[Review 3032] Strange SingMalay food @ Noodle LAH!

21/12/2013
Noodle LAH!
金鐘夏慤道16號遠東金融中心閣樓A6-2舖
Shop A6-2, UG/F, Far East Finance Centre, 16 Harcourt Road, Admiralty
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/strange-singmalay-food-e2336659

I only like this place because of the decor but the food was awful and I don't know why I bothered trying so many dishes.
The big mistake was not choosing the noodles cooked in their signature chili sauce but I tried some of that signature chili sauce from the jar and it was not nice.

Heres what I tried:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Three sours:
Tried this twice which was preserved plum, lemon juice and lime!
On the second time it is ACIDIC and not drinkable!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Noodles and clams in tomato sauce:

The tomato broth was fake and sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Satay:

The chicken had a horrible charred taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The bill:

On one visit, they said that if you order starters and mains, the drink is free, but they total the bill including that free drink with 10% on top and then they minus the drink, so you're actually paying a few dollars for the drink which is not free.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stir fried rice rolls:

This was for afternoon tea and one of the better tasting items, but it was too oily and MEGA salty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3031] C-amera I-n A-ction in the K-itchen @ CIAK - In The Kitchen

21/12/2013
CIAK - In The Kitchen
中環皇后大道中15號置地廣場中庭3樓327-333號舖
Shop 327-333, 3/F., The Landmark, 15 Queen's Road, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/c-amera-i-n-a-ction-in-the-k-itchen-e2336658

Aftering dining at Urban bakery works, dined here as well.
This place is called CIAK (in Italy CIAK is a popular Italian film magazine).
Hence the design incorporates the roll film and the use of the clapper board.


Coincidentally that day, they were filming an interview on CIAK and the chefs!

It was confusing when I ordered because there is only one counter where you order and pay for the bakery items.
When I ordered the guy did not quite know what I wanted (hopefully the people are more trained now).
After I paid, I took the receipt to the counter and the girl did not know what I ordered even though it was printed on the receipt.
If that had been a greedy bugger, that person would have probably asked for a more expensive item.
Anyway I told her what I ordered.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
pesca all'alchermes:

Basically it was a Tuscan brioche infused with alchermes liquer for $25.
Visually it looked like two donuts sandwiched together with cream in the middle.
The brioche was nice and soft but the liquer taste was not that strong and seemed to have stained the brioche red on the sides, but the vanilla cream was nice and you could see vanilla seeds in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3030] Christmas dinner at ToTT's @ ToTT's and Roof Terrace

21/12/2013
ToTT's and Roof Terrace
銅鑼灣告士打道281號香港怡東酒店34樓
34/F, The Excelsior Hong Kong, 281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/christmas-dinner-at-totts-e2336656

Thanks to the PRs at Excelsior hotel for inviting me to this Christmas dinner at ToTT's and Roof Terrace.

It was such a lovely evening dining with a nice view of Hong Kong and meeting ET, Sammy Wu the Director of Food and Beverage.

Here was our menu for the night!


It was hard deciding on the mains because the beef one had beef cheeks and the fish one had gnocchi, so in the end I chose gnocchi.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Appetizers from the bar

Foie gras mousse with sourdough:
The mousse was silky with velvety foie gras and delicious wine jelly on top.

tomato panna cotta
The tomato panna cotta tasted better than I imagined because I expected creamy tomato but it was infact a refreshing tomato taste which was non creamy.

seafood terrine
I loved the terrine because of the jelly and the seafood looked nice.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Poached dover sole fillet with truffle gnocchi, artichokes, baby spinach, truffle emulsion



As expected the fish was succulent and soft in a buttery truffle sauce! I was delighted with the slices of truffle on top too.
The gnocchi was nice and mildly firm with some chew to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Desserts from the bar

Ultimately the logs were my favourite especially the white one which reminded me of a cake from UK's Marks and Spencers!

[Review 3029] Great noodles, cheap and delicious @ 新記粥麵 Sun Kee Noodle

20/12/2013
新記粥麵 Sun Kee Noodle
坪洲坪洲永安街67號地下
G/F, 67 Peng Chau Wing On Street, Peng Chau
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/great-noodles-cheap-and-delicious-e2336598


Randomly went to Peng Chau because I have not been to there before.

I did not even bother to search OpenRice because there are not many places to eat on this Island.

This noodle joint near the beginning of Wing On Road caught my attention because it had photographs and the other places did not.

The noodles looked reasonable and for a small noodle joint on an unpopular Island to put effort into doing these high quality pictures, it seemed a possible place to eat.

After looking around, this place seemed the best choice to choose.

Inside the joint, it was quite old and shabby, but sometimes you can get delicious surprises from these places, so you just can't judge by the joint decor itself.

The menu was simple, there were only two types of noodles, one in soup and one in sauce.
The soup ones only cost around $20 and the ones tossed in sauce cost around $2X.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Noodles with cows stomach:

I really regretted not getting the combo because it only costs $6 more and the cows stomach was really delicious so I would have expected the porks trotters to taste good too if I chose that as well!
The noodles were soft and did not have any ammonia taste and the sauce from the cows stomach hung well to it because it was thick and sticky.
The cows stomach was soft and fully flavoured with lots of sauce which had five spice powder and aniseed.
The soup that came with it tasted like the typical wonton soup except that it was clear and loaded with crisp spring onions.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chili oil:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Porks blood with chives:

This was not really what I was expecting because it was literally cubes of porks blood on top of blanched chives with oyster sauce.
I did not really like it because I don't like sweet oyster sauce therefore making the porks blood taste sweet.
After reading the previous reviews, it seems that they grow their own chives.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3028] Chinese radish pudding with parma ham @ 國金軒 Cuisine Cuisine

20/12/2013
國金軒  Cuisine Cuisine
港景街1號國際金融中心3樓3101-3107號舖
Shop 3101-3107, 3/F, IFC, 1 Harbour View Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/chinese-radish-pudding-with-parma-ham-e2336587

Thanks to Cuisine Cuisine's representative for sending me Turnip pudding with parma ham and shredded Chinese ham.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cuisine Cuisine's Turnip Pudding with Parma Ham:
The turnip pudding was in festive red box, contained in a plastic tub.
I like the way the parma ham and Chinese ham shreds were in a separate tub.
Nicely decorated with huge dried shrimps.
The Chinese radish pudding was really nice, packed with lots of preserved sausages.
It was not too salty and just right paired with parma ham and Chinese shredded ham.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3027] CNY honey and ginger pudding @ 翠亨邨 Tsui Hang Village

20/12/2013
翠亨邨  Tsui Hang Village
尖沙咀彌敦道132號美麗華廣場一期食四方5樓507號舖
Shop 507, L5, FoodLoft, Mira Place One, 132 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/cny-honey-and-ginger-pudding-e2336585

Thanks to Tsui Hang Village for sending me some CNY dessert pudding.
At Tsui Hang Village they are doing the Sweet Osmanthus Pudding topped with Premium Bird’s Nest and the Honey ginger pudding for CNY.

All are boxed in festive red boxes, contained in a plastic tub.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tsui Hang Village's Honey Ginger Pudding

The pudding had the typical CNY pudding sticky and chewy texture with a fragrant honey and strong ginger taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3026] Soba and Chinese rural pancake @ 日新鮮豆漿 Daily Fresh Soybean Milk

20/12/2013
日新鮮豆漿 Daily Fresh Soybean Milk
中環士丹利街86號地舖
G/F, 86 Stanley Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/soba-and-chinese-rural-pancake-e2336577

Soba and Chinese rural pancake
2013-12-20  1200 瀏覽
This was on my eat list ages ago before I forgot about it.

I discovered it again when I was writing a review for their other branch in Sheung Wan and discovered that this place had the rural pancakes.
 0 讚好

This place is bigger than the Sheung Wan branch and offers slightly more variety such as curries and sobas but unfortunately does not serve the pumpkin rice like they do in Sheung Wan.
 0 讚好


 0 讚好


Again the prices are reasonable and the people there are quite flexible, they let me just order plain soba noodles and curry sauce because I did not feel like eating meat that day.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soba with Japanese curry sauce:
 0 讚好

The plain soba was only $20 and the sauce was $5 which was really cheap and it had potatoes and carrots in it too.
The soba and curry sauce went nicely together but the curry sauce was a bit starchy because some of the potatoes have disintegrated in the curry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rural pancake:

The pancake was quite nice, loaded with spring onions and carrots.
It tastes similar to the European pancakes but it was savoury with delicious carrots, and spring onions in every bite.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★