Japanese kanten 寒天 Dessert @ Hui Lau Shan

After trying black sugar kanten in various desserts, I fell in love with the chewy dark brown jelly.

Kanten is the Japanese word for 寒天 meaning cold weather (according to Wikipedia).

I ordered the White snow with Kanten, which is just basically dessert tofu, mango pieces and mango sauce and Kanten.
I have a hatred for Asian mangoes, or to be more specific, amber coloured ones (phillipine ones). I only eat Puerto Rico mangoes, the one with a greenish/reddish skin.

Anyway, the dessert was presented nicely, I spooned some tofu with the jelly, and just a tiny bit of mango sauce, it tasted really good as expected. The bean taste in the tofu took away that nasty mango taste. The jelly was nice and chewy.

After a while, my mouth got a bit numb and couldnt really taste anything.

I rarely go to HLS, only when they have some hard to resist desserts/snacks, the last time I came was for the pancakes and curry sauce. It is not the sort of place I would go as I dont eat the traditional chinese desserts, and mangoes put me off from coming, so does watermelons, and the usual Hongkie stuff. So I wonder, what is the next dessert/snack that will make me visit again.

 

Melon and lemon jelly drink @ Hui Lau Shan

The summer season is over but the heat is still here, and I need to KEEP cool with a drink.

Usually I can cool myself with the pink grapefruit and jelly, but now the autumn menu is out, so the pink grapefruit is no longer available.

Anyway I got the melon and lemon jelly and it was better than I imagined, melon has always been savoryish, especially with Parma Ham, but as a drink, it worked well with the sour notes of the lemon.

The only thing that could be improved was their slooooooooooooooooow service, I suspect she didnt know how to use the blender, the fruit at the bottom was blended, while the ice remained at the top untouched, then she finally realised it after a while and pushed down the ice, and Hey presto! I finally got my drink after waiting for ages!!!!!!!

Chinese pina colada @ Hui Lau Shan

These days I am beginning to like huilaushan, I have been trying mango free products.
(Mango is a popular in hk, yes i know, but i hate the taste of mango)

This time I got the Golden pineapple with crystal jelly to go with my dumplings from the new four seas dragon.

The layers of the drink was quite pretty, clear jelly at the bottom ( crystal jelly), layered by clear yellow, then coconut milk on top with some pineapple pieces.

After mixing the layers, I found notes of vanilla, then sweetness of pineapple and the crystal jelly.
Overall it was a bit like Pina Colada.

Althought HLS claims to be healthy, yes I do agree fruit is healthy, but sometimes I think too much sugar is not healthy.
I agree sugar should be added, but for natrually sweet fruits such as mango and banana there is no need, infact this is why i like smoothies, as the banana is a good natural sweetener to balance out the sourness of the berries.,

But anyway, I requesteds for less sugar in my pineapple drink, it was fairly sweet, so I would hate to imagine the the sweetness of normal one!!

 

Refreshing fruity ice @ Hui Lau Shan

There are two types, one served with red beans and the other served with sugar jelly.
I ordered the sugar jelly one, because most of the elements I liked such as strawberry, peach, sugar jelly, pearls.

It was presented on a bed of fruity ice, with sugar jelly, strawberry slices, peach slices, dragon eye, pearls and another scoop of fruity ice on top.
Overall, it was pleasant, not too sweet.
The pearls let the dessert down as it was hard and chewy.
I was impressed with the strawberries because they were red and ripe.

The texture of the fruity ice was slighty like sorbet, but since it contained hokkaido milk, it was not so moist, but brittle and dry.
It didnt taste that milky but there was hints of dragon eye in it.

Peach yoghurt drink @ Hui Lau Shan

Nice cooler for the summer. Peach yoghurt with mini dumplings at the bottom.
There is also a pineapple version too, and you can choose either crystal jelly or mini dumplings.

The yoghurt does not taste like Yakult or natural yoghurt, but the whole drink tastes a bit like the pomelo mango dessert.

 

Steamed egg white with Hasmar Jelly @ Hui Lai Shan

There are various versions of steamed egg white, hasmar jelly, bird's nest and the plain one.

The taste of the egg white was bland, but you could taste a hint of ginger, but no milkyness or eggyness.

Anyway, the hasmar jelly and the bird's nest are just added on top if you choose those ones.

Hui Lau Shan Choco-Banana drink

After trying the choco-strawberry and choco-melon drinks, I got the choco banana from this branch to try.

There was a price difference from the two other stores, both Hang Hau and the Po Lam branch cost $29 per cup, but here the choco-series cost $32!
If you check my choco-melon review, the photo shows that it only cost $29 per cup!~
review for the hang hau branch
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2175563
picture that shows it cost $29 per cup
http://static4.openrice.com.hk/UserPhoto/photo/2/278/00FNF13C53CE10779AF703m.jpg

Anyway, I ordered two, the choco banana and choco strawberry to compare the strawberry one at this branch with the Po Lam one.

However when both drinks were made, the drinks where not consistent, there was more chocolate powder in the choco-strawberry than the choco-banana, and the colour of the choco strawberry was evidently darker!
It was even more evident whilst both blenders were side by side, you could see the colour difference.

To my dismay, both of them at a more expensive price than the previous branches did not taste as good at the one at Po Lam.
There was too much chocolate that it was powdery and there was not enough strawberries or banana in it.
It was just like drinking a slushy chocolate smoothie.
Nothing near the amazing choco-strawberry drink at Po Lam.

 

 

Hui Lau Shan Choco fruit drink (Choco-melon)

Previously tried the strawberry chocolate drink which was the best, the banana one would be second best, but decided to try the choco-melon before that.

This branch is newly opened and is opposite the sushi take-away joint.
For beverages it is competing with Gung Cha drinks nearby, and as a dessert shop, it is competing with Chung's nearby.

As expected this drink did not taste as good as the strawberry one I tried first, partly because of the fruit combination and partly to do with the chocolate.

The strawberry one I had at Po-Lam was much better, the chocolate was silky and not powdery like this one.
The one at Po-Lam was more slushy, but the one here had a milkier taste.
The only difference is that the one at Po-Lam was drunk straight away, and this one was not, so the ice in it may have melted.
The chocolate curls given here were not as much as the Po_Lam branch.

Next I am going to try Choco-Banana, which should be good because banana and chocolate always go well together, hopefully the proportion of cocoa powder will be less.