[Review 1545] Creamy dreamy icecreams, milkshakes and froyo @ Ms Penguin

03/05/2012

Ms Penguin (已結業)
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心2期1樓百佳超級廣場
Parknshop, UG/F, MCP Central, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/creamy-dreamy-icecreams-milkshakes-and-froyo-e2232367

This dessert/milkshake place has been opened for a long time, but no one has listed it on Openrice until now thanks to IvyCWK.
I have tried to add it on the OpenRice database so many times but it never got through because there was no telephone number for this place but its a food court so there was no telephone number.
Hopefully this place is still open now! (six months later since I last went).

It reminded me of Dairy Queen because of the Penguin and the arctic vibes it gave me.

Basically this place offers milkshakes or dessert which is a choice of ice-cream, green tea ice-cream or yoghurt.

I was hoping to try a sample of their yoghurt but they said they could not give out samples.

Anyway I ordered the milkshake and I had a feeling I was going to like it anyway. The milkshake is blended with a choice ice cream, green tea ice cream or yoghurt, hence that was why I wanted to try their yoghurt.
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The milkshake was blended with whipping cream as shown on the photo, but since it tasted so good it is definitely worth the calories for that creaminess and the cream topping if it is available!
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I was very attracted by their ice-cream based milkshakes and the ingredients you can choose to blend with it because they had stuff like Kit Kats, Snickers, Twixs’, and even Cadbury’s Flake (A rarity in HK)!!
In the end I chose the ice-cream to be blended with TWIX and next time I will try it with peanut butter.

For the toppings, it was really cool, they had Kellogg’s crispies, but I chose Cadbury’s flake, it was sold out so I chose cream and that was sold out too, so I just went without.
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Apart from personalised choices, you can also choose the set flavours which are cool as well, which leads my curiosity on whether is a local joint or a western joint because each drink is characterised such as Rowdy penguin, xcitement penguin, gym penguin, surprise penguin, Ms penguin signature and more.
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For the choice of chocolates there are: Twix, Crunch, Kit Kat, Mars Bar, Toberolone, M&M’s, and more.
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Froyo with strawberries and maltesers
Froyo
The froyo was really nice, it had a natrual yoghurt taste and the fruit was actually blended in with it.
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ice-cream
As for the ice-cream, I really liked that as well, I am not a fan of soft serve, but this one was similar to Turkish ice-cream which has an elastic texture.
The temperature of all their items were not freezing cold.
Again it was really creamy and had a strong vanilla taste.
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Milkshake
The milkshake was contained in a cup that was from the Juicy Bear, so I did not post that picture because it might confuse people.
The taste of it was amazing, it was extremely creamy and milky like Hokkaido milk. The sweetness was just right even though it was blended with TWIX.
I believe there was milk added to it because it was not thick at all, and the temperature was not ice-cold like ice-cream, but cold enough.
The twix tasted really nice blended in, because it tasted like dipping biscuits in milk.
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[Review 1544] Strawberries and cream day dream frappuccino @ 星巴克咖啡 Starbucks Coffee

03/05/2012

星巴克咖啡  Starbucks Coffee
灣仔軒尼詩道314-324號 W Square 地下A舖
Shop A, G/F, W Square, 314-324 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai

https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/strawberries-and-cream-day-dream-frappuccino-e2232283

Strawberries and cream are always good together especially during the Wimbledon season.
The Strawberries and cream day dream frappuccino which cost HKD40 was lovely and creamy and the strawberry syrup that they used was quite nice and did not taste fake.
Before drinking it I would advise to stir the drink with the straw so that when you drink it the taste of strawberry and cream will be consistent.
Although it is made with soy milk i could not taste it, but it definitely tastes better than the strawberry soy cheesecake served at Starbucks before.

[Review 1543] Novelty fun and delicious eclairs with quality @ 東海堂 Arome Bakery Room

03/05/2012
東海堂 Arome Bakery Room
將軍澳唐賢街9號PopCorn商場1樓F01號舖
Shop F01, 1/F, PopCorn, 9 Tong Yin Street, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/novelty-fun-and-delicious-eclairs-with-quality-e2232267

 Before there was Arome bakery room, I rarely bought from Arome bakery because it sold cream cakes made with localised cream and other localised bakery items so it was not my cup of tea.
However Arome bakery room appeals to me because the bakery is Western style with a Japanese touch and the quality is slightly better leading to it prices higher than the ordinary Arome Bakery.

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As well as the bakery products, the design of the bakery and the menu matched the overal theme as well.
I really liked the eclair illustrations and the room where they actually make the eclairs.
The name of this shop is meaningful and there really is a bakery room.

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I was drawn to their eclairs because each one was neatly made and the icing was nicely finished off.
There were five flavours and I couldnt decide because each one was unique in its own way so I got them all and it seemed the box was made for holding five flavours perfectly.
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The eclairs cost $19 which is slightly cheaper than the average bakery item at Starbucks or Pacific Coffee and the quality is surprising good as well.

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Dark chocolate and Hazelnut eclair
This was also one of my favourites because the filling inside had hazelnut flavouring and it was topped with generous amounts of roasted hazelnuts.

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Green tea eclair
Usually green tea items are flavoured with green tea powder, however I was really impressed that on the top of the eclair it had real pieces of green tea leaves.
The filling inside was silky smooth green tea filling as well.
I do not usually like green tea but this one was nice.

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Raspberry eclair
This is the most popular eclair sold at Arome Bakery Room, its appearance and taste did not disappoint.
It had freeze dried pieces of raspberry on top and raspberry cream custard in the middle.

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White chocolate and citrus eclair
Although I do not like white chocolate, the white chocolate icing was not that creamy and on top of the eclair there were pieces of real dehydrated oranges which gave it a nice citrus taste to balance out the sweet white chocolate.
The dehydrated orange pieces were really nice.

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Chocolate and caramel eclair
The caramel pieces on top of this eclair were strong and you could taste the butteryness of it.

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Sweet Purple potato mousse cake:
I don’t usually like purple potato as a dessert but just tried it anyway.
I was surprised I really liked it.
It had that starchy texture that I didn’t like however the sweet potato puree was really fine so the starchiness was silky.
Also the mousse inside was extremely silky and light, so the two were a good combination.
In the centre there was more purple potato filling but a little coarser and there were pieces of apple to refresh the palate as well.
Although it was not sweet to start off, it got sweeter towards the end.
The base of this cake was interesting it was chewy and I liked it!

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Hazelnut and pistachio cake slice:
This is available in slices or as a whole cake.
There were so many layers: a biscuit layer, hazelnut layer mixed with caramel, chocolate, pistachio mousse, cream and some more nuts on top.
The pistachio nut on top was a whole piece and it was candied so it was sweet and crunchy.
The cream on the top was so light and the sweetness was light as well with a fluffy meringue texture.
Nearer the base of the cake, it was also nice they had a layer of nuts and the nuts were bound together by some caramel.
I know saying the hazelnuts had hazelnut taste is lame but these hazelnuts really did have a strong roasted hazelnut taste and not like other lame hazelnuts that just have a crunch but no taste!

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Although Arome bakery has a website, I would love to see a separate website for Arome Bakery room because they have so many nice graphics and cake illustrations which could be put on there.
The cakes look and taste good and almost like novelty displays!

[Review 1542] Cod liver special series @ Itacho Sushi 板長壽司

01/05/2012

板長壽司 Itacho Sushi
灣仔港灣道30號新鴻基中心1樓137號舖
Shop 137, 1/F, Sun Hung Kai Centre, 30 Harbour Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/cod-liver-special-series-itacho-sushi-e2231904

The cod liver special series were on promotion and there was a choice of sushi or warship style.
They were both basically the same, except the sushi was one big piece of cod liver and the warship was pieces of cod liver.
The price was quite cheap especially the warship which only cost $9 the same as the other sushi's on the menu.
The taste of the cod liver was nice and silky however it was sweetened which ruined it for me.

[Review 1541] Part 1 - Appetizer delights at the Open Rice dinner @ 東來順 Dong Lai Shun

01/05/2012
東來順 Dong Lai Shun
尖沙咀麼地道69號帝苑酒店B2層
B2, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/appetizer-delights-%E6%9D%B1%E4%BE%86%E9%A0%86-or-dinner-part-1-e2231902

Getting to know more about Chinese food

Was invited to the Openrice 2012 annual dinner so got the chance to try Hangzhou cuisine thanks to Openrice.
To be honest, I generally avoid Chinese food but now I am learning to like it.

Before I did not know that there were so many different cuisines according to where it comes from in China.
The Chinese food I came across before was mostly Cantonese style and the food from the local Hong Kong restaurants which was mostly fusion and oily.

The wonderful banquet was headed by the famous Chef CHAN KWOK KEUNG
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Jellyfish in vinegar
This was quite refreshing as a starter, the jellyfish was brown and translucent after being soaked in dark vinegar..
You could see the chef has put effort in the presentation by adding cucumber and sliced red peppers as garnishing to give it some colour.
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Duck in brine
The duck has been flavoured by soaking it in salted water, and the taste of the duck was not too salty and just right.
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Sliced Abalone in spices
Although this was quite spicy, the abalone tasted really nice and it had that umami taste.
The flat noodles beneath it were refreshing.
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Duck eggs smoked in tea leaves
These eggs were really nice because the egg yolk was half runny.
The smoked flavouring was not too strong.
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 Braised wheat gluten with mushrooms and bamboo shoots
This is was quite nice and not too sweet.
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Boneless chicken in wine
The wine was strong but you could still taste the chicken.
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Stir fried lobster with wild mushrooms
It had really strong truffle taste and there was freshly plucked peas that were sweet and tender.
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[Review 1540] Part 2 - Triple crab delights at the Open Rice dinner @ 東來順 Dong Lai Shun

01/05/2012
東來順 Dong Lai Shun
尖沙咀麼地道69號帝苑酒店B2層
B2, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/triple-crab-delights-%E6%9D%B1%E4%BE%86%E9%A0%86-or-dinner-part-2-e2231899
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Triple crab delights
For the second round, there was crab and there were three different items: crab meat and avocado salad, steamed egg white with crab claw in wine dressing, and crispy bread topped with crab roe.
It was advised to consume the salad first but I ate it last because the taste of the other two were lighter in my opinion and the salad does not taste savory because of the sauce.

steamed egg white with crab claw
I tried this first because it seemed like the taste was the lightest.
I liked the way they paired it with egg white (meringue type) which is usually sweet, but this time it was savoury.
The crab claw and the clear gravy was really nice. In the clear gravy there were some grains of cooked rice.

crispy bread topped with crab roe
The bread beneath the crab was a slice of deep fried mantao so it was slightly sweet.
The crab roe taste was not as strong as I expected, it could have tasted stronger.
crabmeat and avocado
Last but not least the salad, it was fruity and creamy because it had pieces of apple in it as well as avocado.

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Smoked Tea Leaves duck
The duck was tender and the tea leaves aroma was just right and not too strong.
The duck skin came of the duck easily too without leaving any fatty residue.

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Abalone, braised fish maw and deer sinew soup
The soup was really impressive because the temperature was just right to me and it was not oily.
In other restaurants the soup is always too hot and oily.
I finally got to try the deer sinew which is a more delicate and cleaner form of beef tendons.

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Shanghai vegetable rice
THIS IS NOT OFFERED BUT WAS SERVED AS AN AD-HOC ITEM because it contains ham.
I really liked this but many others said it was not salty enough despite ham was added.
Anyway I was amazed how the vegetables were shredded so finely and after the cooking process it kept its green colour.
The ham was grounded so finely that it tasted like grounded tuna.
This is the best fried rice I have had because it is non oily.

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Loongjeng tea
To finished the food there was Loongjeng tea which matched it quite well and acted as good palate refresher.
Overall the food here is impressive because it is not oily.
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[Review 1539] Part 3 - Dessert delights at the Open Rice dinner @ 東來順 Dong Lai Shun

01/05/2012
東來順 Dong Lai Shun
尖沙咀麼地道69號帝苑酒店B2層
B2, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/dessert-delights-%E6%9D%B1%E4%BE%86%E9%A0%86-or-dinner-part-3-e2231898

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Chilled lychee with rose puddings
Lychee and rose always go well together.
The bottom part of the pudding was lychee and the upper part was rose pudding.
The sweetness was just right and it was light and refreshing.
The texture of the pudding melts in your mouth like jelly.
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Deep fried sesame dumplings filled with molten salted egg yolk {Jin deui}
I am not a fan of Cantonese desserts but I liked this one because the frying oil was fresh and did not ruin the delicate sesame seed taste.
When you ate it, you could smell the lovely aroma of the fried sesame and the Jin deui shell.
The molten salted egg was really nice and it tastes better than red bean puree.
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Glutinous rice rolls filled with red bean paste
This was nice and chewy, red bean paste rolled in glutinous rice flour and coated with yellow bean powder.
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