[Review 699] Greasy food @ 小草屋潮家菜 Grass House Chiu Chow Restaurant

29/03/2010 小草屋潮家菜 Grass House Chiu Chow Restaurant
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心2期1樓1007-1008號舖
Shop 1007-1008, 1/F, MCP Central, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/greasy-food-e2072257

Previously missed their all-u-can-eat promotion, so came for their night session at $38 per dish.

The menu selection was not the full range as shown on their window outside.

Tried the ducks blood with chives, duck with taro, beef in "gingdoll" sauce, oyster omelette, and Chiuchow style noodles.

Ducks blood with chives: tasteless
Duck with taro: taro on top of fish patty, no duck in it, was told by chiu chow people that chiuchow people are poor so they use cheaper ingredients to imitate the duck.
Beef in gingdoll sauce: this was neither chinese nor chiuchow cuisine, and it didn’t taste vinegary at all, but the beef was ok.
Chiuchow noodles: this was very similar to the noodles in the Taiwanese oyster thick soup.
However as we ate the late session, I felt the noodles were abit too greasy, and the oil used to fry them was old.
Oyster omlette: same as the Taiwanese oyster cake, with the gunge mixture in it.

It seems that chiuchow food is very similar to Taiwanese food, and being told that Taiwan is close to chiuchow, it explains it.

[Review 698] Interesting Hot Dog @ Hot Dog Dot (旺角)

Hot Dog Dot (旺角) 27/03/2010
旺角廣華街3號百利達廣場地下
G/F, Paradise Square, 3 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/interesting-hotdog-e2071924

Previously saw pictures of the Apple Sal Sal, so came here for it, I was puzzled by the name, after trying it, I could relate the name to it. The apple in the hot dog was so finely diced, about 3-4 mm, almost like sand, and the apple was mixed with chili making it like Salsa.

The hot dog itself was presented nicely, and thought was put in to how the wrapper would be wrapped around the hotdog. Even the ingredients itself, they cleverly used a romaine lettuce leaf the size of the sausage to hold the sausage and apple so it doesn’t fall over the place.
The apples that were diced finely gave the apple a different perspective, because they were diced so small it made it taste slightly different, it was like firm juicy little bits. I did not expect the apple to be spicy, but even though it was mixed with chili, it tasted good just like Salsa.
Instead of the normal frankfurters they used the nuremburg sausage which goes much better with the apple, a bit like roast pork and apple.
The bun for the hot dog was good too, it matched quite well.

Improvements: The apple was good, but when they serve it, they should ensure all the sauce is drained out before placing it on the bread. The sausage could have been hotter.
When I ate it, it became very messy, as I needed to tilt out all the watery sauce from the filling, and it also made the bread soggy.

Chips with lobster and cheese sauce:
This far surpassed my expectations, because these chips were freshly cut and fried, its like a better version of NYF, and slightly thicker cut than NYF too.
The chips were lovely and white, but crunchy on the outside, and moist inside, the sauce was not the usual cheese, gravy etc.

Mexican pudding: it was slightly different to what I expected, I was expecting it to taste like Horchata the mexican drink, and it was slightly over sweet.

Hygiene: there was a pesky fly there, so I had to keep ushering it away from my food.

Décor: reminded me of Topping, but a brighter version, also the sauce holder was a cute bench table.

[Review 697] Keep the rolls rolling! @ Roll (尖沙咀)

Roll 27/03/2009
尖沙咀加連威老道41C-D嘉威大廈地下
G/F, Granville Mansion, 41C-D Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/keep-the-rolls-rolling-e2071760

Cute shop located on Granville Road, came here especially to try their Swiss rolls.

Luckily they had mini sized rolls so I could try more flavours and eat there too, or I would be annoyed carrying them about in the shop till u drop area!

For Swiss rolls, they had the following flavours: vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, chocolate banana, maple syrup, green tea, earl grey, coffee, chestnut and a seasonal flavour.

I chose earl grey, maple syrup and chocolate banana as the rest were a bit common and you can guess roughly how it would taste like.

All the rolls were soft with fresh cream inside, proper fresh cream, not the fake butter salted cream in maxims.

Maple syrup: the maple syrup wasn’t that strong or too sweet.
Chocolate banana: slightly strong in cocoa taste with fresh pieces of banana.
Earl grey: this was the best, I was expecting the sponge to be earl grey flavoured, but the filling inside was earl grey, it was like a creme sauce, with fresh grassy taste to it.

Then I contemplated on whether I was going to try the Macarons or not, in the end I decided too.
My first macaron was from some shop at Harbour City, which was awfully sweet, and after that I assumed all macarons were like that.

Anyway, I decided to try the raspberry and lychee, raspberry being the traditional one, and lychee as its flavour is very delicate yet fragrant.
Both macarons had a very crumbly texture with an almost thick filling inside that adhered the marcaron together when you ate it. The macaron was very nutty with nutty pieces in it and not overly sweet that you’re screaming for water.
Overall Lychee was the best, as neither of its components overpowered each other.

[Review 696] Tic Tac Toe Yummy! @ 太平洋咖啡 Pacific Coffee Company

太平洋咖啡  Pacific Coffee Company
26/03/2010
山頂山頂道128號凌霄閣地下G10號舖
Shop G10, G/F, The Peak Tower, 128 Peak Road, The Peak
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/tic-tac-yummy-e2071585

I like the way Pacific coffee have marketed their new dessert range.

They have made it in a game of tic-tac-toe, and when you eat the specified cakes in a line or a row, you can get free coffee.

So far I have only tried the raspberry dome, bundt, banana trifle, and chocolate ganache.

Raspberry dome This was the best, raspberry mousse with passionfruit jelly inside, however I didnt like the base, a bit too hard.
Bundt: rather tiny and cheaper compared to the cakes in its range.
Tastes like a normal fairy cake but with icing, there are several icing flavours: chocolate, lemon, orange and strawberry.
Banana trifle: rather disappointing, there was no sponge or jelly, it was just fake cream with biscuit base again!
Chocolate ganache: also disappointing too, the chocolate sponge was hard.

[Review 695] Mado's ice-cream in Wan Chai @ 伊斯坦堡特快 Istanbul Express Turkish Restaurant

伊斯坦堡特快  Istanbul Express Turkish Restaurant
26/03/2010
灣仔駱克道66號地下舖 G/F, 66 Lockhard Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/mados-ice-cream-in-wan-chai-e2071567

After Mado’s closed down in Hong Kong,, I didn’t think I could taste the chewy ice-cream again!

Now Istanbul serves it, they serve the scoop and the slices.

The ice-cream seems to be made by Istanbul or imported but slightly different to the ice-cream at Mado’s, the textures is much more gooey and chewy.
The portion for one scoop was very generous, one big bowl! Either it was their generosity or either because of its elasticity it was difficult to scoop out resulting in a big scoop!

I got two scoops, savoury caramel and sweet walnut. I was impressed they were served in separate bowls so the delicate flavours wouldn’t be mixed together!
The sweet walnut was nice and gooey with bits of walnut, however the caramel tasted a bit off, sort of like overheated milk.

As well as a sweet dessert, it is a good remedy for GI upsets, slows down bowel movements, especially after eating chilli's!

[Review 694] Unhealthy “Healthy” drinks! @ 越棧越式湯粉專門店 Viet's Choice

越棧越式湯粉專門店 Viet's Choice
24/03/2010
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心2期2樓2018號舖
Shop 2018, 2/F, MCP Central, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/unhealthy-healthy-drinks-e2071204

Came here with no expectations, all Vietnamese food basically taste the same, unless the sauce/soup is spectacularly good.

Ordered the two noodles, one with sauce and the other was a Cambodian noodle in soup.
Basically the sauce for the cold noodles was just sweet only, resulting in sweet noodles, as for the other noodles, the Cambodian noodles were more like finely shredded ho-fun, which was slightly oily, not like the rectangular strands you find at the Thai joints.

Anyway, for the drinks, chose the peach fizz from the “HEALTHY” selection, when it came, you could obviously see, about 1/3 of the drink was the fruit syrup.
The fruit syrup was apricot, not peach as stated on the menu.
Also I would hate to imagine the amount of fruit syrup they put for the hot version, probably even sweeter.
The table next to us ordered a hot version of the “Healthy” drinks, and found it too sweet as well and asked for water to dilute it!

[Review 693] Thats what I call real clam sauce! @ 利寶閣 Star of Canton Restaurant

利寶閣 Star of Canton Restaurant
24/03/2010
將軍澳重華路8號東港城2樓235號舖
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/thats-what-i-call-real-clam-sauce-e2071202

Had my usual feed of dim sum again! Tried the new siu-mai with abalone, basically the siu-mai’s are the same as the usual ones except there is a small abalone on top.
The abalone was a bit tasteless and slightly over done, if they drizzled it with some sauce it might have improved it.

I also ordered fried fish balls with clam sauce, my first proper taste of real clam sauce.

I had previously tried clam sauce at Yue mic ka and Fishing village, but both were not fresh, and it just tasted metallic with orange peel, and also the clams were dry and chewy.

The clam sauce here was perfect, the clams are not fully cooked, the sauce is slightly mud grey/brown, with a taste of saltiness and fermented beancurd and orange peel.