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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

Tuesday 30 April 2013

Revisit: Japanese udon @ Inaniwa Udon·Nabe, Hong Kong

We recently enjoyed a family date out at this fabulous Japanese noodle restaurant in the mall downstairs. I came to Inaniwa Udon·Nabe before with a Japanese friend, and loved it, so I was more than happy to suggest this noodle place when we were thinking up of nearby places to lunch at. I think we've found our favourite 'neighbourhood' noodle shop. Once again I noted that most, if not all, of the diners inside were Japanese expats - a good sign for a Japanese restaurant outside of Japan. The interior was beautifully done, and we were quite comfortable during our meal.

Gorgeous interior:

We could order from both the a-la-carte menu and lunch sets, and between the two, there were lots to choose from. The restaurant served a decent variety of appetisers including some robatayaki items and salads, as well as various nabe (hotpot) dishes. We all ordered and enjoyed dishes featuring the restaurant's specialty: Inaniwa udon, handmade by Japanese suppliers in its seventh generation in the Akita prefecture. The 4.5-year-old had such great fun slurping up the chilled noodles, and he didn't make too much of a mess!

The boy chose the Inaniwa Udon with Tempura lunch set, which came with the option of hot or cold noodles, and he chose cold. The set came with salad, prawn and vegetable tempura, onigiri and tsuyu dipping sauce with grated ginger and sliced green onions. The tempura was a bit too greasy for my liking, but there were no complaints from the boy!

Hubby chose the Inaniwa Udon in Curry Soup with Beef, also from the lunch set, served with salad and onigiri. The curry soup was quite different to the Japanese kare we are used to, but it was perfectly enjoyable and the noodles were perfectly slurpable with the not-so-spicy curry soup:

I couldn't resist ordering again the Cold Inaniwa Udon with Three Kinds of Dressings: tororo (made from mountain yam aka nagaimo), duck dressing and onsen tamago (hot spring egg). I enjoyed it, but hubby couldn't bring himself to like the viscous texture of the tororo dressing, nor the almost-raw egg dressing; he loved the duck sauce though:

Hubby couldn't resist finishing off the meal with something sweet. The Chocolate Truffle Cake tasted as good as it looked:

All of us enjoyed the food, and I'm sure we'll be back for more!

Inaniwa Udon·Nabe
Shop 2002, 2nd Floor, Elements
1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel. +85 2 2196 8989

Saturday 27 April 2013

Seafood galore @ Wen Chin Seafood Restaurant, Cijin Island (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)

Southern Taiwan is blessed with abundant seafood, and Cijin Island - a mere 10-minute ferry ride away from Kaohsiung - is reputed to be the best place for fresh seafood in Kaohsiung. During our visit to the island, we enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch at one of the local seafood restaurants on the main street. There are many such restaurants, with trays of seafood on ice out the front to lure seafood-lovers into their shops.

Fresh seafood on ice on display, and customers choose their seafood dishes before entering the restaurant:

We chose Wen Chin Seafood Restaurant based on recommendations from the wikitravel page for Kaohsiung, and it was a pretty good choice. The restaurant was simply furnished with tables and chairs and minimal decoration, but it was clean and family-friendly. Ordering was fairly easy, as I mostly needed to point at whichever seafood we wanted, and the guy would write down my order. The easiest option is to allow the restaurant to prepare each seafood dish as they like, but I asked for options on how each would be prepared, and chose accordingly. Staff understood my fumbling Mandarin well enough, and allergy requests were taken. There was also an a-la-carte menu in English, from which I chose a rice and two vegetable dishes. We were famished from all that cycling we did earlier, and the food tasted really good.

Tasty Fried Rice, mostly for our fried-rice-loving 4.5-year-old:

This was a local vegetable, but I can't remember what it's called. Quite tasty for a leafy veg:

Fried Oysters. I think the boy would have eaten the whole plate if we'd let him:

This was another local vegetable, a type of melon whose exact name has slipped my mind. Cooked with crispy little shrimps, it had a silky texture not very much appreciated by either hubby or the boy. More for me!

Scallops, fried first and then cooked with vegetables. A tasty way to get more vegetables into our bodies:

Everything came under TWD700, which was very cheap for seafood. Seafood lovers are spoilt for choice on Cijin Island. I'm sure you can't go wrong with most of the seafood restaurants on the island, but Wen Chin Seafood Restaurant has our vote.

A bit crowded inside and outside the restaurant by the time we left:

Wen Chin Seafood Restaurant
28 Miaoqian Road
Cijin District
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Tel. +886 7 5714568

Monday 22 April 2013

Delicious homemade artisanal food @ Classified (Central), Hong Kong

My friend Stpeh was visiting from Shenzhen, and we were meeting up for lunch in Central. While I was doing some research on where to lunch, I came across Classified, and remembered that this same friend had emailed me about six months ago, writing "we must hit up Classified the next time I'm in HK". We both must have forgotten about that email, because six months later, she still hadn't been to Classified even though she'd visited HK many times. So we headed for the Classified shop in Central, which was a bit tricky to locate, but it's clearly a very popular choice with the expats working in the area.

Inside Classified:

The space was cosy and relaxed, and service was friendly and unobtrusive. We were told there were daily lunch specials readymade at the front, which were more affordably priced than the menu items, but Steph and I opted for the freshly cooked to order food from the menu. There were sandwiches, salads, steak and burger, eggs Benedict/Florentine/Royale, cheese platters and fondue, charcuterie items and pasta dishes - something for everyone, really. We both felt like pasta, and both choices were delicious!

Steph's Grilled Chicken, Pesto, & Sundried Tomato Penne with Pine Nuts (HK$127 - tasty combination:

I ordered Organic Beef Lasagna Al Forno ($99), which took 15 minutes to prepare, but it was well-worth the short wait. This lasagna really hit the spot with the cheese topping and the tomatoey beef layered between each lasagna sheet:

I can understand why this place is popular! I would come back again just for that lasagna.

Classified (Central)
Shop 313
3rd Floor, Exchange Square Podium
8 Connaught Place
Central, Hong Kong
Tel. +852 2147 3454

Saturday 20 April 2013

Kaohsiung Sights Day 2: Cijin Island and Dream Mall

Getting back to writing about our great southern Taiwanese adventure in Kaohsiung, here are shots of what we got up to on the second day.

Cijin Island

We headed out nice and early on bicycles for Gushan Ferry Terminal, where we hopped on a ferry with our bikes for a short 10-minute ride over to Cijin Island. We had a little trouble finding the ferry terminal using the not-so-detailed free map from the hotel, but there was no shortage of kind and friendly people to ask for directions. The friendliness of Taiwanese people is one of the main things we love about Taiwan, and we are not the only foreigners to think likewise. The weather was perfect for cycling - brilliant blue skies and warm - and we enjoyed a delicious lunch of fresh locally caught seafood, which will be blogged about soon enough!

There were some festivities going on that Sunday morning at Tianhou Temple, with lots of music and a procession of people in costumes dancing their way into the temple. This 300-year-old temple is regarded as the oldest in Kaohsiung, and is dedicated to the goddess of sailors, Matsu, whom the Taiwanese people believe protect every fishermen out at sea:

Cycling towards Cihou Lighthouse:

Informative signs showing the way to two of Cijin Island's main sights:

The Cihou Lighthouse. Unfortunately there was no public access up the tower:

The lighthouse site provides a very wide view of the entire Kaohsiung bay area. The silhouette of the 85 Sky Tower can be seen towards the right (click on image for larger view):

After descending from the lighthouse site, we cycled through a back street which had a certain old world charm:

The main street of Cijin Island, where the action is - many seafood restaurants and market stalls selling various knick knacks are located on Miaoqian Road:

A very refreshing 'Grandmother's love sugar cane ice tea', with taro/tapioca pearls. Perfect on a warm sunny day:

Back on the ferry, bound for Gushan Ferry Pier:

We only saw a tiny fraction of Cijin Island, but we didn't want to cycle anymore under the midday sun, so we headed back for the hotel soon after we had a delicious seafood lunch.

Dream Mall

We reached our hotel around 2pm, and after we all enjoyed a refreshing shower, we headed back out to spend the evening at Dream Mall, the largest shopping mall Taiwan and East Asia. There's a rooftop amusement park with a ferris wheel, which we thought would be great fun for the whole family. By happy coincidence, the 2nd Annual Kaohsiung International Food Festival was being held that weekend, and we enjoyed a bit of live concert and a delicious snack (we'd planned to go back to Liuhe Night Market again for more local goodies, so we held off on the international food).

Stalls full of international foodie goodies:

Foster Hewitts Pub & Grill's Famous Chicken Wings. Quite crispy and delicious, and surprisingly not too greasy:

On the rooftop amusement park, having some fun 'fishing' in a swirling pool:

The Kaohsiung Eye ferris wheel all lit up:

Approaching the highest point, looking down towards the centre of the wheel; the rooftop amusement park is on the right side:

Beautiful night views of the city from up high:

The Dream Mall is worth a visit for the amusement park and the ferris wheel ride. It was very easy getting there using the MRT and the free shuttle bus at Kaisyuan MRT station to and from the mall.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Sunday Brunch @ Brasserie on the Eighth (Conrad), Hong Kong

Two Sundays ago, we had the pleasure of partaking in the famous Sunday Brunch Buffet at the Conrad Hotel. We enjoyed a leisurely brunch with my aunt-in-law and her hubby (long-time residents of Hong Kong), and a couple of relatives visiting from Australia. We do try to see our only relatives in HK regularly, but between their busy travel schedules and ours, it only happens three or four times a year. We always eat very well in their company, and it is usually with them that we have eaten some of the best foods in HK. That Sunday was no different, and indeed this brunch buffet ranks the best we've had in HK thus far. I was still not feeling very well, but I could still appreciate the beautiful aromas and the gorgeous food laid out. I particularly liked the live stations, to enjoy fresh pasta dishes cooked to order, or eggs and foie gras cooked any way you like. Like at WHISK, we could also order a choice of main course to be specially prepared (included in the cost of the buffet), but the buffet spread filled us all up well enough that none of us got a main dish.

The yellow Conrad duck:

The 8th floor of the Conrad Hotel houses two high-end restaurants - an Italian one called Nicolini's, and this French restaurant called Brasserie on the Eighth. Every Sunday, the space between the restaurants gets transformed into a gastronomical heaven, and you can partake of the buffet goodness from either of the two restaurants. Our table was located inside Brasserie on the Eight, and the service we received was flawless, as to be expected from a 5-star hotel restaurant. Our son was given a Conrad duck with a helium balloon, which adds to his collection of four other rubber duckies (two of which are the white/black and silver-crowned Conrad Tokyo ducks). The kid doesn't even take baths anymore (preferring the shower), but he was happy to receive the duck!

The salads and appetisers table - a nice selection of cold cuts, smoked salmon, beef tartare, seafood salad and more:

Seafood galore - lobsters, prawns, crab claws and sushi at the other end:

The live pasta station, with chefs working hard to fill orders. There were about five different types of pasta to go with three styles - carbonara, tomato or bolognese:

The jamon carver to carve up shavings of jamon goodness to serve with melon wedges:

Roasted suckling pig:

The carvery station:

Bread, brioche, muffins, Danish pastries and croissants:

The Kids Corner complete with a chocolate and strawberry fountain and all the lollies and sweets you don't want your kids to eat. To the right of the shot was a covered chafing dish with battered fish and fries, mini hot dogs and mini burgers:

An ice cream corner with four sauces:

Cheese platter with cut fresh fruit:

Half of the dessert spread, with black forest cake, passion fruit mousse, caramel tarts, strawberry and green apple yogurt mousse, vanilla slice and raspberry mirror:

The other half of the dessert table, with chocolate truffle cakes, chocolate mousse (in champagne glasses), mango pudding, mango cheesecake, tiramisu, and Manjari chocolate tarts:

This was my first plate, modestly filled with duck-filled ravioli (delicious), mashed potatoes (beautifully creamy), duck with orange sauce (only ok from memory), and a slice of bacon and onion quiche (yummy):

Hubby was far more generous in heaping his plate with food. First round with mini burger, sausage, various roast meats, Peking duck pancake and a custard-filled danish for something sweet to finish that plate off (he had something sweet for subsequent plates, as well as two plates full of desserts!):

I had eggs, fried sunny-side up, which I shared with my 4.5-year-old after he'd finished his plate of fish 'n chips. He ate his egg by dipping a buttery croissant into the runny yolk, which was a rather nice idea of eating eggs:

I think this was hubby's plate #3 (to be honest, I lost count), filled with seafood (lobster, prawns and crab claw) and smoked salmon:

Hubby's first dessert plate, with the Manjari chocolate tart and three kinds of mille-feuille (along with a smattering of fresh berries that went largely ignored):

Hubby went for second round of desserts, bringing back the three kinds of apple strudels. He said he liked the mille-feuille pastries better, but I appreciated that the strudels weren't too sweet or overly rich:

Tea and coffee included. I enjoyed freshly brewed peppermint tea:

There is good food to be had on Sundays on the eighth floor of the Conrad. I believe the Sunday Brunch is pretty pricey, but it's well-priced for the quality and variety of food. Like I said before, this ranks as one of the best buffet experiences we've had in Hong Kong. (Thanks to our relatives for their generosity.)

Brasserie on the Eighth
8/F, Conrad Hong Kong
Pacific Place
88 Queensway
Admiralty, Hong Kong
Tel. +85 2 2521 3838