ChowchowPP's Profile

I am a big fan of bakery products and I love trying bread and pastries from different pâtisserie in every parts and corners of Hong Kong. Passion by Gerard Dubois, Patisserie Tony Wong, Clover Cake & Coffee House, 上野酵素麵包生活館 are just few of the many shops I have visited. Since I am passing by Sheung Wan on my way to work. I decided to visit one of the famous bakeries nearby, Po's Atelier. There were sconuts (scone + donut) and some other sticks and bread when I arrived the bakery at 9:30am. I have tried cronuts (croissant + donut) in The Mandarin Cake Shop and Swissbeck before but I have never tried sconuts. The cronuts were superb so I am guessing that sconut, being a close relative, would be worth trying as well. There are three flavors available: chocolate, cinnamon and raisin. I go for the cinnamon sconut and here is the photo of it:The cinnamon flavor wasn't strong at first bite but it left a nice aftertaste. The sconut is a bit too sweet and it lacks the savor of buttermilk and the slight saltiness which are the to-die-for factor of scone.In terms of texture, it has a thick coat of crispy, sugary crust outside which is more like a biscuit than a scone or a donut. Nevertheless, the inner layer of the sconut resembles the dryness and coarseness of the scone. There were simply no trace of donuts in terms of both flavor and texture...the oiliness perhaps?Anyway, I get a little picky when it comes to pastries. The sconut was still fairly decent overall.…Read More

This summer will probably be the last full summer holiday that I have as a college student. So to make the most of my time, I applied for a 3-week internship at an art studio in Hong Kong Island. Learning arts is always so much fun and I am really looking forward to my job. On top of that, I am sooo excited to try out the different restaurants in HK Island!(I studied in a  highschool near Central/ Admiralty but I didn't have much time to eat around back then ) Finally, today is my first day of work and I guess this also marks the beginning of my 3 weeks food diary I forgot to take photos of my breakfast and lunch so I will just begin my food diary with my dining experience in Fiat Caffe. As a cheese fan, I was immediately drawn by Fiat Caffe's cheese-overload menu and I chose the Goat Cheese Pasta almost without a doubt.The pasta is not served in a creamy cheese sauce as I expected. Instead, it was fried with olive oil, onions, garlic and herbs, and then served in a bowl-like crust which was made of goat cheese. Despite it's appealing outlook, the dish didn't taste good at all. The pasta was too dry; The spicing was extremely unbalanced: the taste of onion was too strong while that of herbs and garlic was too weak (as shown on the photo, there was only a small pinch of herbs and the garlic was almost absent). Also, the pasta was slightly overcooked. The crust was even more disastrous: I suspect it was premade at least 20 mins before because it was cold, thick, hard, unchewable and extremely oily. All in all, it was a rather disappointing meal. Maybe I should try their other signature dishes next time and hopefully the food will taste better. Please stay tuned for more reviews on my food experience around Hong Kong Island!…Read More

After finishing my latest watercolor portrait (which took me 50+ painful hours to do so), I decided visit the art galleries and the small streets in Soho on a Monday morning. Despite being a symbol of the swanky boisterous nightlife side of Central, Soho is actually a very quite and peaceful area in daytime. The sharp visual contrast between the exotic, extravagantly furnished bars and restaurants and the shabby historic neighborhood seems to be blurred under the same peacefulness. Simply seeing the streetviews made me I feel extremely refreshed and content. After the relaxing walk, I decided to have my lunch in Cenacolo. The restaurant is pretty quiet and cozy. It was around 12:30 pm when I went in there and there were only around 3 to 4 tables of customer. Just like most of the western restaurants nearby, Cenacolo provides weekday 3-courses lunchsets including an appetizer, a main course, and a drink or dessert. I chose smoke salmon with mixed salad for the appetizer, mushroom risotto for the main, and iced coffee for the drink. A bread basket was served after I ordered. It was one of the best bread baskets I have ever tried in Hong Kong! The bread was warm. It's crispy on the outside, and instead of having the usual soft or chewy bread texture on the inside, it had a moist and dense texture almost like that of a pound cake. The bread had a rich flavor of fresh herbs. It was a bit too salty alone but it tasted just right after dipping into the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The salad was fresh but it didn't made a strong impression. The smoke salmon was of average quality. The vinaigrette dressing wasn't enough.After finishing the salad, the risotto was served. The risotto was cooked in perfect timing which gave the rice a chewy uncooked texture. It was served with a generous amount of porcini mushrooms. However, the sauce wasn't rich and creamy enough (at least for me). I only ordered my iced coffee after finishing my meal because I didn't want the ice in the coffee to be melting while I was eating. Yet to my disappointment, the coffee was diluted and watery even when it was freshly made. On top of that, the coffee was too sour. It was as bad as the iced coffee I had in Urban Bakery Works in Central Landmark. Overall, the food in Cenacolo is nice and reasonably priced. p.s. I chose to write my dining experience in Cenacolo as my first review because I weren't used to "let the camera eat first" and it was the first time I remember to take photos of the food ;P Sorry for the poor picture quality. I will write more reviews on the food I tried before but unfortunately those will probably be without photos (I will try to describe as detailed as possible to compensate for that, haha)…Read More