Hong Kong Food Part II : Starbucks

OK, I know this is not exactly what you call your typical Hong Kong style food, but hey, Starbucks anywhere is just too hard to resist, for me anyway. Plus, they always have different stuff overseas!

Dropped by for a tea break on the first day. Immediate thought upon entering : order the cakes which aren't available in Penang! And that is what we did. Above was the Butterscotch Vanilla cake. Overly sweet, better share this with someone (or someones) to avoid getting that sugar overdose.

Check out the huge heap of caramel crunchies on top! Well, it's really nothing more than your average butter sponge topped with loads of cream and caramel. 

Forgot the fancy name of this chocolate cake. Had many layers, not bad according to the sisters. Looked a little too rich for me, though.

Hong Kong Food Part I : Lei Garden

Did a whole lot of research on Hong Kong before going on the short trip two weeks ago. Wanted to make the most out of it since it was our first family trip there. Plus, there are so many good places to eat and too little time to try all of them. Read about Lei Garden on the net and it seemed to be pretty popular among the locals for my fave - dim sum! And how lucky we were to have stayed in a hotel which was directly opposite! I swear I didn't know about this. My eyes seriously bulged when I saw the restaurant right across the street. So off we went for our first (and only) dimsum meal in Hong Kong.

Of course, the egg tarts were amazing. Freshly made each time you order, took around 15 minutes for our second, (yes second, one's definitely not enough) order to arrive.  

The first bite is so warm and heavenly you can't resist having another one. The best part, wait there is NO best part, everything from the crumbly pastry to the egg custard is just great. 

Next were the Siew Mai and chicken feet. Dad enjoyed the chicken feet, though he was a bit stunned by the pale appearance at first, not like the reddish 'Ge Ka' you can find usually.

The siew mai were good as well, very authentic. You could tell from the texture of the skin which wasn't sticky like the ones you get in some coffee shops here. The fresh prawns were a plus too. Our only gripe however, was there wasn't any sweet chili sauce available! So we were kinda bummed, having to eat dimsum on its own! We Malaysians sure do love our chili sauce.

The customary Char Siew Bao. Or BBQ pork buns. Come to think of it, I suppose all the aforementioned dimsum are indeed customary! Ordered this twice, as the little sister loved it.

Wow, can you see how steaming hot it is? That's the steamed rice rolls with pork. Again, the above dish appeared bland without any seasoning, but it tasted not too bad. Something like our chee cheong fun. Without the sauce.

The same dish, but with prawn instead or pork. Forgot to mention they do provide the soy sauce in a little condiment bowl, so you can still dip away if you find it too bland for your liking. They use very big prawns, I must say.

Finally, we asked the waiter whether they had Lor Mai Kai, but they offered us this instead. This is their version of the Bak Chang (glutinous rice dumpling). Don't let the picture above fool you, the chang was HUGE! We were struggling to finish it, but we still did in the end. Heh.

Tsim Sha Tsui Lei Garden Restaurant (website)

Address : B-2, Houston Centre, Tsimshatsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel.NO. : (852) 2722 1636

Opening Hours:

Monday to Saturday & Public Holidays
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Dinner: 6:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

Sunday
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Dinner: 6:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

So that's it for Part I. Part II will be up soon!

Dragon-i @ Queensbay

After picking up my sister from the airport a few weeks ago, we headed to Queensbay for lunch. We live so, so far away (okay, not that far but still worse than Gurney) from the place so this was the one of those rare opportunities to coax dad into going heh) Anyway, when we go to QB we always end up here. We are a LaMian obsessed family. Check out the good food!

Sister's La Mian with Shredded Pork and Preserved Vegetables. 

 

Dad's Sichuan Style La Mian. The soup is 'souper' aromatic (lame joke :S), could smell peanut oil in it, which isn't as bad as it sounds, really. 

 

My LaMian. Forgot the full name but it had a soury taste to it, a lot like shark's fin soup. 

Had a lot of prawns, preserved vegetables, pork slices, the works.

How can you not order the famed Xiao Long Bao at Dragon-i? That's just not right.

 

Little sister's La Mian in soup with pork cutlets. No complaints here.

 

Mom's fried rice with chicken cutlets. Her only gripe: took a little too long to arrive.

 

 I don't know why but we always order this. Tasted great though.

 

Dessert! Glutinous rice balls in mango juice with extra mango. Not mango-ey enough?

 

Too pretty, must take multiple shots.

 

Honeydew sago. Too much ice shavings in this one. So-so.

Overall experience : B+

Apparently there's going to be a new outlet at Gurney Plaza soon, hope they'll have my terracota warrior in shiny armour!

Cakes, anyone?

My mom's friend makes one heck of an Apple Torte. I love the ground almonds in the cake, making it taste more like a pie than a cake. The apples on top are just as nice, not overly sweet like those cafe-type cakes. Slightly browned, though it gives the crust an amazing crisp texture. Once you dig in, the cake simply melts in your mouth, almost like sugee actually. Very filling, one slice is enough as the cake is quite dense. Almost 3 inches in height, I think. (Forgot to take a picture of a cake slice, my bad!)  If there's anyone in Penang who would like to give it a try,  just drop me a private message and I'll send you the contact details. :)

Ooh. What's in the box?

Proud to announce that I've finally had my first taste of Mille Crepe. :D And it was AMAZING. It's actually a cake made up of many, many layers of thin crepes or pancakes, all folded on top of each other. To top it all off, heavenly cream in between the layers, forming a crepe sandwich, sort of. 

The first and probably, the best.

All thanks to Humble Beginnings. Link here.

Blue Reef Fish & Chips II @ Tanjung Bungah

And we're back to Western food. Part I can be found here. 

Cream of Vegetable Soup. Little sister who hates vegetables loved this. Oh, the irony. 

I love me some salmon. Here it's pictured with some couscous and tomato salsa. First time trying couscous and honestly, it tasted pretty good! The greenish sauce wasn't good though. Tasted odd.

Just look at that chunk of salmon!

Dad shared the seafood platter with little sister. Good choice, you can even choose the type of fish you prefer! Comes with calamari, scallops, prawns and loads of chips. Can easily serve 3 people. 

Oh yeah, comes with a salad too. Now that is value for money.

Mom's grilled chicken breast with paprika. 

Creme brulee! First time trying this too. Thought it was going to taste like a flan but I was so wrong. You know the creamy custard they put into cream puffs? Imagine that and ice cream mixed together to form something so light yet rich in flavour. 

 They even torched the top part to give it a shiny layer. Don't worry, it's actually a sugar coating. Crystallised to make it as hard as candy. Awesome.

Home Style Restaurant @ Tanjung Bungah

Quick post for today. This restaurant is located near Blue Reef (which I have blogged about previously here), there's a row of eating places and it's right at the corner so it's not hard to miss. The above is the Braised Tong Bor Pork Ribs with mui-choy and nuts.

Our must have veggie dish - the stir fried french beans with minced meat. I sense a little deja vu here. Oh yeah, we ordered this at XuanXin before! Home Style's version is quite similar, fragrant and crunchy.

And lastly we have the fish meat with yam. Now this I particularly LOVED. The fish was fresh, not to mention the amazing texture of the yam slices! Whole family enjoyed this one. 

Ordered soup as well but forgot to take a picture. My bad. Anyway, great place if you're looking for good Chinese 'home style' food. 

Address & Contact Number
Permai 32, No. 2
Lebuh Lembah Permai 4
11200 Tanjong Bungah
Penang
Tel: +6016-475 9181

The Pasta Shop @ Changi Airport T3, Singapore

We initially planned to get our fix of Popeye's at the other terminal, but were sad to find out it was closed! Bummer. So we hopped on the skytrain that took us to Terminal 3. 

Choosing a place was not easy. So we settled with a few criterion which this Sakae spinoff managed to fulfill. A place with fewer customers? Check. A place which can satisfy my picky sister? Check. Something new that hasn't arrived on Penang shores yet? Check. 

Mom's Fisherman Pasta. Not too bad, according to her. The tomato-based sauce looked a little diluted to me, though. I'd personally prefer it thicker, just sayin'. 

And here's another look at the pasta.

The little sister's Carbonara. Now this was the exact opposite of the previous dish. Thick and creamy, the sauce could be smelled from the kitchen even before the dish came out. Excellent choice for those carbonara lovers. Be warned though. The sauce may taste good during the first few bites, but after finishing half a plate you will feel gravity pulling you down.

Sister's soft shell crab pasta. I guess for this one the sauce would be a cross between creamy and dilute. Crabs were fresh, so that's a plus. The sauce's something unconventional, so more for the adventurous.

Thought the crabs here look like a crown. Heh.

And this was mine. I've been crazy for pesto ever since my mom started cooking her own version of pesto pasta. I ordered the pasta with salmon and tomatoes. Very nice, the dish was filled with pesto, giving it the most wonderful aroma. The salmon was alright, didn't taste very fishy.

And here's my last shot. Overall, the food was okay, but I think my impression worsened because of the extremely slow service. I swear I waited almost half an hour for my food to arrive. What about those who were in a hurry to catch their flight?! Jeez. Honestly, if you're looking for a Pasta de Waraku type of place, I suggest you just go to Terminal 2 and enjoy the real deal over there.