[Review] Tai O delights found at North Point

If you have been to Tai O, it is fishing village famous for prawn paste, seafood and salted seafood.
At Tai O Tak Fat, they serve delights from Tai O Village as well as local Hong Kong stuff so it makes sense to try Tai O dishes here.
There were so many Tai O delights to choose from on the menu.
They also sell jars of home made Chili oil which can be found on the shelves.
Started with some salted lemon drinks.
For food, tried the signature salted fresh fish which is like Chinese style Bacalhau but you get a whole fish here.
The texture of the fish is firmer and tastes salty so it goes well with rice.
We also had the steamed fish head in two ways, one side was black beans and the other side was chili.
It's nice but too many bones so you don't get much fish out of it however the vermicelli beneath was delicious having soaked up all the delicious flavours from the fish head and the black bean flavouring.
Finished with the dried prawn glass vermicelli pot which was light and healthy.
As well as the food, the staff there are such a friendly and lovely bunch.
They speak English as well and there is an English menu.

[Review] Brunch at Little Bay Croydon

Stumbled upon Little Bay in South Croydon so decided to check it out.

Went in and fell in love with the red velvet decor so decided to dine there.
Little Bay might look ordinary from the outside but you are going to get a big surprise!
The quirky theatrical decor wins it all!

Brunch was a bargain, priced from £5.95-‎£7.95 with a choice of eggs benedict, florentine etc

As I wanted something light I went for the Avocado Toast which was Crushed Avocado with Poached Egg, Cherry Tomatoes, Olive Ketchup and House Hollandaise Sauce.
I think the hash brown was thrown in by accident.

For £5.95, it was more than delicious especially the olive ketchup which was olive paste that complimented everything nicely.
Tea was also included so I felt my brunch couldn't have been more complete!

The only difficulty was trying to capture the beauty of Little Bay as the lighting made it a challenge.

Pictures of Little Bay Croydon.

[Review] Bancone

Pastas restaurants are trending especially when they specialize in freshly made pasta of all shapes and sizes cooked in different ways.
There are many notable pastas restaurants out there like Bancone and Padella so why not check then all out.

Bancone is more upscale located near Charing Cross station.

They are so successful that there are now two branches with one near Soho at the Golden Square.

However the menu is different for both restaurants so I ended up going here because they had the cavolo nero malfalde with taleggio and toasted buckwheat.

The pasta was visually stunning but it lacked taste.
I could taste the grassiness of the kale but the whole thing was just bland so I had to add some salt to it which made it much more palatable.
Although it was not a good first experience, I think I should go back and try the other dishes.


Bancone Michelin Status: Bib Gourmand

[Review] Possibly the Best Hainan Chicken at Mei Mei, London Borough Market

Borough Market is constantly developing and evolving with more and more eateries with the rapidly changing food trends.
There is a new area at Borough Market which houses small joints like Mei Mei.
Mei Mei caught my eyes because of those old green tiles found in the East.

Mei Mei is a Singaporean kopitiam inspired joint headed by Elizabeth Haigh who competed on MasterChef in 2011, and went on to win a Michelin star at the Hackney based restaurant Pidgin.
If you like this type of decor there is another one called Bun House which is HK in the 1960s.

How could I not try Mei Mei because UK has relatively better and fresh ingredients than Hong Kong so I tried their Hainan Chicken!

I was really lucky that day as Elizabeth was there as she had a shoot.

The menu is simple, Hainan Chicken, Fried chicken, Curry and even Congee!

 They even had my favourite soda flavoured with my favourite pandan so that was another bonus!

The soda turned out quite small but it tasted amazing, it was not too sweet with a fragrant pandan taste.

As for the hainan chicken, it was definitely the best!

Why? because they use good chicken from ginger pig Yorkshire chickens and the chef slices it properly giving patrons chicken and not rubbish like Hong Kong's randomly chopped chicken laced with dangerous bone fragments.
Clearly the chef will give you the best and not serve if there is not enough chicken whereas HK will give you wings and extra bony bits which should be thrown away.
Visually the chicken is not bruised or grey.
The most impressive thing was the breast meat was silky soft and moist.
I am so glad I tried this.

Will definitely be coming back for the congee and fried chicken!

[Review] Second visit to Padella

Pastas restaurants are trending especially when they specialize in freshly made pasta of all shapes and sizes cooked in different ways.

There are many notable pastas restaurants out there like Bancone but Padella is different as it is affordable.

It is located next to Borough Market in the heart of a food market!

Padella is so successful that they have just opened another branch at Shoreditch on Phipp Street.
In the meantime, get there early as there are always queues of people!

The menu is simple and concise.

My choices were easy,  as I have already tried the Gnocchi and tagliarini with anchovy butter, the Parpadelle and Stracci were my picks!

There was salt and pepper available but the pasta was tasty so it was not needed.
Water was also provided.

Stracci with Sweet onion, thyme and gorgonzola fonduta:

Started with the Stracci which unfortunately wasn't very hot but as I was really hungry I demolished it quickly.
The onions and thyme flavoured it nicely.

Luckily, I gave this another try and it was amazing because you can really taste the gorgonzola blue cheese and get that mouthfeel from the stracci which was a bit elastic.

Pappardelle with fennel sausages & peppercorn ragu:

The pappardelle with fennel sausages was also good because the herb and sausage meat tasted like the sausage meat you get at pizza hut.
On another visit, I had the Fettucine with chicken livers, marsala and sage.

I would completely blown away by how delicious this was. It reminded me of chicken liver pate which is smooth and velvety.

It was similar to that but with a creamy consistency with fettucine tossed in.

Overall, I would really recommend this pasta.

On another visit, I finally tried the dorset crab pasta and was impressed because there is literally no shell fragments in it as well as being delicious.

The visit for Cavatelli with cavolo nero & new season 2023 olive oil was not cold.

The texture of the Cavatelli was too firm and chewy for my liking.
Food is always slow and cold when they seat you downstairs so next time I will only dine there if I am seated on the ground floor.

Agnolotti of delica pumpkin with Westcombe ricotta and sage butter:

On the sweet side for me.

Bruschetta of Coco Blanc:

Italian beans on toast!!

Desserts at Padella.

Will definitely visit the new branch of Padella and see how it fares!

Gnocchi and Tagliarini at Padella (First visit)

Michelin Status as of 2020: Bib Gourmand