12/05/2019
Happy Paradise
中環蘇豪士丹頓街52-56號明興樓地下上層
UG/F, Ming Hing House, 52-56 Staunton Street, Soho, Central
https://www.openrice.com/zh/hongkong/review/approved-paradise-with-fantastic-food-e3403159
Approved Paradise with fantastic food
2019-05-12 975 瀏覽
Happy Paradise is a hip bar that opens at night.
When you get there, you are greeted by bright neon lights and sixties cantopop.
As it was my first visit I didn't know what to expect as I didn't do any background research before going so the menu was a complete surprise.
Happy Paradise offers Chinese food reinvented with a modern Western twist which is presented in a totally different way.
While others may not appreciate this new presentation, I loved it especially the way different ingredients were used and put together.
It was really difficult because everything deemed good to eat.
The three things I deeply regretted not ordering were the egg waffles, wagyu noodles and asparagus salad.
The egg waffles were made with sourdough and you get to rip the pieces and dip it in bottarga whip while the wagyu noodles are the usual fried beef noodles with a twist using wagyu beef skirt, seaweed butter and preserved lemon.
The asparagus was creatively paired with daikon and chiu chow fermented bean sauce that is normally paired with the chilled fish.
Here is what we ordered which all satisfied my expectations.
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香煎素餃，芹菜頭昆布沙律 — $88
SHIITAKE PAN-FRIED DUMPLINGS, celeriac kombu salad
The dumplings were perfectly panfried as one side was crispy while the other side was soft.
In the middle it was filled with mushrooms complimented by the crunch of the salad.
0 讚好
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IMPOSSIBLE 新疆 「素肉」餅，梅菜素肉，新疆香料 — $88
IMPOSSIBLE XINJIANG HOT PACKET, patty, cumin, Chinese mustard green:
Basically the pastry is similar to roti and the impossible meat filling was really moreish with the pickled mustard green but it was a bit too salty.
0 讚好
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鮮魷魚條萵筍沙律，椰青水果凍，鮮白合，芝麻油 — $128
LETTUCE STEM SALAD, blanched squid "noodles" lily bulbs, young coconut water gels
0 讚好
For vegetables, we had the lettuce stem salad.
It is difficult to see the individual ingredients but everything worked in harmony because lettuce stem has always had this slight young coconut taste in it so pairing it with coconut water jelly worked.
I liked the way it had squid because of its delicate texture with sesame oil.
Overall, it was a less is more dish as all the elements didn't need much strong seasoning.
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蘋果糯米批，忌廉 — $108
MOCHI APPLE PIE, cilantro cream, apple ash
Again, not your conventional apple pie but with a twist.
I thought it was delicious because it was a flat piece of mochi what was crispy and chewy with sweet apple on a bed of sweet cilantro cream.
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Mocktail:
Chinese almonds, rice and cinnamon
As well as food, the mocktails were impressive especially the drink I had.
It was a clever concoction of Mexican Horchata with Chinese almonds.
The marriage of the two was simply heaven because the almond was really fragrant so it was like mixing my favoruite drinks together.
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Definitely impressed but it has been really difficult to describe how good it was because the food is really not as simple as it seems.
I am always a fan for food reinvented or presented in a different way for Chinese cuisine because it always tastes better.
Saying that, I prefer my English food traditional.
