[Review 7148] Hearty and Cosy Italian fare in Quarry Bay @ Ask For Alonzo

21/01/2019
Ask For Alonzo 
鰂魚涌海光街18號地下
G/F, 18 Hoi Kwong Street, Quarry Bay
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/hearty-and-cosy-italian-fare-in-quarry-bay-e3282969

Quarry lacks good Italian food and Ask for Alonzo just hits the spot with Southern Italian dishes in a trattoria environment.Discovered this joint after going to the Tong Chong Street market.
There is an alfresco table where you can have drinks before dinner.

The menu had a good choice of variety.
Started with the bread with was accompanied with basil puree rather than the usual olive oil and balsamic.
I loved the basil puree as it complimented the bread very well.

For starters, had the burrata cheese with extra parma ham for +HKD60.

Basically all my favourites on one plate on a bed of colourful Heirloom tomatoes in all colours which were juicy and umami taste to the max along with the creamy burrata.
The extra ham gave it the salty flavours and goes very well with tomatoes and the burrata too.
Next were the meatballs which were topped with chunky grated Mozzarella cheese.
Each meatball was big and tasty loaded with herbs which accentuated the flavour as well as the chopped tomato sauce.

As well as the meats, the Zoodles are the best because they were juicy and crunchy without any grassy taste and the hazelnuts gave it a nutty balance to it.

For pasta, had the mixed mushroom and truffle fettucine served with poached egg.
It was good how it was not too creamy so you could taste everything from the truffles to the delicate egg.

Finished with the panna cotta and tiramisu which was a perfect ending complimented with aromatic coffee.
The panna cotta was creamy and sinfully delicious as it was made with double cream while the tiramisu was equally as good spiked with liquer.
Will definitely check it out again for the other dishes.

[Review 7147] The perfect dimension and space for ramen @ 立体派拉麵 Ramen Cubism

21/01/2019
立体派拉麵  Ramen Cubism
中環威靈頓街27-29號元益大廈地庫
Basement, Yuen Yick Building, 27-29 Wellington Street, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/the-perfect-dimension-and-space-for-ramen-e3282579

Ramen Cubism is headed by two celebrity chefs Hayashi Takao and Matsumura Takahiro where you can expect a satisfying bowl of ramen and some tasty dumplings.
You won't miss it on Wellington Street with the stylish art next to Chua Lams Pho.
Inside you will see that familiar ramen setting with a wooden tables and chairs.
The Chefs recommended ramen on the menu makes you look twice because the egg looks unusually small compared to the pork slices and bowl.
Anyway, since it was recommended I gave it a try.
There are other ramens on the menu  so my friend chose the THE SEA which is a soy broth and something quite different to the chicken broth.
Normally dumplings don't differ much but here they serve them with chili sauce which got me curious because it had a touch of Hong Kong influence to it.
So here was my Premium Cubism which explains why the Egg looked so small in the picture because the pork slices are that big and the bowl is big too!
Tried the broth first which turned out to be thinner than expected but the flavour was there.
To me it tasted simply like Bacon with some chicken which was like Western  style creamy Chicken soup!!!!!!
I obviously loved it as it was comforting for a person who loves bacon with a slight smokey sweetness.
Next I tried the ramen which is slightly thicker and very firm with a chew.
The slow cooked pork was obviously different visually looking pink and moist which I really liked especially the soft and cottony texture.
It looked like cured meat and you could see that it was two pieces of meat put together interlocking like a S letter.


You can also order extra with the option of having it seared which my friend had.

The Sea was very different to Premium Cubism, it was darker in colour and stronger in taste as the broth is made with many different soy sauces.


The Stewed pork that comes with The Sea is huge which is needed to match the soy sauce broths strong flavour, whereas the chicken soup is lighter so it doesn't need flavoured pork to steal the show.
I loved the way the pork was served separate which keeps the broth nice and clear.

The dumplings were quite nice as it came with a refreshing sauce as well as the chili.
The chili is not spicy  but contains lots of garlic and chili flakes which make the dumplings more aromatic.
In a way, I think this is good because if the chili sauce was stronger than everything else, you won't taste the ramen broth properly depending on which item you are served first.
Overall, I liked the dumplings as they were soft and had a lot of cabbage inside.


To summarize,  I recommend trying Premium Cubism  but if the portion looks too big, you can always try The Sky Bird which only has one slice of pork and no egg served with the same broth.

[Review 7146] Smart Gimmick @ 鳳鳴石磨腸粉 FENG MING

21/01/2019
鳳鳴石磨腸粉  FENG MING
觀塘開源道68號觀塘廣場地下G34號舖
Shop G34, G/F, Kwun Tong Square, 68 Hoi Yuen Road, Kwun Tong
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/smart-gimmick-e3282578

Smart Gimmick
2019-01-21  307 瀏覽
There hasn't been much delicious food on offer recently so decided to come here for the rice rolls in Kwun Tong which are Chiuchow style made by grinding flour through the stone miller.I have tried this previously at Kai Yip Estate called 食好啲 which serves the same thing.
It turns out the lady at the counter looks like the one from 食好啲 from the review on 22/2/2018.


Anyway, didn't know that until now and to be honest her attitude turned my excitement into disappointment.

Went to Kwuntong which is a place that I'd rather not go because there are too many people which are rough and rude.
Found the shop and when I went towards it, the lady gave me this look which you could sense, please don't come here but to be honest I don't give a shat and I have the right as a paying customer to try it or not.

When I collected the food, she demanded to see my receipt to double check if I was eating there or taking it away as it is $1 cheaper.
After I showed her the receipt she frowned again, but for ffs  for $2 why would I want to lie to you plus I don't even work or live in this crap part of town so I wouldn't be taking the food anywhere but eating it there .
Food tastes the best when you eat it straight away but you have to find a spot to stand there and eat as space is just limited with zombies walking into you where ever you stand.

FengMeng basically serves the same rolls as 食好啲  but they use black rice, red rice and the original which gives it a colourful appearance.

Ordered the red rice and black rice with the minimalist toppings as I just wanted to see how it tasted.

Personally I liked the black rice more because it only had sweetcorn and soy sauce allowing me to taste the flavour and texture of the rolls.
Although I don't like the sweetcorn in Hong Kong but it tasted quite good with the ricerolls.
Will probably have this again if I am in the area again.

[Reviewc7145]Buy the EARTH for $10!! @ 阿波羅 enjoy Appolo

21/01/2019
阿波羅 enjoy Appolo
將軍澳坑口培成路15號連理街1樓131號舖
Shop 131, 1/F, the Lane, 15 Pui Shing Road, Hang Hau, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/buy-the-earth-for-10-e3282575

Buy the EARTH for $10!!
2019-01-21  180 瀏覽
Normally I get the fruit froyos but went past and saw this colourful icecream called The Earth

I don't really like eating foods with blue colouring but as it was marshmallow mint I decided to give it a try.
There was no price displayed but it turned out up to be HKD10 at the cash till which is pretty inexpensive.
I've forgotten how cheap their ice creams are because I usually get the frozen yoghurts.
Anyway, it just tasted like their usual mint chocolate ice cream with blue and green colouring.
There were bits of marshmallow in it too but I didn't find much.
Overall, if you like mint icecream then you will like it but for me it was just a once off trying it for a picture as I really do not like colourings.

[Review 7144] Indeed a HAM burger @ 麥當勞 McDonald's

21/01/2019
麥當勞  McDonald's //
將軍澳常寧路2號TKO Gateway西翼1樓W102號舖
Shop W102, 1/F, West Wing, TKO Gateway, 2 Sheung Ning Street, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/indeed-a-ham-burger-e3282421

Indeed a HAM burger
2019-01-21  25 瀏覽
It's the month of January and McDs has been rolling out consecutive offers for HKD10.
That day, they had 2 Ham and Cheese burgers for HKD10.
It was pretty efficient as they had a separate queue for these burgers but sadly you can't order using the self service kiosk.

I  had it without cheese and it was really good, even though there wasn't any sauce by default it was pretty good.
The reason I liked the ham patty is that it tastes like smokey luncheon meat/ham.
Anyway, if you've missed it, they serve this patty during breakfast with scrambled egg.

[Review 7143] Is LLB Bistro here to stay? @ LLB Bistro

21/01/2019
LLB Bistro
上環荷李活道188號地下
G/F, 188 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/is-llb-bistro-here-to-stay-e3281958

For some reason the restaurants at this location keep closing down such as La Porcina and recently this short lived Chinese style Western curry thing which was clearly a failure.Lets see if LLB Bistro stays as it is different to the predecessors.

I was captivated by the menu which was a good sign, they had Scotch Egg and Eton Mess which is English but you really need to try it to see if it is the real deal so went in.

The ambiance was pretty good and it was good seeing tea served in stylish tea pots and cups.

I had already decided on the Scotch Egg and Eton Mess and was still deciding on a main.
The humor on the menu was quite cute!
[We hereby do notify you that unless you place an order within the next  minutes, we shall vacate your table without further notice.
Last but not least, we hope you don't take the above paragraph seriously.]
In the end ordered the Fish and Chips which seemed like the real deal as it had crushed peas which I think they mean mushy peas.

The Scotch Egg came first which was promising with a runny egg yolk.
Basically it was really similar to the one I had at Sundays grocery years ago.

It was simply delicious, a silky tender egg surrounded in sausage meat and a crispy crumb coating.
There was some side stuff which I thought was beetroot but it sweet stuff.
You could tell it was dried apple pieces the stuff you find in museli because when it gets its moisture back, it has a foamy crisp texture.
The other sweet stuff in that pile tasted like cranberries and possibly stewed apple.
Next was the Fish and Chips.
Well with light and no light you could see the bottom one was over done compared to the top one.

I am quite puzzled why they served it with fries when fat chips were on the menu but anyway it was ok.
It was not cod but some other small fish which I suspect could be seabass because the texture was very soft and silky.
The mushy peas looked promising but they had some strange sweet taste to it.
For drinks, had the hot mint chocolate which was served in a glass but luckily it wasn't boiling hot as it would be difficult to hold the glass hence the reason why hot drinks are served in cups with ears.
Anyway, the taste of the mint chocolate was comforting as it tasted just like the instant mint chocolate sachets that you can buy at Sainsburys.

Rose Coffee:Last but not least was the Eton Mess.

To be honest, there was way too much cream but at least it was delicious cream and not fake Chinese Cream which I really appreciate!!
I really wish I had some scones nearby as there was just that much cream in it.
Overall, it was delicious but too much cream in ratio to meringue and strawberries so every spoon I had was practically cream.

After browsing LLB Bistro, it seems they are connected to Oldish which is another good restaurant just round the corner so I think LLB Bistro is here to stay!

[Review 7142] Fish claypot rice @ 一粥麵 Super Super Congee & Noodle

20/01/2019
一粥麵  Super Super Congee & Noodle
將軍澳貿業路8號新都城中心2期UG樓001-003號舖
Shop 001-003, UG/F, MCP Central, 8 Mau Yip Road, Tseung Kwan O
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/fish-claypot-rice-e3281536

I don't normally order the claypot rice dish because the pot stinks which makes the rice stink!Anyway, decided to get the fish claypot because I love the preserved veggies and fish.
I was planning to just eat the rice on top if it was going to be bad but luckily it wasn't smelly and the fish was fresh so it wasn't fishy.
The rice was a bit hard but overall, it was delicious with the fish and the soy sauce given.
The soup sent me to hell though as it was so watered down and sweet not because of the dates but you could taste sugar in it.