Haagen Dazs Fondue

Saving the best for last! We finally went to try the Haagen Dazs chocolate fondue on the last day before I was to return to Sydney. The Haagen Dazs brand is actually very well known in Asian countries and is known as one of the premium ice creams available. I saw their promotional sign for the chocolate fondue and being a dessert fan, you bet I want to try it. It costs about HKD130 per person. Based on the picture, I guess that it's meant for couples or romantic ones at that but what the heck! I'm trying it.



We were ushered in and sat in large sized chairs as shown here. Very comfortable.

No one else was having the fondue at that time when we were there so we didn't know what to expect. When it came, my eyes were in awe! It was huge and with a wide food selection of 5 different flavours of ice cream, fruits, biscuits and cakes.



On top of the chocolate, there were this two trays and upon tasting it, it was Baileys! Oh my!



The chocolate was really really good. Rich and creamy texture. Way better than the chocolate fondues that I make at home. Haha!



My mouth is salivating just thinking about it. We were so full after eating all that and we actually managed to finish all the chocolate from the pot just by dipping. I will definitely go for this again.

I'll be dreaming about this for months to come...
Total Score ~ 21/25
[Taste - 9 (10) , Presentation - 5 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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Cart Noodles 车仔面

You can't come to HK without at least experiencing the cart noodles (车仔面) once.
It's actually like cooking your own instant noodles but someone else doing it for you.

You get to pick what toppings you want in it and as many or as little as you want. Examples of some toppings are:

1. vegetable range - carrots, tofu, mushrooms etc...

2. meat range - BBQ wings, shredded chicken etc...

3. meatballs range - fishballs, lobster balls etc...

After selecting the toppings, you also pick what type of noodles (eg. egg noodles, udon noodles) you want.

Ultimately, at the end of the selection, my sis and I end up with those two bowls below. I think I was a little over enthusiastic and ordered way too many toppings which is the bowl on the right.

They were good, especially as it was a cold day when we went to eat this.

We were sitting at a table next to the kitchen so we got to see what was happening there. Let's just say that it's better to sit where you can't see what is happening in the kitchen if you want to eat your food happily. Haha!

Total Score ~ 17/25
[Taste - 7 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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Lee Woo Yuen 梨和园

On my last day in HK, my sis and I decided to try out this BBQ buffet place. It's called "Lee Woo Yuen". We went for the "afternoon tea" (下午茶) option which is from 2-5pm from what I can remember. Their main branch is in the Kowloon area but we went to the second branch which is along Lockhart Road in Causeway Bay. Their "afternoon tea" costs only HKD28.

You don't get to BBQ the meats and stuff but you can have all you can eat at their cooked food section.



These were the only pictures that I managed to take without being obvious and having people staring at me.

Their "afternoon tea" option is really a good deal. You get tons of food such as noodles, fried rice, sausages, chicken cooked in herbs, meatballs, sushi, fried fish and lots lots more. On top of that, there are a few different kinds of soup and dessert soup.

One of the ones that I tried was really good, it had ginseng in it.

Onwards to fruits and cakes and also "tau fu fa" (豆腐花) which you get to scoop out of the big bamboo pot yourself. We left with out stomachs really really full.

As I said again, the food is reasonably good, dessert was great and only HKD28 which is less than AUD5.

I only wished that I didn't only discover this on the last day as I would have gone a lot more times.

Total Score ~ 20/25
[Taste - 8.5 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 5 (5)]

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Maxim's Palace 美心皇官

It wouldn't make sense to go to HK without going yumcha. So, when I was there, I made sure that I went more than once.

My sis took me to a restaurant called "Maxim's Palace" at 太子 (near Prince Station). This is supposed to be one of the good ones.

You bet! When we got there, our number was 280 and the current number was 135. OMG!!!!!
It's gonna be one long wait!

The restaurant takes up an entire floor and huge is an understatement. I managed to take a few pics of their decor. Grand chandeliers!



We finally got our table and couldn't wait to start eating. I have to say that I came across quite a number of dishes that I have not seen or eaten before.

There is the usual vegetable dumpling as seen here. See how transparent the skin is? You don't always see that in yumcha restaurants in Sydney. The skin wasn't sticky and you bite cleanly through the skin. Sign of good dumpling!

My sis ordered this dish next. It is something like sticky rice (罗米饭) wrapped in taro roll. Now this is something that I have not tried before. It is really nice. The rice isn't oily at all and the taro roll gives it a different flavour.

Next thing we tried was this.



Now you would think that this is just the normal "po lo bun (波罗包). It's not, it actually has a filling inside. It's 波罗叉烧包 which is "po lo char siew bun". Yum yum...it was good.



We couldn't exactly have yumcha without the classic "siew mai". So we got that too. This was good too, not oily at all.



Something else? This is lobster ball on chinese funghi, which is some type of mushroom thing I think.

Maxim's Palace definitely lived up to its name. Definitely a restaurant to come back to.

Total Score ~ 20.5/25
[Taste - 9 (10) , Presentation - 4 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 4.5 (5)]

This gets a star in addition to the score for their innovation and creativity in some of the dishes!

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Chi Kei Wonton 池记云吞

When you enter Hong Kong, wander over to the visitor's information centre and you can find an abundant of information. One of the pamphlets that intrigued me was "Food in Hong Kong". It listed out all these different categories of food and which restaurant won in that category. One of these was the "won ton noodles".

I browsed through it and discovered that one of these "won ton noodles" restaurant on the awards list is in Causeway Bay and made my way there.

I ordered one of their lunch sets where I ended up with a "prawn won ton noodles", vegetables and dessert.

The "prawn won ton noodles" was great! The won ton skin is not sticky and not hard either so that when you bite into it, it splits cleanly with a spring in it! The noodles did not taste flour-ish and had the spring-ness in it that makes it good! This is exactly what I was looking for in a bowl of "won ton noodles". Not to mention the fact that the colour of the soup was what I expected, I still haven't figured out why noodle soups that I have eaten in HK is always white in colour, if anyone knows, please tell me.

I ordered the "Black & White" dessert which is actually red bean soup with "tau fu fa 豆腐花" and sago, (Black being the red bean and white being the "tau fo fa" and sago) hence the name.

Oh my! I have never had "tau fu fa" that tasted like this at all before. It was literally so soft (even just the term soft is an understatement) and it literally slides down your throat! So good.......

Definitely another must try!

I left the restaurant feeling satisfied!

I went back again for the second time as I saw a dish that they were advertising which intrigued me. It is actually crab porridge. The unique twist was that it actually comes in one of those small pot made of bamboo. The typical kind that you see "yum cha" restaurants storing their "tau fu fa". So this is a small bamboo pot and when you open the lid, you scoop the porridge out and they literally had one whole crab in it. It was good too.

Unfortunately, I didn't being my camera with me when I went back the second time so I didn't get a chance to show you how the crab porridge looks like.

Total Score ~ 19.5/25
[Taste - 8 (10) , Presentation - 3.5 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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发记甜品 Lucky Dessert (2nd time)

The first time when I went to Lucky dessert (post), I had some really good durian dessert but overall, I preferred "Healthy Dessert 许留山" as they seems to have more choices.

However, I decided to go there again after returning from Japan as I wanted to try their "Glutinous rice balls" series. As you can see, I am a HUGE fan of "Glutinous rice balls". So my sis and I trotted there one night to try out other desserts that we haven't tried.

I have to say that their durian dessert "榴莲飘香" is soo good that we couldn't resist ordering that again. We ordered two news ones which is the "Black sesame glutinous rice balls" and a mango cake as recommended in one of the articles.

The mango cake was really refreshing. It's mango slices wrapped in one of those thin cold layers like 冰皮 (not sure of how to describe this in English) and dusted with coconut flakes. I like this one considering that I am not a huge fan of Mango.

I tried the durian dessert again and it tastes as good as ever! Definitely a must try!

Went on to the "black sesame glutinous rice balls" and when I initially ordered that from the menu, I was expecting "glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling with like ginger/pandan water". What I got instead was 2 huge "glutinous rice balls" in black sesame!

WOW! my sis was laughing and I was wondering how am I going to finish that!

Thankfully, the black sesame wasn't one of those really thick liquid texture but was slightly more diluted which means that those who are not huge fans of black sesame will not back away from this either.

I totally love the size of the glutinous rice balls and they were really chewy and soft!

Yum yum....what else can I say.

I now place both "Lucky Dessert" and "Healthy dessert" on the same par and they are slightly different in their offerings which means more choices for those who are dessert fans!

Total Score ~ 19/25
[Taste - 8 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 4 (5), Value for Money - 4 (5)]

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MX 美心

MX is another chinese style fast food restaurant like Cafe De Coral. I decided to try it out too.

The one that I went to has really nice decor that can surpass those of restaurants. It definitely doesn't have the decor of a fast food chain.



For those of you who goes by yourself, they even have seats with a TV there which shows TVB variety programs to occupy your time. How thoughtful!



I ordered the "Mock Sharks fin with shredded chicken and rice", "milk tea" and "Sago pudding with yam".

The mock sharks fin really did taste like the real sharks fin. Even the texture and appearance looks like one. Not the real thing but at least it doesn't break your pocket. The Milk tea had too much tea in it and not enough milk for me but that is just my preference though so you might like it. However, I would advise against ordering the pudding as even for a fast food chain, this doesn't taste nice at all. Its only saving grace was the yam at the bottom of the pudding which added a little more flavour. The pudding itself was not smooth enough.



I went back there again for dinner later and my sis ordered a "seafood cheese baked rice" and I ordered a "hotpot wonton chicken with XO sauce spare ribs". My sis said that hers taste like the cheese baked rice from Kim Gary back home in KL. It also has a lot of seafood in it which I can't remember now but is definitely value for money. Mine taste equally as good as well. As you can see, the soup is once again white in colour and not clear, I am still puzzled by this. It was pretty filling. The XO sauce spare ribs had a little too much flour but otherwise, is good.



Total Score ~ 18/25
[Taste - 7 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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Ajisen Ramen...味千拉面

Kept watching the advertisement for this restaurant on TV and I didn't really like it as the voice used in the ad was too shrill and the pronunciation of the Japanese words sounded a little too forced! Haha!

However, I did still ended up trying the food there.

What did I see while waiting to get in to eat? Their menu has a "Lovers noodles". Haha...I couldn't believe it.

My sis and I ordered a few dishes and one of them was "abalone". I simply couldn't believe that they offered this for HKD 35 I think when I saw on the menu. I definitely have to try it.

It was a cold dish and consists of baby abalones in a gelatine sauce. So good, it is definitely abalone and not some wannabes!

So if anyone is interested in some abalone without breaking your pocket, this restaurant is the place to be.

I was also really looking forward to trying this dish which is "Straw mushrooms wrapped in beef ". As you can see, the beef wraps the mushrooms really tightly and it was sauteed in butter sauce I think, I can't remember now but it was soooo good! The mushrooms burst in your mouth when you bit open the beef strip and the flavour encapsulates your entire mouth! So good...so good!

We also ordered a ramen although I can't remember which one we ordered now. The soup was flavourful and the noodles had bite to it, definitely better than the ramen in "Wagamama" that I tried before in Sydney. I definitely don't recommend the ramen in Wagamama in Sydney.
You can definitely expect good food from this restaurant, I definitely would go back again.

Total Score ~ 20/25
[Taste - 9 (10) , Presentation - 3.5 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 4 (5)]

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Super super favourite.

While walking back from Wan Chai towards Causeway Bay, I started to feel hungry and decided to stop at one of those 茶餐庭。I can't remember what it was called but it is at the corner of Henessy Road and Tomochy Road.

I ordered the 紫菜五宝河粉。My My!

One of the best noodle soups that I've had had in years. I totally love the 紫菜. It's like seaweed. The 五宝 means 5 different kinds of balls like "wonton", "fishball" etc... The numerous balls were really fresh and very chewy 非常有弹性. Combined with the noodles and the soup, indescribable. You just definitely need to try it. To explain how good it is, this is one dish that I can eat every single day willingly and will not tire of it.

Just one thing if anyone can explain to me, since I've been here in HK and ordered quite a number of noodle soups, I still don't understand why is it that the soup is always white in colour. I'm used to clear soup in KL and Sydney and have never seen white soup before. Does anyone know why the noodle soups in HK are white in colour and not clear?

Total Score ~ 21/25
[Taste - 9 (10) , Presentation - 4 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 4.5 (5)]

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碗仔糕和香蕉糕

I went exploring around Wan Chai when I came across this store. I noticed quite a long queue and figured that this is probably another food that I should try. While queueing, I noticed a celebrity photo. Have a look at it to see if you can figure out who. He is one of my favourite TVB artiste. You can see from the pictures that this store promotes that their food was made the authentic and traditional way. Even the decor was olden times posters and the music playing was from the olden opera times as well.



Not too sure about what to buy so I looked at the previous customers for guidance. I bought the 碗仔糕和香蕉糕. I was quite excited about trying it as I've always seen 碗仔糕 in movies and shows. It taste quite creamy. By itself, it doesn't actually have much flavour, thus the flavour comes from the red beans.

I tried the 香蕉糕 after that. The fragrance of the bananas was evident immediately once I open the container. Smells soo good! I really like this one although my sis didn't really like it as the texture was too sticky for her. It was also a little grainy but I presume that that was how it was meant to be.

Total Score ~ 15.5/25
[Taste - 6 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 3 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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Little snacks along the street...

Went shopping around "MongKok (王角）today and decided to try out the fish balls at one of the stalls. It was HKD5. Sigh..if only it was that kind of price in Sydney. I have to say that it was really juicy and the texture was just right...very chewy (很有弹性）。I've not had such delicious fish balls in ages!

Later, my sis started exclaiming and I found out why. We were near a "Smelly Tofu store". Haha!

I was hesitant to try it but decided that for the sake of food, I should try it and I bought myself one. I'm don't like to eat spicy stuff but this was an exception and I placed some chilli sauce on it.

I had to stand away from my sis while trying this as she doesn't like the smell. I actually quite like it, the chilli sauce does accentuate the taste and flavour of the tofu. Halfway through eating it and I don't even notice the smell anymore.

Yum..yum....

Total Score ~ 18.5/25
[Taste - 8 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 3.5 (5), Value for Money - 4 (5)]

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发记甜品 Lucky Dessert

During one of the nights while walking around the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay, I noticed quite a queue outside two restaurants, "Itamae Sushi" and "Lucky Desserts". As I was leaving for Japan in a few days, wasn't too interested in trying out the Japanese one but I am crazy about desserts so I dragged my sis to try it out.

The picture above shows an article on their entrance which depicted what is recommended and that it is a must try place. The other picture is the shop's name.

As we had to wait with everyone else, we browsed the margazine articles and their menu which they posted along the shop windows.




We ordered two desserts. One was a durian dessert and the other is the "Leong Fan (凉粉) with fruits.

I've not been a huge fan of durian since a few years ago as I ate durians nearly every single week when I was young. I tried the durian dessert and I have to say that for someone like me who doesn't really like durians anymore, this is definitely one of their *star desserts*. The durian is not too heavy as it was mixed with pomelo which gives it a refreshing taste when you bite into it.
I definitely recommend this.

The other dessert was pretty good to but the only problem was that the "Leong Fan" was in strips like noodles which doesn't make it very easy for someone to eat. That brought down the enjoyment of this dessert. Otherwise, it is actually quite good.

Total Score ~ 18.5/25
[Taste - 8 (10) , Presentation - 3 (5), Service - 4 (5), Value for Money - 3.5 (5)]

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