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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

Thursday 29 March 2012

Yummy Japanese and buffet brunch @ Yamm, Hong Kong

What do you do when you find yourself at meal time inside a restaurant that prides itself in offering the best hotel buffet in Hong Kong? Most people would naturally go for the signature buffet, as did most of the patrons inside Yamm at The Mira on Sunday at noon. Even hubby, who is currently on the cutting phase of his fitness regime, yielded to the buffet temptation after seeing the glorious range of delicious-looking food on the buffet tables (though I must add that he was very disciplined in avoiding high carb items). As for myself, one of my resolutions this year is to avoid buffet. I am unfortunately highly undisciplined around lots of food, and I always suffer for it afterwards with bad tummy aches. I'm happy to report that I did avoid the buffet and instead ordered from the a-la-carte menu, but sadly I wasn't feeling that fantastic anyway so I couldn't enjoy lunch for how good it was. We were at Yamm for a long overdue catch up with hubby's ever-busy aunt and her husband before they left on their next trip. We always have a good time with them, so the company was great!

View from our table towards the buffet partition:

Yamm is spacious with high ceilings and a modern decor. It is a 5-star hotel restaurant, yet the atmosphere is relaxing and not stuffy. The service we received was nothing short of excellent, and we were well-looked after. Both the menu and the buffet spread offered a nice range of both Western and Asian dishes, and Japanese sushi and sashimi dishes feature quite prominently. The a-la-carte dishes did take a while to arrive at the table, but that is understandable since most of the kitchen staff's attention would be on the buffet counter. Before I get onto the buffet photos, let me show-and-tell our a-la-carte dishes first.

For the boy: Ebi Tempura Maki - tempura fried shrimp, flying fish roe, and basil mayo. He enjoyed picking off the tiny crunchy orange spheres of tobiko to eat first, but when it came to eating the actual roll, I had to help (still quite messy as sushi rolls aren't made for little mouths):

For myself: Bara Chirashi - Japanese vinegar-flavoured rice bowl with sashimi and miso soup. I was pleased that the sashimi were fresh and of good quality, which is quite rare in Hong Kong:

There were a lot of delicious-looking food on the buffet counter, ranging from cold stuff like sashimi, sushi and oysters au naturel to the hot foods like roasted pork belly, curry and gyoza. There was an egg station where you could get your eggs cooked just as you like. The dessert range was pretty, and there was even a cold stone in the ice cream section where you could order your own custom-made ice cream - the first I've encountered at a buffet in HK! I didn't eat any of the buffet items so I cannot comment, but hubby said that the food was pretty good.

Baked goods of various bread, rolls, pastries and muffins:

The cool section where the oysters, sashimi and sushi are (hot foods are further down):

Roasted pork belly - that crackling looks good:

The dessert section:

The ice cream section with several ice cream flavours, a cold stone and various ingredients and toppings:

Hubby grabbed three au naturel oysters (I would have gotten at least half a dozen - but that is exactly why I can't do buffets!):

One of hubby's plates from the hot food section:

Hubby's omelette with "everything":

Hubby's plate of salad and various chilled items:

We all had a great time catching up with relatives and eating yummy food. Who knew that good and fresh quality sushi and sashimi could be found at Yamm?

Yamm
Lobby Level
The Mira Hong Kong
118 Nathan Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +852 2368 1111

Monday 26 March 2012

Family date @ Café Landmark, Hong Kong

I always look forward to our little family dates on the weekend. It's a time to chill out, enjoy each other and eat good food (with no cooking and cleaning up afterwards!). Last Saturday I got some errands done while hubby took the boy to his weekly gym class, and we met up for lunch at Café Landmark in Central. This all-day dining restaurant is situated on the open area on the first level of The Landmark, and it's a popular spot especially for shoppers in the building. So popular that there is often a queue of people without reservations during peak lunch and dinner. I had the foresight to book a table a few hours in advance, which proved wise for Saturday at lunch time.

We didn't have to wait in this line:

Bright and airy space, thanks to the light from the skylight above. The restaurant is in full view of the shopping area (and vice versa), so it's not a place for a romantic date, but it's great for people-watching. Our boy loved having a view of the building's central fountain from our table:

The service was good enough and we had no complaints. The menu is mostly western and quite varied, with meat, fish, pasta, pizza and salad available to please all taste buds.

Mango Passion Smoothie - quite refreshing and so delicious:

Hubby couldn't go past having foie gras, so he ordered Beef Tenderloin and Foie Gras, topped with crispy onion. Quite nice, although much too rich for me:

My order: Lobster Linguine - roasted lobster in tomato lobster sauce. It was supposed to be cream-based sauce, but I can't eat much cream (according to our waitress, many of their customers make the same request). I adored the lobster flavour in the sauce, and I loved the generous portion of lobster meat! It was messy eating as the shell was left on, but it was so worth the mess! Hubby was pleased to note that the tomato-based sauce wasn't a bad substitute after all (he loves cream, but this was MY dish):

Café Landmark is a pleasant spot for a quick lunch. We enjoyed this little family date, and I think our boy loved eating out in the open for a change. It was quite affordable for a meal of lobster and foie gras (less than HK$500)!

Café Landmark
1/F, The Landmark
16 Des Voeux Road Central
Central
Tel. +85 2 2526 4200

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Trendy Thai @ Greyhound Café (Harbour City), Hong Kong

"Life is a journey, full of pictures, places, stories and good tasting recipes." This statement describes my online journal quite accurately, but it's not mine. I quote it from the newly opened Greyhound Café, where we had our lunch last Sunday. Greyhound Café hails from Bangkok, a line extension of its fashion label. "Fashion" and "food" seem oxymoronic next to each other, but even I must say that Greyhound pulls it off reasonably well. To be honest, the main reason I selected this trendy Thai café for lunch was because it opens service at 11am, which was convenient for my schedule that day. I tend to steer clear from fusion restaurants - not that there is anything wrong with fusion, but I prefer to familiarise myself with a cuisine first from its roots - and a quick glance through the menu certainly suggested that Greyhound serves anything but traditional dishes.

It was still pretty quiet around 11:30am...

... but it got quite full by the time we left an hour later:

Greyhound has a fairly large dining space, decorated in an arty and trendy manner that wasn't too pretentious for us. Service was friendly and professional, and allergy requests were dealt with without any fuss. The food menu was quite large and widely varied, with both Thai and European dishes ranging from Tom Yum Soup to Spaghetti Vongole, as well as fusion dishes like stir-fried Spicy Spaghetti Thai-style. A large menu generally doesn't give me much confidence that the kitchen could excel in so many dishes, and whenever we find ourselves in such situation, sticking with the signature dishes had often proven wise. We chose that route, and had quite an enjoyable meal.

Lychee Shake, which was quite refreshing on a warm Sunday:

Seafood Pizza, closed-style in pita (the only non-signature dish we got). We'd ordered this for the boy, but he had a much stronger preference for the chicken wings. Cheesy with lots of squid and shrimp:

Greyhound Famous Fried Chicken WIngs - deep-fried marinated chicken wings in fish sauce. Pretty tasty for fried chicken, but it lacked depth in its flavour profile. I guess that makes it a good choice for young fussy eaters:

Another signature dish, Crispy Sweet Corn with Crab Meat. The fritter version of a crab cake. Nice and crunchy without being overly greasy, and corn goes well with crab:

Fresh Lasagna Salad - layers of romaine leaves, olives, tomatoes, pasta and parmesan. This was a novel concept, and I was actually quite surprised at how much this tasted like lasagna. This was the more expensive than the other items we ordered, but I also enjoyed it the most. I loved the presentation:

Overall we had a pretty good time. The food was enjoyable, better than I'd expected. Worth a try if you happen to be in the area and hungry for lunch before 12pm.

Greyhound Café
Shop OTG01,
Ground Floor, Ocean Terminal
Harbour City
17 Canton Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2383 6600

Friday 16 March 2012

Average buffet @ Gaylord Indian Restaurant, Hong Kong

I really wanted to write only good stuff about this place, because l take no pleasure in writing anything negatively. Especially when the waitress at the restaurant was so friendly and sweet, and the food was not too bad. But let's start from the beginning. It's been awhile since we had Indian food, so last weekend we headed to Gaylord Indian Restaurant for some Indian tucker. It's quite a nice restaurant, definitely a big step above the ones at the somewhat dodgy Chungking Mansions, but nowhere as nice as our fave Indian in Hong Kong.


Service was lovely, as mentioned before, and we were seated at one of their comfortable tables with sofa seating. The buffet was being set up because we arrived before 12pm, but I wasn't feeling well and we had no intention of partaking in the buffet. However, after we were told that it would take about 25 minutes for a-la-carte dishes to be prepared, and that the Sunday lunch buffet was only HK$120 per person, we yielded to the beckon of the steaming hot dishes. The food was quite tasty, but again, the quality cannot be compared to our favourite Indian where the half-price-for-ladies for their Sunday brunch buffet is a better value than at Gaylord's.

The first set of hot dishes, which included Dal Tarka, Saag Corn, Aloo Tamater Ki Subzi (tomato and potato curry), Saffron Rice and Lamb Roganjosh:

Close up of Saag Corn. I've never encountered a corn version of saag before, and it was quite tasty! The crunchy sweetness of the corn went well in this dish:

Some salad and cold vegetarian dishes:

Second set of hot dishes, which included Chicken Chetinad (my favourite of the meal), Reshmi Kebab, Fish Kebab (hubby's favourite of the meal), Vegetable Samosa and Sambar:

At the end of the buffet were some Vadai. I quite enjoyed these savoury donuts (I'm not usually big on donuts which are usually too sweet and greasy for my liking):

Drinks are part of the buffet deal, and naturally we got Mango Lassi. Yummy but I couldn't finish it - this never happened before, but I wasn't feeling well, which also meant I couldn't offer the rest to hubby or son:

We informed our waitress of our boy's allergies, which includes peanuts and tree nuts, and she assured us that all the buffet dishes were safe for him to eat, naming the vegetable samosa in particular. It wasn't until towards the end of our meal that I noticed there were cashews in the samosa our boy was eating! The waitress was apologetic, saying that they usually don't put nuts in the samosas, and that maybe our son is ok. One of my pet peeves is restaurants being careless and downplaying the seriousness of food allergies - they have never seen my kid's face swell up and start having breathing difficulties, so it's easy for them to dismiss so-called food allergies. Food allergies are no joke, and it's really to the restaurant's fortune that our son did not have a bad reaction after eating some of the samosa. (As it turns out, the results of his latest blood test (done annually) came back last week which indicated that our son seems to be outgrowing some allergies, that he is allergic only to some nuts, and thankfully it seems that cashew is not one of them.)

Other than this incident, the meal wasn't too bad on the whole. Stick to the hot foods because the fruit salad, the cold vegetable dishes and salad were not very fresh. The Pineapple Halva was a nice dessert, and it was yummy when eaten warm.

Hubby's plate:

My plate:


Hubby was well-behaved and only had two servings. I only had one serving, which has never happened before at buffets, but I was feeling poorly and had no appetite. Bread was prepared fresh and served to the table. We enjoyed the bread, especially the boy, but alas we couldn't finish everything!

Naan bread, hot and fresh out of the oven:

Deep fried Puri was too greasy for a person with sore throat:

The Dosa was delicious:

I have mixed feelings about our experience at Gaylord. The food was average, the service was good for this standard of dining, but not recommended if you have any food allergies. For good Indian food, we like Tandoor in Central, which is only a couple of stops away on the MTR or a ferry ride across the harbour.

Gaylord Indian Restaurant
1st Floor
23-25 Ashley Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2376 1001

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Pralus Indonésie 75% Criollo Chocolate

I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten chocolates made from rare Criollo beans, and three of those instances have been Francois Pralus' single origin chocolate bars. I fell in love with Criollo chocolate the first time I tried it, and to date the Criollo 100% chocolate - containing nothing but pure cocoa and cocoa butter - is the only 100% chocolate that I can honestly say I enjoy. The latest Pralus chocolate to come home with me from the supermarket is the Indonésie 75% Criollo bar, in that familiar wrapping with a map locating where the beans for the bar were grown (Java Island in Indonesia).

The description on the packaging about the flavour: "Fresh and subtle, woody aroma with wild mushrooms, slightly acid and long on the palate":

This single-origin bar contains nothing but cocoa, sugar, cocoa butter and some lecithin. Unlike the first two Pralus' bars we tried, which were made with Criollo beans from Madagascar, I did not detect much fruity notes. Instead a smoky earthy flavour dominates, with only a very slightly acidic finish. There is no bitterness at all, which I've come to expect from Criollo chocolates. It melts nicely on the tongue, but it is not as smooth as Swiss chocolates. This bar is quite enjoyable, but I do prefer the taste and texture of the Pralus Madagascar 75% Criollo bar over this one from Indonesia.

A rather scuffed bar, showing some signs of slight blooming, which does not affect its edibility or flavour, but likely to impact the texture:

Friday 9 March 2012

Tasty Vietnamese @ Nha Trang Vietnamese Cuisine (Harbour City), Hong Kong

I just love it when an impromptu decision to have a family date at the very last minute works out well. Especially at a very popular restaurant which already had a queue of people waiting to enter even before it opened its doors. We would probably have had to wait in the queue too, if I hadn't rang up the restaurant a mere half an hour earlier to enquire and eventually make a booking. That turned out to be a wise move because we got priority seating ahead of many others who were eagerly waiting to be seated. I guess they weren't aware that they could make reservations even when the restaurant isn't open. The restaurant of interest is a Vietnamese restaurant, Nha Trang, and its immense popularity is driven not only by the delicious food they serve, but also by the fact that the restaurant was given a Bib Gourmand mention in the Michelin Guide. (A Bib Gourmand restaurant means it is an inspector's favourite for good value under HK$300.)

Shot taken shortly after we were seated, before the restaurant got crowded with hungry lunchers:

We were ushered into the inner dining room, and we made ourselves comfortable. The decor was simple and casual, and I appreciated the unpretentious setting and the attention to detail, such as the matching dining wares and the comprehensive English descriptions of the specialty dishes in the menu. Service was pretty good for this standard of dining, and Nha Trang caters well for families (the largest Toys "R" Us store is located in the same section as the restaurant of the gigantic Harbour City mall, so expect to see kids with their parents). The menu had many pages with many delicious sounding dishes, but we decided to order most of our food from one page describing Nha Trang's specialty dishes, as I was very keen to eat some traditional Vietnamese food. We ordered too much food because we didn't expect such large serving sizes (we thought the price indicated small dishes), but we enjoyed everything!

Vietnamese Lotus Tea in a quaint matching teapot set that also matched the plates and bowls. I liked the tea - it tasted like how I imagine lotus flowers to taste:

Hoi Ga (Vietnamese Sticky Rice) - glutinous rice mixed with mung beans, toasted sesame seeds and fried shallot, topped with shredded roast chicken, pork sausage and scallion oil. I love the combination of mung beans in the rice, but I think the dish would be nicer if it was served warmer. Still tasty when lukewarm:

Com Tam (Broken Rice Platter) - shredded pork with ground toasted rice, grilled lemongrass pork chop and steamed frittata. A very homey dish, which we enjoyed:

Another angle of the Com Tam, showing the broken rice grains. First time trying broken rice, and I like the texture:

Banh Hoi Bo Nuong (Vermicelli Cake with Grilled Lemongrass Beef). This is a DIY dish that required using the hands unless you're very adept with the utensils (I enjoy eating with my hands, so I was fine with that). Tender and flavourful beef, and I ate my share with lots of mint, basil and lettuce all rolled up in a sheet of moist woven noodle cake. Yum!

Cha La Lot Hanoi (Barbecued Cha Hanoi) - pepper leaves mixed into pork patties, skewered onto lemongrass stalk, and barbecued. Apparently this is a very ancient recipe and a specialty of Hanoi. Again, I used my hands, and ate my portion with lots of mint and basil stuffed inside a lettuce leaf - I don't even know if this is how we were supposed to eat this dish. Hubby said he thought it was greasy when he ate the pork on its own, but I found it yummy with all the greens (between us two, I'm the one with lower grease tolerance):

Handmade Gelato - Spicy Lemongrass & Tomato flavour. Hubby said it has all the flavours of Viet food, and we both enjoyed it:

Good food and well-priced, this restaurant gets our thumbs-up.

Nha Trang Vietnamese Cuisine
Shop G51,
Ground Floor, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City
17 Canton Road
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2199 7779

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Delectable Belgian @ Frites (Central), Hong Kong

Last Friday, we took our 3-year-old son to a Belgian beer house after hubby finished work. Before you jump to any conclusions, we weren't there for the beer, and neither was our boy. I'd read good food reviews on Frites, a Belgian restaurant in Central, and I was keen to try out the food. The boy had a late doctor's appointment in Central on Friday, and there was no way I could get back home in time to get dinner prepped and ready at a reasonable hour, so I booked a table ahead of time for dinner. Frites is a popular hangout for the bankers and office workers in the area, especially for after-work drinks on Fridays. Previous two attempts at making same-day dinner reservations proved futile, so I was quite pleased to achieve success when I rang the restaurant the previous day to make a booking. We were alloted a 90 minute slot for our table, which was fine by us as we usually try to keep our meals short and sweet when dining with our toddler, especially in the evening to make it back home in time for his 8pm bedtime routine. He was the littlest one in the restaurant, but we were made quite comfortable, and the waitstaff even playfully chatted to him.

A dalmatian figurine sits on the bar with the day's paper in its mouth:

When we arrived for our 6pm booking, Frites was already buzzing with early diners. The restaurant layout was quite open with a central sit-down dining area and bar stools lining the perimeter, and the space soon got quite tight as the place filled up with happy office workers reveling in the fact that it was finally Friday. The staff were friendly and cheerful, in spite of the fact that they had a busy night ahead of them. The food menu was quite comprehensive offering a wide range of European dishes, featuring their specialty of Mussel Pots. Frites also had an Express Dinner menu, only valid for ordering between 5pm and 7pm on weekdays, and includes a house beer, wine or soft drink. Dealing with the boy's allergies was a breeze here. Apparently the beer selection is also very good, which is probably why this beer house is very popular (though we can't vouch for the beer as all three in our dining party are teetotalers).

Frites House Mussels - with diced tomato, onion, garlic, light cream and fresh chives, and served with frites (fries/chips) and mayo. The mussels were deliciously plump and juicy, and the tasty sauce was great for dipping the bread into. Predictably, the 3-year-old only had his eyes and hands for the frites, but we managed to also get some nutritious food into him:

Pan-fried Sea bass - with roasted vegetables, olives and a creamy sauce (sorry, I can't quite remember what it was exactly). The sea bass was tender and succulent, and the sauce was a good accompaniment. I loved the cute fish themed plate:

Mallard Two Ways - pan-roasted duck breast, confit duck leg with whipped sweet potato, cherry compote and kriek jus. The duck is somewhere underneath all that green and garnish:

The duck was delicious, both ways! Very moist and flavourful, and the kriek jus went well with the duck:

Hot Chocolate Fondant with vanilla bean ice-cream:

Mmm, look at all that chocolatey goodness ooze out from the middle of the fondant! We really enjoyed this dessert, and expressed it so to the manager who proudly told us that it was his recipe:

We really enjoyed our dinner that night, and we drank not a drop of beer in that beer house. Frites offers much more than just beer, and it's definitely worth a visit even for teetotalers. Bookings are essential - take it from someone speaking from experience!

Frites
Shop 1 & 2
1st Floor Queen's Palace
74 Queen's Road
Central
Tel. +85 2 2179 5179