Every time I take a taxi back home in Hong Kong, I kept seeing this yellow sign with red writing "小上海" (translated as Little Shanghai). I love Shanghaiese food, so I have been dying to try this place.
Finally, there was this day my MIL actually ditched me for lunch, so I decided to walk down to First Street to 小上海 for lunch! It was such a hot day but I really really wanted to try their Shanghaiese fried noodles $42 plus their boiled veggies $12.When the dish arrived it looked a bit oily, but it certainly wasn't when I took a bite. There was a lot of crunchy veggies amongst it as well, it was delicious. I love the slightly chewy Shanghaiese noodles, and polished off this plate in no time!The veggies are just simply boiled, not very flavoursome, but it was perfect for me... Made me feel a bit healthy kekekeke.. Well, until I started putting chilli sauce onto the veggies
I also decided to order a cup of cold soy milk drink - the soy milk was icy cold and flavoursome - it absolutely hits the spot.
After I went on my merry way back home, I couldn't forget this little shop, so I went back the next week with hubby.Hubby ordered their set meal with mapo tofu, rice and soup HKD$38. I tried some of the mapo tofu and felt that it was a bit bland and the tofu doesn't really hold well. The flavours are ok.I would love to order the Shanghaiese noodles again, but decided to try their Shanghai wonton instead. Perfectly wrapped, the wonton skins are slightly thicker than the ones I was used to but it was even more delicious that way. The insides had a perfect balance of pork and veggies, it was delicious
I completely forgot to take a pic of our last dish, which is a stir fried capsicum and shredded potatoes HKD$52. It was delicious and crunchy and fantastic with rice.
I seriously love this homey little place which is run by a husband and wife team. So it isn't the bestest food in the whole wide world, but there's just something about it that made it so special that makes me want to come back again and again. 7.5/10

I have seen so many tantalizing pics of The Butcher's Club burgers on Instagram, and all these whispers of "secret menu", I was literally busting with excitement to be there.
We went there extra extra early, cos we know this place gets full after work hours (that's about 6pmish if u r really really really lucky). Iwe got there at about 5:15pm and the place is already half full (there must be some really really super lucky office workers in Wan Chai!
For some reason from the Instagram pictures we expected a place where we can have nice comfy seat and have an actual conversation and chillax a bit, but we realized this is like a fast food joint with high chairs and narrow tables (aka not pregnant lady friendly)... So much for our date night!I was looking high and low for a menu of sorts, but the so called menu has only got like 2 things: burger and duck fat fries plus an assortment of drinks. Erm. So I asked for the secret menu. Apparently I need to scan the QR code. Wtf?! I don't even have a QR reader! Or else it will just have to be the normal burger, if you don't know the actual secret menu :/. Bloody hell. I tried to order from my memory of what I saw on Instagram but none of those are on the secret menu anymore. Grrrrr...
So we ordered two normal burgers (sigh) HKD$100 each, duck fat fries HKD$20 to share and two cans of drinks. Unfortunately my drink was not even cold, but they kindly gave me ice in a cup to go with it The burgers and fries came not long after. Let's talk about the burger first. I quite like it and felt that it was better than Huxtaburger in Melbourne (not Rockwell and Sons though). But for twice the price you would bloody hope so! Was it twice as good? No I won't say it is. The patty was juicy and had a fantastic chargrilled flavour, I love the giant piece of melted cheese and fresh tomatoes and slices of gherkin with a nice slice of bacon.
Hubby wasn't as impressed though and felt Huxtaburger was better and said burgers in Macdonald's in Australia is better. He also grumbled about the bloody QR code just to see the bloody menu and said at least Huxtaburger don't need that.
The fries we both agree was a disappointment. It was lukewarm and not very flavoursome. We certainly can't taste the yummy duck fat flavours and it was a bit on the small side.
I reckon if you are really really really missing western food, or you didn't know better, you would have been impressed by it, but for us who had something better to compare to, The Butcher's Club certainly ain't worth it

High tea at the top of the world... Well, on the top of Hong Kong at least. Perched on the 103rd floor of ICC, you get the amazing views of Hong Kong on the clear day and delicious high tea set at the Ritz Carlton.This month, Ritz Carlton collaborated with Grand Marnier to do an orangey liquor flavored high tea. To be honest, Shaz thought they were still serving the Pierre Hermes high tea, lol. The waiter also warned us cos one of us is preggars and the other is nursing lol, but meh, how much liquor are the gonna give us, really? It's nice of them to let us know though! And one of the waitress also gave me a big cushion to rest my tired back, which I thought it was a nice touch.And here it is! The Grand Marnier high tea!!! Two layers of sweets and one layer of savoury, Shaz and I both commented it would have been nicer to have 2 layers of savoury and one layer of sweet and for greedy me, I wish they would also give us scones! What's with high tea without sconessssss?! We started with the orange and foie gras macaron. It was so weird to have a savoury macaron but to be honest it's quite nice. The foie gras flavour was quite prominent and the orange was a great match. The macaron though as you can see wasn't quite perfectly formed. The shells were soft rather than slightly chewy.Roast beef and horseradish in a charcoal bun: I know this looks big compared to the macaron, but to be honest this bun was teeny tiny. It was so tiny that there is only a tiny tiny slither of beef! I just wish this was slightly bigger so I can really taste the flavour!
Grand Marnier cured salmon open sandwich: the herby sandwich base was nicely toasted although I must say we both couldn't taste the Grand Marnier.
Truffle mushroom puff: the mushroom puff was delicious but there was only a very very subtle taste of truffles . Once again maybe a bigger piece would have been better heehee!Onto the sweet items! We tried the chocolate and orange tart first. As I recently tried making a choc orange tart myself a few days ago, I reckon my choc orange tart is yummier and have more orange flavour than this one! I stupidly ate the whole thing and I am so regretting it - I was getting too full to eat the other cakes, which I liked bette
We had to rest a bit due to food coma, then decided to try the strawberry and rhubarb mousse. I am not a huge fan of mousse but I managed two spoonfuls as the strawberry and rhubarb combination is actually quite nice and refreshing after the very rich chocolate tart.
We had "Constellation" next, which is a crunchy chocolate and citrus cake. I really like this cake, especially the slightly tart orange jelly on top. I also love anything crunchy so this orange and crunchy chocolate cake really hits the spot and it's definitely my favorite cake! I really wish I could finish it but I had to move onto the next few desserts.
I am a bit skeptical of the passion fruit and pistachio cake, but surprisingly I quite like this cake as it was a bit lighter and citrusy, with a crunchy biscuit in the bottom. Although I must say this one was extremely had to eat cos the top was soft and the bottom was hard, I was a bit worried about breaking the plate when I stab at it and we both sent this cake flying onto our outfits more than once! Lol
Wanted to know what the rest of the high tea was like? Check out my original blog post from my profile! 

Ever since I heard about this beef and tomato soup macaroni （茄牛通）place, 勝香園 Sing Heung Yuen, I have been wanting to try it. Thankfully I have a foodie friend Gracy from Just Gracy who knows how to take me there and what to order!As you can see with this place, this is closest to street food or the Hongkies call it "Dai pai dong" (as I would go anyway) in Hong Kong. There is no air con, you sit in these rickety backless chairs and water from nowhere may drip on you, if you ponder too long over the menu or change your mind you might get yelled at...but that's the awesomeness of these HK street food.So here it is, in all it's glory: using canned tomato soup with fresh tomato, atopped with generous slices of beef and swimming underneath it, not-too-soggy macaroni somehow makes a very satisfying meal. So it ain't Michelin starred cuisine, but I think it's kinda like some foodie crave for Maccas, some crave for Cadbury chocolate, and I crave for these kinda dodgey Asian comfort food. LolWhat else is good in here? Gracy suggested this pork chop bun. It was indeed delicious. Thinly sliced pork chop layered with fresh tomato and a bit of mayo also from memory, on warm, toasted, buttered "crunchy pig", which is what HKies called their toasted round bread. YummmmmNow THIS is what I called thick toast. For illustration purposes I have also included a pic of peanut butter "thick toast" from Toast Box CWB. I would consider the "thick toast" from Toast Box an epic fail. Total B.S.
Anyway, back to my epic toast at 勝香園 Sing Heung Yuen. Evenly toasted on every surface, nicely buttered with a smear of lemon honey, it was good. I think I need to get back here for peanut butter toast. I wonder if they have it. Omg. That would be mindblowing. Omg omg omg.
Even Da Pai Dong has signature drinks. At 勝香園 Sing Heung Yuen this is their salty lemon 7 咸檸七 (which is salted preserved lemon with fresh lemon and 7UP, although I don't think they actually use 7UP here). To be slightly healthier, we ordered salty lemon honey with less sugar and less ice. I think next time I would like more ice cos by the time I get to it with this lovely melty August weather it was lukewarmish lol. It was nonetheless fantastic - In Aus we are finally getting the whole salty sweetness thing like salted caramel, whereas the Hongkies have got it down pat for decades. ;)

The sad thing is, Gracy told me that these kind of Dai pai dong is diminishing soon. They are not giving out licenses to businesses anymore to open up Dai pai dongs and you can't sell the Dai pai dong business to anyone. They can only pass their shop on from generation to generation. But would the younger generation want to take over? Who knows? Better go as much as possible before it closes down!!<br /><br />

I went into a bar like shop, feeling a bit confused. "Is this 蘭芳園 Lan Fong Yuen?" I asked the waiter. It has the right shop signage but what was offered in here, BBQ pork and chicken, wasn't what I was after. "Yes this is 蘭芳園 Lan Fong Yuen, but what are you after?" The waiter asked me. "Pan fried chicken instant noodles?!" "Oh that's a few stores down!" He said and kindly led me a few doors up. Hong Kong people are so nice - I know people might think that's a weird comment, but I truly think this time when I came back I had the nicest experience!Don't go to the wrong shop! Make sure you recognize this shop front before busting in! I went there slightly early, 11:58am and it's already quite crowded, but at least there is no wait. Once again, probably because of my pregnancy, the waitress kindly ushered me into a corner seat, so I don't get bumped.I ordered my pan fried chicken stir through instant noodles (雞扒撈丁) meal $49 including a hot drink and added $2 for an iced mixed coffee and tea.
Ohhhh yeahhhhh... Look at this naughty goodness in its glory. Pan fried succulent chicken, with al dente instant noodles, spring onion and ginger "pesto" and soy. You mix it up and if you are feeling reallllllllyyyy naughty, add some hawt chilli oil and away you go. So yumgasmic
Love the coffee and tea mixture in here also - it was smooth and sweet, just the way it should be.
My only complaint? The skin on the pan fried chicken wasn't crispy enough. But hey, small complaint for a cheap meal! 8.5/10

Pretty much within Hong Kong's unofficial "Korean town", at the end of Kimberley Road next to a high school sits Xiao Tian Gu, which is a dessert cafe loosely translated as "Little Sweet Valley". "Gu" though, is also a mandarin pronunciation of the owner's surname, as it turns out she is a celebrity who opened this chain, with several stores scattered around Tsim Sha Tsui and Tai Hang. The reason why I visited this store though was because I have several meetings at TST, also this store is new and reviews overall were positive.Celebrity photos adorned the wall, but I am not too sure whether it's a deterrent for me to go there or not. I am often really skeptical of celebrity joints. If I had known a celebrity opened this place I probably wouldn't have visited to be honest.

There are a number of signature dishes in this store, including their pomelo dessert with durian or mango, filo pastry with durian or mango and yes even their savoury dumplings are signature dishes here.

I just had lunch so wanted a relatively light dessert. I debated between the pomelo dessert with mango or the mango filo pastry, but eventually the mango filo pastry won as the manager said it's quite light. You also get to choose an icecream to go with this dessert, either chocolate icecream from Movenpick, mango and strawberry icecream (one is from Dreyers and the other one I forgot). I picked the chocolate icecream.It didn't take too long before this piping hot dessert came along. As you can see fresh mangoes adorn the plate which was sweet and delicious. I love the lightness of the filo pastry with fresh mango slices and pillowy light chiffon in between. The mango flavours really shines through. To be honest it really didn't need the choc chip icecream even though the icecream itself was nice. It just distracts the flavours (I think even the mango icecream would have done the same if I have chosen it).If it was less out of the way for me I would definitely come back time and time again. I kept dreaming about this dessert ever since I had it. Nom nom nom! 9/10

"Where should we eat?" My friend Will asked me. "I really really wanna try Tabibito!!!!" But DOH! Tabibito ain't open on Mondays!!!! How annoying! What else? Well, not long ago I saw Daniel from Hungry Hong Kong's food porn of Amazake on Instagram, so I said, "How about Amazake?"I know it's weird but all three of us don't really drink alcohol so we decided to order mocktails. Ron ordered a passion fruit cocktail and Will & I ordered a mango and blackberry mocktail. Weirdly enough, Will's mocktail looked more mangoey yellow and mine looked more purpley, even though it's the same cocktail. Mmm a bit of consistency would have been great but we all liked our cocktails.We ordered a few bits and bobs to start off with to see how we go.  Rock & roll was one of them $85.  This is a cucumber minced beef roll with Parma ham.  Because I couldn't eat raw meat I had to peel off the Parma ham so I must say I couldn't truly taste the flavour.  All I ended up with is just a teeny tiny cucumber roll

We also tried to order slow cooked ox tongue, but they ran out. The waitress did suggested a grilled ox tongue which was nice and tender, but I would prefer it to have a more charcoaly flavour.I love the creative names in Amazake.  Shell shockers was next, $98, which was a plateful of whelks cooked in teriyaki sauce.  I am a bit scared of whelks normally, but cos it's chopped up into little pieces it was less scary heehee.  I really like this dish, it was tender and flavoursome.Fly Fish - as you can probably guess, there are uni in the middle! Wrapped around the uni was kisu, which is a fish that's great for tempura. I can detect shiso when I bit into it. It was really yummy but I couldn't really taste the sea urchin, which was the main reason why I ordered this dish. :/

We were still a bit hungry so we decided to order more dishes.  Not pictured here was the Amazake Fried Rice $138.  I was kicking myself for not taking a picture of it, cos it looked awesome.  THe fried rice has good wok hey (breath of the wok) and had a onsen egg that sat prettily on top.  In the fried rice there were foie gras and wagyu beef so it was quite rich but oh so yummy.  I would say it's a must try dish at Amazake.For some reason people raved about this dish.  It's really just whitebait with chips and wasabi mayo.  That said it was beautifully fried and the wasabi had a strong kick to it.

Want to know what we ate for dessert? check out the rest of the review on my blog! 

There are so many new eateries in High St, it's really hard to keep up. A few weeks ago Kyoni Ramen opened with much fanfare, and very soon, another Hong Kong institution Czarina will be open on High St.
People keeps saying Hong Kong ramen is not that great compared to Japan. Well duh, ramen came from Japan - but compared to Australia, Hong Kong ramen are mostly sensational.I ordered the oxtail shio (salt) ramen $100 and added $44 for Gyoza and drink. The oxtail ramen was super tender, although it's not super flavoursome, there is a dollop of garlic cream to make it interesting. The soup base was nice and peppery. Kyoni Ramen also departs from the traditional ramen condiments in place of cracked pepper only. Very interesting.
Most importantly the noodles and the egg. The egg was cooked to perfection and was flavoursome. The noodles are the wriggly ones that I love, but sadly it was overcooked so it was a bit limp and soggy.This is the Gyoza from the set meal. The meat and veggies are all mushed up together and the skin was a bit hard and chewy. The soy vinegar sauce wasn't that great either which was a bit of a disappointment.
Overall, the service was quite good and I am happy to give 巨二麵堂 Kyoni Ramen another go, but will certainly ask for more al dente noodles next time. 7/10

As a new comer to Hong Kong, I am glad that I followed a group of Instagrammers so I know where to eat! Heehee! I have constantly seen food porn of Trattoria Doppio Zero, so I begged Esky to visit with me.
When mentioned that I am pregnant, they kindly organise a really really comfy booth for me to sit in. So nice of them ^^We started off with the truffled fried oyster ($48 each). I am so glad that they offered cooked oyster- I have had oysters for ages!!! However, I found the oyster not super duper fresh and I couldn't really taste the truffle in the aioli. It was good, but not really that sensational.Esky ordered the prime beef carpaccio with sea urchin $138 while I looked on :,(. It looked fantastic and Esky said it was delicious.Roasted bone marrow was next, served with grilled focaccia and onion jam $128. I don't really care for the onion jam, but the bone marrow was melt in your mouth delightful.I have been eyeing on this sea urchin pasta ($228 fora main size portion)for ever. Normally it comes with crab roe, but because I am pregnant and the roe is not cooked I had to sadly omit it
Sadly, it wasn't as good as I expected. To put it nicely, the flavours were really subtle. Too subtle. It needed a good pinch of salt. The tarragon flavours overpowered the dish as well, it had this licorice flavour I didn't really like. The pasta was fully coated with sea urchin, but I really couldn't taste the sea urchin at all, it just made the pasta really gluggy.Esky ordered the tiger prawns with polenta fries $328 which he said the prawns were ok but slightly undercooked. We both really liked the polenta fries though!

We ordered oyster mushroom and brocolini as sides ($78 for 2). The oyster mushroom was supposed to be mixed with anchovies, but I certainly couldn't taste the anchovies. The brocolini was pretty yummy though.
Overall, perhaps I am used to fantastic western food in Melbourne, I wasn't that impressed with Tattoria Doppio Zero. I wish I could say I love it, but really I don't know whether I would visit again considering there are so many yummy food in Hong Kong. 5.5/10

Good Place
尖沙咀18號河內道K11藝術購物館310-311號舖
Shop 310-311, K11 Art Mall, 18 Hanoi Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
+852 3118 8066

A huge hello from Hong Kong! I am back here for a couple of months and with no job to go to, I have become a lady of leisure ^^ ! What to do in Hong Kong when all of your friends are busy working or taking care of children? Join a course of course! There are a huge number of courses in Hong Kong, their prices are quite reasonable compared to Australia.

I have recently joined ABC Cooking Studio's bread and cake courses and was so happy that I managed to make this awesome chiffon cake that rises! I have tried making chiffon cakes before but they never rise, even when I used 10 eggs! This time we used about 4 eggs and the result was sensational!

Anyway, after the class I was deathly hungry, so the most logical step is to what Hongkie called "find eat". It's pretty hot outside and I refused to venture out of K11, so I decided to see what's on offer.I stumbled upon Good Place, which touted itself as a Japanese home cooking restaurant. This place was quiet, but then again Hongkies don't really have lunch till about 1pm I gathered, so I managed to score a comfy corner booth and ordered a set lunch which included a hot drinkThe lemon tea came in a cute wooden tray and I decided not to add any sugar, just to be ever so slightly healthier. Tea and coffee in Hong Kong are never that awesome so I don't expect much. Whilst I was waiting for my food, the friendly waitress came back to ask me whether I wanted plain white rice or red cargo rice. Wow! I haven't had red cargo rice since coming back to Hong Kong and I really missed it, especially when I always mix brown, red cargo and wild rice when cooking. So of course I had to order the red cargo rice (plus there is no extra charge! I waited about 20 mins (they do warn you it will take that long - this is virtually slow food movement in busy Hong Kong!) and then Hello simple looking but yummy food! Admittedly chicken wings are not the most healthy dish ever, especially this one which is stuffed with potato curry... Mmmmmm nom nom nom...I really like the chicken wings, it's quite succulent, although the potato stuffing itself is a bit dry. I ponder what I can eat the rice with, as Manu would say "there is no sauce". Then I found a little plate of creamy stuff which I thought it was salad dressing, but it was actually green curry sauce! Yay! It has a teeny tiny kick to it and I really liked it.I love how this lunch set comes with miso soup, which has tofu and carrots in it. For a cafe meal, it's actually pretty healthy.

At HKD$97 (including service charge) it's fairly expensive in Hong Kong standard, but I do like that the concept is a little bit different and you can actually relax at Good Place. Next time, I wanted to try their stuffed chicken wings with mushrooms! 7/10