[Review 2280] Get your jazzed up hot dog @ J-dog

21/02/2013
J-Dog
灣仔柯布連道4C號地下
G/F, 4C O'brien Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/get-your-jazzed-up-hot-dog-at-j-dog-e2284493

Previously went to the Tai Hang branch.
There are now two branches.
The second J-dog is in Wan Chai where Meilee used to be and very close to the MTR station.

Here they have more seats and better sitting arrangement even though it is quite small.

Basically the decor is the same with the large vending machine outside.

The ordering counter is near the entrance and after you have paid, you collect food at the the food counter.

There are so many different types of hot dogs and they even have the real ones displayed.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Noki Dog:

I chose this one because it was just crab meat and roe.
The crabmeat was surimi and there was cucumber in it too.
It was a nice light hotdog to eat similar to having Japanese crab roe salad in a bun.
I just felt that the bun was not soft enough.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Scrambled egg and chicken:

There was not much egg or chicken in this, and the portion was dinky which explains its price for $20.
The taste was the usual sweet teriyaki taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Deep fried scallops:


Again it was surimi meat, but for $16 I do not expect it be real scallops.
I wish there was some sauce because it was a bit dry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

They have starfruit punch (carambole punch) on the menu, but it now seems to have been discontinued because there is a big cross on it

For takeaways, they have a huge cute paper bag for these hot dogs.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2279] Dessert in the great Ching dynasty @ 晶晶甜品 Ching Ching Dessert

21/02/2013
晶晶甜品 Ching Ching Dessert
天后電氣道81A
81A Electric Road,, Tin Hau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/dessert-in-the-great-ching-dynasty-e2284492
I have walked past this dessert place so many times but I have never noticed it.
After having a lovely dinner, this dessert place suddenly stood out that night so we went there.
The decor inside was really special, I felt like I was in one of the Chinese dynasties but I do not know which one as I have never studied Chinese history.
Anyway, as this dessert place is called Ching Ching Dessert, which is why I keep thinking it is the Ching Dynasty because of those bamboo mats and the Chinese characters.
There was one modern element to this place, the clock, and that was interesting too!
The choice of desserts were good good too, I thought they were going to be very traditional but they had snowflake ice as well.
In the end I chose the ginger tea because it had toasted rice and I also chose the dumplings in custard sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dumplings in custard sauce:

Usually Chinese dessert dumplings are filled with custard and in some sweet watery soup.
The ones here looked like gnocchi in cheese sauce!
Anyway, the custard sauce was piping hot, so it tastes better when it has cooled down.
The custard sauce was surprisingly light and whipped, it was foamed up which was interesting because this is more of a Western cooking technique.
The dumplings were just right as well and not too soft and when they were eaten with the custard sauce, it was a perfect match.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ginger tea with crispy brown rice:
I liked this one because there was crispy brown rice on the top.
The ginger tea was very spicy and I liked the brown rice because it gave it hints of roasted aroma to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

On a second visit, the restaurant annoyed me, because my friend could not finish one of her desserts, and they offered to put it in a bowl and let her take it away but they did not mention the extra charges for the bowl.

[Review 2278] Roasted hazelnut hot chocolate drink @ 漢堡王 Burger King

20/02/2013
漢堡王 Burger King
北角炮台山英皇道147-151號1樓
1/F, 147-151 King's Road, North Point
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/roasted-hazelnut-hot-chocolate-drink-e2284478

Walked past and saw the soft-serve ice-cream was on promotion for $6 so went in for it.
When I was ordering it, I saw the hot chocolate so I ordered that as well.
I got the Roasted hazelnut hot chocolate drink
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ice cream:
The vanilla taste was strong and the soft serve texture was nice and airy, similar to Kashayao.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roasted hazelnut hot chocolate drink:
When I removed the lid, the smell of hazelnut was strong.
The hot chocolate was rather watery and did not taste milky at all.
After finishing the drink, I realised they put real chocolate in the drink and not chocolate powder.
I tried the chocolate that was not melted and it hard pieces of hazelnut in it.
Even though it was watery, it tasted quite nice because it did not taste powdery.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2277] Hot-Star Chicken coating harder than bone

20/02/2013
豪大大雞排 HOT-STAR Large Fried Chicken
天后電氣道78號地下1E號舖
Shop 1E, G/F, 78 Electric Road, Tin Hau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/hot-star-chicken-coating-harder-than-bone-e2284458

I have always wanted to try this place but the branch in MK is really busy and there is not really a place where you can stop and eat in MK as well as consuming it with lovely second hand smoke as well.
Anyway, walked past this branch and the fried chicken "looked" quite nice behind the counter, the coating was golden as if it was just done.

Anyway, I just ordered a piece of fried chicken drumstick to see if their chicken was good.

I assumed they were already done as there were lots by the counter.But they were fried again when you ordered, so the coating was mega hard!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried chicken leg:

I was not pleased that it was fried again because it means that there is more oil and it smells, hence the spices they put on it.

The coating itself was salty enough and did not need those spices.
Anyway, the coating was really hard so I whacked some stuff with the chicken leg and to my surprise it still did not crack.

I started eating it and found that the bone was broken before it was cooked, which explains why the coating was so hard to hold the broken bone together and act like a plaster cast!!!


Anyway, the advantage of that super hard coating was that it can be fried many times and the chicken inside would still be juicy and soft because the oil cannot get through it.
As for the taste, I found it too salty and the coating was crunchy, hard and thick, and it was about 2mm thick too.
On a positive note, the chicken was still juicy thanks to the coating!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2276] Delicious Okinawan style in East Soho @ 那霸沖繩料理 Naha

20/02/2013
那霸沖繩料理 Naha
太古太古城第10期耀星閣地下G1015號舖
Shop G1015, G/F, Yiu Sing Mansion, Stage 10, Taikoo Shing, Tai Koo
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/delicious-okinawan-style-in-east-soho-e2284275

This Okinawan restaurant has been around before people started to discover that Okinawa was a good place to travel to and the trend for Okinawan foods.

Long before the time when Japanese dramas were broadcasted on TV.

It is located near Tai Koo Plaza by the residential flats and its first review dates back to 2007.

The decor was quite nice, it was mainly wood and black.
There was a sashimi bar where people can sit and chat to the chef while waiting for their food.

After trying an Okinawan restaurant recently, I was slightly more familiar with Okinawan food and the main items in that cuisine are Bitter gourd and seagrapes.

I would have ordered the jewel leaf but they did not have it.

They had pork knuckles as well but I tried other stuff.

After you have ordered, they give you some jellyfish pickles.

They provide tea as well.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Musabi with roe:

The musabis were quite big and it came with pickles to give it more flavour.

The roe in the middle was quite salty and hard.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Miso soup:

The miso soup was quite nice and there were generous vegetables and tofu pieces in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Congee with sea kelp and fish roe:

The taste of this extremely light so it is advised to try this first.
There is orange cod roe in the congee which gives it some slight flavour if you really concentrate your tastebuds.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bitter gourd panfried dumplings:

These dumplings were delicious, the dumpling skin was also green, inside the dumplings were thinly sliced pieces of bitter gourd which were crisp and still had the bitterness to it.
After dipping it in the vinaigrette, it was even more delicious as the bitterness was reduced.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Squid ink soup:

The squid ink taste was not prominent. You could only tell that it was squid ink because of the colour.
I was expecting the soup to be slighty thicker and not transparent.
Basically it tasted the same as the miso soup I had earlier.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Udon stir fried in squid ink sauce:

The udon was fried in squid ink sauce and there were generous pieces of baby sweetcorn, carrots and sliced pork.
However the slices of pork were not lean, and the squid ink taste was not prominent.
It tasted like udon stir fried in oyster sauce because it was quite sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Overall the portions here were reasonably big.

[Review 2275] Relatively good dim sum from a hot pot specialist @ 滾得棧 Hot in A Pot

20/03/2013
滾得棧 Hot in A Pot
天后電氣道80-86號成功樓地下C舖連閣樓
Shop C, Sing Kung Lau, 80-86 Electric Road, Tin Hau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/relatively-good-dimsim-from-a-hot-pot-specialist-e2284268

This hotpot specialists served hotpot by night and during the day they serve dim sum as well.
The decor is black and the restaurant is located upstairs which is why I never tried it because I was too lazy to go upstairs.
There were pictures outside showing the types of dim sum that they serve, I wanted to try the deep fried dumplings filled with green tea, but they did not have it.
The dim sums that they offer and the presentation of the dim sums remind me of the dim sum restaurant in Kowloon City.
The rice rolls were presented nicely and they were cut into smaller pieces to make sharing easier and the mini burgers were presented in dinky dishes as shown on the menu.
Inside the restaurant it was quite big with two sides to the restaurant, however the chairs and tables were slightly cramped and hard to get to your seat.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed rice roll with beef and preserved egg:
This was slightly disappointing because the preserved egg was tasteless.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed rice roll with beancurd skin crackers and prawn:
The concept of this was good and it tasted good because the prawn gave the beancurd skin crackers some taste.
The beancurd skin crackers were still crispy and it was good that the oil they used was fresh and did not ruin their nice dish.
The rice roll on the outside held it together nicely and it tasted much nicer with beancurd skin which is a change from dough sticks in the middle.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed pork knuckle in red beancurd sauce:
The pork knuckles were too salty but I loved the strong red beancurd taste.
After I finished the knuckles I used the remaining sauce on the rice rolls and they tasted even nicer.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beancurd roll in soup:
This was not as exciting as the rice roll because the soup was boring and I found it quite oily.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed pandan flavoured Malaysian cake:
Pandan cake has always been my favourite cake and as it was baked Malaysian style which tasted even better because the texture was better and it smelt really nice.
The sweetness was not too sweet so I ended up ordering other one.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★