[Review 745] Triple cheese beef bowl, weird but nice @ 吉野家 Yoshinoya

13/05/2010

吉野家 Yoshinoya
灣仔軒尼詩道8-12號中港大廈地下B舖
G/F, Shop B, China Hong Kong Tower, 8-12 Hennessy Rd,, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/triple-cheese-beef-bowl-weird-but-nice-e2083875

Yoshinoya’s new range has something that is interesting, the series they had before were basically a combination of the existing items.
They have used cheese as a topping, I have never seen them serve anything with cheese at Yoshinoya, so this must be the first.

However this dish is slightly weird, cheese is usually grilled or put on top of pasta.
I think I find it hard to accept cheese with yoshinoya beef as the beef is already in sauce, so the whole thing is quite moist and wet and the cheese gets a bit soggy.

The rice was served with triple cheese, Parmesan, cheddar and mozzarella, I felt that if it was plain cheddar, it would have tasted nicer. The Parmesan and mozzarella were tasteless and made the texture stringy.
I was expecting lots of cheese as shown on the product picture, in the real case, I think it was only a third.

In general, it tasted ok, but only cheddar would have given it justice.

[Review 744] Pacific Coffees mille-feuille @ Pacific Coffee

13/05/2010

太平洋咖啡 Pacific Coffee(灣仔)
灣仔駱克道41號東城大廈UG4-5號舖
UG 4-5, 41 Lockhard Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/pcs-mille-feuille-e2083870

Its impressive that Pacific Coffee is now offering a wider range of cakes than before, some are delectable and some are not.
Their mille-feuille does not resemble one even though it is called mille-feuille. There is too much chocolate on it, there are two slices of flakey pastry with custard cream in the middle, which is the closest resemblance I can find.
Overall, if you treat it as a chocolate cake, then it’s ok.

[Review 743] Sweetness inconsistencies @ Gong Cha 貢茶 (灣仔)

13/05/2010

貢茶 (灣仔)
灣仔軒尼詩道263號新軒尼詩大廈地下
G/F, New Hennessy Tower, 263 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/sweetness-inconsistencies-e2083868

Tried drinks from this branch and the one in Causeway and found that asking 50% strength in sweetness from both places, the taste is inconsistent in both branches.
The strength of sweetness at Wan Chai is not as sweet as Causeway Bay, I felt that Wan Chai’s 75% strength was equivalent to causeway bay’s 50% strength.

Drinks bought from this place: Green tea with red beans and toasted rice, Earl Grey milk tea with brown sugar jelly, Lemon with Wintermelon tea.

Green tea with red beans and toasted rice: The toasted rice was really nice, similar to eating rice crispie’s breakfast but not sweet, and the toasted aroma balanced out the green tea’s grassyness.

Earl Grey: This was the most disappointing, because there was no earl grey flavour at all, it just tasted like the tea you would get in any Chinese café, basically hongkie styled tea!

Lemon with Wintermelon tea: This was overly sweet, and it was made from concentrated lemon jam, so the drink tasted stronger than I would have liked. I was expecting a delicate light tea with wintermelon taste and slight hints of lemon.

[Review 742] Spotty jellyfish @ 再興燒臘飯店 Joy Hing Roasted Meat

13/05/2010

再興燒臘飯店 Joy Hing Roasted Meat
灣仔軒尼詩道265-267號地下C座
Block C, G/F, 265-267 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/spotty-jellyfish-e2083867

Finally found a place with spotty jellyfish so tried it, they are literal softer than the usual ones.
The jellyfish was mixed with a crunchy melody of julienne carrots, celery and cucumber in sesame sauce.
The sesame sauce is not very heavy.

Apart from jellyfish, also tried the chicken liver, it was oven cooked to dark colour, and the side were crunchy and inside it was velvety smooth.

[Reviwe 741] 2nd visit - Eggs in wine sauce @ 壹碗麵 Yat Woon Min

08/05/2010

壹碗麵 Yat Woon Min
北角和富道93號銀輝大廈地下
G/F, Ngan Fai Building, 93 Wharf Road, North Point
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/2nd-visit-eggs-in-wine-sauce-e2082374

Previously visited this place for the noodles, it was relatively new that time, so I didn’t realised they left out the French beans on my noodles until I saw the other reviews.
[previous review]
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2042517

I came back this time to try the egg with the runny centre, or sugar centred eggs as the Chinese call it.

It is good when places serve new items, it will make customers come back to try the new items, well I do anyway to try out the new things.

The egg was served in a bowl with about two spoons of wine sauce, the waitress told me to let it stand there for 2 minutes before eating it, as she said it came straight out of the fridge.
Before I started eating it, the chef also apologised that the eggs were over boiled so the centre wasn’t runny.

Usually the egg white is tasteless, but the egg white here was nice and flavoured, so the whole egg was fully flavoured.

The egg in wine sauce surprised me, I was expecting the wine to be like the drunken chicken type, which is watery, but the wine sauce here is slightly viscous with some chicken essence in it.
The wine taste wasn’t very alcoholic either, it didn’t leave the egg white tasting bitter.
The clarity of the wine sauce was slightly cloudy. The viscosity of the wine sauce is good at adhering to the egg giving it flavour.

Anyway, as the chef told me the egg was overdone, it didn’t ruin my expectations of a runny centre.

As I knew it was overdone I consumed the egg white first with the sauce, and left the egg yolk last.
The egg yolk itself already has a natrual flavour itself anyway, and it was slightly runny in the middle, so the texture was slightly sticky.

The wine sauce tasted exactly like 「女兒紅鳳爪」(chicken in wine sauce) served in Chinatown in the UK.
「女兒紅鳳爪」is a popular dish served at various restaurants in Britain’s Chinatown, but I can’t find it served anywhere in Hong Kong nor the US!

[Review 740] I fancy a snog and a smooch! @ Smooch

04/05/2010

Smooch
中環蘇豪荷李活道23號地下
G/F, 23 Hollywood Road, Soho, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/i-fancy-a-snog-and-a-smooch-e2081365



Intriguing, after having a snog in the UK, there is now Smooch in Hong Kong.

It serves mainly frozen yoghurt just like Snog and Smooch (Indonesia).

The image of Smooch in Hong Kong is simply red and white, that suits central, neither the punk nor rock of the Snog in UK or the Pastel cuteness of the the Indonesian Smooch. However with the indonesian Smooch, i like their variety in flavours:
Plain Classic, Pomegranate, Green Apple, Blackcurrant, Plain Sour, Peach, Acai Berry
Mango, Mojito.
With Berrygood, they do have these flavours, but they are under weekly rotations.

Snog website: http://www.ifancyasnog.com/
Smooch website (indonesia): http://www.smoochyogurt.com/

Anyway, with the increasing popularity of froyo in Hong Kong and the scorching summer to come, it is another joint to go to in Central to join alongside Berrygood and Yoghurtime.

Hopefully they will have more flavours in future, and I can imagine for the coming Christmas, we could have some fun if they had their ceiling covered in mistletoe and having a tempting smooch!!

[Review 739] Keep the rolls rolling - Part 2 @ Roll

04/05/2010
Roll
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-part-2-e2081324

Last visit, I forgot to take pictures of the Macarons, so this time tried more flavours.
Hazelnut, blackcurrant, passonfruit, lychee and raspberry.

Raspberry and lychee tasted the same as before.
The rest were of that were the same crumbly texture.
The Hazelnut basically had hazelnut paste in the middle.
I was assuming blackcurrant would taste the strongest, but it wasnt, and passionfruit wasnt that sour either.
Overall, I liked their macarons as they are not as sweet as the other places.

The only improvement is the packaging, I think for people who buy more than four, they could at least provide a better packaging to protect them from being crushed.