24/11/2012
Blue Smoke Bar-B-Que (已結業)
中環蘭桂坊15-16號協興大廈3樓
3/F, Grand Progress Building, 15-16 Lan Kwai Fong, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/my-1st-thanksgiving-dinner-at-blue-smoke-bbq-2012-e2271130
Thanksgiving is American and new to me as I have never heard about it in the UK.
I found about the Thanksgiving dinner at Bluesmoke when I read about it last year just after Thanksgiving had passed, so I had to wait another year to be able to try this Thanksgiving dinner at Bluesmoke!
I was really attracted to this thanksgiving dinner because it is similar to the Christmas Dinners with roast turkey and stuffing.
Finally a year had nearly past and I kept calling Blue smoke in early November to see if they were doing the Thanksgiving dinner this year but they were not really good at calling people back because they did not return my call.
A few weeks later I checked their website and it had been updated with the coming thanks giving dinner so I booked it.
The thanksgiving menu for ths year is:
Chicharron (Crispy pork skins)
Veggie sticks and ranch dressing
Roasted butternut squash soup with chestnut and sage
Smoked turkey breast
Sage-giblet dressing
cinnamon cranberry sauce
Basket of biscuits
Candied yams with toasted marshmallow
Rosemary roasted carrots
Roasted garlic mashed potato
Ham and pea macaroni and cheese
Stewed cinnamon and spiced apples
Green bean casserole with crispy onions
Dessert: Pumpkin pie/apple pie/pecan chocolate chip pie.
The menu seemed quite reasonable because it had turkey and pumpkin pie which were Thanksgiving items.
Some other places in Hong Kong modified the menu slightly by serving lobster bisque which I thought defeated the purpose of Thanksgiving and more of a gimmick for business.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicharron (Crispy pork skins):
Basically this was deep fried pork skins with cumin and paprika powder on it.
It did not have that foul taste but they had been left out in the air for two long because they were not crispy and you need to rip it with your teeth.
Apart from being too chewy, the taste was actually ok.
Veggie sticks and ranch dressing:
It was a basket of cucumber, carrots and spring onion sticks to dip with ranch dressing.
I only liked the cucumbers so I had the cucumber which was nice and refreshing with the ranch dressing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roasted butternut squash soup with chestnut and sage:
The soup was slightly sour and there were a lot of spices, the sage taste was quite strong, and the sweet pieces of chestnut balanced out the sourness of the soup.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Smoked turkey breast:
On the menu it said turkey breast but it also came with a turkey drumstick!
Although turkey is the main star of the show, I actually tried this Thanksgiving dinner because of the fascinating sides which I have not tried before such as the biscuits, candied yams and the all American pumpkin pie!
I took a bite of turkey assuming it would be dry but it was so amazingly soft and tender.
The turkey was so delicious with the stuffing and sage-giblet dressing (the yellowish sauce).
The turkey drumstick was slightly hard and tasted like an over roasted duck leg with crispy skin.
Stuffing:
This was the best Stuffing I have had in my life! It was a generous portion too which I did not have to eat sparingly.
It was a mix of bread, livers, sage and whatever it had in it!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sage-giblet dressing:
The appearance of this dressing looks like French dressing but it was similar to gravy.
Again the taste was absolutely delicious, you could taste the giblets even there were no solid giblet parts in the gravy.
The taste of sage was prominent as well!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Basket of biscuits:
These looked like four mini scones, which were really different to the British biscuits which are hard.
The same goes with US and English cookies which are totally different.
Anyway they tasted like unsweetened scones.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rosemary roasted carrots:
The carrots were delicious was a nice hint of rosemary.
Candied yams with toasted marshmallow:
I found this side dish really fun, I never imagined having marshmallows with dinner.
The candied yams were quite sweet and delicious.
Roasted garlic mashed potato:
The mashed potato was quite heavy but it was packed with garlic and mustard flavours.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ham and pea macaroni and cheese:
This was REAL cheese and macaroni, although it was quite fattening but it was delicious!
The melted cheese had a nice puree texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stewed cinnamon and spiced apples:
The stewed apples were quite nice.
Cinnamon cranberry sauce:
This was the usual cranberry sauce but there was a hint of cinnamon which was a bonus and made it different from the usual cranberry sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green bean casserole with crispy onions:
This was delicious however the beans were a bit too hard, the sauce was really nice and the crispy onions on top were delicious.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert: Pumpkin pie/apple pie/pecan chocolate chip pie:
On the menu it said a choice of pies but all three were given which was great.
The pumpkin pie and pecan chocolate were the best.
The pumpkin had been mixed up so it was no longer orange, it was a bit like toffee puree.
The pecan chocolate pie was lovely and gooey with thick but not cloyingly sweet chocolate!
It was also chewy too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
To summarise, it was a great dinner and they let you have seconds.
The portions were huge and most people could not finish it all, but they give you decent sturdy plastic boxes so you can take the rest home!! They even help you to put the food in the boxes.
I don't usually like eating leftovers but these were delicious and I was actually looking forward to eating the leftovers.
Our waitress was really nice and smart. I dont know her name but she was the pretty one with stylish glasses.
