MIST Rahmen

Mist Rahmen @ CWB

I finally got around to trying MIST a couple months ago and went back for a second visit (ordering the same soup-bases because they were so good)... Here, its all about the soup, consistent and impressive. Their noodles are made in-house and come in several thicknesses, but after sitting in the broth for some time, they quickly became too soft, so eat quick! I'd gladly visit MIST again - pricey, yes, but their soups have so much depth it more than justifies the price....!

Menu

Hide-Chan

Hide-Chan @ The Loop, Central 

Hide-Chan had received an amount of media attention prior to its opening... and because of this i couldn't help but have certain (not necessarily high) expectations for this ramen chain.

L and I arrived to find a mini queue to be seated even though there were clearly empty spaces inside. That was ok I thought, maybe they're just not used to crowds just yet. Soon enough, we were seated and gave in our form in which we specified our order: Two white hide (orig tonkatsu) ($75) with lean(er) char siu (thin pork loin), 'hard' noodles plus an additional soft-boiled egg for $10 ($5 for half of one).

Thai Basil

Date of visit: 25^th September

Thai Basil @ Pacific Place 

menu

"Hot and Sour Rock Lobster Soup" ($68)

rock lobster pieces, cherry tomatoes, shallots, ginger, hot and sour broth

A very strongly-flavoured soup of equal spicy and sourness. I enjoyed this mug of soup (despite its high sodium content), but the ridiculously over-cooked lobster pieces had lost its taste and texture, and became quite bland and soft. 

"Char-grilled Prawn Salad" ($88) 

grilled prawns, pomelo, green beans, Chinese garlic chives ('gau choy'), thai basil, fried garlic, chilli lemongrass dressing

This salad is really spicy! A twist on the traditional spicy prawn salad, this one incorporates other greens and pomelo fruit for a citrus zingg. There's an abundance of Thai basil leaves which I liked. 

"Char-grilled vegetables" ($88/4 items)

sweet potato, pumpkin, asparagus, zucchini

Everything was cooked perfectly, and the charred bits were the best. They were brushed with a little olive oil before cooked so they were naturally flavourful without the addition of any extra sauces. Pumpkins were sweet, but the sweet potatoes were not (I guess they aren't in season). 

"Char grilled basil chicken wok fried noodles" ($88)

Grilled chicken breast, basil, Thai asparagus, shallots, bean sprouts, vermicelli-like noodles, fried garlic

The chicken breast was not at all dry despite having been grilled over high heat to achieve its marks. The noodles are very lightly seasoned, and if you don't like fiery foods this is an option, as it contains no chillies. Sadly the charring ended at the chicken breast and did not extend to the noodles - there was no 'wok-hay' at all, which is what I look for in a good fried noodle dish. 

"Wok fried Thai Spicy Crab" ($188) 

Whole Crab, Thai basil, lemongrass, chilli, garlic, shallots, fresh green pepper, black pepper

My ma had tried this before and said it was good but extremely spicy, so we asked them to go lighter on the chillies, and it was indeed lightened. Nonetheless, it is still a rather spicy dish, so wouldn't recommend this if you detest any form of heat. The crabs were fried well, each piece equally coated with all the seasoning and spices, and the crab meat was not to soft (not over-cooked). 

Overall I enjoyed the food here quite a lot for its big and bold flavours, and will be back in the near future to sample other items, but I still miss Lian!

Food: ♥♥♥1/2 

Service: ♥♥1/2 

Price: $$$-$$$$ 

Thai Basil

Shop  001, Basement Floor, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway

Admiralty, HK

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

Inaniwa Udon Nabe

Date of visit: 13^th September 2010

Inaniwa Udon Nabe @ Elements

For a family dinner I picked this restaurant as Elements is accessible and is one of the better restaurants in Elements. It was a Monday and we were seated in one of the rooms for more privacy (not that we needed it, we were only five!).

menu

soy milk hot pot set ($160x2)

left: cabbage, assorted fungus and...

soup base... 

hot pot set is listed on the menu as $160 per person but since minimum order is two, the minimum charge is $320.  came with a plate of assorted vegetables and a plate of assorted seafood/meats. we also decided to add another plate of seafood ($95), cabbage ($15) and shimeji mushroom ($12) 

the soup base of soy milk was milky white and wasn't pure soy as I imagined it might be. There's definitely some dashi in there since it had the 'umami' taste - pretty enjoyable. 

the plates that came with the set included Japanese sliced pork loin, clams, salmon, and in the bamboo stick is some minced chicken, which you slide cuts of into the boiling pot. 

the other plate had cabbage, Japanese bean curd skin, black fungus, fresh and enoki mushrooms. 

the plate of extra seafood (not photographed) had two large prawns, scallops, salmon and some shellfish.

as the broth got evaporated or divided into bowls the waiters refilled the pot with stock. ingredients on the whole were fresh, particularly memorable were the broth, minced chicken and the slippery smooth bean curd skin (really different in texture to ones we get locally), as well as the large prawns. 7.5/10

Inaniwa udon in hot soup with Hokkaido crab meat ($108)
the broth is very thick, so we were warned. come to think of it, it may have been the enoki mushrooms that made the broth become so viscous, rather than some form of starch being added. i like thin and slightly thickened soups so I quite liked this. There wasn't much crab meat to justify the extra $4x, but price aside the noodles were really good - thin, slippery and slightly chewy - my favourite! 7.5/10

Inaniwa Udon in Tomato and Pork Bone Broth with Japanese Pork ($108)

The udon noodles were again good, though I didn't care for this broth. I was expecting something heartier but all this was was sour tomatoes and sliced pork in a broth which tasted very pedestrian. for me the noodles didn't match the broth at all. (ps. very subjective, because dad clearly liked this bowl of noodles better than the crab meat one above). 5/10

Inaniwa Udon in Hot Soup with Prawn Tempura ($108)
This would probably be my favourite style of serving these udon noodles - in a very simple Japanese shoyu-based stock. I know that the best way to enjoy these noodles are probably having them served cold and you dip them in the sauce/broth, but I much prefer hot soup noodles, so provided you don't let the noodles sit so long in the broth, the texture of the udon remains intact (read: eat quickly!). the tempura shrimps were crunchy, but then again they were quite small and I'm not sure whether it justifies $48... I loved these noodles so much I just might have to go back soon and be open-minded about trying their cold varieties! 8.5/10

Homemade Squid cake ($65)

a must order - i don't think i've had anything like this before, and these slices of squid cake were bouncy and had tiny bits of squid meat for a variation of texture. seasoned very well too, so no sauce was needed. 8/10

Cheese Rice Cake ($48) 

these cute little rounds of mochi had a molten cheese centre, and were crispy on the outside, whilst the mochi layer was hot and only slightly chewy, the cheese melted easily in the mouth. they were fried really well to achieve the crispy exterior minus the oily/greasy taste. after a plate we decided we needed another one too =P 8.5/10

Cross section of the cheese mochi...

if i remember correctly everything was polished off! we all really enjoyed this meal.... i wonder when my next visit will be?

Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$ (about $200 per head)
Inaniwa Udon Nabe Japanese Restaurant
Shop 2004, Elements,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2196 8989

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

Singapore, Day 1

My friend S and I decided about a month ago to take a break from Hong Kong and fly to the nearby Singapore for some shopping, fun and good food. As we were quite late in booking flights etc, we ended up on a six-hour stop-over flight via Bangkok to Singapore, both ways! Needless to say we were hungry and tired during our flight but this didn’t stop us from having an amazing holiday!

After checking into the hotel and a quick shower, we were off to the famous Maxwell Food Centre for some cheap good eats, especially since the original Tian Tian Chicken Rice was here…

We arrived at quarter to 7 to find Tian Tian CLOSED! Slightly annoyed, we decided we’d try a bunch of stuff. I went straight for the Kam Wah stall for some sliced fish soup as there was a growing line and thought it should be good! I placed my order of sliced fish soup (S$4) and waited and waited for it… With one person manning the stove and another taking orders, I thought it would suffice to churn out simple bowls of soups quickly but it took quite a long time, at least by Hong Kong standards! No matter I thought, as long as the food is good…. Or so I thought.

The fish soup was clear, unlike the bowls of fish bee hoon which had a milky-white soup. Mine was full of MSG and too salty as well. The fish was nice but little was given, unimpressed.

To help get rid of the msg taste in our mouths, I picked a soursop juice (S$1) from a nearby stall called Drinks & Desserts Corner. We've both never tasted soursop before, so we didn't know what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised. The drink is milky-white in colour and is sweet yet slightly sour at the same time. 

Next S chose some deep-fried dumplings (S$4) and spring onion pancake (S$4) from a Gyoza stall. Both were served with a sweet sauce, resembling a lot like our Hoisin sauce, but less thick. The deep fried dumplings were stuffed with chicken and chives, quite flavourful and tasty with black vinegar. The spring onion pancakes were pan-fried till golden-brown but managed to retain a soft texture. It was nice on its own, but quite oily.

chicken and chive fried dumplings with vinegar and sweet bean sauces

spring onion pancake with sweet bean sauce

Lastly, I ordered a seafood hor fun (S$4) from a stall called Swee Ting. It was highly recommended by one of the many Singaporean food blogs I read whilst planning our trip, and so I was quite eager to try. It took, once again, forever to be sent to our table even though the stall had no queue. But my long wait this time was worth it. It arrived resembling your regular hor fun in gravy at Thai or Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong, but tasted very different. They were generous with the seafood on top, with shrimps, fish cakes, fish, cockles and muscles. The peppery gravy, which S and I both loved, was flavourful but not salty in any way. The hor fun was the best however. Each piece of noodle was unique random shapes of noodles with a slightly chewy texture and a very strong taste and smell of ‘wok hei’ – no wonder it took so long?? It was so good we both kept raving over the noodles =P. Best. Noodles. Ever.

seafood hor fun

Before we left, we bought another drink from the same Drinks & Desserts Corner, but this time opted for a fresh lime juice (S$1). It was a much more sour and sweet drink - more 'intense' in flavour overall but also quenches your thirst. This led me to think that a half-half of lime and soursop would make for my ideal hawker centre drink!

After dinner we headed to Marina Square at Raffles to kill some time. We were quite unenthusiastic to shop after a long day and so we decided to pig out some more by going next door to Mandarin Oriental Hotel to get some pastries from Axis Lounge…. After looking at the very well crafted pastries, we decided on a Mille Feuille and Cassian’s Coffee Plantation (each S$8 before tax and service).

The Mille Feuille was comprised of three layers of crispy puff pastry. On the bottom was a thin layer of fruit jam and fresh raspberries, on the top was some Tahitian vanilla custard sandwiched between two layers of pastry. Ingredients were extremely fresh and the puff pastry was well thought-out and glazed to retain its crispiness during the day….excellent!

The Cassian Coffee Plantation was their most popular dessert according to the waitress. We could see why. Rich in chocolate and coffee, it was like drinking thick cup of smooth mocha. On the outside was a dark chocolate glaze. Inside was a brown chocolate mousse, and a white Sumatra coffee-flavoured mousse, with a thin layer of chocolate sponge sandwiched between. There was also a biscuit base and caramelized pecans to give it crunch and cut some of the richness of the mousses. Quite sweet by our standards, but a completely delight.

So these two cakes rounded off our night and we slept like babies in preparation for the next full day of shopping =)…