Lunch around central

Date of visit: 31^st July  2010

Kau Kee @ Gough Street, Central

On this day I met up with my foodie friend M to try the famed beef brisket at Kau Kee. Service is very quick here so we didn’t really have to wait to be seated, we simply joined another table with random diners.

There are two sizes here, the standard where your beef comes in the same bowl as your noodle, or the large, where your beef comes in a plate, with a bowl of noodle on the side which is ordered separately. We opted for the standard size, but I had trouble deciding once again. What I really wanted was beef + tendon in their signature clear soup with wide-cut noodles, but the waiter wouldn’t budge and said I could have curry tendon only (as a dish too), so I followed M and ordered beef brisket with noodles in clear soup ($27), except she had hor-fun instead.

Beef brisket with wide-cut noodles

Our steamy bowls of noodles and beef came quickly, and I tasted the light-coloured broth first. It was definitely umami, but didn’t have a large amount of MSG that made me react with a pang of thirst like I normally would. [ps msg isn’t bad for you unless you’re allergic to it!] Anyway, we both loved our soup. Kau Kee’s thinly sliced beef brisket was really tender, and M clearly loved it. Perhaps I am used to a different cut – those squares of tender beef brisket are the way to go for me – so I thought it was only so-so. My wide-cut noodles were yum - al dente and not crazy-chewy like the regular thin wonton noodles, but so darn filling I couldn’t finish. M’s hor-fun was also really good. Soft and slippery but not over-cooked at all.

Beef brisket with hor-fun noodles

I do think this place deserves a recommendation, but I have yet to try many other supposedly ‘famous’ joints for beef brisket, such as Wah Jeh’s, or even the not-so famous, just to compare. If only they were more flexible, would’ve loved to try the beef tendons too. Ahwell…. Another time!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥

Price: $

Kau Kee Beef Brisket

G/F, 21 Gough Street, 

Central, Hong Kong 

Next stop....


 Jaspas @ Soho

We were here for one thing only - dessert! M had raved about their banoffee pie ($65) before and I had to try it, so she kindly agreed, even though I knew she wanted the malteser cheesecake more =P. 

Our pie took ages to come, but I guess they were slicing it, dressing up the plate blahblahblah..... Anyway, when it eventually arrived, I was a happy customer. 

Doesn't look as good (on its own) as Simply Life's aesthetically, but the layers were better proportioned, and definitely leaned more towards the real banoffee pie. This one had a bottom crust of crushed digestive cookies with butter, a layer of caramel (noticeably thicker than the one from Simply Life - much better too), whole bananas, and a layer of Chantilly cream (i.e. sweetened whipped cream). As the cream layer was significantly thinner compared to other banoffee pies I've tried / seen (798 Unit, Simply Life, Portobellos), I thought Jaspas had executed my ideal banoffee pie. Why so much cream anyway? Yes it looks better, but if I wanted to eat cream I'd just buy some cream and whip it up right?!

We were pleased with this dessert, and if you ever get a craving for banoffee pie I'd recommend you head over to Jaspas! =D

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: $

Jaspas

G/F, 28-30 Staunton Street, Soho, 

Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2869 0733

(other branches also)

Amaronis Italian Restaurant

Date of visit: 27th July 2010

Amaroni’s Italian Restaurant @ Festival Walk

After watching a movie, we decided to come here. All of us hadn’t been to Amaroni’s since…ages! So I was quite curious to see whether it was how I remembered.

I remember portions here are pretty huge, so after our bread basket of focaccia and bread crisps, we decided on a rosemary roast chicken ($168) and table-long margherita pizza ($155).

whole chicken, roasted with rosemary

Our two mains arrived together, and I first dove into the chicken – the skin wasn’t crispy so I didn’t care for it much, but the meat underneath was moist and yummy, full of natural chicken flavours and some sprinkling of the pepper on our table made it more wonderful. Not even the breast parts were dry – thumbs up!

rectangular pizza margherita

The pizza was good, but not mind-blowing. The base is not the flat crisp types (like many restaurants in Soho), but a doughier flatbread. It could have used some more time in the oven as the pieces nearer the centre was quite soggy. There was a good amount of mozzarella too, and the pizza sauce was well-seasoned. Extra strips of fresh basil wouldn’t have hurt though!

The three of us didn’t manage to finish the chicken nor the pizza even though we were ravenous at the beginning…I blame the bread basket, but what we ordered could've fed four very hungry diners =).

The waiters were friendly, and the place is clearly better suited for large groups – in fact, there were several birthdays celebrated here this night so it got a bit noisy too.

Food: ♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$


Amaroni's Little Italy
LG132 Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, 
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2265 8818

Six Furlong

Date of visit: 25th July 2010

Six Furlong @ Happy Valley Jockey Club

On a Sunday night with nothing planned ahead, we decided to go to Jockey Club for dinner. After buying some of mother's favourite Cane Juice from Kung Lee in Soho we were off to Happy Valley. When we arrived the Food Plaza was damn full so we got in line for Six Furlong to see where we could be seated first. Six Furlong it was...

Our dinner began with the bread basket (house-made baguette + roll) with tuna paste, butter. There were only two kinds, but both were very good tonight. 

For dinner, you could opt for the standard set dinner ($88 for two courses; $98 for three courses - both sets with coffee/tea), or the new steak set dinner ($170-$360~) for an appetizer/soup, your choice of steak main course and French Basque cake, or go a la carte. Between us we chose two two-course set dinners and one steak set dinner.

One of the options for the standard set dinner was one serving from the salad bar. There was quite an array of greens, starches (pasta / potato salad) and dressings to choose from. 

 Another option from the set dinner menu was a simple caesar salad with smoked salmon - romaine hearts lightly dressed with a tangy and creamy caesar dressing and topped with croutons and grated parmesan. They used very fresh ingredients for this one!

Lobster Bisque was one of several choices from the more premium steak set dinner. This one was prepared very well indeed, creamy but not thick, and with only a hint of alcohol (cognac) but rich with flavours from the crustacean. 

Black pepper Beef Hor-fun was one of our standard set-dinner mains. The serving size was quite large, making it impossible to finish. The beef slices were tender but not in a bicarbonate of soda-marinaded way, and well-cooked and seasoned. The hor-fun was nicely fried too, not oily at all, but definitely could not match the hor-fun from Singapore's Swee Ting, because of the lack of wok-hei in comparison. 

Black Cod with wilted spinach and cream sauce (leek) was pleasing to the eye but not quite so on the taste buds. It was honestly quite bland. Everything was cooked very well - in particular the cod, but there was such a lack of seasoning on the fish and the cream sauce I had to make use of the table salt and pepper in front of me to make it more edible. The skin could've been more crisp too, says my brother. 

From the steak set-dinner, there was several selections of grades of meat, from filet mignon to grade 4 Wagyu. My brother decided to go somewhere in-between, a 12-ounce Australian Rib-eye, cooked to medium-rare. While I only tried the fully-cooked outer rims of the rib-eye, I must say they were tender, naturally flavourful and seasoned just right, the best main course for tonight with a little French mustard..! To go with your piece of steak diners were to choose a sauce, a vegetable side and a potato side. We chose garlic spinach and fries to make 'steak-frites', with a mushroom cream sauce that was served on the side. The mushroom flavour from the sauce was so earthy and strong it was definitely a memorable first for us. 

We were so full from all this food all my (normally apparent) desires for sweets were gone. We had the Basque cake (two almond sponge layers with Chantilly cream) to go, which I tried later that night and it was better than I expected, moist and light with hints of almond.... yumm! 

Food:  ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Six Furlong

4/F, Hong Kong Jockey Club, 1 Shan Kwong Rd, 

Happy Valley, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2966 136060

Watami Japanese Chain Restaurant

Date of visit: 25^th July 2010

Watami @ Sun Arcade, TST

On a Sunday lunch this place is pretty quiet, no long queues, no loud laughter….just peace (well, not quite true as a screaming child came along later….).

A friend and I were here to catch up so we savoured bit of quietness we were given… After looking at the menu full of pictures, we went for the following:

Watami Salad (has a tuna mayo topping, side of sesame dressing, teriyaki chicken and the regular lettuce, tomatoes, carrots etc.)

Dressing

Beef in stone pot rice (more like Korean bibimbap)

Scallop and Tuna sushi rolls

Scallop skewers

Nothing from this meal particularly stood out – salad was okay, beef rice was too spicy after mixing the toppings, sushi rolls were mediocre at most - not as fresh as say, Itacho or Itamae, scallop skewers were cold and too dry. The prices here are reasonably cheap so I wasn’t expecting anything ‘wow’, but I probably won’t return any time soon for the food.

On the other hand, drinks here are quite good - on previous visits I've sampled the passion fruit boba tea + mango yakult smoothie - both very refreshing and tasty!

Food: ♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Watami

Basement Shop 09, The Sun Arcade, Canton Road, 

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

(other branches in HK)

Tel +852 3156 2567

Popeyes, HKIA

Date of Dining: 22nd July 2010

Popeyes @ Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok

A six-hour stop-over flight from Singapore back to Hong Kong and two (not so good) in-flight meals later..... we were finally back at the Chek Lap Kok airport..... After baggage pick-up it was 9pm and I was up for some Popeyes!! It was actually my time trying Popeyes, and I never fully understood why people loved it so much until now. I've honestly been missing out this whole time! [but to be fair its not as if I go to the airport that often]

We shared a two piece fried chicken set ($52) which came with a buttermilk biscuit, cajun fries and a soda. The two pieces could be specified, and I asked for both to be breasts, one spicy and the other non-spicy. Both turned out to be non-spicy as the unenthusiastic lady behind the counter clearly forgot to put in my request... ohwell this was good anyway. It was served on the bone and the batter was well-seasoned, slightly peppery and really crispy to the point where you could hear us crunch away on these things =). And even though we had gone for the all white-meat breast part, it retained its moisture throughout the cooking process and it was not the least bit tough or chewy.

The buttermilk biscuit was ordinary, crumbly and soft but too plain for me.... I'd rather eat a sweet scone. The fries were bad tonight (not that I would've enjoyed them even if they were hot and crisp which these were not), probably because they had been sitting in the kitchen awhile - ours was a sad soggy pile.

I'm now wondering when I can visit Popeyes again for some fried goodies.... but next time I shall go a la carte!

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: $

Popeyes

Level 7 Departures Check-in Hall (non-restricted area), Terminal 1, Hong Kong International Airport, 

Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 3118 1334

or 

Shop 7E161, Level 7 Departures East Hall (restricted area), Terminal 1, Hong Kong International Airport, 

Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong

Tel: +852  3171 1982

Singapore, Day 4

Date of visit: 21st July 2010

As our last real day (day 5 would be our flight back to HK), we decided to visit China Town, but first, some more shopping!

We began Orchard Road's 313 @ Somerset mall, and then lunch was at the more touristy Newton Food Centre. We arrived at around 3pm, so many stalls weren't open yet (all of them open for dinner, but not lunch). After walking around we decided on a Laksa ($5?), some BBQ Stingray ($10), Singaporean Chilli Crab ($32), and a plate of fried Kang Kong ($10).

Laksa was S's brave choice. Not a person for spicy food, she still managed to enjoy this. This bowl of noodles consisted of dried tofu (doufu pok), fishballs, cockles, rice stick noodles and of course a spicy curry broth with a visible amount of chilli oil. Hong Kong laksas are much milder in my opinion, as any bowl you find in Singapore is almost always quite spicy. This particular bowl (save for the quite fishy cockles) was good nonetheless, and the fishballs were damn good. 

I had to try the Singaporean Chilli Crab because A. I've never had it and B. its their bloody national dish! I told the man I wanted it less-spicy and it was for one person but I guess he gave me a bloody big one any way and just charged me more. Whatever. The crab was very meaty and good, but I thought the sauce was prepared poorly - should probably have asked for black pepper crabs instead?? The sauce was more like sweet and sour sauce... the chefs poor attempt to make it 'less spicy' I'm guessing? Wasn't bad, just not what I expected or wanted.... 

This Kang Kong was not bad, slightly chilli and much like the one I had at the Thai restaurant Cafe Sapunsa night before.

Initially I was going to order either this or the crab...but I gave up debating in my head and went for both. Not a good idea since I was stuffed for 7 hrs after this meal, but good because I've never tried stingray and this stingray was damn tasty. I didn't think a BBQ stingray would be dressed in a thick layer of chilli sauce but it was...more lemon would have helped cut the heat but it was so good I didn't care. This is a piece of the fin of a stingray, which has bones which are attached together so it forms one big piece, and the meat sits on top ready for you to scrape it off the bone. Stingray's flesh is quite meaty, soft and succulent...definitely something I'd eat again.........

 and again....and again....=P 

[This lunch was S's fave meal of the trip because it was a really unique and tasty experience for her. So so proud! =)]

Before we hit China town we decided to get a caffeine fix back at 313@Somerset. We went to the newly opened Oriole Cafe (this was a new branch), and after looking at their relatively short drinks menu, S went for a vanilla latte, and me a cappuccino. 

Vanilla latte was very aromatic, quite milky but enjoyable for S. 

My cappuccino certainly looked impressive - latte art and all - but it tasted more like a latte and the use of whole milk was so apparent I couldn't bring myself to like this drink... the foam was also sacrificed for the bit of latte art =(.

K Ki on Ann Siang Hill was one of the patisseries I wanted to visit, but sadly when we visited they were sold for the day.... the aroma of baked goods was soooo strong just sitting in there felt as if we were consuming something........ 

At around 9.30pm hunger struck us and so we walked over to Robertson Walk's Queens Tandoor for some indian fooooooodddd. The restaurant was very fragrant of the many spices and so we opted to sit al-fresco tonight.

The menu was pretty long, lots and lots and lots of choices, be it chicken / fish / lamb / vegetarian.... yummm. 

A fish tikka (S$7 - bar size) was my choice. This was cooked in high temperatures so the exterior was nicely charred and flavourful. The fish was I think a bass/cod variety, soft and oily =)

How I ate my fish tikka ..... wrapped it in a chappati of course!

Paneer Makhanwala (S$17.90) was your standard butter chicken but with paneer cubes instead. The paneer was slightly chewy / rubbery, which is what I think paneer is meant to taste like, but S didn't like the texture too much... softer would've been better in her opinion and I agree. The sauce however was simply heavenly...and with the rice it topped any butter chicken sauce I've tried in HK.

The chapati (S$2.9) was hot and very soft, much like a tortilla and not like the ones I've sampled in HK. Plain Basmati Rice ($4.90) was pricey, but well-cooked - fluffy and none of the grains stuck to each other. Our total came to S$38.50, and this was expected given this area is more touristy and 'up-scale', not that we minded because the restaurant is actually very decent and we would have dined inside if we weren't afraid of smelling like Indian food when heading out to the bars nearby after....

After several random bars and clubs in Clarke Quay, I went into Nectarie, a pastry shop (still open at 1am...why doesn't HK have this????) between the many bars and chose two desserts for myself after a talk with the very sweet lady working in there. I chose a kiwi blueberry tart and she suggested I try their strawberry shortcake which doesn't have cream like the many other shortcakes available in Singapore (people love their shortcakes here). 

The fruits on the tart was fresh and custard was okay (using real vanilla pods like Mandarin Oriental's would have made a big difference), but I didn't like the pastry base so much - it was made with ground almonds and was just too thick... not so good. 

The strawberry shortcake on the other hand was really good. The best cake for me on this trip. It was a sliced cake, consisting of layers of sponge (moist), custard (same as the tart) and sliced strawberries, which came together very well. The outside rim of the cake was also coated with sliced almonds...

For the two pastries I paid S$14.20, although I think I was overcharged because I didn't have it dine-in but to-go...(service charge and gst was on my receipt) didn't notice until now so nevermind! I'll definitely visit Nectarie for other yummy pastries on my next trip to SG!

Singapore, Day 3

Date of visit: 20th July 2010

We woke up to a reasonably nice weather, so we made plans for a trip to Sentosa Island’s new Universal Studios. After breakfast we went on the MRT and off to Sentosa we were…

We had been looking forward to Universal Studios since we decided to go to Singapore, and were glad that it had stopped raining. We arrived and bought our tickets, only to find out two main attractions were closed – the only large rollercoaster and ‘madagascar’. They could have told us earlier but this is their sneaky ways of getting people in… especially on a quiet weekday.

So in we went and after some attractions / rides we went looking for lunch. Wanting to stick to the Asian theme of things, we went to a local / Thai café in Universal Studios. Here we ordered a chicken satay set (4 pcs satay with nasi goreng rice and a coconut layered cake), and a separate chicken satay (6 pcs) and a Tom Yum Soup. Total  for lunch was about S$20, definitely not cheap for fast food of this quality!

After lunch it started to shower...and then proceeded to pour, to the point where we considered leaving....but that would've been really wasteful.! We found out there was a show at the waterworld and so we went and watched it. Turned out it was pretty good, nothing we expected. The weather got better and we went for some snacks before going on the several rides left in the park. 

My swirled soft-serve vanilla and chocolate (S$2 - melts way too quickly and has a gummy texture (too much carageenan??), waffle fries (S$3.50)

At around 5pm we left and walked to the Resorts World nearby, where there were several  of celebrity chefs' restaurants, such as Susur Lee's new Chinois and Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier and The Pastry Shop & Lounge (to open later this year!). But seeing as it was quite early and the only restaurant I really do want to try (Chinois) serves Chinese in an up-scale -i.e. more than two diners needed! - I made a mental note to return to Singapore to try them! Instead, we proceeded to check out the mall further along, which the casino was also located in, in which all shops were basically luxury brands one would find in HK, but also a Victoria Secret shop which didn't stock bras and swimwear (apparently, USA won't allow them... what is the point then???)

Disappointed, we headed back for the Sentosa express back to Harbourfront.

We walked around the Robertson Walk area and went into Canele Patisserie to satisfy our sweet tooth. We picked two pastries, St Marc and Caraibe.

St. Marc was S's choice, a 'biscuit joconde with kirsch vanilla creme chantilly, dark chocolate cream, creme brulee'

This was utter disappointment. Whilst it wasn't bad per se, it was nothing like the description claimed it to be. Creme brulee? Nadah...the topping was a glaze of something close to honey, the vanilla creme was virtually masked by the weird taste of the biscuit base and dark chocolate cream... Every layer was so thin you could hardly distinguish it! At S$8++ a piece this was certainly over-priced. 

This caraibe was the staff's (looked like she would kill to be elsewhere) recommendation. It sounded good enough - "dark chocolate cream 66%, dark chocolate cake 66%, hazelnut nougatine, almond chocolate glaze" so I said "yes", only to find that I should have gone with my instincts and went with the strawberry tart or macha or even a simple gateaux chocolat.... This dessert was so sweet it was impossible. Water wasn't provided, so what we were left with was fork-full of sweetened chocolate nothings. The outside almond chocolate glaze was the only thing I liked - crisp chocolate with bits of crunchy almonds. The inside was layers of hard and dry dark chocolate cake - sponge would've made a huge needed difference, and the dark chocolate cream was mixed with the hazelnut nougatine to the point that it tasted like cocoa and sugar rather than real dark chocolate....arghhhhhh. And at S$8.50++ it was a total rip-off.

so this was what we left behind: 

unsightly, i know!

Still starving at this point, we walked around to find dinner. It was at a Thai restaurant called Cafe Sapunsa which was recommended on one of the (many) blogs I read prior to this trip. It looked nondescript, dull even. Interiors were decorated quite randomly, but I made a mental note that we are here for the food, and not the décor! 

The menu was actually worse, quite badly laid out with menu items in Thai and English (not translated well enough) so we struggled to decide and eventually settled on a Vegetable Red Curry (mild) for S and a Seafood Tom Yum Soup, Fried Morning Glory with Chilli and Garlic for me. 

The lady taking our order didn't speak very good English and it was even more apparent when she got my orders slightly wrong (she gave me a non-spicy Prawn Tom Yum Soup rather than regular Seafood Tom Yum), but because the soup was so good without the spice any way, I wasn't complaining! Sour and full of prawn taste, salty but not full of msg...yumm.

Morning Glory with chilli was oily but well-cooked and good nonetheless. I do like spicy food so I was happy to see some chillies in this dish!

S's red curry vegetable was very mild, full of coconut flavour and had a very good assortment of vegetables - carrots, green beans, broccoli, thai eggplants, you name it! We both liked the taste very much, but thought they could've thickened it up a bit as this version was really watery to be called a 'curry'.

Our dinner at Cafe Sapunsa came to a total of about  S$30 - not cheap but definitely not expensive either for the quality of food =). Would recommend this place for hungry people in the area!