[Review 2393] Vegetarian dim sums with traditional Chinese Tea @ 樂茶軒 LockCha Tea House

05/04/2013
樂茶軒 LockCha Tea House
金鐘香港公園羅桂祥茶藝館地下
G/F, The K.S. Lo Gallery, Hong Kong Park, Admiralty, H.K., Admiralty
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/vegetarian-dim-sums-with-traditional-chinese-tea-e2290944

Lock Cha Tea Shop is a nice place for Chinese tea and vegetarian dim sums.
I have always wanted to try their tea and dim sums but whenever I came it was closed.

They change their dim sum menu daily so if there is something particular you want to eat you have to call them to find out because their website is not update.

You would think they would be kind enough to email or fax you the daily menu but they do not have a fax machine or computer to facilitate this.

There were a few items I wanted to try but it was not on the menu that day, they were 梅菜煎餅 (panfried preserved vegetable cakes) and the 煎薯仔餅 (panfried potato cakes).

The portions were quite small too, normally you get four pieces but here you only get two pieces which is very filling (not).
This place is famous for Chinese tea but not every table had a heater (shown on photo below) to keep the water hot because there was no plug underneath my table and they did not let me change tables.


Interesting door handles made from mooncake molds.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Wrapped Glutinous rice with mushrooms:

The glutinous rice had strong black pepper and the filling was mushrooms stalks! It tastes better than the ordinary glutinous rice with meat because it does not have any fat in it!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Vegetarian shaomai $22:


I was surprised there were only two in a portion, usually there are 3-4!!
The texture of this was quite mushy and sticky with pieces of mushroom in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stir fried pasta:


The pasta was nice but the black pepper was too strong.
Each strand of spaghetti was too short to be picked up with chopsticks and too long for the spoon.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beans with tofu noodles:

This was quite nice but could have tasted better with Chinese wine in it and the tofu noodles were not soft enough.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Vegetables wrapped in palm melon:
This was quite boring and tasteless.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sesame dumplings in Jasmine tea:

The idea of this dessert was really good, it was dumplings in unsweetened Jasmine tea and not the usual sweet liquid.
Usually I love Jasmine tea but the Jasmine they used was too flowery for my liking.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chinese tea:
I was expecting their teas to be good but most of them had a really strong flower scent which I did not like it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2392] Easter Chocolate Garden @ Lab Made

05/04/2013
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/easter-chocolate-garden-lab-made-e2290943

These days I go to Lab Made because of the funky flavours and not because of the Nitrogen gimmick.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Easter Chocolate Garden:
I was looking forward to this flavour because it was packed with goodies, it was chocolate icecream with hazelnuts topped with mint cake crumbs topped with colourful candies.
The icecream mixture was already pre-mixed so all they had to do was freeze it into icecream.
 0 讚好

After the icecream was made it was topped with delicious mint cake crumbs and candies.

The final product.


Usually they come in scoops but to put the toppings on, they had to flatten it.
The icecream was delicious, it had chunks of hazelnuts in it and the candies were giving it an extra crunch too.
The mint cake crumbs were delicious as well but the mint taste was not that strong which was good because not everyone likes mint.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea:
The green tea was slightly boring for me and the taste was slightly bitter too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
On another occasion i came for the bakewell tart flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bakewell tart:

I have never liked the bakewell tart because of the icing sugar and almond flavouring but I decided to try the icecream because whatever I dislike is made to taste nice at Lab Made.
Instead of the cherry on top they put cranberry sauce on top which was really refreshing and they let me have extra sauce too.
The icecream had grounded almonds in it which tastes better than almond flavouring.
The taste was just amazing and it was a bit like eating wholemeal biscuit icecream that is not cloyingly sweet like a real bakewell tart.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Look out for my upcoming reviews on the Green Apple cheesecake and the Blueberry breakfast yoghurt at Lab Made.

[Review 2391] Grilled chicken satays @ 金發車仔麵

05/04/2013
金發車仔麵
彩虹牛池灣富池徑3號
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/grilled-chicken-satays-%E9%87%91%E7%99%BC%E8%BB%8A%E4%BB%94%E9%BA%B5-e2290941

This joint has been here for at least ten years, I used to dine here for noodles which were delicious but I never wrote about them.

I once forgot to pay because you pay when you leave so when I remembered on the bus I got off the bus and ran back to pay and they were quite surprised and said I could have come back another day to pay.

This joint is run by a few ladies who have been there for years.

At the front of the joint hey have a grill that grills all sorts of snacks so I ordered two chicken skewers.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled chicken satay:
When the chicken satays came, they were huge! Skewered with big pieces of chicken on it.
The picture below shows that without the sauce, it is well marinated, the one at the front is turned over.

The chicken was really tender and had hints of curry spices on it and the peanut sauce was sweet with crushed peanuts giving it more flavour.

They were very filling but I felt slighty thirsty afterwards.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2390] Let your tastesbuds sense molecular gastronomy @ Sense Dessert Cafe

04/04/2013
Sense Dessert Cafe
元朗鳳攸南街9號好順利大廈地下2號
Shop 2, G/F, Ho Shun Lee Building, 9 Fung Yau Street South, Yuen Long
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/let-your-tastesbuds-sense-molecular-gastronomy-e2290878

I have not tried food made by the gastronomic process so I really wanted to try this place.
This place is located in Yuen Long which was really pushing my boundaries as I do not usually travel further than Hong Kong or Kowloon for good food.
Since the introduction of the Giant Green Tea lava cake at the Steakhouse and the one persons portion at Sin Mei they also have it here.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tiramisu:
Basically when it came, it looked like a plant in a flowerpot.

It was tiramisu covered with crushed biscuit crumbs to mimic the soil with a sprig on mint in the middle.

It just tasted like ordinary tiramisu jazzed up although the coffee and alcoholic taste was strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rose leaf drift on the mousse:
I do not like the taste of rose but I tried it anyway.
The rose pudding at the base was extremely milky and the taste of rose was strong.
The foam on the top was just frothed up milk made into extremely fine foam.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Floating Island in the smog/illusion:

This was frozen ice cream with fruits. The white part tasted of coconut and the orange part tasted like pineapple sorbet.
The pairing of these two flavours reminded me of pina colada.
One of the blueberries was really big.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sinking chocolate in the red sea:
The frozen icecream was made in the same way as above, there were two flavours, the white one was vanilla, and the burgandy colour tasted like berries.
The frozen icecream just tasted like Mini Melts icecream which is also made by using Nitrogen to flash freeze it so that there is no air whipped into it.
The chocolate lava cake in the middle just tasted like the usual fare!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chocolate caviar and milk pudding:

The milk pudding was really creamy and silky, and there was a spoon of chocolate caviar served separately.
The caviar was made by using a pipette dropping the chocolate droplets to made it solidify.
The chocolate taste could have been stronger.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 2389] All your Japanese wishes in one restaurant @ 宏 Hiroshi

04/04/2013
宏  Hiroshi
佐敦白加士街15號藍馬商業中心地下
G/F, The Lamma Commercial Centre, 15 Parkes Street, Jordan
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/all-your-japanese-wishes-in-one-restaurant-e2290873

When I saw reviews on this place I got it confused with another restaurant nearby because the name sounds similar.

However on HKE's review, I found out that they are under the same group.

This restaurant is located near the MTR station so it is really convenient and there is so much variety.

They basically serve udon, cakes, macarons which were all the items I wanted to try.

At the entrance of the shop, it looks like a cake shop because there are glass cabinets with cakes and macarons.

Inside the shop, there were various of posters of strawberries and hokkaido milk which are famous from Furano.

The cream in the cakes are made with hokkaido milk and the strawberries they use are from Furano, hence for the small strawberry swiss roll you only get a quarter of the strawberry because they are quite expensive.

Luckily they have an all day set which includes an udon with either a cake or two macarons and afternoon tea sets which I tried too.

Ordered two udon sets so I could choose the cake and macarons as well and tried the tea set on a different day.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Udon with egg:


I only got the udon because it was not the usual sanuki udon but a thinner type with wheat in it.
The texture of the udon was chewy but got softer as it absorbed the broth.
Overall it was nice and plain without any meat.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Udon with Japanese roast pork:


On the menu it saids ramen, but when it came it was the same type of udon as above.
I was expecting the roast pork to be dry and tough like the ones served in usual Japanese joints in Hong Kong, but the roast pork was amazing that I ate it all, it was soft and thinly sliced.
It did not have an overnight taste to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple tea:


The apple flavouring was strong but it tasted really artificial.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Passionfruit tea:

The passion fruit taste was faint but was not as artificial as the Apple.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Small strawberry swiss roll:


The sponge tasted really eggy and the cream in the middle tasted really milky.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea chiffon cake:


This was my favourite cake because the cake was really soft and there was a good proportion of cake and cream.
The sweetness was just right.
The structure of this cake was really airy just like a coral sponge.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea swiss roll:

The green tea taste was quite grassy and it was sweeter than the chiffon version.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bailey's macaron:

I thought the darker one was caramel but it was the Baileys flavour.
The macaron was delicious because you could actually taste the baileys in it.
The shell was chewy and crispy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salted caramel macaron:

The filling in the middle was absolutely delicious because it tasted like buttercream and because it was refridgerated the filling was like butter.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
In general my comments were good but as I have visited this place a few times they could not keep the consistency the same because some items would taste sweeter/stronger/bland on a different visit.

[Review 2388] More Filipino food @ 金蒂小店 Cinta J Express

04/04/2013
金蒂小店 Cinta J Express
灣仔柯布連道2A號C2號舖
Shop C2,2A O'Brien Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/more-filipino-food-e2290872

Previously this tiny joint used to be Quezon which served DELICIOUS Filipino food.
But now it is Cinta Express.

I love Flipino food, but at this joint the Filipino food is rather expensive, I wonder how the the local Filipinos can afford it.

Anyway, they have a restaurant on Jaffe Road called Cinta J Restaurant which I really hate because it is not Filipino food at all.
They just serve Chinese food there.

On the first day of opening, the lunch choices were half Chinese and half Filipino.

I chose the a la carte Palabok which was the most expensive Palabok in Hong Kong, but saying that there is a new Filipino restaurant in Wan Chai called Kawali Filipino Kamayan Cuisine which also serves Filipino food at expensive prices.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Palabok:
Compared to the Palabok at Jolibees, the portion was much bigger and there was lots of sauce.
The sauce had rich prawn taste and the pieces of pork were nice and lean.
The rice vermicelli was cooked just right, not too soft or hard.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I was quite disappointed the next day because they were back selling Chinese food because Chinese people do not eat Flipino food, and a few days later Cinta J restaurant was short of manpower so this place was temporarily closed.