some bread first. Bread is very important because I learnt that if the bread was good, the whole meal usually could not be any worse, because if the chefs care about the typical starters, they will take very good care of your main courses.

I didn't expect Lawry's to do good in seafood as the name just says "the Prime Rib", but this shrimp cocktail was very good. The shrimp was big and fresh, a wonderful beginning of a great meal. Then, a glass of sangria came with the crabmeat appetizer.

We ordered some BBQ creamed corns too, which was delicious and was a perfect companion to the main course.

And here you go the prime rib!

The beef was so tender and soft, and even the fatty part was tasty. The tendeloin edge was also chewy. What amazed me most was the cut, which was so precise to make it  a uniformly sliced 10oz piece of meat. The beef also came with a Yorkshire pudding, which was like an eggy popover. It was done with some beef sauce, making it a beautiful and consistent companion of the rib.

The other main course we ordered was the spring chicken. It was okay but of course couldn't steal the spotlight from the prime rib.

We ordered another side dish too, which was the BBQ-style mushrooms.

After all the main courses, the dessert came. It was our mum's birthday and the restaurant gave us a complimentary birthday cake. It was a small blueberry cake but it was creamy and jummy. We actually liked the small size of this because our stomach could not hold any more food.

The second dessert was a hot chocolate brownie cake with ice-cream on top. The two contrasting sensation was really special, and went well with each other. If you insist on eating the cake and ice-cream separately, you will miss out that interesting feeling in your mouth. The chocolate is very rich, which completely captured me this chocolate lover.

The meal was wonderful, and we had a great time. The excellent food under such amazing and comfortable ambience makes us an unforgettable dining experience. Some people may not like meat or just beef, but I am sure they will enjoy it with other items on the menu in this elegant restaurant. I can't wait to come back again and if you haven't tried it yet, you should do so now!

Recently a small white shop resides at the busy Granville Road, and inside you can find nearly nothing but Swiss rolls and macaroons. There are some cookies and you can order coffee too, but the rolls are what you are coming for.

This shop, named Roll, is opened by a young chef, Amy. She studied cookery in Canada and worked in one of the famous western restaurants in Central after graduation. When she thought she had enough experience, she started her own shop with her sister.

The rolls here are no typical rolls, because Amy picks expensive but good raw materials for the delicious cakes: flour from Japan, cream from France, sugar from Korea. Each procedure of making the rolls is carefully controlled, as Amy said that if each step, from mixing eggs and flour to baking, was not serious, the sponginess would be lost and the cake would just fail.

You can find over 10 flavours here, but we tried the basic one to see if this is really extraordinary like others said in magazines and blogs. After the first bite of this vanilla roll, I was completely shocked and this roll is nothing but a taste of heaven! The cake layer was so soft and spongy, while the cream is so fresh and milky! The whole slice of roll was not overwhelmingly sweet, and instead it will only make you crave for another one! We also tried the coffee roll and again it was very well done, though I was not that into the fruit in the cake, which doesn't match the coffee flavour.

The slice was truly amazing, but if you find the price tag a little intimidating, the mini-slice is a good "tasting" bite before you agree with us and spend 0 for a long roll to satisfy all your taste buds. Usually you can only find excellent desserts from hotel bakery or restaurants, but Roll is definitely an exception. Definitely my another sweet favourite besides Awfully Chocolate!

Yeah, another shop to sell tonkatsu. It is not hard to understand why, as when certain restaurants become unexpectedly popular, they will copy the shop out, including menu, interior design, and even the way to name their shop by introducing Japanese romaji. However, they don't seem to be able to copy the quality of other shops.

HIP Katsu at Harbour City claims that they do nice tonkatsu in their menu, but we don't think so. Like Tonkichi, we had a bowl of sesame for preparing the special sauce for the cutlet, but the smell of sesame revealed that it was not good quality Japanese sesame. I don't know if it is me or what, the sesame was not like that in Tonkichi (the famous and excellent tonkatsu shop in the town) which can be easily ground into powder. Low quality, really.

I hate to say this, but it looks like many shops have such weird conception that having such tools or special sauces would make your menu or your food more "professional", or high-class. That is so wrong. If your food is no good, no sauce can revive its poor taste. Now, let's see how good the pork is, and see if the sauce is to enhance the meat or to cover up the mess.

The tonkatsu came, and it looked fine. However, the pork was a little tough and dry while most of it was tendon and fat. The crunchy coating didn't stick to the meat at all, and completely fell off when you picked one slice up with your chopsticks. I heard from others that this restaurant served warm cutlets instead of hot ones, but mine was fine. It was not sizzling hot but it was certainly just done from the kitchen. Still that could not help the low score of this piece of meat.

My friend ordered another thing, the tempura set with rice. The tempura looked okay but again, was not of high quality. The batter was a little bit too thick while the shrimps and vegetable inside were just so-so.

Being average was nothing bad, but if you had such a high price tag, people expect much more. The shop is located in a shopping mall which is now frequently occupied by a lot of Chinese shoppers from mainland, and perhaps this is the reason: they are the people who just have too much money to spend, and this restaurant just wants to make the most out of them. Anyway, if you are a picky eater, or if you are looking for some good Japanese food, leave this place and visit other restaurants. HIP has so much room to improve, but from the services and the skills of the chefs, I don't think they are willing to go further. They thought they were selling excellent food and services but actually they are not.

I would pay more for much better food, and those fancy Japanese bowls and so-called traditional sauces won't help to score more from me if the food is crappy. No one likes to spend on disappointment, and this restaurant has expensive one.

Yakiniku, or barbecued meat (焼き肉), is one of the best and famous dishes in Japanese. Each diner has his/her own dishes of bite-size raw meat, and grill them on the hot grilling pan installed in the table. Yakiniku is originated from horumonyaki, meaning a dish of grilled offal, invented by Korean immigrants in the Kansai area after the Second World War.

Today we come to Morihachi Yakiniku, which is expanding its branches quickly recently and opening their fourth shop in Wanchai. Here we were in the Tsim Sha Tsui shop again, and about to try their Wagyu meat.

Wow, just looking at that made me drool. The Premium A4 Japanese Wagyu Ribeye was marbled evenly with meat and fat in 1:1 ratio, a beautiful characteristic of A4 beef. You should not though grill this kind of beef for too long or else it would be turned into tough and dry meat. Every bite into this grilled Wagyu beef was like a taste of heaven. It really melted in your mouth!

We then had our favourite dish, the Premium Gyu Tongue with Rock Salt, basically it is block sliced ox tongue.

We also added a plate of Kurobuta (pork from black pig) with Rock Salt.

The meat was very tender but since we needed to cook it thoroughly, it ended up a little dry. However, the smell of pork was strong and the meat went very well with their special tekiyaki sauce.

Here came the two dishes that we must order every time we ate here. They were the Chicken Gizzard Slices and Chicken Wing with Balsamic Vinegar Sauce. Both tasted extremely good, especially the chicken wings. The smell of vinegar and charcoal formed an unusual but interesting aroma that stimulated your appetite.

I wouldn't say this was a complete dinner if I had no rice, guess I am still a Chinese and I need such carbohydrates to keep me alive. We therefore ordered this chef's recommendation, Tobiko Foie-gras Bibinba in Stone Bowl, which contains foie gras and mushrooms.

This is what it looked like after mixing. The rice was good but I am not sure if foie gras was a good idea because the spicy sauce actually overwhelmed the taste of other ingredients. While the mushrooms were good and formed an interesting contrast in textures with the "rice crisps" at the bottom, the foie gras didn't stand out at all. Nevertheless, the overall dish tasted good.

We added a little vegetable to the raw food list, which was the corns!

To make this, you have to place all the quartered corns into this aluminium bowl with a big piece of butter in it. Then you grill the whole thing. After the butter melts and spreads all over the corns, it is done.

The meal was not cheap, but the quality of food was above average. The menu they have is very interesting because on the first page, it actually teaches you how to use different sauces, how to cook, and how to eat your beef with lettuce. If you want to have some drinks, they also have a big range of Japanese beer and alcoholic drinks, including my favourite fruit wines. If you come, it will be better if you can get more friends so that you can try  more different kinds of food. Also, you never know which one is the best because you have to add your little grilling skills in it too!

Recently more and more dessert shops introduced the famous Taiwan layered shaved ice, but of course, not all of them are good. However, my latest visit to Five Sweet Generation (五代同糖) ( map ) was a pleasant one because they had some really wonderful shaved ice, and even more, they got new concepts too.

We ordered the renowned Mango-Pomelo Sago Layered Ice (楊枝甘露綿綿冰), and this icy tower was not small at all.

The whole dish looked so yummy but one just couldn't rush and devour the whole thing immediately because it was still ice and it was very cold!

What is good about this is that it was not too sweet to make you drink one whole bottle of water after finishing it. Some places simply make everything overly sweet that you are more like torturing yourself than enjoying it. I thought the mango would not be good since I had some bad experience before at other places with sour mango, but here the mango was nothing but sweet and fresh, and the slightly sour pomelo balanced the sweetness off. Everything formed a nicely balanced delicacy.

One may wonder if the ice all melted when you only went halfway of it. Interesting enough this one didn't melt in the normal speed like ice melting, allowing you to keep the whole structure of ice until your last bite.

It was a really good sweet post-dinner treat, and I am surprised that the five young kids who started this shop did not know anything about desserts before starting this new business. I hope they can keep it up and invent more delicious dishes in the coming days, and I am certain to come back and check on them!

After visiting Japan twice and trying a lot of ramen there, I have lost nearly all my faith in any Japanese ramen in Hong Kong because nothing here is comparable to that in Japan. Really, none of the shops in Hong Kong can bring back the same taste I had in Japan, but of course, you may think this is too harsh as it is just impossible to transfer the exact flavour of ramen from Japan, since it is the wonderful ingredient in Japan that makes the excellent ramen.

With that in mind, ramen in Hong Kong is just Japanese-like. However, it looks like there are more and more picky food finders like me in the town, and recently several interesting ramen shops arrived in attempt to bring true Japanese ramen to the city. One of them comes from Hokkaido and is located in iSquare, called link ]">Ramen Santouka, which has some really delicious ramen I must say. Tonight we visited MIST, which is originated from Omotesandō Hill in Japan and just came to Hong Kong for two months.

MIST was started by Japanese French-trained chef Yasuji Morizumi, who won the award in 2002 for his "no-boundary ramen". The shop does not have any typical deco like the others. Instead, It is very modern with rock surface walls, satin chairs and aluminium counter. If you don't read, you won't figure out that it is a Japanese ramen restaurant.

Each table has a drawer housing a full set of neatly organized utensils, among which you can also find a note explaining the history and making of their special ramen. There are five types of ramen, and none of them is cheaper than 100 bucks. Yes, nothing is cheap here and so be prepared.

My ramen came and it looked a little small. However, the smell of miso soup is extremely strong with a thick layer of oil on the top. That is a great bowl of ramen should look like. According Morizumi, the edge of this bowl has the same thickness of the ramen, forming this interesting but secretive harmony in the entire dish. The shape of this bowl edge is also designed to bring out the aroma easily, though I am not sure if that is really true.

The excellent noodle is made with three kinds of flour from Nagano, Tohoku and Hokkaido (信州，東北及北海道). Morizumi explained that only by combining the three great types of flour can you then create such excellent noodle with the thickness, chewiness and smoothness just right.

Each of the ingredient comes from Japan, for instance, the pork is from Kagoshima 鹿兒島. Oh my god, this slice of roasted pork 叉燒 was extremely wonderful! The portion of meat and fat was one to one, and it melted in my mouth! That's really the best I have ever tried!

The egg was good too, but I guess the excellent noodle and pork already stole all the spotlights.

We added one more dish for the dinner, which is the oven-baked Japanese mushroom. This was so fresh because I could just smell the strong mushroom before it was just placed on my table. The best is that it was not dry at all. The water inside the plant was kept mysteriously even after the baking process.

This noodle place is really different from other places, but what sets it apart from others is not just the unusual modern interior design, but also its food quality. Everything is so carefully designed, from the salt used in the food to the utensil used for holding the food, to the thickness of noodle. I appreciate Morizumi's great effort in perfecting each aspect of the meal, and that gives me more confidence than enough to visit his shop again in the future. The food here is not just something to be consumed, but also a beautiful piece of art that you will appreciate, and that marks a place in your memory. That's truly wonderful food.

I was so tempted to revisit the excellent bakery of Joël Robuchon, and I did. I bought my girlfriend too a croissant while I tried the chocolate Danish. It was so good! I also bought this interesting set of biscuit, the coco tuiles. I just learnt this new word, tuile, which means "tile" in French. As you can already guess right, it means very thin biscuits.

The thin cookies are good, with this really strong smell of butter. Some ladies would be so scared of that, but I am not bothered at all. It is so delicate that it can shatter into many pieces if you don't pay attention. The coconut flavour is very strong too. From the appearance you cannot see anything that looks like coconut thing, but the tiny coconut slices are actually embedded inside the thin tuiles. That's amazing.

This $50 tuiles made my day. This is exactly what a sweet snack should be.

Ming Court at Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok received two stars from the Michelin judges, and they got it twice as in 2008 and 2009. While some people find the Michelin guide misleading or inaccurate, the two stars here in Ming Court are very well deserved.

I was here for the first time two years ago and it was a good lunch. This time I came for dinner. The restaurant was nicely decorated but the design was a little too typical like other Chinese restaurant, and it was split into two parts with one circular space for small groups or couples, and one big space which looked like a pre-function area in front of a ballroom.

The food came quickly after we took the orders. The first dish was the Deep-fried Crispy Chicken (朗豪炸子雞), and it looked really good.

And it tasted good too. Those fried lotus root slices were surprisingly tasty like potato chips, and the meat was juicy with the skin deep-fried to an amazingly crispy layer. The chicken needed no additional sauce or salt because it already got all the good flavours. It is one of the best chickens I have even had.

The following dish came with a little taste of fruit. It was Fried Pork Loin with Orange and Honey Sauce (香蜜橙花炸豬柳).

The meat was soft with crispy outer layer, but it was the orange sauce that amazed me. It is not easy to make good orange sauce because sometimes it is too sour, sometimes it is too thick like ketchup. This one was however quite well done and sweet. At least they didn't use sour oranges to make this.

This is Sliced Spotted Garoupa served two ways - Stir-fried with premium mushrooms and Deep-fried with sweet and sour sauce (兩儀星斑球). As the name already suggests, this dish has two parts, and the deep-fried part was so excellent that I was just stunned. It looked like the typical Sweet and Sour Pork Chop (咕嚕肉, something that the westerners like so much and I have no idea why), but when you bite through the crispy skin, it was this beautiful white and smooth garoupa meat!  The two different textures combine to form this interesting sensation in the mouth. I thought the strange sauce would overwhelm the taste of the fish, but it turned out to be an excellent match. Amazing!

This is the Braised Bean Curd Stuffed with Minced Fish, served in a Casserole (濃湯魚滑釀豆腐煲). The tofu is the key here, which is so smooth that you will break it if you don't handle it with much are. I wonder if it was Japanese tofu because so far to me only Japanese can make such smooth and silky tofu.

The next dish was a Chef's Recommendation, the Deep-fried Lamp Slices in Maltose with Crispy Walnuts.

This one was a little bit too heavy for me. The maltose made the whole dish too sweet to eat, and it overwhelmed the meat completely. However, the walnuts were very well done. It was so crispy with some smoky smell, perfect as a snack with beers.

And then it was dessert time. We ordered this ordinary Chinese dessert, Glutinious Rice Dumplings with Black Sesame Paste and Crushed Peanuts (擂沙湯圓).

Not bad not bad, but I guess it was not hot enough. If they could make the paste melting, it would be perfect.

But then, this is the real dessert, one of the signature dishes in Ming Court. Here it comes, the Shark Fin Crystal Extravagance (翅晶凝).

It was presented in this box of dry ice, but the dry ice was purely a visual thing. Look closer, and you can see the shark fins on the top of each crystal blocks.

I have never tried anything like this before, using shark fins fordessert. The top layer was some jelly with shark fins, while the bottom yellow layer is mango jelly. Most importantly, it tasted great. Shark fins actually taste nothing, and so it was the mango that gives the flavour, while the shark fins added the amazing texture to the jelly. This "Hong Kong’s First and Most Famous Shark Fin Dessert" was both surprising and delicious.

This dinner is very much enjoyable, and I am completely blown away by the refined and redefined Chinese cuisine. The chefs have definitely taken Chinese food to another high level. If you love Chinese food, and if you want to know how Chinese food can be remade to form another astonishing dimension, come and visit this place.

Even that you can find nearly all kinds of cuisine in Hong Kong, Chinese food is still the majority. Of course, there are many kinds of Chinese food characterized by their origins, with Guangzhou cuisine being the most popular since Hong Kong is in Guangzhou.

The second place would no doubt be Shanghai dishes, but good Shanghai restaurants are not common. Ye Shanghai is one of the excellent places with both great food and comfortable environment. I especially like their  booth seatings which are cozy and private.

We started our meal with some alcohol, but no this is not a drink. This is the Marinated Pigeon in Chinese Yellow Wine (花雕醉鴿).

The dish was followed by the Slices Pork in Garlic Soy Sauce (蒜泥白肉).

Usually I am not a fan of this dish because it is quite chilly and I can't take that. However, this one was done with sweet soy sauce (instead of the salty one) and all the chilly thing was only placed in the center. People who cannot stand chilly thing would still be able to enjoy the pork in this way.

The Seafood Soup came before we finished the two starters, and it looked so delicious!

That crab was obviously one Shanghai hairy crab (大閘蟹), and inside you could also find fish and shrimps. The soup tasted so good and you could tell what ingredients the soup contained. All the essences of the seafood flowed within the bowl, superb!

After that, the meat came, which was the WuXi Pork Chop (無錫排骨). The meat was very soft and the sauce was good, but it lacked a little surprise. I guess I was just expecting too much, perhaps.

The vegetable and the famous Shanghai Dumpling followed.

The covering of the dumplings could actually be done better. The thickness was right, but it looked like it was a little too wet. I guess the steamer was too powerful, or this dish was overcooked a little bit. Still, the whole thing was good and over the passing mark.

Then we had this beautiful dessert as the finale, and maybe you can guess what that is?

It was Black Sesame Creme Brulee with Yellow Chinese Wine Ice-cream! This is a perfect mix between Chinese and western cuisines. The creme brulee was excellent, crispy on the top and all smooth underneath. The ice-cream was such an interesting sweetie. It looked like normal ice-cream, but the taste was exactly the Chinese wine used in the first dish! It was not like Bailey's ice-cream, since it was really Chinese wine, and therefore the flavour was...so hard to describe! It really tasted like a kind of traditional Chinese dessert!

When we left, we saw this chocolate counter at the entrance. It was another funny fusion: tea chocolate. These chocolate bars and candies actually had tea flavours blended inside, and just that intrigued me. Let me try that next time and report how surprising that chocolate would be.

We revisited the ramen shop Misocool again this weekend, and this time it was not in Quarry Bay but in the new shopping mall K11. This Misocool branch shop is much bigger and has a more open design. It sounds like the tonkatsu trend has spread quickly in Hong Kong and Misocool also includes it now in their menu. Maybe they have it for a long time already and I missed it before. Anyway, today I was here to test their pork cutlet.

We ordered a Tonkatsu and Egg Rice Bowl, and it looked quite nice. However, the first thing that disappointed me was the onion. It was still raw and immediately prevented me from enjoying the bowl. I had no choice but to pick the onion from the rice.

At least the pork was fine. It was crispy and surprisingly not oily at all. I like the thickness of this, which was thinner than those from Tonkichi or Bairin but more suitable for this size of bowl. The egg part was great too but if it was not fully cooked with the egg yolk soaking into the rice, it would be even more delicious.

We added one more side dish, the Pan-fried Scallops. It was pretty nice too.

The most excellent part was actually the dessert the Hokkaido Yogurt! Unfortunately I didn't have a photo here. It was made with Hokkaido milk and was very light and refreshing. It was smooth like ice-cream but not thick at all, perfect for a little finale for the meal. If you pass by, do grab a cup of yogurt from this shop. You won't be disappointed.

Anyone who knows Central well will know the name Joël Robuchon. His black-and-red L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is located on the 4/F of the Landmark in Central, and their food is superb. I have been there once to try their set lunch, and I must say that is one of the best French food I have ever had. Some of the self-acclaimed French restaurants let me down because of their strange tastes after weird and fancily meticulous preparation, or perhaps the food was just not my cup of tea. I understand that their small portions are their cuisine characteristics, but for a person like me who needs to be full in order to feel happy, French food is never something at the top of my list.

However, the lunch I had in Robuchon amazed me, and it made me so full and contented when I went back to the office. I would certainly expect the same experience from their bakery, a place I went only once when it was still under renovation before the opening.

This weekend I decided to treat myself better, and I finally went to this renowned shop, Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon. I heard that their croissants were exceptional, and that would be my breakfast today. I bought one and went back to the office, and as usual, I was the first one again to be back in the office in my team.

The croissant was smaller than I expected, and also cheaper than I expected. It looked fine and delicate, and later I realized that it was actually extremely delicate. I tried to tear it off into half first instead of being rude and devouring the whole piece of bread, but it just collapsed like a piece of glass shattered on my desk!

That actually revealed how fine this croissant was. The buttery pastry was done in extraordinarily thin layers, so thin that they would break when you touched them. After finally opening up the bread, I was so surprised that it was extremely soft inside. The smell of fine bread just popped out and I couldn't help but started to finish the first half of it.

And I hate it when a croissant was too "stuffed" instead. Hey I am not eating  a peice of bread but pastry! Many of the bakery make this kind of bread, so hard, so stuffedg, no layers and no good taste and smell. And I guess that is why I never fall in love with any kind of bread in Hong Kong (alright except some Japanese ones). However, this croissant completely moved me and it was so delicious that I was hoping that I could get one more. The texture was awesome, crispy on the outside and buttery and soft inside. Each bite was like a taste of heaven!

I am never a bread lover (I know most girls are), but this wonderful pastry simply changed my mind and I will definitely visit this bakery again. They have other outstanding pastry too like the Danish pastry and bagels, and I can't wait to try them all out later. If you love breads, or if you want to have something to change your mind on bread, this is the only choice in the town.

There are many people asking me if I was spoilt, because it seems like I often visit expensive restaurants and try high-class food. That completely baffles me. First, I really don't visit expensive restaurant that often, and second, I don't need good food all over the table to call it a fabulous meal.

To me, a good dinner does not need to have all good food over the table. There should a good balance between average food and very good food, just as roses alone without any leaves won't be beautiful at all. Therefore, just normal dinner with a little excitement is more than enough for me, and so how can I be spoilt?

Tonight, I added dessert to my great dinner at home. The little box was from Mochi Cream, and it was not cheap. As the name says it all, it was a box of mochi, but interesting enough, despite the minimalistic package and branding style, this was not from Japan but from a local Hong Kong shop. Apparently I would not guess it to be as good as the real Japanese mochi, but attracted by the beautiful colors, I decided to try once.

Each mochi was contained by a little paper bag (more like a slot), because otherwise the flavour of each mochi would be all mixed up.

I tried five different flavours this time, and they include chocolate, matcha (green tea), coffee, peach and mango. I wanted to try sakura but it was all sold out. (I miss the sakura stuff in Japan!)

This made-in-Hong Kong dessert surprised me with its quality. This was not the first local mochi I tried in my life, and those I tried before usually disappointed me with their poorly made coating. Indeed, the outer skin layer is not easy to make and it is the key to a delicious mochi. It cannot be too thick, nor can it be too thin to kill the chewy texture. This one from Mochi Cream is just right, and I swear if there is no filling inside but just the skin is yummy enough to make you try a second mochi.

The matcha one tasted very good, while the chocolate one was indeed a signature flavour from this shop. The coffee mochi was okay, but the most impressive one was the peach flavour. Much of the peach-flavour food smells too artificial, but this peach smell was so natural. It was not very overwhelming at all, making this so light and perfect after dinner. I also tried the mango mochi and it was good too, with the mango being fresh inside. Then somehow I believe in what the shopkeeper said to me, "Everything here was made only several days ago and every day we have to get some new mochi directly from the factory. We throw away any mochi older than a week."

I am not really sure about the price as each mochi costs nearly the same as the smallest value meal in McDonald's, but after knowing the quality of this traditional Japanese dessert, I must say that it is worth a try. However, tonight my main course in the dessert part was not these mochi, but my favourite, custard puff!!!!

That made my day!

Right before Christmas I went to this nice Japanese place with my friend, and yes this is quite late but I finally got time to write it up.

Sushi Dokoro Matsudo is located on the 8th floor of an office tower, which is the same place where you can find the famous tonkatsu shop Tonkichi. More and more people come to this tower to look for good food but for now you won't be seeing any queues. The day we came here was the night before Christmas Eve and it was already 1930, but the shop was pretty empty with less than 10 people. It is indeed a quiet place for some wonderful Japanese food.

This restaurant gets most of the food directly from Japan, and with more than 20 kinds of Japanese wines, it is not surprising to see quite some Japanese customers here.

Even more, if you come here early in the evening, you can enjoy their sushi buffet set. For $298 a person, you can eat as much as you want, choosing from more than 30 types of sushi, together with tempura and dessert which comes with the set. Amazing!

This time we didn't do buffet since we didn't really want to stuff ourselves. Finally we settled down with one sushi set to share, adding some side dishes to complete the whole course. When we were still reading the menu, the starter was already on the table. Don't miss this very first dish of the mushroom starter. It costs HK$25! Holy! Thank God I finished off the whole thing.

The sashimi came first, and it was very fresh. We were lucky because they just had a half-price discount on this big sashimi sets. It was of medium size and already got quite some different kinds for you to have a taste of everything.

The fish sashimi was very fresh like just cut from the fish. There was no awful smell that was signature from the refrigerator. Some people did not like the fat in the sashimi but for me, that is the key thing to show how good that the sashimi is. Here, the amount of fat is just right, not too much to make you throw up and just enough to add some soft texture to the slices.

The uni (sea urchin) was remarkably good, because for many times the uni you get from other Japanese restaurants has that unpleasant fishy smell. That is the reason why I seldom have it in Hong Kong except when I am in Japan especially in Tsikiji. This time the little bowl of uni surprised me. It was just sweet and...sweet! So delicious, and the ikura creates a funny yet enjoyable mixture of tastes with the uni, since the former is salty while the latter is sweet. Wonderful.

The other non-fish sashimi was all good, and I must say that the sashimi set was a really awesome bargain. Right after finishing off the whole plate in 15 minutes, we started the hot dishes. First it was the ox tongue skewers.

To me it had a bit too much black pepper on it, overwhelming the flavour of the meat. Still it was nicely prepared and grilled to the right point. Sometimes you can get really dry skewers due to overcooking, and you can see it is not easy to do quality skewers because the chef has to constantly keep an eye on it.

Another big hot dish came, the big scallops served in butter sauce! They were HUGE!

The final dish came and it was Fried Rice with Shrimp Eggs.

This fried rice was amazingly delicious, because it looked like typical fried rice with some asparagus slices but turned out to be an extremely tasty light course in the meal! As you may know, Japanese rice is round and sticky, and it is not easy to make fried rice with it. Adding oil may help but you will need quite a lot of oil, and most importantly no one will find shiny rice appealing and delicious. This fried rice however isn't oily at all, and the combination of asparagus and shrimp eggs is very interesting. The dish is light and refreshing, but not too light that bores your taste buds. The shrimp eggs act like salt in here but tastes more than just saltiness. This is extremely well done, and is a perfect finale for this pre-Christmas dinner.

The quality of food no doubt confirms my next visit to this place, and with the quiet and relaxing ambience, this is a perfect restaurant for anyone who wants to get away from the busy city life and has some undisturbed private time for fine Japanese dining experience.

One of the best restaurants has come from Japan to Hong Kong, and it specializes in pork cutlet. This kind of food was introduced in Japan during the Meiji Period, and now it has its own style, with even better texture and quality. In Japan, pork cutlet is called tonkatsu.

The new arrival is Ginza Bairin and as the name suggests, it is from Ginza, Japan. It's quite famous in that area, and considered one of the best in pork cutlets. This time it comes to Hong Kong and we are to see if the same good taste also comes.

Unfortunately, I have not been to the Ginza one, and so I can only compare it with another cutlet place which has been established in Hong Kong for quite some time and has its own fame in this city, called Tonkichi. With its main branch set up in Causeway, you can always see a queue outside the door, and with the food gourmet Choi Lan recommending the restaurant some time ago, its booking is all full for reservation till 6 months later.

Let's start with Ginza Bairin.

This place was designed with all wood pattern and light color scheme, and was probably trying to bring back the feel of its Ginza branch. It was comfortable but I am not a fan of all those little curtains which separate the restaurant into different zones. However, they do add a little privacy to each table.

I ordered the typical tonkatsu set, which is perhaps the easiest way to know if it is really that good.

The pork was from the big black pig (黑豚) and was pretty well done. I found the texture a little rough, but the smell of pork was strong and actually quite attractive. The outer fried breaded layer was not oily, and complementing the meat inside well.

However, there was some fat in the pork and I believe it is intentional. The chef cuts each slice of meat with a little fat on one edge, where the meat is the softest with the strongest pork smell. Some people may find that unattractive, while I don't really have a problem with it since the fat area was not very big, as shown in the picture above.

One major component of the tonkatsu set is the shredded cabbage. The cabbage here was fresh but not sweet enough, and thank God the delicious plum sauce helped to bring back the good taste of the vegetable.

Then we jumped to Tonkichi. What is different here is the first dish, which is not a dish really but a bowl of sesame.

You need to pestle it into powder and add the special pork sauce. This is extremely tasty to go with the tonkatsu. Before the main course we added a little bit more, the deep-fried soft-shell crab.

Not oily at all, this crab was cooked just right. The outside was crispy with the inner being so soft and juicy. Sometimes I needed to add lemon sauce to ease the oily feeling if the crab was cooked too long, but this time I didn't need to add anything. The cutlet then followed.

Here the pork was a little thinner, but the texture much softer than the Bairin to me. While the smell of pork was a bit weaker, I found this more delicious because the thickness was just right and better to handle. The outer was also crispy and I believe both restaurants used similar breadcrumbs for the breading.

The part that made this set stand out more is the shredded cabbage. It was fresh AND very sweet, and that added an unique touch to the whole dish. Deep-fried food can be heavy if eaten too much, but with the sweet vegetable, the meal will be more well balanced and more enjoyable.

And it is amazing that even when the cutlet is just a little bit better in Tonkichi, the main reason for the win is the side dish vegetable. The wonderful tonkatsu set ended with a dish of sliced water melon, adding one more reason for our higher score on this restaurant.

It is quite obvious that the best pork cutlet from Ginza Bairin has not arrived yet from Japan, but one has to note that the win does not just come from the good tonkatsu. Good complements are always the part that qualify the meal as a complete one. That actually makes me learn something. If you need to perfect something, always look at the big picture first instead of just dwelling into details. Both the big picture and the small details count for something good. That is why a good seat, good lighting or even good service always counts for the success of a restaurant. Now I understand why someone told me this, "If you want to know how good the food is, check how the waiter serves your food first."

I finally have time to compile this list of good restaurants I went to during my trip to Japan in late October. What I have here is only good food, and while they may not be the best (since I don't know everything and there must be better stuff around), I would say that they are places worth visiting. This time I will just keep it short and quick, and include links and information for your easy reference. Enjoy!

1st November - Tokyo Korakuen 東京 後楽園
 尾道ラーメン麺一筋東口店
 東京都千代田区三崎町２丁目１−１６[ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

It is not a high-class ramen shop, but it still has a name of its own. The noodle is definitely good, and the dumplings are nice too. For those who love spicy stuff should try their famous red ramen. It is going to burn your tongue, perfect for cold winter time.

2nd November - Tokyo Omotesando 東京表参道
とんかつ まい泉
東京渋谷区神宮前４丁目−８−５[ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

Probably one of the best deep-fried pork cutlet shops in Japan. They have all kinds of pork for you to choose, from the typical but most delicious deep-fried pork set to rice with pork cutlet and egg on top, to pork cutlet sandwiches. The cutlet is crispy on the outside but not oily at all. With refillable rice and salad, you can be sure that you won't be able to move after the meal. A must-try for everyone, because once you try, you won't like other pork cutlets anymore.

牛タン
道玄坂センタービル Basement

I don't know the exact name for this, but this chain restaurant is specialized in beef tongue food. Their beef tongue has two sizes, thick and thin, and be sure to try the thick one. It is not expensive, but very tasty. If you need a quick but high-quality lunch, this can be your choice.

4th November - Tokyo Tsukiji
大和壽司 [ Google Map ]

There are many sushi shops in the Tsukiji Market, and everything inside is fresh and delicious. You may choose those with insanely long queues, but I think any one can do. This shop is popular but not always blocked by a huge crowd outside, and the shop is split into two rooms. Be sure to get uni (sea urchin) sushi and toro (tuna) sushi. No fishy taste but only sweet and slightly salty taste of the ocean. You won't regret it.

4th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
和幸 (新宿ミロード店)
東京都新宿区西新宿1-1-3小田急新宿ミロード8F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

This chain restaurant is not extremely prestigious, and compared to Mai Sen, this is only 75/100 at most. However, the pork cutlet is still quite well done and the new pork cutlet from large black pigs is soft and very delicious. There are many branches and the one we went to is at the top floor of a department store, which is quite big and comfortable.

7th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
博多天神 (歌舞伎町一番街通り店)
新宿区歌舞伎町1-23-12 [ Google Map ]

There are many good ramen shops in Japan, and which one is good depends on your own taste. This one is famous because of their nearly white soup, which is prepared continuously for more than 40 hours. They said they never turned off the soup boiler and so you can be sure all the essence and taste are well kept in the soup. You can refill your bowl with their noodles for free if you want more, making this place the best value ramen shop in the center of Tokyo.

7th November - Tokyo Ikebukuro
麺創房無敵家
東京都豊島区南池袋1-17-1崎本ビル1F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

Yes, it sounds like many ramen shops are already very good in Japan, but after trying this one, you will know what is the best. This place is considered as one of the rare 9-star holder in the country (10 is the full score), and their noodle, I must say, is exceptional. You can smell the egg flavour from the noodle of the person next to you, isn't that a bit crazy? Yes, it is. A must-go place for anyone who loves ramen, and no worry, there is always a queue outside their shops, so just line up and enjoy it.

7th November - Tokyo Shibuya
鳥良 手羽先唐揚専門店
東京都渋谷区道玄坂2-29-8道玄坂センタービル6F [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

One of the famous places in Japan which specializes in chicken wings. This is not just typical chicken wings like you can eat from your own kitchen, but BBQ skewer type. I tried and I must say I never had such good wings before. They have more than just wings, like what I showed here in the photos (yeah, we ate a lot!!!) From left to right: 1) starter, which is assorted mushroom slices; 2) dark sugar apple vinegar drink; 3) smooth tofu: extremely delicious tofu that you cannot taste the tofu but soy beans! That means it is so raw and so natural, and smooth like silk!); 4) chicken wings, the key of the whole meal; 5) chicken cartilage skewers; 6) chicken ramen; 7) chicken kidney skewers (not sliced up but whole ones); 8) chicken rice bowl with egg. Reservation is preferred or else you will need to wait for at least 2 hours for dinner.

8th November - Tokyo Shinjuku
MUJI Cafe [ Google Map ] [ Official Site ]

We tried this cafe on the last day of our trip, and they have the most declious light meals I have ever had. This MUJI place is decorated in their own style, no doubt, and all the food advocates a healthy and light lifestyle. What we had includes red rice with Japanese curry, assorted food lunch set and one caramel cappuccino. If you had too much calory in your trip, try this place to balace off your diet a little bit. If you want to bring some of their food home, no problem, just visit their shop above the cafe, and you will see all the food and drinks packaged nicely in minimistic design. Then you can replicate the food yourself and enjoy the same taste at your own place.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next blog on desserts and cakes!

Last year when Michelin unleashed its stars on the selected Hong Kong restuarants, much controversy prevailed in the town criticizing the fact that most of the awarded places were either western restaurants or expensive hotel places. Of course, not many people can spend a lot on one dish, but the truth is that Hong Kong is filled with so many international cuisines and seriously, some small and traditional shops do much better food.

Lung King Heen is located at Four Seasons, and it was the only restaurant awarded three stars in the Michelin food guide in 2009, and it still keeps the three stars for 2010 (while the other of the two three-star awards is Caprice, which is the French restaurant in Four Seasons). There is no doubt that this is an expensive Chinese restaurant, but I read reviews that the food is good too. I am testing it myself today.

The place was really beautiful, and all the details were taken with good care. The menu, the little flower pot and even the teapot were specially designed.

We started the lunch, or yumcha in precise terms, with this dimsum, steamed rice rolls. But instead of the typical beef or roasted pork or shrimp filling, this one had lobster meat inside.

I would not say that this was good just because it used some high-class ingredients, but this was quite nice. The roll was not thick but very chewy, and the lobster was nicely prepared too. However, I still prefer the original beef or roasted pork rice rolls because those are paste-like meat or very thin slices, and that actually fits better inside the roll. The lobster here are big chops and when you eat it, it moves inside the roll and finally falls apart.

Then it was the Tarts with Salmon and Cheese. Yeah, it was a strange dish.

It was clearly a fusion type of food, and if it was not my friend, I would not pick this one. The tarts were just so-so, probably because the salmon and cheese just didn't go well with the tart outer. After that one typical dim sum came, the shui mai.

There couldn't be any surprise from this dish I guess, and yes it was typical but at least it was well done and had real shrimps inside. There are many other restaurants only using pork and shrimp paste to make shui mai, but original shui mai actually has real and whole shrimps inside, and is always the best.

This looked very ordinary too, but turned out to be a little sweet surprise. This was the Mini Pineapple Buns with Roasted Pork Filling. The top was crispy and there were quite some filling inside instead of big empty space. Tasty.

This is the Shrimp Dumplings. I love the wrapper which was so thin as you can see from the photo. You may not know but the wrapper is actually the part that decides whether the dumpling is good or not. It should not be too thick and it should be translucent. It is thin but should not break easily, and should be chewy too.

The Vegetarian Buns came, which was pretty ordinary.

The most special dim sum came last, and it was the Baked Whole Abalone Puffs with Diced Chicken.

The "abalone" tasted really good and it was a real abalone on top! I don't know whether it was only illusion to say it was good, because everyone would agree that anything with things like abalone or shark fins would become high-class delicious food. In any case, just talking about the texture and taste, this puff was very well done. Nothing was overcooked and each ingredient did not overwhelm each other in the taste.

The dessert was a complimentary item, and it turned out to be a little disappointing. The two kinds of desserts were small sachima and coconut cakes. They were both tasty but not special at all, more like just up to typical standard.

The second dish of dessert was a complete letdown, because it was Sweet Osmanthus Cakes (or Guihua Cake), but the flower flavour was not strong at all. It tasted more like mango jelly, and even the colors suggested that. It was really poor to me, as I don't think such Chinese dessert could go wrong in such a prestigious Chinese restaurant.

In general, the food is above average, but is not extremely good and memorable like Michelin would say about it. The service is the key to its success. When I just walked in, several waiters came and served me, putting our bags and coats into place. They were more than happy to explain each item in the menu for you, and if you wanted to change a dish after ordering, the staff wouldn't complain at all. I believe that is the major reason why it was awarded three stars in the Michelin guide, and why it can keep it for two years.

If you wanted some extraordinary Chinese food, you might find some here in the menu but don't expect everything to be good. There are other places I would recommend you instead. if you want unbeatable service and beautifully decorated modern place on a relaxing weekend day, then this is a good choice. You know what I mean.

It has been some time to update my blog and yes, work is killing me while I am preparing for my exam too. I just have so much to do! Well, I have been to some cool places and I only stop writing about them because of my work. Now I got a little time and so here we go.

Inaniwa udon is one of the most high-class udon in Japan, and it is different from the typical udon you may see in supermarkets or restaurants. Inaniwa udon is thin noodle and a little translucent (not completely translucent but a little more than the typical thick udon). It can be served both hot and cold, and when it is served cold, the sauce becomes very important because while it has to be good flavour, it cannot be too overwhelming to cover up the wheat smell of the udon.

We went to this restaurant which was recently opened in Elements. Even the name suggests that it is a place for good Inaniwa udon. This time we tried both the hot and cold udon and also some of the popular Japanese snacks, and perhaps we could go straight to the food. The first dish was Cold Duck Breast Slices.

I couldn't guess how good this dish was. It looked so ordinary to me, like only slices of meat with soy sauce, but I was wrong. It turned out to be very delicious. It was very light, both the meat and sauce. I never like mustard and so I skipped it and only ate the slices with the spring onion on the top. Surprisingly they actually went well with each other!

The thrill didn't last long though. The tempura came and it was really ordinary.

At least it was not very oily, and thank God the shrimps were big and very fresh, or else I would just leave the whole thing aside. It didn't surprise me at all except the size.

The octopus cake soon arrived, which turned out to be another delicious dish instead of another letdown. There were tiny slices of octopus inside instead of pulverized octopus meat, and it didn't have the disturbing fishy smell, very well done I must say!

And remember to have it with the ginger in the dish.

The dishes were served quite fast, and when we just went halfway on the small starters, the udon came in. First it was my sister's BBQ smoked eel on Inaniwa udon in soup.

Just the look of it made people drool. The eel was fat and good, but I wasn't sure if it went well with soup udon as I thought it was best with rice. Anyway, my sister didn't stop eating once she started, and I guess that was a sign of approval. Then, the cold udon with American Angus beef and salad arrived.

It looked very much like a western dish, like a bowl of salad. I though expected that because that was what the menu said! Perhaps you can already guess right about the taste of this one, and it is only so-so. Of course, not all fusion stuff can be done properly and well besides inspiring others.

And beware, there was a huge block of wasabi on the top, and you may miss it as it hides in the green vegetable. If you accidentally mix everything so well, you're done.

Then, the best of the meal was here. It was the signature cold Inaniwa udon served with three sauces. The middle one is actually the key of the whole set, which is hot Iwate duck sauce.

And it was extremely delicious! It didn't have toppings or meat or vegetable on it, but it allowed you to enjoy the true and pure taste of the udon. You don't pour the sauce into the noodle, but instead, you pick a little udon and dip it into the sauce and eat it.

The sauce was prepared from duck meat from Iwate, Japan. The meat was fried and then allowed to cool for several hours before being cooked into sauce. You could smell the wonderful duck meat from the sauce and it went so well with the udon.

The udon was superb too. It was not thick like the typical udon, and perhaps even thinner than the typical ramen. The texture was very special, like it was very brittle but also very chewy once in your mouth. The noodle was shiny and translucent, and just that appearance you could guess this was high-quality food. It amazes me to realize that all Inaniwa udon is prepared with hands instead of machine-made, and you can imagine the great effort and skills of the chefs.

This was a very good dinner and I would definitely come back again later. There are some other dishes like the famous teriyaki and egg blocks, but still the udon is the main reason for my revisit. I actually knew about Inaniwa udon already during my trip to Japan in late October, and when I was in Akita, I bought some Inaniwa udon already. This was what it was like, all made in Japan, haha:

And I prepared a quick meal with it one day, with some tasty scallops from Japan too:

That made my day, really.

The three-day holiday finally started on Saturday, and it was like the most anticipated event this month for me. C'mon, a long holiday! I can't stay in the office like forever and I seriously think that is a like a torture for anyone in the world.

Maybe I don't like my job. Actually, it is the personnel thing.

Anyway, on Saturday my girlfriend and I were wandering in Harbour City, and were thinking about where to have lunch. She suddenly recalled a restaurant at the end of this linear mall, and we headed towards that to see what was there.

Bubbles Bar at Marco Polo Prince Hotel is an interesting restaurant with its one side open to the shopping mall. It was not very big, but the overall environment was surprisingly elegant and relaxing even when there are quite some people passing by the restaurant entrance. We chose a table right open to the mall, we ordered two lunch sets from the short menu.

The food came after a rather long wait, but it looked like the wait was worth it. The Chowder soup with fish was unbelievably good, because I never expected this common type of soup to be this tasty. It was not too thick, and there were quite some fish and vegetable inside too instead of just flour and cream. I must say I love this soup very much, seriously.

My main course was a simple tortellini with poached egg on top, while my lady had roasted pork ribs with blackberry sauce.

The tortellini looked very creamy and thick, but it was not that heavy actually. The poached egg was a little surprise because it was actually very light even with the yolk, and created a wonderful balance with the creamy pasta. The roasted pork was not bad, but a little less creative and special. Still, it was well done. The spotlight was the pork but don't miss the vegetable: very fresh!

The dessert was parfait with black truffle and vanilla cream. On the side was a pistachio macaroon.

This was a very light dessert and the whole thing was filled with the smell of black truffle. Macaroons to me are very sweet cookies that can only go with bitter coffee, and I did hesitate when I saw this on the dish. It turned out to be incredibly light and not overwhelmingly sweet, and went so well with the parfait! I was so surprised by this dessert, which was an excellent finale for the lunch set.

I must say this lunch was remarkable well done and seriously I never expected such food quality in this tiny restaurant. This is definitely a must-visit place if you are looking for a quiet, comfortable and slow meal. The menu is not long but filled with high-quality food, and the sets are not expensive at all. I would definitely come back!

Burgers are everywhere in Hong Kong. When many of the chain fast-food restaurants are prevailing, people only know burgers from, say, McDonald's. Recently some others came to this city to promote "better burgers" or more US-style burgers, and they include Triple O's and the recently back Burger King. However, the best burgers happen to be in some small shops. One of them is Shake'em Buns.

The small shop is located in Ship Street, right at the street level of J Senses. The shop was renovated like a cowboy age dining place, with wooden chairs and cowboy fonts. I love the board writing "beer is the only reason to wake me up in the afternoon." The menu is very funny too, with all the names of burgers converted into strange terms like "Gang Bang" and "Tokyo Drip". Usually this place is filled with people during weekday lunch time, and thank God today is Saturday, and my friend and I easily got a table by the door side.

Quickly we settled down with our bun choices, and got ready to "shake" them. My "Ivana Vanilla" came first, and it is actually coconut vanilla milkshake with some pineapple inside. Yummy.

"Debbie Does Dallas" was a typical burger with beef and bacon inside. It just looked so juicy!

And my "Hawaii Surfer Girl" arrived on the table. As you can guess right, this is a Hawaii burger, with a slice of pineapple inside, so good!

My friend was completely over his burger and couldn't help but ordered another one for a second organsm. He got a "Tokyo Drip" which had mushrooms inside.

These burgers were exceptionally good. The beef is very thick and juicy, unlike those you got from McDonald's which were just dry and thin. The burgers had a big layer of veggie, and I think that's very important for a tasty burger. Why? Because the meat may not be very juicy, and the bun must be dry, and adding them up will make a burger hard to swallow. The vegetable inside would balance the texture well and also add a fresh layer between the meat and sauces.

Another thing is that each special burger only has one or two features, instead of adding many new "surprises" inside. For example, the Tokyo Drip only has mushrooms as extra, while Hawaii has pineapple. That's it. Some places stuff burgers with many types of things to make them "special" and "amazing", and that just fails. You won't be able to taste anything in the end!

There is no doubt for me to rate this pace as the top burger room in the town. Only here can you enjoy burgers in a fine way, not like stuffing yourself with burgers in 10 minutes at McDonald's. Different, very different. It may not be easy to imagine any "fine" fast food, but try it here at Shake'em Buns. You will change your mind.

When you see something for many times, or visit a place for many times, you will very likely take it for granted. You simply won't appreciate them anymore.

Kiku is located in the basement of Landmark, Central, and quite some people in my office go there for lunch or dinner. Many of them would say that Kiku is good, but actually, it is a place more than good. Here you will find some of the best sushi and smoked eel in the town.

Today, I came back in search for some Japanese delicacies, and actually, I just needed their extremely good smoked eel. My friend's lunch came first, and it was a grilled beef lunch set which also included four slices of sashimi.

It looked really nice. The beef here was quite good too, but mine would be even better. My set was all about this big bottle gourd container.

And yeah, that's it! There were actually three layers and I will reveal them one by one. The top was the sashimi starter, four slices of fresh sashimi (haha, yes, the same as the beef lunch set one )...

Then the second layer is another starter dish, but hot. It included two fish cake slices and a slice of corn. The corn looked dry but turned out to be quite watery and sweet inside. Really interesting texture I must say. Excuse me for the bad shot...

And finally the bottom layer was the main course, the smoked eel!

The smoked eel was delicious! It was so thick, and very fatty too. That was just rich! The BBQ sauce went so well with the fish, and it was particularly good because the fish was meaty. Sometimes you may have skinny eel and no matter how good the sauce is, it just fails because you can't feel anything in the mouth. Another thing is that the grill was very well done. If it was overcooked, the eel inside would be very dry. This one was just right, a little crispy outside with the burnt smell, while the inside was juicy and soft. That's what I call good smoked eel!

Sometimes when we eat something too frequently, we tend to lose the basic appreciation to things and take things for granted. So it is a good idea to stop that, and have a taste of excellent food after some time, and learn how to slowly taste the details of the food. Only in that way can you pick up the magic taste and enjoy the food again.

Caprice is one of the seven restaurants in Hong Kong to receive two prestigious Michelin stars. Actually, before the Michelin award, I have been dreaming of visiting this beautiful French restaurant at Four Seasons led by Chef Vincent Thierry who comes from the Four Seasons in Paris. Today I am so excited to finally try out their ultra-fine delicacy.

The place is beautifully designed, and of course the view is awesome as it is right next to the Central pier. Over the harbour you can see the West Kowloon side, though it is still a piece of undeveloped land (I hope they can really do some nice architecture there). I love all the details in the restaurants, from the little chair for your bags to the tidy marks on the utensils. All of them are very carefully designed and set up.

Right at the moment when we sat down, we got the menus and the little starter bread.

And the bread came too, which was very crispy on the outside and soft inside. It was served warm too.

They had complimentary wine for any lunch set these days, but both of us got some fresh juice instead because we didn't feel like alcoholic today. Mine was a mango juice.

And I love that salt dish (instead of a little salt bottle). Everything looks so beautiful that you just love to be in this place even for only a little meal.

The appetizers came quickly after we finished the bread. I got the Alaskan king crab salad with vegetable macédoine in tarragon sauce, while my lady got a Charolais beef Carpaccio served with ratatouille with arugula leaves and Parmesan cheese. Just plain awesome food!

And the main courses followed. She got herself a simple but tasteful grouper fillet on citrus emulsion with watermelon and honeydew melon, while mine was Australian lamb rack with green asparagus and quinoa in nut brown jus.

I have never tried quinoa (藜麥) before but I found that it had really interesting texture, and made a good companion with the lamb. The menu said it was a nut-brown jus, but turned out it was pumpkin purée. Both dishes were very well done. The lamb was so good that even its fatty part, which I usually throw away, was delicious.

We didn't plan to have the dessert at the beginning but since we were here, we decided to have a try especially after seeing their pretty dessert cart! The cart came and there were six kinds of dessert for us to choose. Each of us was allowed to choose three out of six and that means we could try all of them in the end. And we did, haha!

That was my lady's choice, which were a small jar of chocolate cream, strawberry macaroon and poached pear Napoleon with cream. Mine included a passion fruit tart, a brownie with caramel mousse on top, and a Speculos biscuit with lemon and chocolate custard on top.

The coffee was served as the finale of this great meal. There shouldn't be any surprises but I found one: the milk for the coffee was warm! I have never been to a place where the milk for coffee was warmed up for serving. I appreciate that so much because they took care of such a tiny detail. If the milk is not warm or hot, your coffee will be cooled when you pour the milk into it.

Even the sugar cup was very pretty. The sugar blocks inside were like rocks, really, rocks.

This is of course very fine dining experience, but the price is not exorbitantly expensive. The food in general was very good and beautifully crafted, but the dessert is still a bit behind that in Mandarin Oriental. It is not easy to find good French food that fits the taste of Hong Kong people, because some of them will need a little fusion from Chinese cuisine in order to enjoy the food completely. This restaurant does not offer any fusion food but all the dishes are light and refreshing while maintaining their original flavours and special textures, and so I believe everyone will find the food here enjoyable.

I must agree with the two stars awarded to this restaurant by Michelin, and I would definitely recommend Caprice to anyone who wants to enjoy innovative contemporary French food in comfortable ambiance with superb views over the harbour. I am sure you would love it.

Gyn Jin is the place you should go to if you are looking for some unlimited beef as your lunch or dinner. After paying HK$70, you can eat as much beef as you want in an hour. If you don't think you can finish them within the given time, just pay HK$30 more and you can finish your meal in 90 minutes.

The beef I talked about here is not steak, but hot pot style. Hot pot is one of the popular eating cultures in Hong Kong, and in the past, when the weather was just a bit cold like in autumn, people would love to go and have hot pot. Now, you don't need to wait for the cool weather as air conditioning sets up the perfect environment for hot pots at any time.

After sitting down, the timer started and the waiter immediately set up a big hot pot with typical soup inside.

Each table would have one dish of beef and pork each, and of course the beef (first image down there) was the leading role in this meal. The second image is pork.

And cooking in action...

Since the beef and pork were already sliced into very thin pieces, you can just dip your beef into the soup for 10 seconds and it is ready. Beef actually does not need to be completely cooked (as you know, steak can be rare or medium), but pork must be cooked thoroughly to kill any parasites inside.

The beef was not bad, and the texture of the beef was okay too. Since this was a buffet set, the beef was not the highest class one. Best beef was the the one with beautiful white pattern like snow, like granite patterns. As you can see from the picture, the beef we got was not bad with a bit fat (or "snowflake" they usually say) but the second dish of beef we got later had very little fat. Maybe that is good to health but that would be a bit too chewy.

The pork was just so-so because of the heavy fat layer. Some people would say the fatty layer would a good thing in pork since that would help ease the rough feeling in the mouth. I don't know but the taste and texture of the pork was just okay.

In general it was not a bad lunch and with this attractive promotion, it seems to be a good value meal. However, if you are looking for some really serious beef hot pot, I would recommend other places to you.

This little shop with wood cladded facade is located at the corner of Tsing Fung Street, Tin Hau, right under a flyover. It may not have the best sushi in the town, but definitely one of the best in that local area. I am not sure about what the others wrote on the popular Hong Kong food website Openrice.com, but I must say that the food here in Etsu Sushi isn't bad at all. I guess some of them just don't know how to eat or appreciate good food.

Anyway, when you go into the sushi shop, the first thing you can see is a glass box with something moving inside, and they are...

Yes! If you order one of their crab dishes, the chef will grab some of these crabs from the glass box and fry them! But we didn't order anything like that, as we believe good sushi and noodle will be fine. The starter was some sweet lotus root slices...

And soon the sushi arrived. We got sushi of scallops (hotategai 帆立貝), salmon, sweet Botan shrimp (botan ebi 牡丹蝦) and the fatty bluefin tuna (toro 拖羅).

The shrimp ones were very good, and I seldom see such a big and meaty shrimp! The big head part was taken out and made as soup for us, so that you could get all the essence from the shrimp.

Then the skewers came. We got two, one is the ox tongue and another chicken cartilage. The first one was very well done with the amount of salt just right, or else the seasoning would overwhelm the taste of the whole thing. The chicken one was just so-so. Now, the main courses started. The first one was the clams boiled in sake soup.

Oh my god, it is not easy to find such big clams with so much meat inside! This was just awesome and the sake penetrated completely into the clams and you can taste the clams, the sake and also the sea water too! That means the clams were fresh not refrigerated. Nice! Next one was the hot pot with beef and vegetables. Not a very surprisingly good pot but it wasn't bad either.

The hot pot was part of a small set we ordered, which also included a dish of chicken slices made with Hokkaido milk sauce.

I thought it was very special as the name suggested, but it turned out to be just a creamy sauce chicken thing. Finally the set was completed with a bowl of cold udon served with tempura.

The noodle was only so-so, but the tempura was well done. It was not very oily and the shrimp and vegetable used were fresh stuff. I went to another Japanese restaurant some days ago and the udon was better and so I wouldn't give a high score for this one.

In general, the food was all above average, with the sushi and clams being the best. This meal was not cheap and one may get something in similar quality with a lower price. However, if you are looking for a quieter place, away from the busy city center, this is not a bad option. This place also serves quite a big collection of sake and Japanese wines, and if you like to eat with some alcohol, Etsu Sushi would be one of your options.

The House of Jasmine (link to OpenRice.com) is one of the modernized or westernized Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Usually, many restaurants these days are renovated or modernized to attract more customers but the food quality may just be the same as before. It can be tempting to go inside and eventually you have to pay more for the still-the-same-average-quality food just because of the new decorations.

I went there for a relaxing lunch with my girlfriend after hearing some positive comments from our friends, and we hoped that the lunch was not just about the beautiful interior design. Surprisingly, the food was much better than I expected.

We ordered just dim sums without any big dishes (if you have more than 3 people, usually you have some dim sums first, and then order one or two big dishes like fried rice or noodle). The first dim sum arrived after 15-minute waiting, and it was the buns, the Buns with Molten Cream and Egg York Filling (奶皇包).

The inside was really molten, as it just spilled out and hurt you fi you were not careful enough. The filling was so creamy and smooth, well done! In some average restaurants, you might even get solid filling instead of molten due to the lack of skills, and so it is not easy to find a place with molten filling buns.

Then the Mini Rice Bucket (迷你桶飯) came.

Not bad, but something better arrived at the same time.

From the top they were Fried Rice Dumplings (鹹水角), Shao mai (燒賣) and Steamed Rice Rolls with Shrimps (腸粉). Yes, there is no exact English name for the second one and I have no idea how to describe them in taste, haha! Anyway, the rice rolls are delicious, as the rice layer outside was not too thick while the inside are fresh whole shrimps! And that is the first time I have seen such a plate holding the rolls, with three slots for each, interesting!

We also ordered a very interesting dim sum called Abalone Dumplings (飽魚餃), and in the past people did this in the shape of abalone so that the poor people could also enjoy "high-class food" in a cheap place! Today, the dumplings do have abalone slices inside, and the sauce is also made of abalones. Tasty!

Finally, the dessert came. The Egg Tart with Bird Nest (燕窩蛋撻) was a little bit fancy but it was not as good as we expected because of the fact that it was not hot enough when served. However, the pastry part was good and there was quite some bird nest on it. You know, in cheap restaurants you would be given only a tiny bit...

It has been some time since I have such a high-quality Chinese lunch, and I must say I am very satisfied. Together with the good service, I recommend  this place to anyone who is interested in Chinese restaurant and who is picky at eating environments.

One of the strangest shops in Hong Kong is definitely this cake shop. You go inside, there is nothing but three white walls around you with the big name Awfully Chocolate in front of you. There is one counter, and if you don't see the picture next to it, you will never know that this shop actually sells chocolate cakes and ice-cream. And yes, NOTHING is in the shop, not even one cake until you buy one and then the lady will show you a real cake from their shelves.

Originated from Singapore, the founder of this strangely designed shop is actually a couple of lawyers. The two people decided to leave the law field and started this shop in 1999, and immediately became the talk of the town. Now, you can find this shop from Singapore to Taiwan to Hong Kong.

Inside, you can only see one menu, and you can only find the prices in the name cards. There is no display at all, just one ice-cream counter with only one kind of ice-cream inside. They only sell three kinds of chocolate cakes, namely the All Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Banana Cake and Chocolate Rum & Cherry Cake. That's right, there are only four products, and all of them are made with pure dark chocolate.

And you cannot buy one slice. You have to buy the WHOLE cake. Wow.

Seriously, that is the first time I have seen a shop with such strong personality, from design to the products it makes. Tonight I was feeling a bit low, and I wanted some chocolate to cheer me up. Suddenly I remember this shop in one of the magazines (not ads because Awfully Chocolate never does ads as the founder believed that good things need no advertising) and tonight I decided to visit the white shop for a scoop of chocolate ice-cream.

And I saw a special promotion, buy one cake get a free scoop. So, why not? I got an All Chocolate Cake. First, I finished the whole scoop of ice-cream in the shop. Wow, just smooth and good! Very chocolate! You don't feel like eating ice-cream but really molten chocolate, but it is not that overwhelming, not too sweet or bitter. Just right! I love the cup they use for the ice-cream too! Here it is:

And now we start to go ahead with the cake!

And unboxing...

Wow! The chocolate is so rich and it is just mouth-watering! I am sure that any chocolate lovers cannot resist this!

I must say that this is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had. The reason is simple, it is rich but to the point that you can taste the chocolate and the cake. Sometimes, some cakes are too rich in chocolate that you can only taste the sweetness, which forces you to drink tons of water. This one has no such bad effect. Everything is very well balanced.

The cream of chocolate is very well done as it is smooth but not too soft like whipped cream. That fits well with spongy cake! Surprisingly, this cake is not heavy at all. Instead, it is light with all the chocolate cream around it, awfully well done I must say!

Let me tell you, I can finish this in less than three days! Finally a truly good chocolate cake place I will go from time to time!

The Mandarin Cake Shop in Mandarin Oriental is famous for their exceptional quality in their cakes, as one will immediately agree after seeing the decorative cake creations resembling LV bags and wedding gowns displayed at the entrance.

Wednesday was a lucky day for me to try some chocolate delicacy from their cake counter, while it was also a sad day too. My boss was leaving the team and so we bought some cakes as farewell after-lunch dessert to thank him for all the teaching and guidance. I guess everything would be fine, even though we knew in our heart that the team would have quite some tough moments in the coming years without a true leader.

This is a food blog and so we are to talk about cakes here instead of "mourning". We bought five cakes and all of them were from the chocolate counter (by the way the shop has some really delicious hot chocolate drinks, which look like chocolate sauce actually, ha). The first cake was black, and in no way did it resemble a chocolate cake. It was a passion-fruit chocolate cake, with layers of chocolate and passion fruit cake inside.

Then it was the chocolate mousse cake and the Sacher cake. The latter one was very good probably because of the crispy layer at the bottom!

Finally here come the chocolate mousse cup and dark chocolate mousse cake.

All of them were not cheap, but the quality was very high. The mousse was very smooth while the sweetness was just right not too much to overwhelm the other tastes.

No departure is happy as a matter of fact, but we hope that the cakes would lessen the bitterness. Maybe my boss is right, as he said, "C'mon I am not dying!" The reason why it is hard to accept is that he was the spirit of the team. We realize that it is not just good work or job nature that unites a team, but the joy and fun we shared over the years. That is why we are so different from other teams in the office.

I wish you all the good luck, my boss. We will meet again, I am sure, in the future!

Wow, I am actually writing backwards. A week ago, I went to this western restaurant with my friends to celebrate the birthday of one of them. This was not my first time here but second time, and I remember it was pretty nice on my first visit. We didn't eat much but everything was nice.

First we had some bread, like typical western course. The bread was crispy outside but it was a little too...how do you say, too chewy. It is a bit hard to swallow...

Then the pizza arrived. It was a Traditional Italian Pizza with spicy sausage, pineapple and tomato as toppings. However, I have no idea how traditional it was, and I will know later since I am going to Italy soon, haha!

We also ordered some escargots and fettuccine with black truffle and mushroom slices. Both of them were nice though not special or wowing.

We also ordered a dish of steak but we were too hungry it seemed like, and we just swallowed it when it arrived before we realized I needed to shoot a picture of it...anyway, we also had some drinks. I got a champagne cocktail while our pretty lady friend got a Snowball herself.

Overall the food was good and nice, and the price was not too unaffordable. The quality was above average and the service was good. However, there was nothing special in the menu, as you could find similar food in other restaurants. It will be better, I think, if they have something special, or invent something so that you can only eat here. That would give a stronger impression.

Still not a bad choice at all for some western food, especially for those who are too bored by the food from Fat Angelo or Dan Ryan's.

I have no idea why the owner of this restaurant named it "Sportful Garden Restaurant". Maybe it was supposed to be "thoughtful"? I don't know, but this Chinese restaurant, even with a strange name, is quite famous in the town.

Having 8 branches all over the island and Kowloon sides, the restaurant is famous for some high-quality cuisines, which are mainly Guangdong food. There are some fusion dishes as well, but that is not surprising since Hong Kong is an international city with so many cultures mixed together like a dish of fried rice. Anyway, tonight we went there to celebrate my mum's birthday, and it was a pretty nice dinner set. Let's zoom in!

The dinner started with the shark fin soup with crab meat and fish maw slices (花膠). Unlike those in other restaurants, this soup was filled with shark fins and was actually a bit "fishy". I guess that proved it was real shark fins, right?

Then it was a combo set, with abalone and duck foot (鴨掌; shouldn't be duck web 蹼, which refers to the membrane not the whole foot).

Then we had some vegetable. What do you think it is? It is called "tung hau" (茼蒿). It has no English name but a Latin name called Chrysanthemum coronarium. It tastes like amaranth (or pigweed 莧菜) with a strong and strange smell. Yes, from the name you can see that it is a kind of chrysanthemum and you cannot imagine that it tastes like this.

Following the green dish we had the Swiss wing with glutinous rice filling. Of course, as you know that Swiss wings have nothing to do with Switzerland. This dish looks very delicious, and it was actually quite filling. The BBQ eel slices also came. They were very crispy and the taste was very good, but I think they were a bit overcooked.

The final dish in our main course was the tiger pawn. It was quite big and very juicy.

There was no rice for me this time, and I thought I would get hungry soon since I am the kind of people who need to have rice for every meal. But it looked like I didn't need more since the meal was pretty rich in flavour and that made you stop eating anything more. However, despite the fullness ,the dessert was a nice finale for the meal. It was the coconut cake with bird nest.

It was a great dinner but to me everything is a bit too rich for me. It seems to be a kind of once-in-a-while thing instead of an every-day meal. Anyway, if anyone wants to have some nice and decent Guangdong food, this will be one of your options.

Yes, I was trying to say quench your thirst, but it is a play on words. Today I finally got the beautiful Angel's Cake from Maxim bakery, and it is actually just a honey crunch angel food cake. A crunch cake is only a simple cake with cream outside, served with caramel crunch. An angel food cake is a kind of cake with a hole in the middle, which was said to be the food for angels due to its light color.

And I think that is beautiful isn't it? It is so yummy that I cannot stop eating it till all the crunch melts in my mouth! Okay, the crunch cannot really melt, but it is delicious!

Me and my girlfriend went to Starbucks at least once a month and we ordered this every time when it was available in the beginning of the year. It was very good too. My best experience with crunch cake was at Sevva. One slice of that crunch cake was quite big and also pretty expensive, costing HK$166 which is more than enough to buy the cake in the images above!

Anyway, if you have a chance, try it! It is light and simple, but delicious enough to make you dream of it every night! Haha!

Some people was asking, hey, what are you eating lately? Did you swallow any good food?

Actually, you don't need to go to all the high-class restaurant for good food. You can do it at home! I am lucky that I have a very good chef, who is my beloved mum. She does really good dishes and she can make that dish again after trying it from the restaurants! Tonight, we had an amazing dinner, and let me show you what we have:

The main course is the soy-sauced baby pigeons. It is a very common dish in Hong Kong, and they taste delicious! They are served with soy sauce and usually sliced into four parts for easy eating.

Then we have some oysters. They are small oysters from Japan, but they have very strong flavour. You can even taste a bit of sea water too!

I added a bit more food to the meal. I bought these two from the supermarket, which are the Japanese-style eel with BBQ sauce and salmon sashimi. They are very nice side dishes!

So you can see, good food can also be prepared at home, and it needs only a bit more work. Yes, I am lucky because I am not the one cooking, but I am learning! It is actually fun to work in the kitchen, learning about the food and how to turn them into delicacies. By the way, I haven't made a cake for a long time! I guess I should try again this weekend!

Last night we went to this sushi shop, which got famous when it was still in Yuen Long, the far-away-from-city-center new town. Now it started to grow and opened a few new branches, and we finally came to this new one in TST.

It was actually a special day for my best friend, and I didn't want to ruin his birthday dinner. Unfortunately I saw some negative comments on the web on this restaurant, and that killed a little bit of my appetite. Thank God it was more about services, and then I was prepared. Let's go to the sushi!

The famous sushi here is the long sushi, invented by the owner of this restaurant. They made this up because they thought they could wrap the whole rice with just one single sashimi, and enjoy the whole taste of the fish on it.

The sushi was okay, not to the level that I could scream. The fish was also fresh, but not incredible fresh. The experience of being long? Just so-so. It sounds a bit better if you can eat it in another way: cut the fish at the top to half, then eat it as one sushi with one sashimi. After all, most of the people don't have such a big mouth to swallow the entire thing.

I personally like the smoked eel most, but the salmon was not bad. Still, everything was typical in taste, not enough to stimulate my taste buds to the climax.

We also ordered two hand rolls, one is the roll with deep-fried oyster, one with foie gras and sea urchin sashimi on top.

I ate the latter one (focused one in the image), and the taste was funny. The foie gras was good and the urchin was okay, but then they were mixed together, the combination tasted funny in the mouth. Not bad, just funny. At least, the foie gras was really fried and hot. I would throw up if both toppings were raw. Just too weird, right?

Then two hot dishes arrived. First one is the small beef sashimi, and the second one is baked mushroom with butter.

The first one was not good at all. I guess it was too raw that it was too hard to chew and swallow. The taste was not bad but when it felt like chewing gum after some time in the mouth, you just wouldn't like it. The mushroom was okay, just a bit too salty to me.

Overall, the meal was average, and I didn't see why there were long queues before. One can find much better sushi in the town! Perhaps it is the price, since we just ended up HK$200 per person. If you need some casual Japanese food without much expectation, this may be a choice for you. Interesting enough, there are other things in the menu which are completely non-Japanese: cappuccino puddings, lamp chops...guess if you have a friend who hate Japanese food, he can still order something in here, haha!

Right at the time I knew my best friend Alonzo was back from Japan, I immediately grabbed him for a quick lunch. He is a charming guy and we have so much fun and laughter together. We went to this Vietnamese restaurant hidden away from the busy center of Causeway Bay. Alonzo led me to here after walking along some narrow alleys and strange catchwater.

The little shop, called Locomotive Contemporary Vietnamese Cuisine, can only hold 40 people at most, but it is not very cramped as they also have big sofas and pocket seating. Looking at the menu, it was not very cheap at all, and so we tried one or two plates and tried to see how worthy the food could be.

First it was the rice paper rolls, which had pork, spring onion and some other mixes inside. It was not bad, especially when you eat it with a sweet sauce that comes with it.

Then my main course came. It was another "pho" like the previous blog you saw, with all the beef stuff inside. The main feature of this pho is its size! It is just HUGE! I can nearly put my head into the bowl!

I read a lot of negative comments on this restaurant in Openrice.com, the website that most of the HK people go to and leave comments. However, while it is not a very high-class or famous eating place, it is not bad to me. The food was tasty while the side dishes were nicely prepared too. I can only say that the Internet has a lot of people who don't really know how to eat but how to type only. So most of those comments could just be disregarded.

Anyway, if you are around in that corner of the city and looking for some big bowls with good flavour, I think this is not a bad choice at all. If you don't mind walking more and paying more, I of course would recommend you to just visit the core of Causeway Bay where you can find a lot more decent restaurants!

My lunch didn't end with a nice cup of coffee. It was too hot outside and so I got this new product from Starbucks : Blackberry Mocha Frappuccino. Not very special to me but at least keep me cool!

I was always planning a dinner with my family at the beginning of the year but it was postponed several times for different reasons. Finally, our family dinner became true and I chose the newly open BLT Steak as the venue.

The opening of this New York based steak house marks the arrival of the French chef Laurent Tourondel and brings up some French-style American dishes and all-round finesse. The restaurant is designed by the architect Hernan Zanghellini, who created a cozy and casual dining space. As HKClubbing.com talks about this new restaurant, "A native of France with the passion and skill of a classically French-trained chef and the sensibility and style of a metropolitan restaurateur, Laurent Tourondel has successfully infiltrated the rarified world of New York restaurants and the American dining landscape, much to the delight of critics and diners alike.

"Bistro Laurent Tourondel takes the steakhouse concept to a new level by artfully combining the highest quality ingredients with the precision only the finest chefs can wield. “I created BLT Steak as a modern steakhouse – one that focuses on the best product and the most exact techniques. That is the key for me, to keep it simple and wonderful” states Chef Tourondel."

The restaurant only provides the best prime steak from US and grain-fed Australian Angus beef, while you can also select from a wide range of burgers, salads and side dishes. You can also find a long wine list too, though most of them may look young to those who knows wine well.

Before our main courses came, we had these huge popovers. They are breads with cheese on top and puff inside, which are very interesting!

We also had a little dish of salmon served with olive oil.

The food came really fast, and the two rib eyes already arrived before we finished the popovers. First is the Australian rib eye, and then the 14oz American rib eye.

I must say the meat was of high quality. My first reaction was that the charcoal smell was very strong! It was all over the two steaks. The outside was very crispy, but the inside was very soft and tender. American rib eye had  finer texture while the Australian rib eye seemed to have less fat. I guess I like the American one more.

My favourite dish was actually this spicy BBQ corn! It was so delicious with all the molten butter on top...wow! We also had some Fava beans though I wasn't very fond of it.

The another main course came and it was the rosemary chicken served in a big pot. It tasted like spring chickens and was not really special. Still, the meat was soft and good, and the sauce went well with the chicken too.

The dessert came right after our main dishes, and the first one is the Crêpe Soufflé which looked like a huge fat pancake. It was served with passion fruit sauce, and you know what? It tasted so good!

The surface was very crispy because of a thin layer of caramel, and the inside was very soft like custard. It was not sweet at all and thus tasted very good with sweet and sour passion fruit sauce. Definitely a very good dessert after all the heavy meat dishes. We also had a Pineapple Soup with White Chocolate ice-cream. I am never a fan of white chocolate but this was not bad at all. it tasted more like vanilla which went well with the pineapple sauce and fruits at the bottom of the big bowl.

You also have some madeleine cakes too for your coffee, if any. Not bad not bad!

Me and my sister ordered two cocktails. The red one is mine, which is called 57th Street Manhattan, while the yellow one is Mango Margarita. Both were pretty strong. Mine just tasted like the alcohol for cleaning wounds! Thank God I could take it without problem but that was like all up to my limit already!

It was a really great dinner. Everything was very well prepared and cooked. The steak was extremely good to me, and I would say it was right after Ruth Chris from my experience. (yet I will go to Lawry's and Intercontinental Steak House for a complete comparison!). The side dishes were nice as complimentary and the desserts surprised me a lot! The service, unlike some of the people wrote online, was not bad. I asked about recommendations and explanation of the steak types, and they were happy to answer us. The manager was helpful as well!

The whole dinner was not very expensive, less than HK0 per head this time. I am sure that I will come back again, and that you will like this place too!

If you want to have nice Vietnamese food in Hong Kong, you must not miss Ching Ting, one of the most popular restaurants in Causeway Bay. Previously a small and always crowded noodle shop, Ching Ting is now inside one office tower, two blocks away from its original position. With a much bigger place, there is finally no need to wait for a long time for a seat.

The reasons why you need to come is first, the food is good and second, cheap. Of course, it is not cheap like those Dai Pai Dong but you know you are not spending like a fortune like in those high-class restaurants. At least in here, you are paying for quality not for some beautifully decorated food which tastes strange in your mouth.

I got some appetizers first when I was waiting for my companion, and it was one of the famous dishes from Vietnam, the deep fried shrimp cakes.

It was served hot and still tasted so good after trying this for more than five times before. The good thing is that it was not over-fried. It was crispy on the outside while spongy inside. You should not miss the sour-sweet sauce coming with the cakes because the taste of the shrimps was brought up much with it. Then my main course came. It was called "huo che tou" (火車頭), which means "locomotive engine" literally. I have no idea how they relate to each other, but it is a bowl of flat rice noodle with four main ingredients: beef meatball, ox tender, ox stomach slices and beef.

It was very good especially the beef because it was thin and soft. Sometimes you might get big slices of beef which are hard to chew but that won't happen here. The noodle was great too as you can tell from the thickness of it.If it was put aside for too long, the noodle absorbs much of the soup and becomes "thick". That affects its texture and you can tell immediately when you put it in your mouth. The time my noodle was just right.

Finally the famous dish from this restaurant came. It was the deep fried butter chicken wings!

Instead of using flour or other things for the deep frying, they use butter. That's why the chicken wings smell so good! It may be too oily for some of you, but the crispy surface just makes you drool! This dish is always served hot, right after they were out from the frying pans. You can still hear the sizzling on them!

They also have some good dishes including the rice paper rolls and skewers, but we were too full for more. Go visit when you are looking for some good and fast Vietnamese food. This is the place!

Happy Easter too!

Bicho 備長 is located at the 26/F of the Diamond Plaza, which is a tower of different kinds of food. Here in this Japanese restaurant, you can try a lot of nice Japanese-style skewers, or yakitori in Japanese (but the term is for birds only, maybe kushiyaki? I don't know the exact term...).

The place was not very big at all, and it was dark and moody. There are only a few tables and they were pretty small. We were lucky because they had this half-price promotion on selected items if you ordered between 6-8pm. If we didn't have this promotion, I must say this place wasn't cheap at all. The price of each dish is reasonable but the point is you have to eat a lot in order to get full.

We started with something simple and typical, the tebasaki (chicken wing) with mentaiko and pork filling.

Then we had nankotsu (chicken cartilage)...

And then we jumped to the famous dish of this restaurant, the renowned lychee rolls with pork on the outside! And I must say, it is indeed very good!

One would expect the lychee would be dry because of the grilling, but it was actually very juicy and sweet, while the pork on the outside was crispy! The two kind of textures mixed together in a very interesting way, while you can also taste two kinds of flavour. Interesting! We also tried another famous dish here, the beef skewers. I think it was just so-so but not bad at all.

We of course had some kushiyaki dishes, or side dishes. They include spring mushroom skewers, ikada (scallop skewers), atsuage tofu (tofu skewers) and grilled eggplant slices.

Then the second round of main course came. They were the tiger prawns and gyutan (ox tongue skewers)!

The ox tongue was just delicious! The edges were crispy while the meat was juicy too! Not very dry and it was also thoroughly cooked. Usually they just used salt to grill and I must say they got the amount of salt just right here. It was not too salty, just enough to bring out the real flavour of the meat. It was wonderful! On the contrary, the prawn was not that good. It was a bit dry and I think it was a bit overcooked. Thank God it was a half-price item, as this prawnp was not cheap among all these dishes!

Finally we had this octopus tenticle skewers and Japanese rice cake skewers as a little finale. The latter one was a bit disappointing, and I advise you not to order this despite the good look.

In general, this is a very good restaurant. Nearly all the meat stuff were good, while those side dishes were not slovenly made. Everything was very nice except the table size but that was minor (of course it was!). When I left, I realized another great yakitori place called Sumi Hime, which was featured in some food magazines in Hong Kong. I guess I would try that and make a comparison between that one and Bicho!

Today I will treat you all some candies, and it is from Ferrero Rocher! Okay, this one is called Ferrero Garden, and I had no idea what this was when I bought this, but it was a collection of five flavour!

The five flavours are coconut, strawberry, almond, hazelnut and pistachio. I only tried the coconut one so far and it was very good, probably because I love coconut.

Have you tried these before? If so, did you like it? Or you like the original Ferrero Rocher more?

Last night I went to Morihachi Yakiniku, one of the popular Japanese grill restaurants in Hong Kong. There are two branches, and I went to the one in Causeway Bay which is located in an old office tower, and there you would not expect any good food up there.

I felt like I needed some Japanese food, and so I went up and had a try. The space was pretty dark and moody, but it was open and people could see each other in their seats instead of having any booth seatings. Maybe we should just start the food here, haha...

We started with this Japanese salad, which was not very special but okay. Then we had this ricepaper rolls with shrimp filling and mango sauce. It was quite nice with a bit of sweet in the vegetable!

Then the main course came, which was a big bowl or raw food for your grilling pleasure. There were several kinds of beef, with ox tongues (bottom ones with garlic on top), two giant shrimps (in the middle) and pork.

And you can see the pork and shrimps being grilled:

And of course, the perfect wagyu meat! (和牛)

And this dinner set also includes this Fried Rice with Wagyu Slices, and it was very good without much oil and the beef was very tasty. The only problem is the size. It was pretty small to share between two people.

The whole dinner was delicious, and I must say the beef was very, very good while the giant shrimps were fresh and juicy. We also ordered two glasses of peach wine, and that was good too, not too sweet not too alcoholic in the taste.

The dinner was pretty expensive but with that quality, you may agree that every once in a while its good to treat yourself.

We started our day with a breakfast buffet at the Four Seasons. Nothing special, but everything was of great quality.

Then we went out of the Venetian finally, and went to the town center. In case you don't know, the Venetian is a gigantic place where you can spend your whole day inside. Anyway, the town center definitely had more people, but comparing to my previous visit, you can't deny that the financial crisis really did some damage to the city.

We arrived at this renowned restaurant for lunch, and guess what, the waiters here weren't that nice. You would never get a seat unless you make a reservation several days before you come.

A Lorcha 船屋餐廳 is not big but they have some of the best Portuguese food in town. The interior is not very special with only brown and white tones, or maybe they want to keep this place as traditional as possible.

Because we had that buffet in the morning, we did not plan to order too much this time. First it was the Pork Ear Salad, which turned out to be a really light dish! Surprising enough it did not have the pig smell that you would expect when you had pork ear in other places. For this you can only taste the freshness of vegetable, brilliant!

We then ordered a dish of steak. Not special but just to fill up our stomach.

We then had this really tasty Clams cooked in Spanish style. Usually in Hong Kong, you might get something like a lot of soup or sauce but only a few clams. Here you got a full pot of clams, so many that it is like there are just more and more in the soup!

We ended our lunch with a glass of Sangria, which is a famous drink made with red wine and fruit juice.

Macau was once a Portuguese place and so many places contain the shadow and appearances of the Portuguese history and influence. It is good to try some Portuguese food here as they probably have some really good and traditional dishes. No kidding, this restaurant, despite some rude attitude, has some nice food indeed. Do make a reservation and give it a try. You won't regret it!

This weekend I spent it in Macau with my lady, and it was a wet and foggy Valentine's Day. We arrived there before noon, and we planned to stay inside the Venetian for the whole day as we did not want to get wet. With no surprise, we shopped till it was one, and we headed to the Venetian Food Court for a quick lunch.

Pizza Pizza looked like a Italian shop, and all the pizzas were made at the time you ordered. We had the four-cheese pizza, which was very good. It looked very good and you can smell the cheeses in the air right after it was taken out from the oven.

We added a Fatburger meal too but the burger was just so-so. I should have ordered another pizza instead.

After shopping for the whole day, it was already dinner time. This Chinese restaurant was located right next to the casino of the Venetian, and it had no English name. 海王老記 is famous for its expensive food like shark fins and abalones, and now you know why it is located there: those who just gambled and won some money would definitely get a seat here and have a taste of shark fins. Clever.

But we didn't come here for those kinds of food. It is also famous for its egg noodle (which is pressed with bamboo; in Chinese 竹昇麵). As we were both pretty full at that time, we decided to have some noodle and congee.

First we had the Fish Skin slices served cold 涼拌魚皮 as starter. Remember some time ago I went to Macau and had this similar thing in another shop. This is even better! It was crispy and a bit chilly, perfect to be an appetizer.

Then my noodle came. It was the Egg Noodle with Wonton and Shrimp Eggs On Top 蝦子雲吞撈麵. I think I don't need to explain what wontons are, right?

The congee came next. It was a quite simple congee with pig kidney slices inside. It is a typical kind of food in China and Hong Kong, which tastes simple and light.

Then we had some Deep-fried Fish Balls, made with cirrhinus (or Chinese common carp 鯪魚). It looks pretty typical but it tasted very nice, and the meat had a really nice texture.

We were just too full, and so we went to bed early. Let's start the next day in another blog...

Last week I went to Sorabol, one famous Korean restaurant in Hong Kong which can also be found in other cities in the world. It is famous for its grill stuff, while they have some really nice pot rice too.

I did not take many photos but here I have two. First you will see this really delicious beef. When it came to the table, it was like a roll of cloth, the the waitress, who was a bit impolite, unwrapped it and sliced it into pieces for you to grill. It was really good. The beef was juicy and the thickness was just right...yummy!

Then we ordered a famous Korean dish, the Ginseng Soup with Chicken. However, it didn't turn out as good as we expected because I could hardly taste ginseng in the soup. Still, it was tasty.

This restaurant is not cheap at all. If we did not have this coupon offered by a friend, we would not visit this place. Thank God the food was good and above average standard, otherwise I would be swearing here!

The new chain burger shop looked like a huge addition to the Hong Kong fast food field, but I only had a chance to try it yesterday. It started with great popularity and good reviews, but it didn't get too many points from me.

Indeed, this Teriyaki Burger was just a typical beef burger with some sweet BBQ sauce inside. It was good to have much vegetable there, but it was just too typical with no surprises, and it cost me like forty bucks! (that is like 5 bucks in US) And no fries!

Definitely if there is another chance, I would advise you to spend that much money in Triple O's or Simply Life. Disappointing, or maybe other burgers were better. Tell me if you tried the others.

Today I went out with my girlfriend for a walk at Harbour City, one of the biggest malls in Hong Kong. When it was about tea time, we found this new shop on the second level, the New York Fries.

Probably the strange mentality of Hong Kong people, when we see new things we feel excited and want to try at once. In the menu, there are three special fries besides the Classic, which are the Poutine, Veggie Works and the Works. We finally ordered the Works with a hotdog to share together.

Seriously, I expected much better fries from the new shop, but it sounds like it was just better than those from McDonald's without no good surprise. It did taste good, but I would say it was the sour cream that made it, and I am a big fan of sour cream. The mix of bacon and cheese was good, but still not enough for me to make me mouthwatering at first sight.

Where did you have your best fries so far then?

One Island East is a new commercial tower which from an architectural point of view looks pretty nice. Right opposite to this tower you can find a recently opened ramen shop, and inside there are some pretty fine Japanese ramen and hot snacks. The location of this place is not easy to find at first (that tower isn't easy to reach either), but you can see it being full for most of the time until the clock strikes at 10 or something.

I ordered a seafood ramen 海鮮拉麵, while my friend got a nice traditional ramen with roasted pork in Japanese style 叉燒拉麵.

And very surprisingly, in this modern restaurant you can really find traditional ramen, and they were very nice. Of course, you cannot compare them with those from Japan, but at least this is quite similar, and much better than the ramen from chain restaurants in areas like Mongkok or TST. You can taste the egg in the ramen while the soup was very tasty. At least, you didn't taste the GSM nor would you get thristy after drinking the soup.

We also tried two typical small dishes, the deep-fried chicken cartilage and smoke-grilled eel. Both are very delicious and you know that they are really made when you ordered them, not from the fridge and then the microwave oven.

And it looks like it was not much but we were actually very full. The services were very good too and the waiters were nice. I like the place as everything was clean, and those tables were huge. It took a while for the food to come, but I suggest you slowing down, and have a taste of the high-quality Japanese food. It may not be something like crazily extraordinary, but definitely better than many of the Japanese restaurants out there.

Technically speaking, it is not the first, but the second because I didn't count breakfast for this as it was just some bread. Today, I met Jason (wreckoning) after some time (last time it was before autumn and we had some really good Japanese food for lunch together), and we, being two food lovers, went to Kowloon City and search for great local food.

This time I didn't take many photos as we were talking and talking like crazy good friends (actually we are, haha!). However, I must show you this famous dish from a local restaurant, which always has long queues outside.

This famous dish is the beef cake, in which you can find fresh and hot minced meat. With some kind of special sauce it was made with, this cake was just so good and tasty!

So that started my new year. We also had some spring rolls with mutton and some great dumplings. After that we went to another restaurant, the traditional Hong Kong tea house, and had another light meal.

So, what's your new year resolution? How about follow me for some more good food? Ha, but first, be sure to do more exercise! One just can't only eat!

Oh yeah, that's part of my new year's plan too!

As from the previous blog, you know that this blog is about our lunch at Tenmasa of the Crown Hotel in Macau, and it was one of the most prestigious Japanese restaurants here, specializing tempura of all kinds. Now, let's take a look at the wonderful deep-fried food.

The meal of course started with a little appetizer, but I had no idea what it was. The jelly thing had actually no taste, no idea...

The waitress brought us the tempura soy sauce, and it was for vegetable tempura only. For seafood ones, you use sea salt instead.

Then the chef in front of us brought the raw seafood, preparing the tempura for our sets.

He started with the typical shrimps, and then the fish...

And yes it was a fish! Then we had eggplant, and then mushroom which looked like some kind of plant...

After that, the rice of the set came, together with a bowl of noodle, which was for my lady.

The chef continued to fry the other tempura, including this really interesting thing. On the left it was pumpkin, and the right was sesame roll with tofu inside!

Then the scallop came, which was wrapped by a piece of seaweed. Finally the last tempura was served, and it was a tempura cake with shrimp and scallop slices inside.

The meal was very good and you could see the tempura were very well made and dry, not oily at all. We were so full after that, and a green tea was served as a break before the dessert.

And it was black sesame ice-cream! Very smooth and very "sesame"! The bowl was very pretty too!

The meal wasn't very expensive, HK0 per head only but with such great quality! Located at the 11th floor of the Crown Hotel building, this is one of the great places to eat when you come to Macau! I guess in Hong Kong, you can only find two to three places with such great tempura, and one of them is definitely Inagiku at Four Seasons.

Seriously my throat hadn't recovered yet but facing such good food, how could I resist?

On Boxing Day me and my lady went to Macau to have some good food and fun. It was still Christmas holiday and you can imagine the streets and shops were filled with people like the Christmas day. The worst part was that you had to queue up outside some good restaurants as everywhere were people. Perhaps the waitiing time was the best moments for us to appreciate the Christmas decorations surrounding us...

And we went to Cheong Kei again for the famous egg noodle with shrimp eggs. This time we also ordered another famous dish, the steamed fish skin! It looks like flat and wet but it was actually very crispy like chips!

The final dish is the deep-fried fish balls, very good!

After this brunch we went to a high-class Japanes restaurant at Crown Hotel, but I will talk about that in the next blog. We will continue and talk about the tea. This time we had some typical street snacks, the curry fish balls, and trust me, this one is so curry and spicy that you have to drink water after each ball!

And I bought this bun called "black pepper bun", which comes from Taiwan. Too bad I missed it when I was in Taiwan because that shop wasn't open until 2pm, but now I had a chance to try it. Made by putting the buns in a big oven burning with charcoal at the bottom, these buns had a strong smell of charcoal, but inside the pork had a strong smell of pepper! It was pretty good!

Let's take a look at the delicious Japanese food and tempura in the next blog!

Some time ago I went to Agnes B's cafe, and it was a pretty nice place. Last weekend I went to another le Pain Grille, but this time at the newly open Agnes B La Loggia in IFC. Taking several shops including the corridors in front of them, this "la loggia" turns part of the IFC shopping mall into a English-style village.

The restaurant has a much prettier decoration, and with one side of the restaurant facing the harbour, this le pain grille definitely has a more comfortable and open ambience. With all the nice services and high price tags in the menu, I am sure that this place aims to attract high-class people rather than the general.

The meal of course started with bread, and also a little egg tart which was not sweet like the Hong Kong style egg tart. It looked big in the image but it was just a finger size.

And the bread was also "designed", but probably not by Agnes herself. It had the typical symbol that Agnes B always had.

My appetizer was pan-fried scallops served cold with orange slices, and I must say I still prefer it hot. I had no idea why they needed to be served cold as they were already pan fried.

Then the main course came and it was a veal tenderloin in a special sauce by the kitchen. It was okay, but not really exciting to me. The bean was a nice addition, but I personally didn't much like the smashed kind of vegetable.

Overall I think the quality was average, but it was not good enough to have such a high price (HK0 per head). I guess I paid much for the brand only. The place however was nice, and if you have a chance to go there, I suggest you taking a seat at the cafe outside the restaurant, where you could have a piece of cheesecake and a nice coffee, and spend a Saturday afternoon alone. That would be a much better choice.

Our food trip has yet ended on Saturday when night fell. Before we went to the night market, we went back to Taipei 101 to make some night shots at the top of the building. It was a different scene! This was what I got and you could see today's view of Taipei at night time.

Cannot find Taipei 101? I shot this on the top of this building, damn >_>

And then we headed towards the famous Shilin Night Market, where you could find the food stalls packed together under one of the shelters. You would see long queues but you just have to wait or else you won't be able to have a taste of real Taiwanese food.

The first thing of course was the Taiwanese style fried chicken! But the queue was so long that it extended to the bus stop 50m from the store. During the wait, my sister got back when another famous Taiwanese snake, the shaved ice, and this one was in chocolate flavour!

Finally I got the chicken! It was so good! And it was much bigger than what I expected!

Going into the food market, we saw this funny snack which I had no idea how to describe. It was a fried bread like thing wrapped by a piece of thin pancake thing. This one had black sesame inside but it just tasted so-so.

And then you could find the famous peanut candy in one of the corners...

And finally, we had this thing called Sausage-in-sausage, which looked like a hotdog. The "bun" was actually sausage casing stuffed with glutinous rice, and then was sliced and stuffed with a Chinese-style sausage. It was actually very good but pretty heavy...

And finally we couldn't eat more, and we retreated back to the hotel, where we found this huge wood sculpture. It was all wood logs, but cut into a sphere! Crazy masterpiece!

The next day we started the day a bit later as we would like to have brunch at the famous Taiwan restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It is so renowned that all the tourists just want to go there and try their famous Shanghai soup dumplings. They have a lot of branches but still all of them have long queues after 11am. Therefore, we went there at 10:30am in order to get a seat. Thank God it was just opened and there were only a few customers.

Now the food came. We started off with a kind of vegetable that you can only find in Asia, which was very popular in Taiwan. I couldn't find the English name but in Chinese it is called "yau mo cai", meaning "ink vegetable. However, ours looks like too green to be ink.

Then the "drunken chicken", actually marinaded chicken in Shaoxing wine.

And then the main course! The Shanghai-style dumplings with pork and crab meat inside! Delicious!

And my favourite noodle, the traditional steamed beef soup noodle!

Finally, the dessert. It was not really dessert, but we both wanted to end the meal with something sweet. So we ordered the sesame big bun, which turned out to be not so big. Still it tasted very good.

The brunch was so good! In Hong Kong we had one Din Tai Fung in Tsim Sha Tsui. Even the quality was nearly the same (to me it is, but some said no), the price tags are all different. We spent US$35 for everything we just ate, but in Hong Kong with the same amount of money you could only get two noodles with the dumplings (not 10 but only 6!), and one more appetitzer!

We then went shopping in the biggest bookstore in town, the Eslite Bookstore. In Taiwan, reading is like one of the hobbies that most people would have, and people may spend the whole day just reading in the bookstores. With the lower prices, some people come over to buy books. Even better, Taiwanese use traditional Chinese like we Hong Kong do, and so we can share books without any translation.

After walking in the stores and boutiques for 4 hours, we had a break at Starbucks. I ordered a grande mocha with a warm chocolate pudding cake! This cake is pretty famous too in Taiwan, having a name called "soft heart", and you know why.

We finally needed to pack up and went back home. But before going to the airport we forgot the famous Taiwan dish, rice with minced meat!!! We went to Tu Hsiao Yueh again. They also had this rice and it was so cheap! Only US$1!

And then we left, taking a plane back home at 8:20pm. With quite some time still in the airport, we shopped again for books and magazines, and you can't imagine how heavy my bags were!

Now you have a glance of the famous Taiwanese food, and so remember to try these first when you go to Taipei. However, this is only like 30% of all the good Taiwanese cuisine! I will post more when I have a chance to explore this cool place again!

A week ago me and my sister went to Taipei, and it was a crazy rush to Taipei for just food and books. During the 50-hour trip we ate the most famous dishes and street snacks in the region, and the price for me was a sore throat after that weekend.

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Taipei hotel, and it was "notorious" for being haunted as some people claimed that it was built upon a graveyard used by the Japanese army during the WWII. Anyway, nothing happened at all and the stay was actually pretty comfortable.

Grand Hyatt Taipei is right opposite of the famous Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taiwan. We of course went there, and we went up to the top and look at the whole city. But, the food is the key point of this whole trip. View? Not this time, haha

The above is the wind damper of the building, which weighs more than 660 metric tons and further stabilize the building during strong wind or earthquake.

Before the visit we went to a local restaurant for a quick meal. Probably our brain hadn't started working, we just ordered a burger as breakfast. Surprisingly this burger was not bad at all! Soft bun with fresh veggie made this burger one of the best I have tried!

Our real food feast started at Tu Hsiao Yueh 度小月, one of the oldest noodle shops here. Famous for its dan-tsu noodle, this place also has some traditional Taiwanese food, including the deep-fried small oysters.

Delicious, isn't it? Without any break, we went to another noodle shop straight ahead, which you can find the best Taiwanese beef soup noodle!

We first had a dish of steamed pig guts (I think it was pig as usually it is), but it was actually pretty chilly! Then the noodle came, and I couldn't help it but swallowed the whole in minutes!

The first bowl of noodle was the traditional beef noodle 紅燒牛肉麵 while the second one was my sister, a beef noodle with cow tender 牛筋麵. They were so good but even that we ordered small size, the bowls were so big that we already got very full. To no avail we had to take a break before swallowing other good stuff on the same street!

We then went to Ximending, a place where all the hip culture and fashion are located. It is just like Mongkok in Hong Kong. After wandering around and shopping for 3 hours, we resumed the noodle series again. We went to the Goose Place (鴨肉扁 or Yah Rou Bien) which is very famous for its goose dishes! Yes, the Chinese name means duck but it actually sells goose meat.

Tasty isn't it? Let's talk about the name of the shop. The owner actually opened a restaurant selling duck meat, but the sale wasn't good and so he introduced geese as well. Then more and more people came and eventually those people came only for the goose dishes because they were more delicious. Finally, the owner just sold geese till today, but keeping the same name. That's why.

Walking further, we went to another place which was a bit weird. This noodle place had no seats, and all the people just stood there and ate, and therefore it was very easy to locate this place, called Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle 阿宗麵線.

The noodle was so thin that this whole bowl was like soup, and I guess you couldn't even use chopsticks and that's why they gave you a spoon. Some people really like this thing, but I am not really a fan of it. However, it is interesting to stand in the street slurping a bowl of noodle.

After all the noodle, we headed to the night market! Let's continue in the next blog!

This little shop in Central is a famous wonton place for many years, and its recent acquisition of one Michelin Star is definitley the icing on a cake. Mak An Kee 麥奀記 is not a big restaurant, but you can be sure it is always occupied by different people from local people to tourists to rich guys.

I today had lunch there, and had their two famous dishes. First is the egg noodle with shrimp eggs served with soup. We just ate it without the soup, but drank it later, while some people like to add the soup onto the noodle. No matter how you eat it, you can still taste the great flavour of the noodle. You can feel the sponginess and the taste of egg in your mouth! That is good egg noodle!

Then we had a bowl of wonton, and this was once a very controversial dish. Some people claimed that this was the original because it was the original small size, with little pork mixed inside. Others however said that good wonton should be bigger with more pork inside, like half pork half shrimp. For me, I think this is pretty good. Perhaps to me, with little pork you can then taste the fresh shrimp meat inside. The wonton skin was very delicious too!

Some people said eating here was expensive and not worth it, but I would say it was not bad at all. I have no say on whether it is traditional or not, original or not, but still it is apparently part of Hong Kong culture. I hope that we can keep all these great dishes despite the fast development of Hong Kong, just as how we try to keep our heritage in the city.

Yesterday was my birthday, and certainly work took most of my time (from 9 to 6 man!). After work, I took control my life again and spent the night with my lady. We went to the Golden Bull for some nice Vietnamese food, and it was all good.

This time there won't be many shots, since we had something typical and common. I wanted quality not special fancy dishes. We had flat rice noodles and the famous Roasted Chicken in Preserved Bean Curd Sauce. We ordered this interesting dessert, and we didn't know that it was in heart shape!

The top black layer is black glutinous rice, while the second yellow layer is green bean paste. I forgot what the white layer was but it seems to be coconut jelly thing. It was very delicious and it was served with coconut sauce.

These days I had a really good time, and I guess more food is coming since some of my friends have to celebrate my birthday later due to their own schedules, haha...thanks everyone who wished me Happy Birthday, and finally I am 27! Yay!

Spring Deer is one of the very famous and old Chinese restaurants. It is famous because nearly all the travel books talk about it, and so most of the customers inside are actually foreigners and tourists. That's why you will see a lot of coaches waiting outside the restaurants, making it like a sight-seeing spot.

I had my birthday dinner with my family at this restaurant last night, and I always wanted to try its food. In this restaurant, you can find all the different kinds of Beijing food, including the lost ones. Those are the traditional food that you may not find in Beijing, but you can find and eat them here. Let the dinner begin now (I mean, rewind, haha)

That is slices of jelly sheets (雞絲粉皮), which are used for dumplings. They mixed it with chicken slices, some vegetable and a little peanut butter, and it tasted very good. Then the main courses came. This one is the lost Beijing food, deep-fried stewed pork trotter (酥炸元蹄).

Usually you prepare this dish in brown sauce, but this one actually is deep-fried after being stewed, and so you have this really crisy surface and juicy pork underneath.

Then we have the mixed vegetable in earthern pot (雜錦沙鍋). It is like vegetable soup inside, and you can find Tianjin cabbage (津白), shiitake (or winter mushroom 冬菇) and rice noodle.

And if you know Chinese cuisine, then you should know that this kind of pot is very famous. They can make good dishes!

Now the famous barbequed Peking duck arrived! Nothing special actually, because it is a roasted duck and its meat was sliced out. You use the pizza-like bread to roll the meat and Beijing scallion together, and eat.

We wanted to get the famous Beijing-type mutton with scallion but we were too full! The food was so good and that was like one of the best Chinese food in the town! The environment was old like 1980 Chinese restaurant, but at least the place was clean and it fits the food it provides!

Delicious! The trotter was so wonderful but we couldn't finish the whole thing, and so we took the rest home for the next meal. That's the old tradition in Chinese culture, that sometimes they take the remaining food back home, tyring not to waste any good food. Anyway, it was a great dinner!

My first birthday dinner started last night, and it started big. One of my best friends was treating me in this newly opened Japanese restaurant, featuring all these special "tonkatsu" food (deep-fried food0.

We went to Butagumi Tonkatsu located in a commerical tower in Causeway Bay. Remember some time ago I went to that famous Tonkichi Japanese Restaurant? That one has really exceptional food, and this one we just went to seem to pick up the same style, and we will see how good they can be.

After fiddling with the table objects, the side dish came. Yeah, I thought the main course would come first. The side dish is a Japanese-curry-flavoured potato cake, and it was yummy and very curry.

Then, the main course came. It was HUGE. Mine was pork cutlet (of course in tonkachi style) with deep-fried oysters.

Saw the big tiger prawn too? That was free as every customer would get on during this special promotion period. That added much more to my already-very-big dish. My friend loves prawns, and hers was prawns (originally 3 and adding the free one making 4 in total) with pork mini-cutlet.

And now, a close-up shot of the cutlet, and see how it was like...

The meat actually didn't look very soft, but interestingly it was actually soft and good. Also, the surface was not oily at all. It was very crispy, and the texture of the pork was nice. The prawns were good too, and really huge (7 inches long!) while the oysters were the best, crispy outside and juicy inside. Very good!

Compared to the famous Tonkichi one, this one can only scores 2/3 of their competitor. The salad in Tonkichi was so good that you can just eat it without the cutlets, while the sauce there was exceptional. Here, Butagumi was not bad, but it lacks the details and the sauces could be a bit better. However, you have much more choices in this restaurant, from the basic cutlets and oysters to prawns to potato cakes to some fancy egg rolls. That makes eating a bit more fun when the quality still has some room for improvement. Also the prices are a bit lower, making this place another good choice for tonkachi stuff.

The final comment from me is that the dinner sets are too big! If you are not the big eater type, I suggest you not ordering any side dishes because it will be impossible to swallow them all! The environment is nice, but some chairs are higher than normal, making my back ache after dinner...anyway, have a try when you feel like some deep-fried Japanese food!

Alright, last week we had this famous crab meal as dinner. Every autumn is actually the period of eating the Shanghai Crab, and this has long become a tradition.

You probably have read my previous entry on the Shanghai Crab which was a year ago nearly, and we didn't do any exception for 2008, though the set dinner was a little bit different from last year's menu.

Instead of a tart as the final course, we had boneless fish slices instead. The vegetable also changed, and if you go compare with last year's menu, you may see that there is a decrease in crab meat, haha! But then we realized that this combination was actually good because now the veggie was pure without crab meat, it went well with the fish which was indeed very heavy. Perhaps they put all the crab meat and stuff into one dish instead of spreading them between the tart and vegetable.

Anyway I didn't take any photos because you can already see them in the previous post. It is a very good meal again, but some of you may know that these crabs are very heavy in cholesterol. Fortunately I only ate one a year (didn't eat any between these two blog posts!) and so I guess it is fine.

Still, I need a little more exercise as my belly is...ouch! You know what I mean!

Two days ago we went to this beautiful place in the famous hotel in Hong Kong, the Peninsula. This Swiss restaurant, Chesa, is on the first floor and has a pretty small area only. Cozy and having only ten tables, Chesa actually has some of the coolest Swiss and western food in the region.

Most of you will be interested in the food, right? Let the meal begin. After the bread (one of which was in a cup), we bad the starters which were crab-meat pancake with lobster sauce and pan-fried foie gras on apple slices.

The main course consisted of four parts in our selection (a la carte). The first was a pan-fried cheese. Yes, just cheese with the surface burnt. Very nice! We shared and I just had one quarter, and that was enough to stop from eating more! The cheese was actually very heavy!

Then we had this famous Swiss cuisine, which was the main point of going to this restaurant. It was the cheese fondue, in which the cheese was mixed with some alcohol. Using a special long fork, you dipped the bread slices into the molten cheese.

Finally, we completed the meal with roasted spring chicken and rack of lamb served with French fries. The chicken looks typical, but the meat was very soft and the surface was girlled to beautiful golden color. Even the chicken breast part tasted every good. The lamb was not bad too. The meat was so soft and you could smell the charcoal on its surface.

French fries usually cannot be very special, but take a look, the fries were nicely sliced and the thickness of each was very even. It tasted good, and even better when it, unlike those from McD, was not filled with oil!

Seriously, this meal was not that special, like those you would be very surprised, but then the quality kept this meal as one of the most wanted dinners from prestigious hotels. As you could see, the place was not big, and that implies that it is all in the details, and so you can expect the same from the food. Everything is taken care of, from how to slice to amount of oil to add.

Delicate and tasteful, that will be my comment.

Sounds like it has been a long time since my previous post on food. I had a lot of great food but I always missed the camera and shot some pictures to put up on blogs. Last night I went to Lei Garden, one of the famous Chinese restaurants here in the town, and we had some really great dishes. And the best thing is that, I remembered my camera this time!

Perhaps in most of the major cities with China Town, what you can get is actually typical Chinese food, like fried rice and sweet and sour pork. That is so common and does not really show how great Chinese cuisine is. Now let me show you some real things here.

After a great soup made of fish and red beans, we had the first dish coming: duck breast slices with fried pineapple pieces on small asparagus...

The mixed tastes of pineapple and duck are really good, and it is a pretty fresh start of the main courses. Then we have a common veggie dish, fried kidney beans. The dark color is due to the black soy sauce, which contrasts with the taste of the beans.

Then here comes my favourite dish, and it is the reason I was here in this restaurant. It has a pretty Chinese name, translated as "Shih-Tzu Rice Soup". It is actually soup in the rice, but in English it is said in the reverse way. Shih-Tzu is a girl's name, and she was claimed to be the prettiest lady in Chinese history, so when you describe someone as Shih-Tzu, you mean she is extremely beautiful. To be exact, this dish is rice in lobster soup with mix of fried rice.

Fried rice? You may ask, why? It is actually deep fried rice, so the rice will have some crispy bits. They were added at the last minute before the whole thing was served, and so they were still crispy. You see in this image, there are some little crispy rice inside...

See the two crispy rice there in the spoon?

Then it was the pork. It was pork-chop with garlic bulbs in sweet sauce. Very nice, and the garlic bulbs were really sweet and delicious, very well blended with the meat.

Finally the dessert. My parents got a bowl of almond juice (not really juice but Chinese kind of dessert you know...that's the English name I found ). My sister and I could not really stand that kind of smell (aroma that is O_O while I don't think I like that "aroma"), so we ordered the little Chinese mochi with black sesame paste, which is very famous...

And you can see the hot molten sesame paste inside! So good!

It was a great dinner, so now you know what Chinese food really is?

It was a great weekend with good food at home. I got them from CitySuper two days ago, and this ramen from Japan is pretty nice.

The noodle is very different from what you got in the restaurant, which is just cheap stuff. This is really smiliar to that in Japan, with the taste of egg inside. Very nice! And then I got huge jelly...so huge that it can feed two people at least!

See all the beautiful and tasty fruits? Very delicious and it is just from the fridge, and it is perfect under such hot weather!

What did you have this weekend?

It was a busy Saturday, and I have no idea why it happens like this. Usually when you thought that a half-day-work Saturday was the most casual and free day in a week, things just stacked up too much that you needed to finish them before next week came. So I worked like a dog from 9am to 1pm, and even worst, I was late for lunch with my friends.

So I rushed after work to the new restaurant located in Prince's Building. I don't know why people just pronounce this as Prince Building, and I have search and checked and it is really Prince's, read similar to "princess". Anyway, Sevva is a new place for fine dining, and has a great environment. The owner Bonnie Gokson, the sister of Joyce Ma who is the owner of Joyce, invited one of the greatest US designer Calvin Tsao to revamp the top floor of Prince's Building.The menus and name cards are all filled with beautiful illustrations by Gladys Perint Palmer. Obviously, this is a designer place, but how about the food?

We started the meal with some so-so bread (though it was nice as it was warm bread), followed by the smoked duck salad. This was really nice salad, with everything so well-blended together. The olive oil and vinegar did not overwhelm the taste of the veggie, while the addition of peanuts was a nice touch.

Then the main course came.

The king lobster pawn spaghetti tasted really good, and I must say that was the biggest pawn I have ever seen. Okay, may not be the biggest, but it was really well made that you could taste the herbs inside the meat. The BBQ baby rib burger was interesting too, and for sure this was the first time I saw a burger with black sesame, haha! The smell of charcoal went out from the slices of tomatoes and onion, and you know it is good stuff.

After the meal we had a little drop of alcohol. The close one is "Hong Kong Fog" while that is "Don't Worry Be Happy" behind.

The whole experience had a pretty heavy price, and yes, cost I mean. I also have to agree with some other people that the service was not very good since people expect more when you pay like HK0 or even 1000 in the restaurant. Obviously the level of service and administration have not gone up to a high-class restaurant standard yet. However, with all the beautiful settings and food quality, it won't be too long that this place will be popular. I love the place since it is right at the middle of Central, and at the deck you can browse over the busy city, with HSBC Tower and Legco building next to you, not to mention the stunning night view over the harbour. Expensive, but I think it is worth it (if you are not eating there every week!)

Today is actually the White Day, or White Valentine's Day, which is originated from Japan. What is that day about? In Japan, the tradition is that the girls give their target boys chocolate on Valentine's Day. After a month, if the boys are interested too in the girls who gave them chocolate, they will do something in return, usually more expensive gifts. Further reading about this here, and now back to my blog.

I went to a Japanese restaurant with my lady to celebrate this special day. Inagiku is one of the greatest Japanese restaurants in town, and of course, the price can't be low. Located at the Four Seasons hotel and above the IFC Mall, the restaurant has a great view to the harbour.

The place has a nice feel and design, simple yet modern. The details are really nice, or perhaps it just suits my taste.

The first dish is a very small one, just one spoonful (again, not cheap at all! ). It is a sea urchin sashimi on tofu mixed with walnut. It tastes really good, because you can actually taste the three ingredients when you put this into your mouth. Then it is the sashimi, a must in any Japan meals.

The scallops are so good. It is not soft like molten, but just fresh and "crispy" (you know what I mean). The salmon is very good too, and you can see the texture. It is fresh and red, and the fat is evenly distributed. Then the main course is coming up...their famous tempura! First, they have this set of seasonings, from top to bottom (far to near): lemon slice, sea salt and green tea salt. (yeah, green tea, but I can't really taste the tea. it is just salty )

Wow, the tempura is just...beautifully done!

Then the most expensive dish comes. It is...umm...no idea about the English name but it is Japanese sliced beef! It is like Kobe Beef, and it melts too in your mouth!

Finally, the rice dishes that make you full. The ordinary grilled eel is not ordinary at all. It is thick and juicy! The rice with it is the real Japanese rice, a bit like glutinous rice but not sticky, and it is the rice used for sushi. It is very good! Then we also had this delicious seafood fried rice. It is not oily yet it is not sticky (sometimes the poor chef does some really sticky fried rice). The rice is actually crispy, and that is really good.

Finally, the dessert. My lady has this really good sesame pudding, while I have the typical green tea ice-cream. Wow, the sesame is really "sesame", the taste is very rich, and same for my ice-cream. You can tell that it is not made with some artificial flavouring, but really green tea. After swallowing it can still feel the little sweetness of tea like that when you are drinking tea. Really tasteful!

Such an amazing course it not cheap, but the quality is very high. I like it very much and I am sure when my wallut can afford such a menu, I will come back again! At least, the whole setting in the restaurant makes me want to stay!

Wow, this is funny. I was thinking about getting some snacks from Sogo department store on Saturday after work, and I got this one from that supermarket. It was sakura potato chips, and I thought it might be a funny warm-up for my Japan trip

I was like, what the hell? Sakura into the salty potato chips?

Turns out it looks like ordinary chips, but it has some sweet flavour, and to me it tastes like coconut but of course, it is salty. It is not bad at all, and it is good to see how creative people are these days.

And again, only Japanese can think of stuff like this.

Professional Assessment, pro maltreatment
Finally! The torturing 3 weeks have finally gone. I took the study leave right after my birthday, and the preparation eventually ended when the exam started on 10th December. The 15-day study leave in between was killing. When some thought it was a great chance to relax, it was the opposite. Facing the regulation booklets and lecture notes nearly 8 hours a day, I tried to memorize as much as possible before my eyes couldn't help to shut. In the last 3 days, I was yelling to take the exam right at that time earlier, because I just couldn't stand the wait anymore with these stacks of notes!

The exam was going okay, but some of the papers were tricky enough that I already knew I might not pass all of them. In this assessment for the architects, if you cannot pass all the papers, you will retake the failed ones in the following year. I hope to pass all in the next year and so I will be a registered architect. Then, part of my dream will be considered accomplished!

Merry Christmas!
Right after the exam Christmas arrived. It was a good timing too because when I went back to the office, many of the seniors went on holiday. It was great not only because of the reduced workload, but also the fact that I could take some time to recover. You won't believe that I still felt dizzy after the exam, and I needed to sleep for many hours in the two following days to get back to normal.

This year Christmas was not very special. I only went out with my girlfriend for a casual dinner in Festival Walk. We already had Christmas buffet, a kind of tradition that we two had, when December just started. We didn't want to spend too much since prices after mid-December would be too high, and due to my exam I could only eat after 20th. Therefore we just had it earlier instead. We had a nice dinner though at Dan Ryan's on Christmas Eve. I suggested going there because I always love the atmosphere there, especially the special occasions.

The streets were swarmed with people on the Christmas Eve and Day, and it was pretty scary even that Hong Kong was always full of people sometimes. Christmas always means a hard time for those who are in relationships and those who have tons of good friends, since finding a gift is not easy especially when you have already given quite some in the previous years. I swear it feels like artist block. I had only a few days for gift preparation, but my lady already hinted something. It was a good thing for me, but I guess I have to take back the control next year or else it will be more like filling up her wish-list instead of anything else.

Food and more food!
I know some of you who haunt my page loves my food shots, and at the same time, some friends of mine start to do those kinds of macro shots too. I can't believe such influences from me, haha! Anyway, I recently went to a restaurant, Tonkichi Japanese Restaurant, which is very famous for its tonkatsu food. What is tonkatsu? I have no idea but the pictures show:

This is deep dried oyster (first image) and pork (second image). In Japanese it is called tonkatsu and I guess in English it is called deep frying. There are different ways to make nice deep-frying dishes, and it is usually made with nice breadcrumbs and egg. I can't believe how well done these two dishes are. Behind the crispy hot surface the oyster is so juicy. They are big ones and you can taste the smell of sea water! The pork is very nice too, with a special sauce you make yourself. You are given a bowl of sesame, and you crunch them and add some barbecue sauce. It is so good with the pork!

Even more, the sliced cabbage is very good too! It is so typical, you may think, but the waiter taught us to mix it with the special soy sauce and some kind of vinegar, the vegetable turns into something really delicious!

I have came across this restaurant before and when I wanted to go inside, my friends said it was too expensive. Finally I went there without my friends pulling me away, and see? I miss such good food! The conclusion is, you know how good your friends are!

I am just kidding! So, are you prepared for your 2008?

Last night I went out for a nice dinner with a good friend by the harbour. It is not really by the harbour because there is no view (blocked by another restaurant) but still it is close. Anyway, Stonegrill is one restaurant that I wanted to try for a long time. Reading reviews from good to bad I actually felt a bit reluctant to try at first, and only after some friends' recommendation did I finally say, "Let's just go and try, and prove who is right!"

As the name suggests, the main point of the cuisine here is to grill on stone. A piece of stone at a temperature of more than 460 Celsius is definitely something one wants to try. Interesting enough, when the piece of hot stone came, very few fume came out but we were warned again not to touch the stone in any case. We would just let the raw food demonstrate how hot it could be.

We ordered steak, lamp and salmon for the grill game. The meat was all very good, and indeed, after slicing the meat apart and pressing them on the stone for just 10 seconds, the red faded out. While the steak could be made medium and the lamb could be made just right, salmon would need more time. One would say you can just eat it like sashimi, but the taste and texture of half-done-half-cooked salmon isn't really appealing to me. Anyway, a picture will say more than I can!

I guess I have messed up the correct order of a meal since I showed you the entree first. Anyway, we ordered some sliced squids for the appetizer, and it was really good.

The pasta after the grill was very tasteful. It was a crab linguine with some garlic on top, and interestingly it tasted a bit like lobster sauce. That means, it was good!

So it turns out that this restaurant isn't bad at all. It is expensive, but the quality is high too. The bread and soup were all nice, and the waiters did pay attention to our request, even briefly introduced us how to grill on the stone when the main course arrived. In general I am quite happy with it.

The conclusion is, after reading reviews, you have to research first. If your research finds out that the quality and food are both special, you should try it. Seeing is believing, and so is tasting.

Last Sunday I went by the just-open Agnes B Delices store, which sells some kind of high class chocolate. You know I love chocolate and when there is something new, I can't wait to try it. Maybe I will show you some pictures of the beautiful packaging first.

I bought a box of chocolate slices, but not the most popular brick one with patterns on, because I am not really fascinated about the Agnes B logo on the chocolate. I care more about the taste. 

After some serious taste testing (okay, not really that serious), I think it just passed my benchmark. I don't think it is very special or very delicious, but it is still rich. I would still prefer the Godiva chocolate, which has some really rich and tasty dark chocolate. (77% is perfect!) Let alone the quality of chocolate, one must admit that the packaging is really clean and beautiful, and perhaps that is the real part your money will spend on.

Did you have your chocolate yet today?  

It has been some time that I wrote a blog. These days I was busy like hell, handling two piece of design work in two weeks. I was designing the interior for a lounge and a presidential suite in thecurrent hotel project, and while it was hard, it was still fun.

However, this time I want to show you some food, not my work. Recently it was my girlfriend's birthday and we ate something that you may have never had before. First, I want to show you some vegetarian food that we had some weeks ago. You are right, some weeks, because I was too busy to upload them! Here were two dishes...

Do they look like vegetarian food? The first dish is the "fake clams meat", made with just flour (and some chemicals and sources,ha ). The second one is obviously some grilled thing, but everything in it is vegetarian, made with something I have no idea of, some plants and someglutamate rice. Isn't it amazing that people can make such cuisine without using any meat? And they taste very very very similar to the real thing!

Okay, this is the dinner I had days ago. It was a "Imperial Crab Meal", and the real English name is Shanghai Crab (Dazha Xie), which is one of the famous Chinese cuisines. The first dish is the Crab in Shark Fin:

I have no idea what the yellow thing called in English, and in some websites it is written as "crab extractive". It is all the inside of the crab, but not the meat. It tastes like egg yolk, with a little seafood taste if you know what I mean. Anyway, the second dish is the main course, the crab inside.

And this time you eat everything in the crab, both the inside "extractive" and meat. It tastes really good! But I swear, one is enough for you because it makes you feel full easily. Then after that comes the "Combo of Three". See if you know what they are:

Following all these is the dessert, which is just glue pudding with black sesame inside, a famous Chinese dessert. It is very simple and not very sweet because it is to "clean up" such a heavy meal. Together with the ginger tea, it makes you feel better after eating such muchcholesterol. Yes, very high level of cholesterol.

So, did I change your mind about Chinese food? Many of you may think that Chinese food is fried rice and noodles, and I guess you have seen the real meat of the recipes

Yesterday, I went with my girlfriend to the new cafe opened in Festival Walk, which is the second cafe in the series. The new Le Pain Grille sits actually inside a boutique, Agnes B Sports, and those who are new must feel hard to find the entrance.

The place was comfortable and dark, with everything written with its company name. It was beautiful though, and there were quite some French posters on the wall, making the place feel like one of the hidden restaurants in the street behind some corners.

The food was all nice, and I guess you will drool again because I have photos this time!

The bread was very good, with that insanely tasteful garlic sauce. I have no idea what that was actually, and I just know that it has garlic. It was so good to be with the bread, which were all warm! Then the appetizer came. My lady had the soup while I had a little special French dish. I don't remember the name, but it had slices of green apple and avocado, with crab meat between each of them.

Then the main course came, and we both had the same main dish. It was grilled fish (cod), surrounding one piece of grilled tuna in the middle. It was very good, especially the yellow sauce! And that is NOT mustard!

After all these really mouthwatering dishes, and before the tea and coffee were served, the dessert came and added a little more excitement to the table. It was not very special actually, which was a French crêpe. However, the quality was so good that I would like to have one more!

After the meal, before we went away without paying...okay, we paid, and before we left, the waitress brought over some gifts for us. It was no surprising though because that was why my girlfriend came! Anyway, the gifts were beautiful and they were cups with Agnes B names on them. Simple and nice, all because of the brand...anyway

Yesterday I tried the new ice-cream I bought from Sogo. This is from Movenpick, a Switzerlan-based ice-cream, and I got this flavour, crème brûlée! In case you don't know what it is, you can check here from Wikipedia. It is a famous dessert, which is served with some burnt sugar on the top. Sometimes in the restaurants the waitor burns it for you, by splashing a little liquer on it and burning it with a lighter.

So let's unpack it!

It looks really delicious, and damn, the top of the ice-cream looks exactly like the real crème brûlée!

Then let's get to the bottom of it!

Wow, it looks tasteful, and it IS tasteful! It is so soft, and the taste is just so "crème brûlée"! You'd better try it, and even it is a bit too sweet, just some spoonful of this ice-cream makes you high! Oh god, I can't help but to taste it again... gimme another cup!

Tomorrow will be my sister's birthday (oops, it is already now since the clock just struck twelve!), and my whole family all went to the famous Yung Kee Chinese Restaurant to celebrate.

Yung Kee is famous because its name appears on nearly every tourist book that goes overboard. It is famous for its roasted dishes, and here, I am going to show you how good it is. I am sorry, you will be mouthwatering again, and here comes the Thousand-year Eggs, which are actually preserved duck eggs. This is served as a starter.

Then, the main courses come. First is the roasted pork, and then it is the roasted goose. The pork is really good since the colors are sharp and the meat has little fat.

The goose is good too, and again, very little fat, which makes this dish really delicious and not fatty!

Then it is a commoner dish, chicken on vegetable...

And finally, we added one more dish, which may not appeal to some of you who live in the foreign countries. It is the...frog legs! This is Deep Fried Frog Legs!

And you may ask how it tastes. It tastes more like little chicken legs actually, but the texture is smoother and softer. The legs are not typical ones you find from some wet markets here. They are quality legs and I can be sure the frogs are good ones, fat ones.

This is a good meal, and there are some more special dishes I think one should try. It is my first time to eat here, and also my first time to see so many western people having meals in a Chinese restaurant! 30% of the people are not Hong Kong people! The service is good, though you will have to pay for it. Still, a must-try place to taste quality Chinese food!

PS: btw I am using my IXUS 800 IS to shoot these photos

Last Saturday I went to a newly open restaurant at Harbour City, called Cadero. This little shop is not really easy to be spotted out since it is mixed with other boutiques and cosmetic shop, but it possesses a wonderful sea view on the other side of the shop.

Curved knife, but really sharp!

We got a table at the balcony but it was a bit hot and so we moved in finally. The whole atmosphere was very warm and homy, so comfortable that you would not mind spending the whole afternoon here, which we did on that day. We had the tea buffet set which was only 108 dollars per head.

The food was very nice and high-quality even though there were many choices. Still, the steak, fried sadine and salmon toasts were all very tasteful, and the cakes were very delicious too. The chocolate cake had wine in it, while there was this new wine jelly!

There are only eight dishes on the buffet desk, and eight more dessert dishes on another table, but all of them are very good. There are also eight more choices on the menu, something that the waiters will bring out and distribute around the tables. All the dishes are small, but once you started you would like to keep going. My girlfriend and I were so full that we just couldn't move after the buffet!

Definitely an unexpected good meal after such a horrible week in the office!

** oops, sorry, no photo this time, very hungry and the food was so good that I forgot to take photos! **

Yesterday, I went to a Japanese restaurant called Kushiyaki Sesson, which is quite popular somehow probably because of the fame it gained when it was shown on TV. Anyway, it was a nice restaurant, and it is famous for its grilled dishes. Let me show you some of the food we ate last night.

The ambience was very dark and actually a bit small, and that accounts for its always being full. The place was all comfortable and I liked how they set the tables.

They even use this little carbon piece for the chopsticks holder! Anyway, here comes the food, but I have to say, I forgot to take pictures for some of them and so what you saw here were only half of the dishes...first was the started, which was preserved hard tofu.

And then we had grilled maize, grilled rice ball...

And then some seafood and meat, ie, grilled shrimp, grilled scallop and grilled eel!

They were all very tasteful but actually, very little in amount. After the dinner my girlfriend and I were both thinking, where then should we get to fill up the stomach? Haha, yeah, the dishes were all small and were not cheap too. I guess good taste always comes with a "good" price tag. Anyway, at least we tried this restaurant and I would say the grill is really good, but you will need a hamburger outside the restuartant after the dinner to be full.

Interesting enough, the cocktails aren't expensive...

On Saturday my girlfriend and I went to one nice restaurant by the sea, called the Quarterdeck. Located away from the city center, this restaurant is quiet and comfortable, and has a beautiful sea view too. Originally a pier for the sailors to take a rest, this place is now more like an abandoned warehouse with some shops and cafes which are rarely visited by anyone.

Most of the customers here are foreigners, and I guess it is all because of its history and that is why these people know this place. I know it because of my colleagues, because last time we went here to celebrate someone's birthday. Anyway, the food here is all western style (actually, if I am right, Australian style), and all the dishes are very tasteful and special. This time we ordered two dishes to share, and they were...

The squid ink risotto with squid slices, and... 

The fish and chips! If I remember, this is the white cod fillets with fat chips, according to the menu. I have to say, they are very special. The risotto is not really swollen like the usual risotto you eat in other place. It has the texture like the Chinese fried rice. This dish is just dark, all DARK, and you can see the "ink" all over the dish after finishing it, and also on your teeth! The squid slices were very good, and since they were grilled, you could still smell the rawness as if they were just taken out of the grill.

The fish and chips dish is freaking huge. You see those fillets? They didn't really look like the ones we saw in other restaurants. They were very good and actually not very fatty at all. The chips were so cute with that fat shape, and the tar tar sauce is awesome! Surprisingly, this whole dish is not very oily, and with a bit of salad it is quite easy to swallow this whole, IF you have a big stomach!

The lunch wasn't cheap, but once a month of food indulgence, this restaurant is certainly a place you can spend time in if you want to have a relaxing afternoon or evening with your buddies! 

Since no one asked me out for lunch, I decided to have something different for lunch today. I once wanted to join different groups or my girlfriend for lunch but it seems that such chances are getting less and less. Suddenly I was thinking, isn't being alone a good thing? I mean, I can be in charge of my own itinerary and I can decide what to do and to eat during the lunch time. That is a good thing!

I went to great, the supermarket at Pacific Place (and yes, that's their logo, orange in bold Verdena.) to get a sandwich for lunch. I went there several times and saw all those delicious sandwiches, but never had a chance to try them. This time I bought myself a turkey avocado sandwich and thought it would be a healthy meal with orange juice. I went back to the office and started eating, and holy shit, this was a really good sandwich!

 Wow, the vegetable was really fresh and crispy, and see those little sprouts (is that the name?)? They are so cool and the turkey slices were big and fresh. Wow, I love it!

I always believe that sometimes the best way to treat yourself good is to get some really good food. That is one of the ways to enjoy life and believe it, eating is the most basic way to feel contented. This sandwich is not cheap at all (HK$46, ~US$5.90) but you will feel like, "wow, so good!"

So last Friday I ordered breakfast in the office (usually I brought some bread to the office to eat instead) and what I got is some steamed vermicelli roll with roasted pork inside.

If you want to know more about this kind of dim sum, and if you know Chinese, you can click here to see more. Anyway, just a little knowledge for you on Hong Kong food, and what is the main course of this journal is my first cake in 2007! It is a marbled cake, have a look!

Oh yeah, the texture is really cool, not loose but tight. The chocolate has the right portion so that you don't think it is too sweet or what. This is so fun!

That's one of the main points in the new year for all of you: eat! Eat when you can and when you want to because that's the greatest joy in life! 

People like breaks, and for me a break with chocolate is the essence of my daily routine. Today I got a cup of hot dark chocolate drink from the hotel Mandarin Oriental.

The way they made this drink is really to melt a chocolate block and mix it with other ingredients, and it is done. It is just damn hot and tasteful. It smells very nice too, very "chocolate". The cinnamon is strong too but after drinking it, your mouth will be covered with the chocolate smell. It is really cool!

Now I am back to work... 

Last night my family and I went to the famous Chinese restaurant Chao Liu to celebrate my dad's birthday (it is a belated celebration anyway). I think some of you may be interested in Chinese culture especially in eating and so I took some photos and show you what my meal was like.

There are many kinds of Chinese food, and this is the food from one of the provinces Chaozhou. Their cuisine is quite special, marked by the dishes like sliced soya goose and thick congee. Chao zhou people like to dine before going to bed too, and you can expect these restaurants will only close after the clock strikes twelve. You can click here for more information (from Wikipedia, though the explanation isn't very accurate).

We started off with the sliced soya goose as the appetizer. It was really good and was served with some vinegar. Then we have some sliced pig ears too as the second starter. I know some of you cannot accept what it is, but that was actually quite delicious and was not as horrible and scary as you may expect.

Then here came the first main course, which was scrambled egg with baby oysters. Different from the big oysters you would get from some big buffets, these oysters are not high class ones but raw and typical that you would get along any seashore. This dish is usually served with Thai fish sauce, which is much better than just soya sauce.

Then, as shown at the bottom, is the famous steamed glutinous rice. It is mixed with mushroom slices, some peanuts, a little meat and soya sauce.

Here comes the chicken...

Finally, after all these main courses, you will have a set of tea, which let you clean your throat for the upcoming dessert dishes (or any more main courses). It is bitterer than the tea you drink during the whole meal, so that you will not feel too heavy at the stomach after the dishes.

The dessert we had included the crystal dumplings and the (translated as) black sesame soft balls. The first dish is normal dumplings but with sweet lotus seed paste, while the second one is a dumpling made with glutinous rice and hot black sesame paste (which is like liquid inside!). They were just so good!

So, you wanna try too? (Btw, if you are interested, I was using the Canon IXUS 800IS DCam, and I would say these photos are really nice, in terms of quality not my skills! )

Today when I went back home, I bought a bottle of Bailey's. It is the first time for me to buy alcohol, a bottle of alcohol, since it is usually my father who does it. I want to try some at home after dinner, and no doubt, it is really good.

I like Bailey's on the rocks most, since Bailey's is already sweet like chocolate and you don't need more things to accompany its taste. It is not weak alcohol, around 17% and so after one little glass you will get enough.

Very nice. It always reminds me the time when I was in Berlin, I got one glass of Bailey's after dinner. It was so awesome!

Do you have any sweet after-dinner drinks sometimes? What's it? 

On Saturday (yesterday that is), after work my boss asked if we were free for lunch. Then, to my surprise, my colleagues, my boss and I went to Shangri-La hotel (the one on Hong Kong Island, not one in Kowloon) and had our lunch buffet at Cafe Too. Yes, it is called Cafe Too. It is just amazing I swear.

Cafe TOO
It is just one crazy buffet and you can find nearly all kinds of food. If you are in Hong Kong, you won't bother with the Chinese food since you can eat it everywhere else. Though, I gave it a try and it was good, but what I like most is the Japanese food! The sushi, the sashimi and the other seafood were all so yummy and fresh! I have never eaten such thick and oily salmon! That's just so good!

And the candy counter is amazing as well. There are so many different kinds of cakes, and there are three fondues going in one row too! That's crazy! Including the dessert, I ate 4 dishes and I just tried one little piece of every dish, and I was already so full that I couldn't move! That's really insane!

After lunch I went shopping with my lady, and then we headed to Felix, the famous restaurant-and-bar at the internationally-renowned hotel, the Peninsula.

Felix
I cannot accept the fact that not until this day I didn't go to this place. I heard from others that it was really pretty and nicely-designed, and I didn't really have the chance to check it out. Finally, I arrived, and I was like...wow.

First you have to come up to the top through one pair of special elveators. The amazing thing is that when it is close to the top (28/F) like around 25/F, the lights inside the lifts will be dimmed and prepare you for the arrival. That's so cool!

As you can see from the left image, when you arrive you will pass through one corridor and see this big dining space. THe bars are actually one another level, which are led by the light staircases. They are pretty small, which can only accommodate 30 people each, at most. However, I guess the intimate space can act as another catalyst for human interaction, maybe. We enjoyed some cocktail and we must say that it was pretty cool. The design is very nicely done, from the ceiling to the sofa to the tilted walls. They are so well-thought! The bar faces the big window through which you can enjoy the beautiful HK harbour view, and there is this balustrade thing between you and the glass pane. It is tilted from left to right, and the slope is right to a point where your drinks will not slide or fall. Isn't that amazing?

The most amazing thing happens actually in the restrooms. The female and male restrooms are separated by one piece of glass only, and it is a half-frosted glass, translucent at the top and transparent at the bottom. You can see the girls' legs at the bottom! (though you cannot see anyone peeing, so no more bad thoughts). In the men's restroom, the urinals are beside the big window pane and so you pee "into the street", pretty funny. There is no sink in the restroom and all you can find is this big table (left image). Oh, it is actually tilted into the center and so the water goes into that middle. That's just...wow...I am speechless!

I think I was too lucky this day that I saw so much and experienced different things. I even saw a black Lamborghini on my way back home. First time I saw it with my eyes! WOW!