[Review 916] Just to see it visually! @cheung chau @ 天然甜品 Tin Yin Dessert

21/11/2010
天然甜品 Tin Yin Dessert
長洲大興堤路9號海景樓C座地舖
G/F, 9 Tai Hing Tai Road, Cheung Chau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/just-to-see-it-visually-cheung-chau-e2131571

I dislike chinese desserts, but I only came here for the transparent mango dumplings.
I didnt expect to like it, but from the photos, they looked like marbles, so I just had to see it for myself.

The desserts there are quite natrual as its shop name suggests, the fruit is just fruit served in the bowl, and the syrup/sugar is optional for you to add.
Although the transparent dumplings were slightly too sweet, and it was too chewy, I would have prefer that texture similar to agar jelly (dye choi go).

[Review 915] Crunchy tofu with prawn patty @ cheung chau @ 甘永泰魚蛋

21/11/2010
甘永泰魚蛋  營業中
長洲新興街106號地下
G/F, 106 San Hing Street, Cheung Chau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/crunchy-tofu-with-prawn-patty-cheung-chau-e2131569

Again, saw pictures of this crunchy tofu and the lovely white filling inside, I just had to try it.
The filling inside is grounded de-gutted prawn, hence it is spotless.
The exterior of it, looks similar to smelly tofu, and the surface is very interesting, a bit like loofah/bamboo pith.
This texture is done by cutting the tofu puffs and turning it inside out, putting the grounded prawn paste inside, placing them on the skewers and then deep fried.
There were alot of reviews that said it was tasteless, but as I didnt eat anything with strong taste before, it tasted really nice.
The outside is extremely crunchy, then when you bite into the part near the prawn, it is slightly chewy, and the into the prawn patty which is then softer.
It costs $10 per stick, and they wrap a tissue around it, my fingers were kept nice and clean, the tofu was not greasy at all.
I think without sauce, it tastes good, but if there was lemon or vinegar to put on it, it would taste much nicer.

[Review 914] Classroom desserts @ TKO @ 嚐糖

18/11/2010 嚐糖
將軍澳寶盈花園商場地下S1B舖
Shop S1B, G/F, Bauhinia Garden Commercial Complex, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/classroom-desserts-tko-e2130912

As well as this dessert house that is furbished like a classroom, there is also one in Sheung Wan called Sweet Classroom.
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/reviews.htm?shopid=31815
I have always wanted to go to the one in Sheung Wan, but its too far, but I do intend to try it as they serve mostly western desserts and souffles.
I have a feeling that Sweet Classroom opened before this one opened.
The classroom at Sheung Wan is much bigger.
Anyway, I have decided to give this one a try and compare it with Sweet Classroom later. The menu design is similar to Sweet Classroom, it is one of those school exercise books.

This little dessert shop is located at the end of some dark street in TKO, passing some restaurants, mechanics to get to it.
When you finally get there, the place is quite tiny, there are about 5 school tables inside, sitting approximately 10 people.
Although it is a tiny shop, the decoration inside was quite nice, I couldnt help taking pictures, although not all are posted here.

For the dessert range, it is mostly the usual Chinese range and Bird's nest dessert, so I picked the papaya served with young coconut agar jelly, and the durian with agar jelly, but the owner said both had the same jelly, even though one says coconut agar jelly, and the other one is just plain agar jelly.
In the end, I just picked the Durian because I don't eat Papaya anyway.
When it came, it was durian meat served in the middle with pieces of young coconut agar jelly squares placed around it.

I ate the durian and the agar jelly separately, and I do not advise to eat them together, because you cant really taste what the agar jelly tastes like.
Anyway, the durian was just durian, so there was nothing much to write about that, but the agar jelly was really nice, it was made of young coconut juice, and not too sweet, so it was quite fragrant, and it had pieces of young coconut in it.
Now looking forward to SWEET CLASSROOM @ Sheung Wan, souffle and apple crumble, here I come!!

[Review 913] NipponXOrientalXNoodles @ 博多珍寶麵館

18/11/2010

博多珍寶麵館
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/nipponxorientalxnoodles-e2130869

Before dining here, it was clueless to tell what cuisine they did, the interior was very Oriental, and the dishes were similar to Shanghai food.
However when you sit down, it turns out to be Japanese food in Chinese style.
It is very interesting, most of their noodles are Ramen but cooked in Chinese style, ranging from Shanghai style dan dan noodles, to spicy beancurd meat noodles (ma pore doa fu), to chow mein, the crispy noodles just like the chinese style!!
The concept of crispy ramen noodles sounds interesting, but for the Chinese crispy noodles, I do not like them, so I wouldnt expect myself to like the Japanese style.
As well as noodles, they did Chinese stylemain dishes such as stir fried eggs with prawns, liver with chives, sweet and sour etc.
There were three noodles that I thought were worth trying: stir fried noodles, dan dan noodles with black sesame, and the beancurd meat noodles.


Pork stir fried grilled salt noodles:
It is unusual for ramen to be stir fried, but it was quite nice, although the oil was a bit too strong, there was lots of julienne vegetables in it, and tonnes of grounded fresh black peppar.

Black sesame dan dan noodles

This was the best, it was ramen in dan dan broth, with thick black sesame paste, topped with spicy minced meat on top and lot of spring onions.
The black sesame made the soup slightly thick, the flavours for this soup was quite intense, gritty black sesame, and slightly spicy minced meat.
It was strange, that the soup was slightly sour, but I tried it twice, and it seems to be sour.


Beancurd meat noodles:
If your a lover of beancurd and spicy meat (ma pore doa fu), this is worth trying, because it has thick soup with beancurds and spicy minced meat.



Almond tofu:
To round it up, dessert was good, it was almond pudding, the best almond pudding I have tried, because I do not like almond, and the pudding basically has no almond taste which is great for me.
It was so smooth, and not too sweet, basically it tasted like a milk pudding.
The only negative point about this place are some of the carriage seats, the gap between the table and chair is so small, it is so hard getting in and out!!
The gap to get in and out of is smaller than the length of an adult shoe!

[Review 912] Starbucks 2010 Christmas series part 1 @ 星巴克咖啡 (灣仔) Starbucks Coffee

17/11/2010

星巴克咖啡 (灣仔) Starbucks Coffee
灣仔港灣道30號新鴻基中心地下G12-G13
Shop G12-G13, Sun Hung Kai Centre, 30 Harbour Road,, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/sbc-2010-christmas-series-part-1-e2130792

It's drawing near Christmas again, and Starbucks has started their Xmas cake series, this year's selection seems better than last year.
The series last year was rather heavy, consisting of cheesecakes, cream cakes etc.

This year, I was attracted to the Cranberry chocolate cake and the white chocolate coconut, cranberry danish, cranberry scone with icing.

For my first xmas cake at SB's I decided to try the cranberry chocolate cake, because it is a popular pick and usually sold out.

Cranberry chocolate cake:
The chocolate cake consists of a chocolate cake base with fluffy white cream on top, decorated with cranberry pieces and a raspberry on top.
The chocolate cake contains candied orange peel, but you can't really taste it.

[Review 911] The best noodles in Happy Valley @ 喜喜車仔麵 Happy Noodle

16/11/2010

喜喜車仔麵 Happy Noodle
跑馬地奕蔭街33號地舖
G/F, 33 Yik Yam Street, Happy Valley
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/the-best-noodles-in-happy-valley-e2130604

Before this restaurant opened, they used to be located next to Freshness burger, a tiny joint that only sits about 6 people.
It was my favourite noodle place, but as it was small, I didnt go there often.
Now that they have expanded, it is much more accessible and the seating is much more comfortable with air conditioning.
Basically, they offer the basic noodles in noodle bars, but the soup base is brilliant, especially the Laksa base and the Tom Yum Kung.
The Tomyumkung has been especially formulated that you cant taste that annoying Lemon grass, and it has a piece of lemon served with it.
The tomyum soup tastes very similar to MAMA instant noodles, with a sour taste.
The Laksa is also good too, the soup base isnt too hot, and it has a strong prawn base.
The toppings I chose were really good, especially the pork liver, it was cooked just right, and full of flavour.
As well as the food, the drinks were good, the lemon tea dosnt have that bitter taste to it, and the job's tears with lemon is very natrual that dosnt leave a weird taste after drinking it. It was very soothing, and not too sweet.
The interesting thing is, that job's tears with lemon is a Chinese version of the English barley and lemon drink.
The menu is very user friendly and it has ENGLISH, yay~!!
Apart from the soup noodles, I have also tried the chow mein, and it is also the best, it dosnt need additional sauces such as soy sauce, the chow mein is packed with ingredients from ham, spring onion, chinese red sausage, although it varies from visit to visit.
Even though it is slightly expensive, the food is delicious and clean.

[Review 910] Looks delicious, but was not fresh @ 元綠壽司 G. Sushi

14/11/2010

元綠壽司 G. Sushi
將軍澳唐德街9號將軍澳中心商場G28號舖
Shop No.28, Park Central Shopping Arcade, 9 Tong Tak Street, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/looks-delicious-but-was-unfresh-e2130338

The G Sushi branch here always has no queue compared to other branches, but overall when you search for G Sushi on Openrice, it has more negative reviews than positive.

I tried it without expectations that the food to be great, but I was not expecting below the standard, even though the prices were slightly lower than other places.

All in all, out of the 10 items ordered, only two were OK.

They all looked normal when they arrived, but none of them tasted fresh, the foie gras was unbelievable, it was hard and rubbery, the first time I have tasted foie gras in such a crap state.
The prawn in the hotpot had gone off to the point that it was mushy, and the head began to smell.
Luckily the prawn was overcooked, or there would have been serious food poisoning.
Steamed egg was so bland it needed soy sauce.

The salmon still has skin attached to it.

The only thing that was nice was the squid tempura, but the oil wasnt that fresh and the tiny fishes tasted nice.