Private vegetarian fine dining by Maya Cafe Mediterranean Lifestyle

There are not many places that offer private Western vegetarian fine dining so this is probably the first where you can experience gourmet raw food for up to 12 guests at Modus Vivendi.

The food served is organic, vegan and raw ingredients from France, Italy and local markets in Hong Kong which is brought to you by Maya Cafe.

Each private dinner will be different, usually evolving around a country or regional theme creating fusions of traditional dishes or reinventing dishes.

The theme that I had was Summer in Tuscany.

It cost's $880 with pink prosecco wine or $680 with non alcoholic drinks.

There is a cocktail reception with finger food and raw canapes of:
-Rosemary cups with vegan aioli and sundried tomatos
-mini peppers with carrot tagbouli and basil
-almond and black pepper cups with black olive tapenade and pesto
-sundried tomato dip with veggie sticks

mini peppers with carrot tagbouli and basil

-almond and black pepper cups with black olive tapenade and pesto

-sundried tomato dip with veggie sticks

After devouring the canapes, we were led into this beautiful dining setting located in Modus Viviendi`s boutique.



We started off with a refreshing ganzpacho which was tomato in three ways.
Fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, olive oil and black pepper on a bed of crunchy yellow and black tomato surrounded by pool of rich red tomato soup with rosemary n basil.
I definitely enjoyed a cooling ganzpacho to start with thee strongest tomato taste you could ever taste

Then we has lasagne which was made of delicate layers of yellow zucchini filled with luscious tomato sauce and basil pesto with pecan, wilted baby spinach and cashew nut cheese.
The yellow zucchini was sweet and crisp with zesty tomato sauce in the middle

It was then followed by a cheese platter made with nuts.
Tree nuts cheese platter:
-macadamia truffle white cheese
-cashew goats cheese with rosemary
-smoked sunflower cheddar cheese
-fresh cashew cheese with black pepper



It was mind blowing how good these cheeses could taste, especially the cream cheese and cheddar.
All the cheeses were made with probiotics which helps to turn it into cheese when it is added to the grounded nuts.

For dessert, we had a colourful plate with forest berries, dark chocolate tart and lavender icecream.
The icecream was really interesting, it was light with an extremely viscous texture just like whipped egg white at a freezing temperature.

Maya Cafe Mediterranean Lifestyle:

5 Moon Street, Wan Chai, +852 2529 3319

Lovely private dining fit for celebrities

Amina Modern European (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Thanks to Amina Modern European restaurant for inviting me to this tasting.

Before I came, I did not realise it was a private kitchen so when we were walking down Cameron Road, we over shot it because I was looking for the commercial buildings.
This building requires an entry code access.

When I arrived at the restaurant, we had a really nice spacious private room.

I felt that this place is a really good place for celebrities to dine because it was truly private without windows.

We tried their monthly set menu and oysters from their bar.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bread with aubergine puree:Started off with the bread and aubergine puree.
The aubergine puree reminded me of Mediterranean baba ganoush.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Oysters:
The oysters are from the US and the size of them were huge.
The oysters were opened nicely and did not have any shell fragments in it.
I like my oysters in natural form so I only applied lemon juice to it and the oyster was lovely and creamy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
STARTER: Crab pumpkin salad:
The colour of this was really nice and on top of it there was a poached quail's egg which was mega cute!
It must be hard poaching a quail egg because of its size.
The pumpkin salad was lovely and moist packed with crabmeat on a bed of delicious sprouts.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
STARTER: Beef Tartar:
The beef tartar was nicely done it had finely chopped garlic, black pepper in it.
The cracker on top was extremely delicious and reminds me of a Ryvita.
For improvements I felt that the beef could have been minced more finely because the beef was still in long strips.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Seafood ink soup:
I was really looking forward to this soup because the ink soup I had at Naha did not bear much squid ink taste.
When it came, it was artfully decorated with white cream on top.
The soup tasted really nice because it tasted of fish as well as squid ink which was added when the soup was nearly done so that the taste is still there.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Foie gras, parma ham and hollandaise sauce:
The foie gras was thinly sliced and cooked evenly which was delicious with the parma ham and toast.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Crab cake:
Usually crab cakes are round but this one looked like a croquette.
It had fish roe on top which gave the crab cake more flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Guava sorbet:
The sorbet was interesting because it is usually served for dessert. I believe it was there to act as a refresher and prepare you for the main course.
The guava was really strong you could smell it despite it was frozen and it had real guava in it because I could taste the grounded guava pips.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MAIN COURSE: Beef cheek braised in red wine:
I love beef cheeks because it is the most tender part of beef.
When I put my fork into it, it did not need any effort because it was so soft that you could use your fork to separate it!
The taste of this was delicious with rich red wine sauce and buttery mash beneath it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MAIN COURSE: Chefs special – Scallops trio delight:
Each scallop was seared and topped with toppings, from left to right was dried prawn roe, caviar and carmelised scallop.
The size of these scallops were huge, they were slightly seared and still tender inside.
My favourite was the first because the prawn roe acted like salt with a prawny taste.
The carmelized one was good too because the caramel was glazed onto the scallops giving it a crispy texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Jasmine and osthmanthus tea:
I do not really drink floral teas but this was surprisingly nice because the osthmanthus was not that strong and the Jasmine balanced it out.
It was pretty with osthmanthus flowers floating on top.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert:
The raspberry sorbet was really nice and refreshing, it was lovely and tart followed by the delicious macarons.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★