[Review 547] Tender brisket @ 大利清湯腩

大利清湯腩  25/11/2009
活道5號地下
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/tender-brisket-e2045670

Like I said, food depends on luck, and depends on what pieces the chef gives you.
I ordered the brisket curry with thick noodles, and the clear soup brisket with rice.
Clearly the soup brisket was better, each strands of the meat could be seen, and very soft and tender with the stringy bits or elastic membranes. The brisket in the curry was however slight tough and hard.
The noodles were OK, but it was weird there was already red vinegar poured on top, I prefer to put it in myself.
Priced at $38, I felt it was quite good compared to the prices at Chinese cafes, at $38 the Chinese cafes give you crap, and not all pure meat either.

[Review 546] Snake soup deafened by the screeching sound @ Se Wong Sun 蛇王燊

蛇王燊 Se Wong Sun 24/11/2009
灣仔交加街富榮閣地下
G/F, Fortune Mansion, Cross Street,, Wan Chai
 https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/deafened-by-the-screeching-sound-e2045473

Never noticed this little snake joint, despite walking past it every day!!!

Only tried because I saw a picture of the snake soup, just plain broth with no residue or meat strands.

Sat down, and ordered, came almost immediately, however my ears were in such distress with the screams of the kid sitting on the opposite table, and the screeching noise from the tin drawer! OUCH!!!

The soup was piping hot, so I burnt my tongue and it was difficult to taste it fully when it is too hot, but went back next day for lunch and got a takeaway, ordered the set with snake soup, thick snake soup and snakes belly with fish maw.

The takeout was good, firstly the temperature was not as hot as in the shop, and the rice and meat have been placed in the lunch box without needing to spoon it out.
The meat was descaled nicely with skin attached, the meat in main dish reminded me of fried dace, the texture and taste, the stickiness from the fish maw reminded me of eating ducks feet. The snakes meat had an interesting fiery tinge to it, almost like pepper but slightly spicier than that. A good mix of fruit peel in it too.

As for the thick snake soup, it contained lots of snake meat, basically tastes as good as the fake sharks fin soup but better, because the pork isn't fresh in the sharks fin soup.

[Review 545] Big Pork Chop @ 喜喜燒臘茶餐廳

喜喜燒臘茶餐廳 23/11/2009
灣仔史釗域道6號地舖 G/F, 6 Stewart Road,, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/big-pork-chop-e2045039

Not my usual place for food, but since someone was treating, came here.
I got the instant noodles because its just plain noodles and msg soup, nothing extraordinary could go wrong, msg will just taste like msg!!
Not much variety for the noodles, so went for the pork chop, quite big too almost covering the bowl.
The usual chinese cafe style pork chop, just deep fried in oil, not very helpful served on a bowl using chopsticks to eat it either.
The tea is the hk style tea, so not worth commenting.

[Review 544] Its fusion not western breakfast @ 大家樂 Café de Coral

大家樂 Café de Coral
23/11/2009
灣仔皇后大道東213號胡忠大廈2樓 2/F, Wu Chung House, 213 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/its-fusion-not-western-breakfast-e2045035

I never have any expectations for Café de coral, their interior and logo is 1960s and glum, and their menu is super confusing too!

I only paid it a visit because I wanted to try the Hokkaido egg breakfast, the set includes a fish fillet, choice of toast or Chinese carrot cake and freshly brewed coffee.

The other breakfast set with the fish was supposed to look western, but I thought it was Chinese, especially the luncheon meat and carrot cake, very chinesy indeed, it’s a bit hard to find Luncheon meat for breakfast in Europe.

The sauce that came was the fish was totally Chinesey too, it was tartar sauce, but the base of the sauce was sweet, even McDonalds tartar sauce is more authentic.
The fish tasted nice on its own without the sauce.
The egg with hokkaido milk just had an extra buttery and milk aroma to it.

The congee was ok, the oysters could be tasted, however the pork was not fresh, so it ruins the taste of the congee.

[Review 543] Singmalay 16 - Laksa and Beef Rendang @ 加東叻沙蝦麵 Katong Laksa Prawn Mee

加東叻沙蝦麵 Katong Laksa Prawn Mee
灣仔謝斐道155號地下D1舖
Shop D1, G/F, 155 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/singmalay-part-4-e1911346

After trying numerous Singapore restaurants in HK, this is the best so far.

I used to get Laksa from here nearly thrice a week, but once the Laksa was super spicy, so I got deterred from it.

I decided to give it another go, and the Laksa was back to normal, not that spicy.

Ordered Laksa with beef Rendang, the Laksa tasted as good as usual, and the beef rendang was authentic according to my SG friend.

The drinks were perfect too, the barley water was not too sweet, and had a hint of pandan, the texture of the barley water was slightly thick.
The lime soda was literally lime + soda, a can soda with wedges of lime which tasted quite refreshing.

Finally the dessert was mango coconut sago, and as a Anti-Asian dessert person, I really liked it, it was pieces of mango on top of Coconut paste and sago, which is much more natural than mango pudding. The coconut paste was real coconut instead of the processed coconut cream which is a bit fake, and the syrup on top made the whole thing sweet naturally rather than pre-mixed.

[Review 542] Good chips any time @ Cul-De-Sac

Cul-De-Sac
灣仔駱克道89號灣仔中匯大廈地下
Lockhart Road
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/ill-be-back-e1876715

Although it is quite expensive, their food is decent, the chips, subs are good.
Chips not too burnt, lots of condiments, such as salts, malt vinegar, white vinegar, ketchup, mayonnaise etc.

The portions are slightly smaller than before.

The Steak sub is an aromatic medley of onions, green peppers, cheese and beef.

[Review 541] Noodle Factory that only produces UDON!! @ Akamaru Udon Factory 赤丸製麵所

19/11/2009 赤丸製麵所 Akamaru Udon Factory
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/noodle-factory-that-only-produces-udon-e2044279

A little joint in Polam that serves Japanese food, a bit similar to Ajisen, however the choices are so limited.
Being a noodle factory I was expecting more choices on noodles, but they only offer Udon.
The menu itself dosnt offer much either, I felt it was Chinese cuisine trying to imitate Japanese food.

Ordered two sets, a rice and a noodle, the rice was thinly sliced pork with Japanese bbq sauce. The rice was a bit weird, it had ketchup on it.
The noodles in herb soup had no herb taste at all, the only thing that tasted right was the grilled prawns.
The noodles was the most expensive set, but I didnt feel it was worth being the most expensive, the octopuses were frozen ones.

The snacks that came with it were chicken nuggets and seaweed with octopus in sesame sauce. The seaweed and octopus is just like the starters from genki sushi.
The chicken nuggets didnt taste right as the oil was so old.

The only thing I liked was the condiments, green tea salt, curry salt which served on the food in some places but not placed on the tables for the customers to freely use.
However there is not much range on the menu that needs these salts, they taste better on sushi's.

The drink was quite obviously chinese, Longuan and Jujube.