Other delicious bits and pieces of NYC

 Other eats I'd highly recommend and would revisit on my next trip to New York:

Wafels & Dinges

Belgian waffle

 topped with Speculoos (caramelized cookie butter), strawberries and banana... best breakfast/snack EVER.

 Bouchon Bakery

Big macs...

Raspberry lemon macaron

Dark chocolate macaron

 So freshy and flavours so balanced, hands down better than any macaron I've had in Hong Kong.

La Colombe Coffee

Cappuccino

Blue Bottle Coffee

Drip coffee

La Colombe and Blue Bottle Coffee are must-visits for coffee aficionados.

Eataly

Vegetable station menu

Pinzimonio - bagna cauda dip with a range of raw and cooked veggies

Italian seafood soup from the seafood station

Cappuccino

Even the coffee at Eataly is really good! 

Shake Shack 

Shack stack burger

Cheeseburger and a 'Shroom burger topped with lettuce, tomato and shack sauce. Cardinal sin not to try this dish. I went to the Madison Square Park branch, of course! 

Cut in half

 I loved the fried portabella mushroom stuffed with cheese. Any vegetarians would be very happy eating just this between their buns with the shack sauce and a frozen custard. Ahhhhhhh. 

Luzzo's NYC

really good pizza

"Calzone" ($24/16-inch) - tomato sauce, mozzarella, ricotta, mushrooms, spicy salami, ham, basil

"Tartufata" ($23/16-inch) -  tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushroom and black truffle pate

The closest version to Luzzo's pizza base in Hong Kong would be 208 Duecento Otto's but still Luzzo's was a mile a head and at basically half the price?! Incomparable. 

Absolute Bagels

Look at the crazy assortment of savoury and sweet spreads!

MINE: lox cream cheese, lox, onions, tomatoes on everything bagel.

Big Gay Ice Cream 

My "Salty Pimp" of vanilla ice cream cone, dulce de leche, sea salt and dipped in chocolate

 This ice cream truck turned shop is hugely popular and any time of the day you'll find at queue. We were quite disturbed by a homeless man but we were determined to get our sweet fix.... And was it worth it? Well my salty-sweet-cold-creamy combo was definitely worth it!

Cousin's "Mermaid" - Vanilla ice cream, key lime curd, crushed graham crackers and whipped cream

This post was incredibly hard to write, mostly because many of the tasty foods on here I can no longer eat... fingers crossed my allergy will go away and get my flights booked for my next trip! ;)

Opus Grill

Opus Grill @ LKF Hotel 

In recent years the LKF Hotel (Wyndham St one) has added more quality restaurants to their building. They also house Lily & Bloom, Gold by Harlan Goldstein and the more recently opened Hardrock Cafe. On the 7th floor sits Opus Grill, a steakhouse which also serves up other classics (think lobster risotto and pork ribs) with their own twist. However, tonight, we were determined to attack the possibly most expensive burger in town.

"bread basket"
Both types (brown and raisin walnut) were warm and soft)

Stormies on a rainy ladies night

Date of visit: 15th July 2010

Stormies @ Lan Kwai Fong 

On a Thursday night my friend and I decided to try out the ladies night promotion at Lan Kwai’s Stormies. Their menu is not extensive – a couple of soup and salads, sandwiches and burgers, steaks, ribs, pastas – reminds me of a shorter version of Hard Rock Café’s menu (which is re-opening nearby in LKF this year apparently!!!). We decided on a spinach salad, burger and king crab legs.

Spinach salad ($88) was definitely a starter size. Dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette, toppings included strawberries, blueberries, goats cheese and pecans. Quite tasty and we both liked the pairing of fruit and spinach.

Stormies’ Burger ($88) was a medium sized burger with a thin beef patty that was ordered to be medium-well. It came with a side salad and seasoned fries. The burger itself was pretty much…..bad. The beef was way too tough – especially on the outer rims where it had been fully cooked – and there was no natural beef juices at all present. Comparing this to my last burger at HKJC’s Food Plaza this was…. unimpressive. Fries were pretty good according to my friend and she proceeded to finish them all, since I hate dislike potatoes. 

Alaskan King Crab Legs ($128 for small size) – was served warm. It tasted quite salty from the parsley butter sauce but really tasty. They came with two long pieces of garlic buttered bread which were nicely charred from the grill. The crab legs were meaty and in general very good.

For this meal we ended up paying about $100 each, quite reasonable for the quality of food we received. But whether I would pay their original listed price for the salad and burger in particular is another story – I didn’t think the portion or quality of beef justified their standard prices at all. 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $$

Stormies

G/F & 1/F, 48 D'Aguilar Street, Lan Kwai Fong, 

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2845 5533

My favourite 'food plaza' in town

Date of visit : 2nd July 

Food Plaza @ Happy Valley HKJC Members Clubhouse

We arrived at around 1pm, and I don't know about my brother but I was starving. Began my (soon to find very filling) lunch with a small salad ($48) with two bread rolls. 

I normally get attracted to Food Plaza's salad bar because of the bright colours of foods. I picked a bit of everything to try today. In this bowl there was some caesar salad (mix yourself), couscous, already mixed tuna and green bean salad, fried sweet potatoes, mushrooms and cauliflower. I also picked up a side bowl of balsamic vinaigrette and italian dressing to dip the bread and veggies in. 

After 10-15 minutes of ordering, we picked up the wagyu beef burger ($118 - a steal!) which had bacon, cheddar and a very crispy fried egg. This was made skilfully on a hot plate behind the counter.

Sides of mesclun mix and house chips, which were hot and crisp, but we could hardly stomach these as we aren't potato-eaters. 

see the browned egg? It was very very crispy indeed! Egg yolks are also cooked, for those who don't appreciate runny yolks like I do =) 

A cross-section of the burger. 

Their wagyu burger was honestly glorious. So thick, juicy and had a clear taste of beef which melted in your mouth...! I haven't tried the original version here (but i suspect it will be similar to the one I had at Shatin JC Ladies Purse's 200gm ground chuck which was pretty good). If the pictures above don't make you meat-eaters salivate I don't know what else will! 

A couple hours of blazing hot sun (it was at least 34 degrees celcius) later...... 

We had this for tea...

Crepe with fruits ($28) plus a scoop of Movenpick Caramelita ice cream ($25)

The fruits today were melon and pineapple, or for an extra $10 you could opt for pure mango. We had pineapple only as we both don't appreciate melons.... Whipped cream was slightly sweetened and delicious with the crepe. Order for it to be on the side if you don't want the cream to melt in the heat of the freshly made crepe!. Toppings such as nuts, chocolate sprinkles, syrups and chocolate sauce are all complimentary with your crepe - feel free to pile them on =).

cappuccino ($26)

Love love love this international food plaza! 

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Food Plaza

4/F, Hong Kong Jockey Club House, 1 Shan Kwong Road,

Happy Valley, Hong Kong