[Review 2250] Crowds and crowds of people for fish and chips @ Chip In Fish & Chips

06/02/2013
Chip In Fish & Chips
西貢敬民街9號高勝樓地下11號舖
Shop 11, G/F, Ko Shing House, 9 King Man Street, Sai Kung
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/crowds-and-crowds-of-people-for-fish-and-chips-e2282685

Back for more fish and chips before they introduce the new menu after the Chinese New Year!
Business here is plain sailing.
I ordered the fish and chips and a pineapple ring.
The deep fried oreo reminded of the oreo fritters at the Striphouse.
I would have tried that as well but I had the pineapple ring instead.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
fish and chips:
They have used a fish similar to cod so the texture is really nice with big flakes.
The batter is not as thick as it looks!!
With the salt and vinegar on the fish and chips it tastes really good.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pineapple ring:
The pineapple ring was really nice however it was difficult to eat because of the structure of the pineapple.
But it was really good that it was unsweetened.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Seafood basket:
This was basically a skewer with prawns, squid and a piece of fish.
I felt that this tasted so much nicer than the whole piece of fish as there was more variety.
the presentation of the skewer was quite cute too because the skewer was battered as well!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2249] Nicely grilled chicken with a twist @ Siu G店

06/02/2013
Siu G店
九龍城城南道41號地下
G/F, 41 S Wall Road, Kowloon City
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/nicely-grilled-chicken-with-a-twist-e2282672

As a chicken lover I had to try this new place for chicken because on the reviews one of their chicken sounded attractive.
I was intrigued by the golden chicken mentioned in the previous reviews which had cheese and salted egg yolk.

When I got there, it was quite early so there was only two customers dining there.
The kitchen end had glass panels so you could see the chefs preparing the food.
The chairs were quite nice and reminded me of garden chairs in the UK.
The restaurant had a nice high ceiling too.
Basically they serve chicken and there are three main types: herb roasted, golden chicken, spicy chicken.
It reminded me of Heung Plus Chicken at North Point.
Anyway I ordered two chicken sets: the golden chicken and the spicy chicken, one with vegetable rice and the other with "silver silk vermicelli"

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
golden chicken:
The chicken was nice and tender and the chicken skin was crispy with some slight fat under the surface.
It tasted nice but I couldn't quite taste the egg yolk or the cheese.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
spicy chicken:
As mentioned on the previous review, it was not spicy but the chicken was also nice and tender.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
vegetable rice:
The rice on its own was really nice, it was very garlicky and fragrant.
Each grain of rice was evenly coated with chicken oil.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Vermicelli:
The broth for this was quite salty, however the vermicelli was not really "Silver thread" because I have seen thinner strands of vermicelli before.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

As a newly opened shop, I felt that the staff should have recommended which chicken was the best and what they are made with, especially the golden chicken because I only knew that it had cheese from reading the reviews.

I did not try the herb chicken so I asked about it and the captain seemed agitated about the question and just kept answering "usual herbs".

I was quite baffled by that attitude because this is the time when restaurants love to brag about how wonderful their food is and how famous their chef is.

I noticed the chicken bun so asked about that and the guy said the bun was from Sai Kung.
It was difficult to comprehend what the chicken bun looked like so I ordered that as well.
I tried to ask further about the SaiKung bun because I wasn't sure if I heard him say it was from the HK Sai Kung or the Vietnamese Saigon as they serve Vietnamese coffee as well.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken bun:
When the bun arrived, I realised it was similar to the crispy bun. There are two major bakeries in SK, one is SK bakery which is Chinese style and the other nice one is Mushroom Bakery, so I hope it was from Mushroom bakery.
The plate that it was served on was a small square plate which made it difficult to handle. If the plate was round it might have been easier to handle.
The chicken in the bun was really nice and it was the thigh meat without the bone. It was grilled with herbs so I ended up trying the herbs one as well.
However I felt that there was too much onions and it tasted more prominent than the chicken.
The bread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

After paying the bill, the captain was not so secretive and told us that their chef was from Red Star which was great!

[Review 2248] Chinese custard bun / Black forest ice cream @ Lab Made 分子雪糕專門店

06/02/2013
Lab Made 分子雪糕專門店 (Lab Made Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Laboratory
大坑布朗街6號地下
G/F, 6 Brown Street, Tai Hang
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/chinese-custard-bun-black-forest-ice-cream-e2282646

Went back for more icecream at Lab Made because the flavours were worth trying and you cannot try them elsewhere.

I tried the Hong Kong custard bun and the other was Black Forest for Valentines.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hong Kong custard bun:

I really enjoyed this one because there was real starchy egg yolk in the icecream just like their previous mooncake flavour that had lotus paste in it as well.
The taste was lovely and buttery as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Black Forest:


According to their FB, it has three scoops so that two people can share.

Anyway, as I did'nt ask about the price, I roughly estimated it to be around $90 because for the single scoop it costs around 3X - 4X.
When I got there, I found out that it only costed $69 which was cheaper than my estimate.

Overall, I felt that the chocolate icecream taste was more prominent than the cherries and jelly.
I would have liked it more if they had pieces of chocolate cake in it and more cherry sauce as it tasted nice at the bottom because all the sauce had sunk there.

The lovely cherry and jelly sauce that they put in the icecream.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Labmade secret idiot proof formula/instructions behind the counter:



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2247] Danish puff pastries @ 大班麵包西餅Taipan Bread & Cakes

06/02/2013
大班麵包西餅Taipan Bread & Cakes
旺角廣華街1號仁安大廈地下14號
14 Yan On Building, 1 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/danish-puff-pastries-at-taipan-e2282645

I was really surprised to see danish puff pastries at Taipan because they rarely do Western bakery products, and even if they do, those pastries are guaranteed to taste Chinese style.
When I saw these, I decided to get them because they looked quite good for a Taipan attempt!
They were really cheap too at $10 for 3.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Strawberry danish puff:
The sweetness was just right with lovely sticky strawberry jam in the middle and there was custard as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Blueberry danish puff:

Out of the three, the blueberry tasted the best because the blueberry jam was nice and fragrant.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Peach danish puff:
The pastry was slightly thick for this one and the peach was slightly sour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2246] The secret touch to the Lamma Island marshmallows @ 佳佳麵包店

06/02/2013
佳佳麵包店 (已結業)
南丫島榕樹灣大街地下45號
G/F, 45 Main Street, Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/the-secret-touch-to-the-lamma-island-marshmallows-e2282644

I have always wanted to try these, but on my last visit to Lamma I could not find them.
These sweets must be really famous in Lamma as I did not mention to my friend where to get them and she knew exactly where to get them.

It was such a sweet surprise from Sinmei, thank you so much!

Before I tried them I did not know what to expect because in Chinese they are meant to be marshmallows but in English they are called Peanut candy according to their labeling.

When I opened the bag, the smell of dessicated coconut was really nice and coconutty just like toasted coconut.

The texture of it was soft and nothing like a nougat, after I took a bite, it turned out to be marshmallow so the Chinese labelling/description is more accurate.

The marshmallows were lovey and soft with some chew to it.
This is the best marshmallow I have tasted. The coconut gave the marshmallow a really nice taste and there were pieces of peanuts in it too!

The big secret is the crispy crunch.
Most people think that the crunch comes from the peanuts which I almost did as well but it was not the peanuts.

After tasting it carefully I realized the crispy crunches were coming from pieces of toasted rice in it.
The marshmallow is a must get item from Lamma!!

After reading the reviews, it appears the price is roughly the same as four years ago, but you get fewer pieces per bag!

I wish I tried these marshmallows a few years ago!
Although they seem expensive, the taste is amazing, and they are slightly cheaper than a macaron.

Once again, Thank you Sinmei for these lovely scrummy marshmallows.

[Review 2245] Chocolate paradise for expats and choc lovers @ Noir Chocolatier

06/02/2013
Noir Chocolatier (已結業)
九龍灣宏照道38號MegaBox11樓13號舖
Shop13, 11/F, Megabox, 38 Wang Chiu Road, Kowloon Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/chocolate-paradise-for-expats-and-choc-lovers-e2282638

I would just like to thank Noir Chocolates and Lemon Tea for inviting me to this chocolatey tasting.

When we arrived, there was a table set up with tea and bread, it was really thoughtful of them as we had not had dinner yet.
Located near California Kitchen at Mega box, this Chocolatier offers a wide ranges of chocolates ranging from chocolate covered nuts and berries, Swiss and Belgian chocolates.
At Noir Chocolates they explained that chocolate is either made from cocoa butter or vegetable oil and after tempering there is a nice shine to them.

When I tried the local chocolates in Hong Kong, they always tasted weird because the texture was similar to solid lard and does not melt in your mouth.

But after the talk about how chocolates were made , I realised those weird ones were made of vegetable oil.

At Noir Chocolate, there is a wide choice for dark chocolates because the owner loves dark chocolate, hence the name of the shop!

As an expat, I was drooling over their chocolates because they had so many chocolates that you can get at the local pick and mix stalls.

For the chocolate covered freeze-dried berries, I was so glad they had gooseberries and cherries.

My favourite was the dark chocolate covered strawberry.
The picture below shows white chocolate covered berries.

They even offer ghana and cocoa chocolate.

I also tried the chocolate covered ginger which tasted like candied ginger and this was delicious as well.
(This is currently unavailable but they are going to stock these soon!)
For the alcoholic truffles they had Bucks Fizz too!!

Although I did not try the bucks fizz, I tried the rum truffle and the alcohol in it was as intense as drinking real alcohol.
The inside of the rum truffle was silky and the alcohol is not liquid like other alcoholic chocolates.

Another interesting flavour they had was chocolate and chili but the chili was not as spicy as I anticipated.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Brazil nuts:
I loved the huge brazil nuts which had a buttery taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pecans:
These chocolate covered pecans were really moreish because the pecan nut is light and crumbly.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
hazelnut:
The hazelnuts were also moreish and the dusted cocoa gives it more depth.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
When we left, we were given a box of chocolates too which was really sweet of them.