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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Saturday 29 May 2010

Markets and Mid-levels (Hong Kong)

Although our latest trip to Hong Kong was not a pleasure trip, I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of non-grocery-related shopping. Some would argue that there's always room for shopping even on a business trip, but I actually need to know where the good shopping areas are. I'm not much of a shopper myself, but my sister is, and shortly after her afternoon arrival a couple of days after us, we headed over to the famous Ladies' Market in Mongkok. This market street is not just for the ladies, and you can find all sorts of things that you don't really need. It was fun bargaining (for stuff we need, of course), but we also did plenty of walking-away when the price wasn't low enough for our liking. This is one crowded space that is really not toddler-friendly, so we were grateful to hubby for babysitting back at the Mandarin Oriental.

Greeted by the mass of shoppers as we came out of Exit D3 of Mongkok subway near Tung Choi Street; and the claustrophobic space of the Ladies Market (I borrowed sister's dSLR to take these shots):

The following day, as part of the real reason why we were in Hong Kong, we went to check out Mid-levels which is a pricey residential area on Hong Kong Island. We walked from our hotel to the bottom of the famously long outdoor escalator system that runs over 800m from Central into Mid-levels. We arrived just after 10am, and found that the escalator was still on its downhill run (daily between 6am and 10:30am to cater to the peak flow into Central).

Central-Midlevels escalator on its daily morning descent

My sister mentioned she was hungry (someone had skipped breakfast), so we wandered around the area underneath the escalator in search for food. We struck gold not far away from the foot of the escalators, where there were food stalls just setting up for business, a number of small roadside eateries already running from the wee morning hours serving hungry customers like my sister, and a crowded area of fruit and veg vendors.

Checking out the area for food; and a wet market at the end of the street:


My sister settled on a small eatery that served a variety of congee and other breakfast items and snacks. She was craving the century egg congee (which I already had the opportunity to eat two days prior), and this particular eatery makes a pretty good one - good enough for her to re-visit for another congee breakfast the following morning. The staff seemed pretty pleased to have foreigner presence, because there aren't many foreigners who would be game enough to eat at a street-side eatery in Hong Kong. My sister got a bowl of Preserved Egg and Pork Congee with a side of You char kway (aka you tiao and Chinese doughnut). We also ordered a savoury glutinous rice dumpling, but we don't know what the filling was. I liked it, but it was a little plain for hubby and my sister.

A bowl of century egg and pork congee with you char kway; and the glutinous rice dumpling:

A lovely sight of greasy fried doughs, which brought up nostalgic memories of my childhood in Malaysia because these snacks were some of my favourite food. The guy tending the fryer at this eatery saw the cameras, and cheerfully held out the latest batch out of the fryer for us to get a good shot of:

Fueled to keep going for awhile, we started up the escalator right up to Mid-levels. There were many shops and restaurants hugging the length of the escalator, and pedestrians have the option to hop off and take the stairs to the desired location.

The going-up escalator; and the stairs running alongside with many shops, restaurants and cafes to drop by:

Indeed, the Mid-levels is a pricey place to live in. We landed the opportunity to view some residential apartments, and that's a lot of money to give up just to rent a tiny space. Nice views from a couple of the apartments though.

The skyline view from one of the apartments we viewed:

Thursday 27 May 2010

Brunch @ Jaspas in Happy Valley (Hong Kong)

On the second day of our Hong Kong trip, we headed out to Happy Valley in the morning to have a look at the area. It's a residential suburb on Hong Kong Island, and L had stayed here for 18 months when he'd first arrived in Hong Kong more than 10 years ago. This area is essentially what you would expect a residential suburb in a huge city to be - cramped with high rise apartments, crowded streets and a busy atmosphere. Certainly not at all like the laid-back and spacious feel of Discovery Bay. The nearest train station is located about 15minutes away on foot, which is not a huge problem because of there are numerous trams, buses and taxis that service the area. Apparently it's a popular first choice for young expat families, but Rob and I agree that it certainly won't be our first option.

After walking in the late morning humid warmth, it was nice to sit down to a late brunch at Jaspas. There are a few Jaspas around Hong Kong, and I was told that it is quite popular. In fact, Zaks - where we'd eaten the delicious banoffee pie the previous day - belongs under the same company. It looks like all the restaurants under the Jaspas group serve modern western fusion (judging from our experience at Zaks and here), so there were a wide variety of dishes to choose from ranging from pizza and nachos to sandwiches and turkish bread - and this is just from the breakfast and lunch menus. The restaurant in Happy Valley was clean, and service was efficient with eager young waiters, although perhaps a little too eager because we would be asked the same question twice within minutes. This occurred a few times, but I didn't mind because I think it's better to be asked than be neglected (though I'm not sure how my fellow diners felt about the multiple identical queries). It's a very family-friendly environment, and crayons are even provided for the little ones to scribble on the paper table cover. I can see why this place is a favourite for many!

While Zak was pretty happily occupied with the provided crayons, we deliberated over the menu and pondered over what to order. Rob got a Grilled Rib-eye Steak Sandwich, which was tasty with nicely toasted bread. It came with salad, chips (fries) and tomato sauce (ketchup) and it made quite a substantial meal. The Healthy Brunch (toasted Turkish bread with avocado and two eggs (done any style) looked good to me, and it turned out that it's Rob's aunt's favourite dish to order. I asked for soft poached eggs, and it was just so good eating the runny yolk with the Turkish bread. I know I should have taken some food porn shots of the broken yolk, but I was too busy enjoying it to even think about the camera. The tomato had been lightly toasted, the asparagus had been simply blanched, and the fruits were served au naturale - the best way to enjoy the freshness of these ingredients. Hollandaise sauce was served on the side for those who wished to have a little indulgence in this healthy option.

The rib-eye sandwich; and the healthy Turkish bread with avocado and eggs:


L had ordered a bowl of Fruit Salad with Honey and Yoghurt to share, and it was simply divine. Mango, grapes, papaya, strawberries and blueberries - these juicy, fresh sweet fruits were perfectly delicious on its own without any of the honey or yoghurt. The fruit bowl proved too healthy for Rob, so he ordered the Chocolate Pudding, which was rich, moist and chocolatey. It was served generously drizzled in chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It seems like Jaspas is the place to go for dessert fans!

Colourful fruit salad; and decadent chocolate pudding:


Overall, I was pretty satisfied with this experience - the restaurant accommodated our toddler very well, service was courteous and efficient, and most important of all: the food was delicious. I'm sure we'll be back at Jaspas (most probably one of the other branches) in the future to try out other dishes on their extensive menu.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Dimsum and Banoffee Pie on Discovery Bay (Hong Kong)

We arrived in Hong Kong late on Friday night, and after having too little sleep that night, we hopped on the ferry on Saturday morning with hubby's aunt C and her husband L to check out Discovery Bay, a nice residential area on Lantau Island, It's a 30-minute ferry ride from the pier at Central, and without these two lovely people, we would have not even known to put DB into our considerations. It's a nice spot, very family-oriented and kid-friendly, and definitely not filled with high rise buildings everywhere in sight. There's even a beach! It is a residential area, and like L said, there is no reason to go into DB from Hong Kong Island unless you actually reside there. We liked it, but a little concern about how far it is from Central. At least there is regular and direct ferry transportation between DB and Central.

Beach at Discovery Bay:


After having a look around at the main hub of DB known as DB Plaza, we had dimsum for lunch at Fagara Restaurant, one of the restaurants recommended by C's friend who lives on DB. I thought the food was nice, but Rob mentioned he wasn't impressed with it. Sure, it wasn't the best dimsum we've ever had, but I'm not too fussy, after 4 years of having to occasionally indulge in expensive dimsum in Japan (which is still better than eating sub-standard dimsum found elsewhere at cheap and nasty Chinese eateries). I thought the best dish at lunch was the Century Egg and Pork Congee, but the idea of eating a blackened preserved egg proved a little too exotic for the others (Rob had a spoon for taste), which was fine by me because that meant I could have it all to myself! Honestly it was very tasty, and I'm sure the others would have agreed if they had not known it contained century egg.

Haa cheong (prawn in rice noodle roll); and Xiaolongbao (aka Shanghai dumplings):


Beef meat balls with Lo mai gai (steamed glutinous rice in lotus leaf wrap) in the background; and Har gow (shrimp dumpling):


Preserved egg and pork congee with Charsiu bao (steamed pork bun) in the background; and a sweet glutinous rice dumpling soup with the fragrant osmanthus flowers:


After lunch, we went to Zaks for some coffee and dessert. C really likes the Banoffee Pie, so we got one to share between the four of us. It was pretty good, full of cream and banana with a nice crust, but it was a hefty serving so we were all glad that we'd gotten only one dessert to share.

The Banoffee Pie:


Both Fagara and Zaks are located within the DB Plaza.

Friday 21 May 2010

Asia's World City

There is a good reason for my week-long absence from this journal: we were away on a rather hectic business trip to Hong Kong. We were put up at the Mandarin Oriental, so we had a comfortable room to get back to at the end of each tiring day (and it was always so nice to open the door to a neat and clean room without having to lift a finger to clean). The trip was quite productive, mostly thanks to Rob's lovely aunt and her husband who have been residents of this beautiful city for over 10 years. Also thanks to this same couple, we had several good dining experiences during our stay, which you shall see in this journal over the next week or so. I'm glad to find that I still adore this city, even with a toddler in tow and a quite different agenda to our honeymoon trip to Hong Kong more than 5 years ago.

More posts to come on our food experiences in HK, but for the moment, please enjoy this shot of the delicious roast duck and char siew (barbecue pork) that my sister and I had for lunch on our last day in HK. (These Chinese-style roasted meats are not easy to find in Tokyo, and definitely not this cheap.)

Friday 14 May 2010

Hawai'ian for Mother's Day @ Roy's Tokyo Bar & Grill

Last Sunday was Mother's Day for many, and I was spoilt for the day by my husband on my son's behalf. Although it was technically my second Mother's Day, it was the first one where I got to celebrate it in a proper sense, because this time last year we had to deal with a not-so-fantastic combination of flight exhaustion, settling into NYC for the month and our then 7 month-old's first teething problems. Needless to say, Mother's Day last year sort of went forgotten. The 19 month-old has yet to learn that a 4am wake up call is really not the best Mother's Day present, but hopefully it won't take too long before he learns what makes mummy happy. I'm a simple girl who is easy to please, and all I wanted for Mother's Day was to have a family meal at a nice restaurant. I got more than I requested: we had a lovely Hawaiian-style lunch at Roy's Tokyo Bar & Grill, and then hubby cooked a chicken roast dinner and washed the dishes so that I could chillax (something I found hard to do, which annoyed hubby to no end). He really wanted to make me breakfast in bed, which was a lovely thought, but it just wasn't practical given that I wake (or get woken up!) a good few hours before hubby does and it's almost impossible for me to get back to sleep once awake when daylight has broken.

We first ate at Roy's a few years ago, and we'd really enjoyed that experience. However, when we re-visited this restaurant again a few months later, we weren't as impressed with the food as we had been for our first experience, and I hadn't even bothered blogging about it. It's been a couple of years since, and I was curious to see if our not-so-great second experience was just a one-off occurrence. I also wanted to introduce Hawaiian cuisine to my sister because her impression of Hawaiian food was limited to spam and pineapple (I'd thought the same too before I ate at Roy's). The restaurant's service was great and accommodating to families with young children. It is a popular place to lunch on a weekend, and we were glad that hubby had called the night before to make a reservation when we saw the queue for a table got longer as we enjoyed our meal. We all got the brunch option, where for 3500yen we could choose each course from a decent selection, and includes a fruit juice, bread and a salad or soup. Even though we each had our own dishes, we had the meal semi-family-style and everyone had a taste of everyone else's food. There was a lot of food, so I hope you're prepared for the onslaught of food photos!

Appetisers

My sister chose Coconut Shrimp with Homemade-style Tartar Sauce:

Hubby got the Roy's Crab Cake with Spicy Sesame Sauce:

My appetiser was the Scallop Herb Sautee with Green Soybeans Puree:

The sauce in my scallop appetiser was pretty tasty, but it was a shame that the scallops were a little overdone so that it was on the chewy rubbery side. Hubby's crab cake was quite nice, but we all agreed that my sister got the nicest appetiser of the three of us. I guess you can't go wrong with crispy coconut batter and tartar sauce when it comes to prawns (or shrimps)!

Soup or Salad

Next we were served our choice of either the Minestrone Soup or Salad. My sister got the soup whereas Hubby and I got the salad. The soup was tasty and slightly sweet, containing chunky vegetables. I should have asked to have the salad dressing on the side, because the vinaigrette dressing was quite overpowering. Otherwise the salad would have been perfectly acceptable with its crisp fresh vegetables.

The soup and salad:

Main Course

Sis's Orange-marinated Smoked Salmon Sautee served with Poached Egg and Ratatouille:

Hubby ordered the Roy's Style Butterfish with Miso, served with Rice Ball, Wasabi and Ginger Sauce:

I got the Roy's Original Loco Moco Fish Lomi Lomi Tomato Vianigrette (don't you just love the name?):

I went with the Loco Moco because it sounds typically Hawaiian, and using fish instead of a hamburger patty made it more appealing to me. I loved eating the runny yolk with rice, but I must say that it was a pretty plain dish. The fish patty was nice with the "lomi lomi" ingredients, but it was overcooked and dry. My sister's orange salmon was delicious, but the only thing worth mentioning was the orange sauce. Hubby's butterfish dish was the best out of the three, and I really enjoyed the silky oily texture of the fish. Unfortunately, the miso was pretty strong and I couldn't taste any fish flavour, and the wasabi sauce was extremely overpowering. I loved the presentation of the butterfish dish, and the idea to serve it with an onigiri (rice ball) was creative.

Dessert

My sister's choice of Chocolate Banana Tiramisu:

Hubby's Cheesecake with Berry Sauce:

My Mandarin Parfait with Dark Chocolate Gelato:

I think out of all the courses, we were probably the most pleased with the dessert course. The tiramisu was quite nice with just a hint of banana flavour (real banana, not the fake flavour), and we all know that chocolate pairs really nicely with banana. The cheesecake was also delicious, not too heavy and sickeningly rich like cheesecakes can be, and it's no secret that fruits and cheese make a lovely combination. And the parfait was refreshingly light, with the star being the smooth dark chocolate gelato.

I have a lot of negative things to say about this experience at Roy's, but in spite of that, I really enjoyed this Mother's Day meal. It would appear that the quality of food at Roy's has indeed slipped in the last 2.5 years, but thinking about it, the food we had back then seemed to have more of a Japanese influence. It's still a nice place to go for a meal, with gorgeous views and wonderful service.

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Wisteria Festival at Kameido Tenjin

Last week, people in Japan enjoyed Golden Week, a string of four national holidays set very close to each other. Both my husband and sister were working on those holidays, and it seemed like everyone but us were enjoying Golden Week. The last of the Golden Week was Children's Day, and Rob gave Zak and I a pleasant surprise by saying he was coming home to spend the afternoon with us. It was a beautiful warm spring day, and we headed out to Kameido Tenjin Shrine to catch the final day of the annual Fuji Matsuri (Wisteria Festival). So did thousands of other people as we battled the crowds to get anywhere on the grounds. The purple wisteria vines looked lovely as they hung above the pond by the famous arched "Drum" Bridge.

Standing at the highest point of the (very crowded) Drum Bridge, with crowds of people marring the views of the red torii (shrine gate) and the path to the shrine:


Wispy wisteria vines - the main attraction of Kameido Shrine during this period:


A dance being performed by the miko (shrine maidens) adjacent to the shrine; and the shrine itself, but I didn't enter:


The crowded Drum Bridge; and the crowded yatai (food stalls):


As with all matsuri events, there were countless yatai (food stalls) on the shrine grounds offering a variety of street food.

A yatai selling some meat-filled pancake called シャーピン ("Shapin"). I think it's Chinese origin because the vendor was Chinese, and this tasted like a Chinese meat dumpling except that it was flat. It was delicious, by the way:


Charcoal-roasted Ayu (sweetfish), simply seasoned with salt; and chestnut-flavoured soft serve ice cream:


Summer is approaching, which means that there will soon be plenty of festivals all around Japan.

Saturday 8 May 2010

Scandinavian cuisine @ Aquavit, Tokyo

When we were in New York last year for a month, I had a long list of restaurants I wanted to try. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to visit all of the restaurants, and a certain Scandinavian restaurant was one of the ones we missed out on. Fortunately for us, there is an Aquavit restaurant right here in Tokyo, coincidentally opened in the same month that our little boy was born in. Rob and I were overdue for our monthly date, so two Sundays ago, we took the opportunity to enjoy our few hours of toddler-freedom by eating beautifully-prepared Scandinavian dishes at Aquavit.

The restaurant had a lovely spacious feel, with an elegantly simple and modern decor. It was comfortable, and we were given excellent service right from the entrance. There was a nice variety of options available during lunch-time service, with mains costing between 1500yen and 1900yen and it included iced tea, bread, salad (or soup) and coffee. There was also a Lunch Set option (2500yen) where you have the choice for the appetiser and main courses, and the cake of the day and coffee are served afterwards (bread and iced tea are included). Rob and I both got the lunch set because it was pretty good value.



Rob's Pickled Herring appetiser was simple but beautifully presented with fresh vegetables. The pickled fish was nicely tart with a slight sweetness. My appetiser was Toast Skagen, a Denmark-style shrimp salad on top of thin slices of crispy toast. We both really enjoyed this open sandwich, because the shrimps were juicy and perfectly dressed in a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce, and it complemented the crispy toast base really well.

Appetisers - Pickled Herring and Toast Skagen:


For his main course, Rob chose the Poached Cod, which was served with a butter sauce and topped with Norwegian shrimps and egg. He liked it, but I thought the fish was overcooked and a bit rubbery. Everything else was great, and the simple but rich butter sauce allowed the subtle seafood flavours to shine through.

Main Course #1 - Poached Cod:


I got the Gravlax Pudding (salmon souffle) which was just gorgeous! The eggy souffle was perfectly light and fluffy, and the tomato cream sauce went well with it. I only wish there was more salmon inside the souffle.

Main #2 - Salmon Souffle and its filling:


Dessert was Lemon Cake served with an extra rich whipped cream. It was a delicious accompaniment to our cappuccinos.

Dessert - Lemon Cake:


This was our first time trying Scandinavian cuisine, and we really liked it! Of course, I don't know if this experience at Aquavit is a good representation of Scandinavian food, but that just means we have to try out more Scandinavian restaurants!