Café Causette II

Date of visit: 22nd December 2010

Cafe Causette @ Mandarin Oriental Hotel

I’ve posted before on my first visit. This was a second time, this time with J and P who were back for the winter holidays. Upon seating, we looked through the long international menu and each decided on the three dishes below. Meal started off with a large sour-dough which I once again forgot to snap. This time roun

Hainan Chicken Rice (Thigh) ($208)

J ordered this, and since I had it before (see link above) I didn't try any this time. 

"Roasted Portobello Mushroom" ($158)

with spinach, ricotta and rocket

whilst there was hardly if not any rocket, the other components were quite enjoyable, a healthy vegetarian dish for an appetizer or for the not-so-hungry. 

"miso cod" 

with miso soup, japanese pickles - shibazuke and cucumbers (pictured blow), broccolini, steamed rice and miso sauce on side. This was a pretty clumsy-looking plate, but the fish was so soft and succulent and tasty it didn't matter. The fish was mush more seasoned than the one I had at Naozen, so the sauce on the side was quite unnecessary but I didn't mind. As for the broccolini...it was my second time having it, and I prefer it over the boring old broccoli! 

pickles and miso soup

the miso soup was alright, although it could've been hotter, and the pickles were the packaged variety, not anything out of the ordinary. 

The food overall was good, though their 'signature' of Hainan chicken rice needs to improve....starting with the chicken. Their menu is super-long and have even introduced some family-style dishes for sharing, which I would love to try some day! So...until my next visit, this will be it =)

Food: ♥♥♥ 1/2 

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Cafe Causette

1/F, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5 Connaught Road,

Central 

Tel: +852 2825 4005

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.... =)

Café Causette

Date: 18th Sep 2010

Cafe Causette @ Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong 

Cafe Causette has been on my wish-list for some time. I've been wanting to visit for their a la carte menu (only been here for tea), and to my luck my mother was in Central for lunch. 

Upon ordering, a fresh and very warm sour dough was promptly served, and I loved it. Crusty and crunchy exterior, hot and extremely soft inside....lovely! 

Cafe Causette has a pretty extensive international menu, with so many things I wanted to try.... Finally, the three of us decided on the following. 

Hainan Chicken Rice (breast or thigh available) $208

Chicken breast sitting on pak choy, chicken flavoured rice, chicken soup, condiments

The chicken here was quite disappointing for the three of us. Surprisingly, the chicken did retain the natural taste of chicken, but the breast meat was unbelievably tough, incomparable to what I tasted in Singapore. Perhaps chicken thigh would be a better choice? 

The rice was not oily but was flavourful, which I appreciated, and the soup was mild and had quite a bit of chicken essence - yummy =) 

Phad Thai ($188)

Rice noodles, prawns, tofu

Phad Thai here was quite moist and not oily, i.e. more liquid was used to fry this noodle dish. The prawns were huge and juicy, and the rectangular pieces of tofu and strings of egg and spring onions made for a colourful dish. G and my ma thought this was too 'wet', but I personally like fried noodles with a bit of gravy, so this was good. Most importantly, the seasoning was balanced - savoury, and only the slightest hint of sugar. 

Barbeque Spiced Cod ($188)

Pearl barley risotto, maple cucumber dressing

The natural flavour of cod is unbeatable in this dish. This is one of the few cod dishes I've had where the seasoning of the fish (in this case a mixture of spices) did not mask the natural flavours of the cod. It was done so that the brown top had a crisp texture, whilst the middle was cooked perfectly - flaked well and was smooth.... yumm! The cod sat on top of a barley risotto which had barley substituting arborio rice, and an abundance of pine nuts for a variation of texture. Again it was seasoned very well, and I can't find any faults for this dish. 

Save for the dry chicken breast, and very moist phad thai (can be good or bad depending on your taste), I had a very enjoyable lunch, and couldn't find space to order their lovely cappuccino....maybe next time! 

Cafe Causette is usually full on weekends, so for lunch you simply have to try your luck as they don't take reservations. Alternatively, there's Clipper Lounge which does allow reservations. 

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Cafe Causette

1/F, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 5 Connaught Road,

Central 

Tel: +852 2825 4005

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