Swish and Smell your teas in Wine Glasses at [Van Gogh Senses]

At [Van Gogh Senses], they are now serving fine food and cold brew tea pairing.

I found it a unique experience as the afternoon tea is paired with cold brew teas in wine glasses.

So as a tea lover, you get to try all their signature teas with scrumptious treats that are paired with it.

I love tea so it was a brilliant experience as it takes tea to the next level where you can smell and swish it in wine glasses in a stylish way.
You won't find me gulping down wine but you will find me gulping down teas as I am thirsty for tea all the time!!!

All of them were good especially the passionfruit oolong and chocolate mint tea.

Dates: 5, 12, 19, 26 Oct (Fri)

Dates: 5, 12, 19, 26 Oct (Fri)

Time: Start from 3:00pm to 5:30pm

Fee: $698 for two, subject to 10% service charge.
BOOK NOW!
Call (852) 2622 2887 or email 1881@vangoghsenses.com for registration.

[A Happy Pancake] has landed in Hong Kong

This is the good thing about HK, you don't have to travel anywhere if the franchise maintains a good standard.

With these overseas branches, it is best to try it during the first few weeks when the main chefs are there and before they try adapting or changing some ingredients.

Anyway, tried the savoury first as I didn't have breakfast.
It was nice and fluffy with wheat inside it and there was no overwhelming buttery taste and they do not use baking soda.

For the savory choices, I felt that this one was a good choice as the others were mainly omelettes so that's quite a lot of egg in one ago along with the pancakes which are also made of egg.
For the sweet, the signature and the Milk Tea were tempting but chose the milk tea because as it was Japanese, I was giving it the benefit of the doubt that it would not be Chinese style milk tea!!!!!
It turned out to be delicious but it is quite sweet so don't dip too much sauce on the pancakes.
The sauce tasted like a mix of earl grey and condensed milk but as I said it was sweet so I didn't use much of it.
Also on top of the pancakes were granola and dried apples which I liked.

Overall, I loved the souffle pancakes as it didn't have that annoying weird buttery smell and I hope they can maintain the standards.

[A Happy Pancake 幸福班戟]
Shop 203-205, 2/F, Lee Garden Three, 1 Sunning Road, Causeway Bay

Cute joint with affordable Modern dishes at [Sun's Bazaar 茶米]

Discovered Sun's Bazaar as there was a long queue for tea.

It turns out that drinks were half priced so I queued to get one.
The fact that it was half priced meant that I could experiment with different things like adding the milk cap and two different pearls and it didn't cost a bomb. The total was only $22!!!!

I am not a fan of pearls but the taro and Sichuan are unique.
The Sichuan ones really do contain pieces of Sichuan pepper that give the pearls a slight crunch as well spiciness and the taro pearls taste like the dessert mochi balls.

Returned a few days later to try the food as there were so many interesting dishes.

I assumed this was a Taiwanese joint as there was quite an emphasis on the KIKI brand. However on the menu, you will find Hainan Chicken, Rice rolls and even congee.
The decor was young and cute.

Here was what we had: The ricerolls are different as they are served scrunched up because they are made by pushing the sheet to one side.
I liked the one topped with oyster and there was one that came in beef soup that is interesting to try.

On the Hong Kong dish side, they had the popular crispy chow mein topped with vegetables in gravy.

I was surprised the congee was Cantonese style as I thought it was going to Taiwanese. But anyway, it was comforting with chunks of chicken in it.

Next was the Sichuan Dan Dan noodles that star KIKI Noodles.
[A pack of KiKi noodles]

[Sichuan Dan Dan noodles]


The meat sauce and broth had a good spicy kick to it. Moving on to a slight Modern Chinese claypot rice, it was Spanish Chorizo and spare ribs rice served kamameshi style. Chorizo and rice were delicious together.

Last but not least was the Hainan Chicken, a secret recipe from Old Bazaar Kitchen which is why this restaurant is called Sun's Bazaar!!

[Sun's Bazaar 茶米]
Shop 112, 1/F, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty
Tel: 21175903

Off to [Chop Chop] for Chinese Roast

Whenever you go to have Chinese roast, you will always hear the chop chop noise [Chopping] in the background!!
The chop chop noise is meat being chopped up on the chopping board so I guess this is why they are called Chop Chop!!
Chop chop also means hurry up or to be quick in English.

The joint is located on the corner with two entrances and meats are displayed nicely at the counter.

There is an English Menu which make it expat friendly.

Chop Chop's signature dish is the Roast Pork Belly Rice where it first debuted in Stephen Chows God of cookery film aka Sorrowful Rice (#黯然銷魂飯).
It comes with egg and soup as a set.
The rice is a little different as they use premium rice which is harvested once a year at Wuchang city along with some wild rice.
As for the eggs, these come from young hens which produce smaller but nutritious eggs.

It was definitely a fulfilling meal as the meat was lightly charred on the edges but perfectly tender and moist.
Also tried the Chop Chop Char Siew which was leaner compared to the belly.

It really depends on which cut you like, for me I preferred the leaner cut as it was meatier and the charred edges were crispy with a slight stickiness.

To go with drinks, the the Crispy pork belly was just the treat.

The chef definitely had perfect chopping skills as you can see the pork is uniformly square with clean cuts and sharp 90 degree edges !!!!!
The meat and fat was evenly defined so each piece was moreish with a nice crispy texture. The roast was so good that I got some takeaway.

I like the way they use paper boxes like GoodBBQ as you won't get any CFC odour in the food.
It is always good to see Chinese roast going to the next level by becoming modern and presentable.

[Chop Chop 食神叉燒]
Shop 3, G/F, 18 Wang On Road, North Point
Near the Petrol Station

Lovingly made in Hong Kong by [Little Farmer]

I was attracted by the restaurant decor because it gave me the impression they were serving healthy dinners.
The decor was relaxing and made you feel at home.

There was a lot to offer on the menu and the prices were very friendly.
What I appreciate is that they use locally farmed poultry, Black Iberian pigs to local organic vegetables.

Each dish on the menu is inspired by Chinese phrases which portrays the way people communicate and behave in Hong Kong.

Started with fresh juices that cost $18 per glass where no sweeteners are added. There was papaya pumpkin, Jackfruit, red dragon fruit and pumpkin, lemongrass and lime barley water and longan water. The combinations were good and healthy.

For mains, the star of the show are the noodles which come in a rich chicken broth infused with Chinese ham or Miso broth made with Iberican Pig Bones. Both broths were strong and MSG free. The set which a drink and dish only costs $68.

As well as noodles, there is healthy mixed grain rice to choose and here is the meat free option with mushrooms as a main dish.

The pork and ginger was cooked in ginger juice so it had that appetizing ginger fieriness.

Last but not least was the spare ribs which are set alight in front of you. It was sweet and sticky like perfectly roast charsiu.

Definitely coming back for more noodles because I like broths. Next time I will try the mushroom noodles.

[Little Farmer 小農夫拉麵食屋]
G/F, Moon Lok Dai Ha, 169 Sha Tsui Road, Tsuen Wan

Kee Wah Bakery's 2018 Mooncakes

Kee Wah Bakery is a chain of bakery stores in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, founded in Hong Kong in 1938 by Wong Yip Wing (1911–1999), they are well known in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities for their traditional Chinese pastries and delicacies.

It is also famous in the UK because stores in Chinatown would import some and people from HK would send them over. However, in the recent years people have been getting fed up with traditional mooncakes due to health reasons and family sizes are as not big as before.

The traditional sized mooncakes would last you for days because they are quite sickly and during the mooncake season, there are so much mooncakes about that when you share it with people, the chances are that they have already had some.

Before the festival, many bakeries are already selling mooncakes which attracts people to buy new and specials flavours for themselves, then nearer the festival, people will start buying mooncakes for others.

Anyway, there are so many varieties at Kee Wah, ranging from traditional to modern ones that there is a mooncake for everyone.
Thank you Kee Wah Bakery for all these mooncakes.

This year was sweet and refreshing with the new Lemon and Honey with Pine Nuts Egg Custard Mooncake.
Lemon Custard is now my favourite!!

Personally the Lemon was addictive because it was moreish and there was a Western element to it.
[Only available at the Wanchai flagship store].

The 80th Anniversary gift box had my favourite Red Bean paste pastry with 15-year old Mandarin peel, Chinese Ham mooncakes with assorted nuts and the traditional White lotus seed paste mooncake with yolk.

Chinese Ham mooncakes with assorted nuts:

In collaboration with Eu Yan Sang, there is Red Bean paste pastry with Mandarin peel from Eu Yan Sang!!

Red Bean paste pastry with Mandarin peel from Eu Yan Sang:

The Assorted custard mooncakes includes the delicious new Honey with Pine Nuts Egg Custard Mooncake.

In the Assorted Mini Panda Mooncake Gift Box you get mini white lotus with yolk, mini egg custard and mini red bean paste with yolk.