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! ;)

OD-ing on macarons...

Jean-Paul Hevin; Island Gourmet

Friends who have a sweet tooth like my own are hard to find.... so when A and I met up I suggested to go for macarons...little did I know we'd end up having a meal's worth of macarons....

First stop was Jeal-Paul Hevin, where we ended up getting a box of six. Because the chocolate was their best-seller we thought we'd have one each, and the other 4 flavours, to share. The amer chocolate macaron shell was not too sweet because of the cocoa in the batter and the thick luscious ganache inbetween was stellar. Two other macarons I also declared my favourites on the spot were the bergamot tea - very apparent....like a cuppa earl grey tea and the raspberry one which had a similar dark chocolate ganache which worked to balance to sweetness of the shell. 

Chez M's

Date: 23rd October 2010

Home Cooking @ M's House

B, M and myself decided we'd organize a dinner party, where the three of us would each prepare parts of a five-course meal for a party of six. We went all-out and just cooking took up a day... but was definitely worth it!

Menu for tonight... 

  Mushroom Soup, prepared by M

White button mushrooms, portobellos, broth, cream

Shallots before cooking in balsamic

Mixed salad, prepared by M

Mesclun mix, baby spinach, couscous, balsamic onions, balsamic vinaigrette

Chicken Drumstick, by B

Drumsticks, parsley, garlic, nam pla

served alongside: 

 Roasted Butternut Squash

Butternut squash, olive oil, rosemary

 Misoyaki Salmon, a dish from me =)

Marinated salmon, Pearl rice

served with: 

 Pickled Cucumbers (before sprinkling the bonito shavings)

Cucumber, rice vinegar-soy marinade, bonito flakes

Impromptu Stuffed Quail, courtesy of A and D

Quail, mushrooms, duck meat, foie gras

 Attempting to make quenelles....

Bitter-sweet Chocolate Tart with Earl Grey Tea Ice-cream, by me

Crispy chocolate tart, 72% chocolate filling, chocolate glaze, hand-made earl grey tea ice-cream

Outcome? Quality food, great company and an honestly great night.... =)

Hainan Shaoye and Mochi Cream

Date of visit: 12th Aug 2010

Hainan Shaoye @ World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay

I made reservations about a week prior to our visit, and was utterly disappointed with the service over the phone. This restaurant is no cha chaan teng (local tea restaurant) or dai pai dong (outdoor Chinese food stalls), and so I expected a little more I guess. When I spoke to the lady over the phone, I asked if I could make a reservation. She then replied with me a 'when? because if it's for dinner we are fully booked till next month'. So I told her I wanted to come for lunch, Thursday, at 11.45. She then said they were full too, and so I asked what time they open? "11.30 in the morning". I then hesitated, but asked "how about 11.30 then, can I have a table for two then?" She said "yes, we can do 11.30". With a reminder that they have a 10 minute wait policy before giving our table away, I thought to myself that was rather b.s., since it was technically 5 minutes apart from my original time plan, plus it was not like the restaurant was prepared to kick us out if we stayed passed 12 or 1pm...or at all! A table free is a table free, if they weren't going to do two rounds at lunch hour they should've given me the table regardless of time. 

Okay, phone conversation aside, our service at the restaurant was acceptable. We actually arrived on the dot and were turned away because their kitchen was "not ready yet" and give them 5 or so minutes. Say whatt???? 

Now, food! 

We decided we would forgo the signature Hainan and Roast Chicken Rice set, and went for a Bak Kut Teh ($88) (for me) and a Seafood Laksa ($88) (for E). These lunch time 'sets' come with a drink too - coffee or tea. 

Our sets arrived together, and we tried each other's, to see what we liked/disliked. My Bak Kut Teh was most disappointing, since I was expecting something more herbal and peppery with tender ribs... that it not what I got.

In my dark red soup there were plenty of wolfberries and dates (and even dried lychees) in this soup to make it way too sweet for Bak Kut Teh and resemble the Chinese herbal soup (for the ladies - "bo huet"/help produce more blood). I'm not saying the soup was bad, I just wasn't expecting it to taste so sweet and mask any signs of spices and pepper (if any was added...).  Other components included dried tofu puffs (tofu-pok), coriander for garnish and pork ribs that were so dry, tough and chewy I struggled to eat them... 

The other parts of my lunch set included a dish of chopped deep-fried dough sticks ("yao-tiu"), a bowl of white rice and some chilli-infused dark sweet soy sauce and a few pieces of bak choy. While the dough sticks didn't not impress, being soggy and nothing like the ones at good local restaurants serving congee, I loved the rice! Each grain doesn't stick to one another, and was cooked perfectly - not soft but not undercooked either...pure comfort with the dark soy sauce. Ahhhh I must make a mental note to ask what brand of rice they use when I return! 

E's Laksa was also not what we were expecting, but not bad. Hainan Shaoye's version is spicier than the laksas I've had locally, but same spice-level as they do it in Singapore. The soup however, is very watered-down to a thin broth with a mild taste of coconut only. Now a little mention of other restaurants serving Sing/Malay cuisine - Good Satay in TST East offers a good bowl of laksa that has a very rich broth - too rich to drink but delicious nonetheless. Meanwhile, Sabah Malaysian Restaurant in Wanchai has a hearty curry broth that is right in between Hainan Shaoye's and Good Satay which we thought took first place between the three. 

Hainan Shaoye's big bowl of seafood laksa came with toppings of tofu puffs, sliced fish cakes, two large shrimps and some fishballs. These all fared very well, and the two shrimps which E gave to me were fresh and bouncy. 

We vowed to return, not for a repeat of the food we had ordered this day, but for the highly controversial Chicken rice meals! 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Hainan Shaoye

Shop P311, World Trade Centre, 280 Gloucester Road,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2111 3166

Mochi Cream @ SOGO Department Store (level B2) 

We wanted a sweet ending to our lunch, and a steamed milk custard from Yee Shun seemed way too much after our large lunch sets.... I suggested we visit the basement of SOGO to hunt for some good Japanese sweets, and were attracted by the lovely display at Mochi Cream. 

I was about to go for the black soybean flavour, when I hesitated and asked the shopkeeper which one was her favourite. She said apple pie and purple yam. I wanted to see how they were to pull off purple yam ($14), and being a sweet potato fan I was quite drawn to it...naturally it was my choice! E opted for the caramel macchiato ($17) mochi, and we paid and ate. 

Caramel Macchiato mochi

purple yam mochi

Whilst I liked mine because of its lovely purple colour and not-too-sweet and natural yam taste, I wished it wasn't so cold... it was almost frozen, and so it was a bit too hard for me. E  loved hers though. There were bits of caramel and a coffee-flavoured centre, which she continued to rave about after!

Mochi cream has loads of flavours, from chocolate to raspberry mille feuille, and I will be back for more!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $

Mochi Cream

Shop B2-29, SOGO Department Store, 555 Hennessy Road, 

Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2831 3946

Some TST eats...

Date of visit: 3rd August 2010

Spice Restaurant @ Knutsford Terrace

I picked Spice as this night's dinner spot since it had a good location, and my aunt wanted some South-east Asian goods.

On a Tuesday night the restaurant was only half-full, and we were seated at a table with sofas and a curtain. It was very dark so but I managed to read the menu with the (pathetic) candle in the middle.

We decided to skip appetizers and go straight to the mains, shared, Asian style. One Chicken Tikka Masala ($88), one Tandoor Fish Tikka ($132), one naan ($24) and a Pad Thai ($90) all came together soon enough after our drinks.

The chicken tikka masala was the waitress’ recommendation. It was slightly spicy, spicier than the chicken makhani (butter chicken) I was going to order. The masala curry turned out very flavourful with a hint of chilli to flavour things up. The chicken was very tender – all meat, no bones or skin. 7.5/10

We ordered the naan to mop of the curry. Good, but nothing to write home about. 7/10

The fish tikka was, I think, mackerel (should’ve asked to make sure =P). It was actually quite spicy despite it being a dry tandoor-grilled dish – I guess the fish was marinated in some strong chilli powder / spicy marinade first. Mackerel flesh when cooked resembles tuna a lot, and if over-cooked it is tough and not pleasant to eat at all. I asked for them not to overcook the fish before-hand, and they really didn’t! Great job, but it’s still a long way behind their signature black cod tikka, which I had on a previous visit. 7/10

The pad thai was pretty good as well. I've tried pad thai here before, and loved it so I ordered it again this time. What was disappointing was that it only had a couple pieces of shrimp and dried hard tofu. There were some condiments such as ground peanut, chilli and sugar on the side for you, but these were really not needed since the noodles are well-seasoned. However, the egg net on the outside was more for show rather than to be eaten…7/10

All in all this restaurant churns out pretty good Indian and Thai food. The portions could easily have been more generous for the prices they charge, but then again, this is Knutsford Terrace (the “soho” part of TST)! Our bill came to  $483 for three drinks, the food above, and service charge.

Food:  ♥♥♥♥

Service:  ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Spice Restaurant

2/F, No.1 Knutsford Terrace,
TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2191 9880

next stop...

Roll @ Granville Road, TST

After dinner we went to Roll for something sweet. A lot of their swiss roll cakes had run out, so we turned to frozen yogurt. Between us three we had a large ($32) and a regular ($26), plus an earl grey tea flavoured macaroon for me!

For the large, I asked for strawberries + green tea mochi, and for the regular, my aunt asked for mangoes. The girl mixed up our orders and put the mangoes on the large and the strawberries on the regular. Also as they had ran out of diced mangoes, she wasn’t able to rectify her mistake and was very apologetic so we told her to forget it. Roll’s frozen yogurt base was really disappointing. It was extremely light, melted really quickly and I felt a bit like I was eating air. The base could’ve been tarter and sweeter in my opinion as well – it was just plain milky…. The toppings didn’t fare much better. Whilst the fruits were fresh, she could’ve been more generous. The green tea mochi didn’t taste like green tea at all, just your standard plain mochi – not that it was bad, but why not just label it green mochi? [p.s. my brother observed quickly after she handed us our yogurts that the serving size of the yogurt in the large and regular was really similar - I looked and noticed the same!] 3/10

Macaroons are truly for people with a sweet tooth. Whilst macaroons are meant to be sweet (I’ve never heard of such thing as a low-sugar meringue), they shouldn’t be sickly sweet (as a whole) either. My earl grey macaroon was quite nice. Better than LGB’s sickly sweet version, as the dark chocolate ganache centre was bitter-sweet enough to counter the sweet and crispy macaroon shell. It also had a strong aroma of earl grey… yumm =). 7/10

Whilst I won’t be back for frozen yogurt, I may well give their ever-popular swiss rolls and other macaroons a try.

Food:  ♥♥

Service:  ♥♥♥

Price: $

Roll

G/F, Granville Mansion, 41C-D Granville Road, 

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2191 9212

More dessert?

Date of visit: 27th June '10 

五代同糖@ Tsim Sha Tsui

Earlier today I had frozen yogurt from Milky Cow, but I felt like more sweetssss!

We were at TST tonight and were looking for light desserts to share after Ebeneezers. I took my friend here because I had a really good experience here (friendly waiters, great snowflake ice). 

We came relatively early, and there was only two other tables taken. We decided on the pre-set toppings with green tea snowflake ice (I'd have gone for the Taro if not for the pre-set toppings which didn't appeal to either of us). 

The pre-set toppings that came with were red beans, coconut flavoured jelly cubes, white tapioca pearls and black-eyed sago, with a little condensed milk drizzled on top. Very appealing and the snowflake ice was truly a star. The green tea flavour was very well pronounced and not to sweet. Texture-wise, it was melt-in-your-mouth and creamy - good! All of this for a mere $35! If you wish to chose your own toppings you may fill in a sheet, starting with $35 for the snowflake ice itself....each fruit / sauce / topping is an additional $3-5. 

After we finished the snowflake ice (abt 20 mins), the ginger souffle ($40) arrived. Taste-wise it was spot on: strong ginger scent and flavour. 

After 5 minutes of sitting on the table the middle sunk.... sadly. I was really disappointed and told one of the waitresses. She was very apologetic and sent it away, promising another one but would take 15 minutes. So we sat there looking at others' desserts and chatting whilst waiting. Later a much puffier soufflé came out: 

This was quite evidently cooked thoroughly, as it did not sink! There was a crack which meant the first flat-topped one was prettier but was because it wasn't in the oven long enough. Apart from the small size, I was a happy customer. 

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $

五代同糖

Shop 8, G/F, BCC Buildling, 25-31 Carnarvon Road, TST

Tel: +852 2723 3383

After this we went to Isquare's Log-on...and ended up with two very attractive snacks... 

Whilst the strawberry mochi-flavoured Hi Chew was a failure, the strawberry yogurt Ritter Sport chocolate was fantastic! The picture looks exactly like the chocolate bar itself, with strawberry bits in the strawberry yogurt filling. Excellent! [p.s. don't you just love the pink packaging...] 

And that was my Sunday...!