[Review 3208] Tornado potato skewers whizzing in cheung chau @ 潮食坊

05/03/2014
潮食坊
長洲新興海傍街77號地下
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/tornado-potato-skewers-whizzing-in-cheung-chau-e2349891

As soon as you arrive at Cheung Chau Island you will see people holding sticks of Tornado potato skewers / spiral potato skewers.

Basically, they are whole potatoes cut into a spiral and put on a skewer and fried.
I tried this place because they were fried to order and the skewers coming from this joint were not that brown because most Hong Kong people like to deep fried their snacks to a brown colour.
I would have ordered the frozen fruits on a stick but they were sold out.

The tornado potato skewers cost $27 a la carte or you can get it with drinks or fried icecream for $30.

After ordering, she takes a potato and puts it on a skewer and spreads it out on the stick.
Then she puts it in the fryer.


When it is ready, you can eat it unseasoned or you can season it with powders on the table.

There are eight seasonings to choose from:

Chicken and lemongrass
Salt
Cheese
Plum
Sichuan seasoning
BBQ
Spice salt
curry

Anyway, I liked mine plain so that I could taste the potato.
It tasted like freshly fried unsalted crisps and parts of it were soft as well which is why I liked it to be gently fried.


Basically it was one of those been there, tried that experiences.
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Price: $30

[Review 3207] Maxims rainbow cake @ 美心西餅 Maxim's Cake Shop

04/03/2014
美心西餅 Maxim's Cake Shop
尖沙咀港鐵尖沙咀站TST 1號舖
Shop TST 1, Tsim Sha Tsiu MTR Station, Tsim Sha Tsui
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/maxims-rainbow-cake-e2349811

Tried this cake a year ago but forgot to write about it so here it is!!!!
I tried each of the coloured layers but they all taste the same.

Overall the cake was fun to eat and tasted better than their traditional cream cakes with canned fruit!
Basically it was sweet soft crumbly cake layers paired with cream.

If the cake layers had more distinctive flavours then it would not feel so artificial because of the colours.
Compared to the same rainbow cake I tried from Maxims a while ago, there were less fruit in this one such as sliced strawberries and kiwis.

Review 3206] Lucky students at HKU @ 一念素食 Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant

04/03/2014
一念素食 Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant
咀香港大學百周年校園逸夫教學樓地下
G/F Run Run Shaw Tower, Central Podium, Centennial Campus, University of Hong Kong, Shek Tong Tsui, Pok Fu Lam
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/lucky-students-at-hku-e2349810

I was quite surprised that at HKU they had a Vegetarian restaurant because most educational facilities don't have one.
In London, I was expecting universities in East London to have Halal restaurants to cater for Muslims but there wasn't.

At Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant, they have self service lunches which are priced by weight similar to Harvester.
Rice and soup are unlimited.
We arrived there quite late so missed out on the potato and olives.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
My lunch:
Here was what I picked.
My favourite was the bun because it had tasty salted vegetables in it.
The rest of the food was ok but not hot enough.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
mushroom noodles in buk kut teh broth:
These noodles were made with shiitake mushrooms which was interesting but I found the broth rather bland and couldn't taste the buk kut teh.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

[Review 3205] Queen's Konditorei nougats @ 皇后飯店 Queen's Cafe

04/03/2014
皇后飯店  Queen's Cafe
灣仔茂蘿街1-11號1樓
1/F., 1-11 Mallory Street, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/queens-konditorei-nougats-e2349808

When branches of Queen's Konditorei 皇后餅店 went extinct in Hong Kong, I thought I saw the last of those nougats, but now they are selling them at Queen's Cafe 皇后飯店.
Thanks to wanttoeat for getting me them.

She got me two flavours:
peanut
chocolate

Both were packaged in these cute cardboard packets which look like Russian dolls.
The chocolate one was really nice and chewy with crispy bits of rice and the peanut one tasted nutty, milky and not too sweet.

[Review 3204] One potato, Two potatoes, Sweet potatoes @ 中國龍 China Dragon Arts

04/03/2014
中國龍  China Dragon Arts
上環皇后大道中283號聯威商業中心地下A舖
Shop A, G/F, Unionway Commercial Centre, 283 Queen's Road Central, Sheung Wan
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/one-potato-two-potatoes-sweet-potatoes-e2349807

On my last visit, I came here for chestnuts.
After I wrote my review I found out that they did sweet potatoes as well so I went back for them.
Here is the chestnut roaster which they use to roast their chestnuts.
Interesting grapefruits wrapped in bright striped plastic outside their shop.

The sweet potatoes are in an oven which keeps them warm.
I like these sweet potatoes because they do not have a coal smell and and the skin is clean!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sweet potato:
The sweet potato that was yellow was really sweet with a nice earthy taste and its texture was slightly viscous.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Purple skin sweet potato:
For those who do not like sweet potatoes that are really sweet, the white one is a better pick because it is not so sweet and the texture is denser and starchier.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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Price: $3X

[Review 3203] Too oily @ 饌 ZAAN

04/03/2014
饌 ZAAN
灣仔軒尼詩道22號香港遨舍衛蘭軒1樓
1/F., The Wesley Hong Kong, 22 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/too-oily-e2349805

This restaurant is located on the first floor of OZO Wesley which stinks of room fresheners that make you dizzy.

After getting your way through the smelly lobby, you enter the lifts to the first floor.

I was actually impressed with this restaurant, the decor was modern and the tables were nicely spaced out.

The people were not talking loudly.

The menu was impressive because it was neatly laid out with English and Chinese, and they give you a nice OZO square barrel shaped pen to use unlike other places where you find yourself scrambling your bags for a pen or trying to take a pen from the table next to you.


Compared to other dim sum places, it is on average slightly more expensive per item.

Anyway, if the quality is good then it is worth it.

Here was what we had:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy turnip cake:


They were called crispy turnip cakes because they were rectangular blocks of turnip cake wrapped in wonton skin and fried.
The sauce that they gave did not really match the turnip cake because usually people have chili sauce and sweet chili sauce is better paired with fried wontons!

The turnip inside was soft and did not contain a lot of preserved sausage but the crispy skin on the outside was too oily.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy taro croquette:

too oily
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rice rolls with crispy bean curd sheet:

It was good that the soy sauce was separate because there were a lot of elderly dining there and most elderlies are not supposed have a high sodium intake.

Inside the roll, it was another beancurd roll which is wrapped with julienne vegetables.
Again it was nice with these sweet tasting vegetables and flavoursome beancurd skin but it was way too oily!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
fish maw, mushroom and chicken:
fish maw soaked in oil!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef tripe in black pepper sauce:

(The picture shows the beef tripe after I forced the oil out of it!!)
It was more like beef tripe steamed in black pepper oil!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
noodles in black truffle:

too oily and the black truffle oil tasted a bit off.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
As a summary, their dim sums were creative but there was no excuse for being too oily because Dragon I does perfect dim sums and none of their items are oily.
I just felt that if this point was improved then it would be perfect because they have nice decor and ambiance.
The staff were really nice and refilled your tea cups, it was just the food that let us down.
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Price: $115 per person