Free Chestnuts at Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong during the festive season

Did you know that Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong gives out free roasted chestnuts at their lobby during the festive season.

#MOfoodies #MOHKGxmas2014 #MOholidays

Clean roasted chestnuts

China Dragon Arts (Sheung Wan)

Walked past this shop after trying Man Mo Cafe, these small chestnuts that were merely bigger than hazelnuts in their shells caught my attention.



These chestnuts are from Tianjin and I was compelled to get them because they were contained in a wooden tub.


I never buy roasted Chestnuts in HK because they are always roasted on the street surrounded in black coal. It STINKS when they do that and I wonder if the person who roasts them gets cancer cos its seriously toxic!
The smell is so bad that it makes me choke and throw up.

The chestnuts were only $36 per pound and you get quite a lot in the bag and they still feel warm.
They are easy to eat as well because the chestnut lining does not stick to it and they taste sweet and not starchy.

I am definitely coming back for more.

Mandarin hotel also does chestnuts but I have never seen that stall.

Maxim's Shandong Chestnut Cake

Maxim's Cake Shop (Central)

It was someones birthday and they happened to get one of the cakes from Maxim's new Chestnut series.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Shandong Chestnut Cake:


Thanks to Maxim's I have already tried the other three chestnut cakes in that series and this was the only one I have not tried.
This is the biggest cake in the Chestnut series with a chestnut puree lattice on the top.
The taste of this one was surprisingly better than the Chestnut and Almond cake because it was mainly soft cake and chestnut puree with the right sweetness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Start a sweet autumn with Chestnut cakes

Maxim's Cake Shop (Central)
Thanks to the lovely PR agency who did a great job promoting the new Chestnut series at Maxims.
It was so nice of them to give us a teaser with a bag of chestnut magnets with a chestnut shaped helium balloon.

They reminded me of conkers, and they would be invincible too because they are made of metal.
Before these chestnut cakes were launched, chestnut to me just meant conkers and chestnut stuffing.

In the Maxim's new chestnut range there were chestnut tarts and chestnut cakes!


Here was what I tried.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chestnut and marshmallow tart:



Delicious butter based tart base filled with chestnuts and a marshmallow centre covered in delicious chestnut cream.
The starchy chestnut cream and marshmallow were a dreamy pairing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Shandong chestnut, purple potato and sweet potato cake mini:
This was my favourite one in the series because it was really pretty, decorated with a ring of purple sweet potato on the outside.


There are three delicious layers in the middle, the top is chestnuts, the second layer is Okinawa purple sweet potato and the third layer is kagoshima golden sweet potato.

There was a good balance of filling to the cakes.
The fillings were really silky and the sweetness was not cloyingly sweet and the sweet potatoes just enhanced it even more.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Shandong chestnut almond crispy cake:



This is seriously for chestnut lovers, a cake filled with crushed chestnut puree, chestnut cream on a delicious crispy base with cotton soft cake in the middle.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Organic chestnut pralines @ Green Dot Dot

I have not really bought from Green Dot Dot before apart from the occasional bottled drinks that they sell.

However when I walked past this time I saw some chocolates that were in the freezer which seemed intriguing because you do not usually need to freeze chocolates.

They had chestnut pralines for $19 per box of four pralines.

I chose the chestnut pralines with sour cherry.

 

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
chestnut pralines with sour cherry:
The shop said that they were meant to be dethawed before eating but I didnt think they would be that hard so I ate them imediately.
When I opened the box, the surface of the chocolate was already wet.

 

Just when I was expecting a hard centre it was really soft and did not seem like it had been frozen, so either their freezer was not working or the filling does not go hard when frozen.

 

The temperature of the praline was not that cold when I bit into it so I think their freezer was not that cold.
Anyway, the taste of the praline was quite nice, the chestnut filling was natural and silky with a plump tart cherry in the middle.

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Delicious filled gourmet croissants @ Le Salon

It must have been my N'th atttempt to try these croissants but they were always sold out as early as 6pm in the evening.

 

 

My second last attempt they only had the Tiramisu flavour and finally on my final attempt there were lots available around 7ish in the evening.

 

I couldnt decide whether to get the caramel or the chestnut so I asked the guy at the counter if the caramel one would be really sweet, then I asked if the Chestnut one would be starchy, I think he got annoyed with me asking too many questions.

Anyway, I rarely get Chestnut products in Hong Kong, because they end up having a really sweet and starchy taste that I do not like.

In the end I got both the caramel and chestnut to try.
When I paid, I gave a $100 note but the guy asked if I had a smaller note, so I found a $50 note and gave it to him.
The cost of two croissants came to $40 so I was expecting $10 in change back, but he gave me $30 back, then I stood there for a while and he realised he only entered one croissant which explains why I have two receipts in the picture.

 

I had already had dinner so I decided to leave the Chestnut last or later because I didnt think I would like it anyway.

When I took the croissants out from the bag, I felt that they were quite oily because the croissant holder had big oil stains on it.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Caramel croissant:

 

The croissant was extremely flakey, it was really hard to eat it without creating a mess.

 

There was chunky flakes of sea salt on the croissant which balanced out the sweetness of the croissant.
The taste of the sea salt did not taste like the usual saltyness there was an element of unami in it and even though the pieces of sea salt were quite prominent the saltyness was not too salty.
As well as salt, most of the croissant was covered in some sort of chewy caramelized syrup which gave the croissant some chewy texture.
It reminded me of the Maltose syrup that is sandwiched in between the biscuit crackers that kids like in HK.

 

The caramel filling was still warm and the colour was a autumn golden brown and it was lovely.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chestnut croissant:

 

 

After finishing the caramel croissant, I was expecting to feel bloated like I do with the usual croissants because the butter/fat content is high, but I did not feel that way, so I started on the chestnut croissant.

 

The chestnut filling was delicious, it tasted how it should taste, natrual and not starchy or cloyingly sweet.
Even the colour of the chestnut filling was 'natural', there were some pieces of chestnut in it too.
The filling was quite thick and viscous.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
As the croissants were really nice I tried the chocolate the next day.
Chocolate croissant:

 

 

Out of the three, this was my least favourite because there was too much chocolate paste inside and I found it too sweet.
I was surprised there was some slight sea salt on it, if there was more it probably would have balanced out the sweetness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★