Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Let ur stomach bow to Bao Wow and be wowed

Previously tried Little Bao which was nice but expensive.

Anyway, here comes Bao Wow which does a good variety of Baos too.
They cost $58 for two.

[Please note that this review is quite old because I dined here a long time ago]

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Photos of restaurants:

A nice contrast of white and red.




The design of the menu was rather interesting because most restaurants emphasize their logo, but here the logo is on the corner and the 28 which is the street number is much bigger!


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Taro fries:


A bit dry but otherwise ok.
As this review is old, the current taro fries are different.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Thai Fish fillet:





Fried fish fillet, Asian slaw, homemade Thai fish sauce.
The Thai fish fillet was soft and succulent complemented by the delicious purple cabbage slaw followed by a spicy aftertaste because the sauce was quite spicy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pang Pang chicken:


Shredded chicken, cucumber, crushed Sichuan spicy peanuts, homemade sesame sauce.
The chicken was really tasty and I loved the Sichuan peppercorns with the refreshing cucumber and nutty sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Teriyaki Tofu (vegetarian):
Fried egg tofu, shiitake mushroom, teriyaki sauce.




This was my favourite bao even though it had egg tofu which I do not like because the pickled vegetables were tasty and the mushrooms were strong.
I was expecting myself not to like it because Teriyaki sauce is normally sweet but the combination of ingredients in this one really worked.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sesame ginger porkchop:
Fried pork chop, shredded cabbage, homemade sesame ginger sauce.


This was quite nice but more sauce was needed because the pork chop was a bit dry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

So far my picks would be the fish, tofu and chicken.

◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎
Bao Wow:
Shop 2, 28 Tai Wong Street East, Wan Chai

Wan Chai's second Swissbeck bakery

The first Swissbeck in Central has closed but there are now three branches, one in Sai Kung and two in Wan Chai.



Everytime I walked past, there's was cute girl inside which you can hear from the outside asking you to come in and have a look.
Even if you didn't go in, you could hear her say "byeeeee" in a cute way.

This branch is located on the corner and it is quite small.
There were fresh Cronuts delivered that day so it was hard to take photos of the shop.


To be honest, I only like their cronuts.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Vanilla bun:




Basically it was a Chinese bun with vanilla curd in the middle.
The bun was dense and firm (the typical Chinese bread texture with egg yolk brushed on top).
Overall, the taste was ok because of the vanilla curd.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

All points go to the cute girl inside who I did not meet on this visit.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Swissbeck (Wan Chai)
G/F, Shop 2,56E Queen's Road East,Wan Chai

Bright red sweet and sour sauce

The place I wanted to go to was packed so randomly came here because I have not tried it.

You can choose 2 dish combinations or you can choose set meals.


The seating is cramped so you normally have to share tables with others.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sweet and sour fish:

The sauce obviously had a lot of colouring in it but it was not really sweet nor sour so it failed as sweet and sour sauce.
The fish was crispy, soft in the centre and not too salty.
Overall, it was ok, nothing spectacular about it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎

Fried chicken from HOF & SOJU

Chicken HOF & SOJU (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Unfortunately there are not many Korean restaurants on the Hong Kong side so people have to cross the harbour to Kimberly Road which is like a Korean Street.

I wonder if the Koreans like that street because Kimberly sounds similar to the Korean name Kim!


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cabbage salad:





The cabbage was nice but found some black stuff.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried chicken with spring onions:





The chicken was dry compared to this other Korean place I tried and it was spicy when the Korean staff said it was not spicy.
It was mainly chicken breast and chicken wings which was annoying because at this other Korean restaurant it was an equal mix of breast, thigh and wings.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Radish:


Compared to the previous reviews, the amount of radish was stingy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Great food trashed by the box

On my previous visit, the food was disgusting but decided to come back for the rice in lotus leaf.

I was expecting the rice to be wrapped in lotus leaves served in a steamer as shown but it when it came it was placed in an old wooden box.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lovely hygienic wooden box:


I wonder how much bacteria was on the box!!





From the colour it seems that the box is really old.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed rice in lotus leaf with minced pork and preserved vegetables:
Anyway, I just spooned the rice in the middle.


Each grain of rice was coated evenly in sauce and it was slightly oily.


There were lots of dried squid in it which made it delicious.
However the rice could have tasted better because the box had this unpleasant odour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Virgin apple pie mocktail

Stumbled upon this restaurant on the way to Ole's Spanish restaurant so decided to come here instead.

When I arrived, the waitors obviously had the impression I was just venturing up there to have a look but when they were nicer when they realized that I was genuinely going to dine there.

It seems that photos are not appreciated so I am just going to write about the drink.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Virgin apple pie:

The Virgin apple pie drink which was a nice mix of apple juice, pineapple juice garnished with cinnamon.
It was refreshing and not too sweet and tasted evidently of just juice because the cinnamon did not come through.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lettuce with deep vein thrombosis!!



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎

Bare your mind, body and soul for food

Naked Gurume Gyarari sounded like a taboo at first!!


When I heard the name I thought it was going to be wildly exotic with topless sexy male models serving food!
However, when I got there, the entrance leading to the restaurant was quite mysterious because it was plain black and white.
Naked Gurume Gyarari combines art with gourmet food and they have an exhibition room next door.

Here was what we tried.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Black truffle lotus roots chips:

Delicious crispy lotus root slices that came with a lovely dip with Yuzu garlic cream and black truffle paste.
I couldn't quite taste the Yuzu but the truffle was nice and strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hotate with jewel leaves:

Diver scallops, mixed mesclan, crispy bacon bits, tofu cheese vinaigrette.
I loved this dish because it had my favourite jewel leaves which are crisp and sweet paired with the fresh tasting scallops.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lobster risotto bisque:

Smoked turkey cognac reduction, parsley lime risotto, croutons, lobster bisque.
The soup was nice and filling with a substantial amount of risotto, however the saltiness could have been toned down.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tuna tartar:

Poached quail egg, big eye tuna, cucumber, ginger cilantro truffle oil served on a Crispy wonton wrap.
Delicious minced tartar packed with flavours from the ginger and truffle topped with a perfectly runny quail egg.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Toro y 48 months Iberico ham wrap:

Tuna belly, 48 months Iberico cured ham, seagrapes, negi, mixed quinoa and Shiso cress.
The tuna belly was quite similar to the tuna tartar above but it was refreshed by the juicy seagrapes and flavoured by the Iberico ham while the crunch of the Quinoa balanced out the oiliness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fiddlehead fern and shimeji mushrooms (to be launched):

Again another one of my favourites because fiddlehead fern is crisp and sweet, similar to spinach.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Foie gras with guava sorbet:

The foie gras was paired well with blueberries which took away the greasy feeling and the guava sorbet helped to refresh the palette for the main course.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Uni and quinoa pasta:


sea urchin, mixed quinoa, bacon loin, cherry tomato, garlic cream, parmesan and linguine.
The pasta was quite creamy and heavy but the crunchy quinoa helped to balance it out.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Braised tako and bone marrow pasta:

Octopus, bone marrow, tomato, cilantro, quinoa, kombu, bonito and linguine.
The linguine was really tasty in tomato and herb sauce with slices of braised octopus.
On top of the linguine there were two slices of bone marrow which added to the silkiness of the linguine.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Blueberry sushi:


Star anise, Japanese black sugar, muscovaso and pistachio.
The blueberry sushi was fun and creative, it was sponge cake wrapped with thin slices of cucumber which replaces the seaweed.
The taste was surprisingly nice because the cucumber slices and cake were refreshing.
The sauce had some agar in it which made it interestingly viscous
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Naked Gurume Gyarari
1/F, 28 Elgin Street, Central
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