Lucky students at HKU

I was quite surprised that at HKU they had a Vegetarian restaurant because most educational facilities don't have one.
In London, I was expecting universities in East London to have Halal restaurants to cater for Muslims but there wasn't.

At Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant, they have self service lunches which are priced by weight similar to Harvester.
Rice and soup are unlimited.



We arrived there quite late so missed out on the potato and olives.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
My lunch:



Here was what I picked.
My favourite was the bun because it had tasty salted vegetables in it.

The rest of the food was ok but not hot enough.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
mushroom noodles in buk kut teh broth:


These noodles were made with shiitake mushrooms which was interesting but I found the broth rather bland and couldn't taste the buk kut teh.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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Bijas Vegetarian Restaurant (Pok Fu Lam)

Price: $6X
Service: OK
Yummy factor: ok
Napkins provided: yes
Noise levels: None
Glass of water provided: yes
English Menu: Yes
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Queen's Konditorei nougats

Queen's Cafe (Wan Chai)
When branches of Queen's Konditorei 皇后餅店 went extinct in Hong Kong, I thought I saw the last of those nougats, but now they are selling them at Queen's Cafe 皇后飯店.
Thanks to wanttoeat for getting me them.

She got me two flavours:
peanut
chocolate

Both were packaged in these cute cardboard packets which look like Russian dolls.

The chocolate one was really nice and chewy with crispy bits of rice and the peanut one tasted nutty, milky and not too sweet.

One potato, Two potatoes, Sweet potatoes

On my last visit, I came here for chestnuts.
After I wrote my review I found out that they did sweet potatoes as well so I went back for them.

Here is the chestnut roaster which they use to roast their chestnuts.

Interesting grapefruits wrapped in bright striped plastic outside their shop.

The sweet potatoes are in an oven which keeps them warm.
I like these sweet potatoes because they do not have a coal smell and and the skin is clean!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sweet potato:

The sweet potato that was yellow was really sweet with a nice earthy taste and its texture was slightly viscous.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Purple skin sweet potato:

For those who do not like sweet potatoes that are really sweet, the white one is a better pick because it is not so sweet and the texture is denser and starchier.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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China Dragon Arts (Sheung Wan)

Price: $3X
Service: OK
Yummy factor: good
Sweetness levels: just right
English Menu: no
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Oily dim sums at Zaan

This restaurant is located on the first floor of OZO Wesley which stinks of room fresheners that make you dizzy.

After getting your way through the smelly lobby, you enter the lifts to the first floor.

I was actually impressed with this restaurant, the decor was modern and the tables were nicely spaced out.

The people were not talking loudly.

The menu was impressive because it was neatly laid out with English and Chinese, and they give you a nice OZO square barrel shaped pen to use unlike other places where you find yourself scrambling your bags for a pen or trying to take a pen from the table next to you.


Compared to other dim sum places, it is on average slightly more expensive per item.

Anyway, if the quality is good then it is worth it.

Here was what we had:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy turnip cake:


They were called crispy turnip cakes because they were rectangular blocks of turnip cake wrapped in wonton skin and fried.
The sauce that they gave did not really match the turnip cake because usually people have chili sauce and sweet chili sauce is better paired with fried wontons!

The turnip inside was soft and did not contain a lot of preserved sausage but the crispy skin on the outside was too oily.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy taro croquette:

too oily
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rice rolls with crispy bean curd sheet:

It was good that the soy sauce was separate because there were a lot of elderly dining there and most elderlies are not supposed have a high sodium intake.

Inside the roll, it was another beancurd roll which is wrapped with julienne vegetables.
Again it was nice with these sweet tasting vegetables and flavoursome beancurd skin but it was way too oily!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
fish maw, mushroom and chicken:
fish maw soaked in oil!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef tripe in black pepper sauce:

(The picture shows the beef tripe after I forced the oil out of it!!)
It was more like beef tripe steamed in black pepper oil!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
noodles in black truffle:


too oily and the black truffle oil tasted a bit off.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
As a summary, their dim sums were creative but there was no excuse for being too oily because Dragon I does perfect dim sums and none of their items are oily.
I just felt that if this point was improved then it would be perfect because they have nice decor and ambiance.
The staff were really nice and refilled your tea cups, it was just the food that let us down.
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ZAAN (Wan Chai)
Price: $115 per person
Service: good
Yummy factor: too oily
English Menu: Yes
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Amina to thrive in Causeway Bay

Amina² Cuisine (Causeway Bay)

Thanks to Mjqueen7e for inviting me to this dinner at Amina² Cuisine.

It is located in Causeway Bay which is great for people on the Hong Kong side.

Here was what we tried that night:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Light pan fried scallop with wasabi foam

Tender thin slices of scallop delicately flavoured with light wasabi foam
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Special tomato consomme, mozzarella with balsamic vinegar

Mozzarella is always my favourite and it was paired nicely with pieces of tomato consomme jelly and refreshing balsamic vinegar.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roast marinated tuna and red pepper marinade

The tuna was delicious because it was heavily coated with black pepper.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Avocado, melon salmorejo with crispy parma ham

I loved this cold soup because it had a rich melon taste that had a hint of sweetness which went perfect with the crispy pieces of parma ham.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pan fried foie gras, green Apple marinade with spiced foam

The foie gras was refreshingly matched with green apple marinade and milky spiced foam.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Baked Portobello mushroom with common morel risotto

I found the risotto rather and heavy and creamy for my liking.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roast cod fish, cream sauce ink pasta and truffle foam

The cod was delicate and flakey but I found the pasta a bit heavy as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pan fried tiger prawn , bacon sun dried tomato cheese cannelloni with spicy tomato coulis

The prawns were meaty and I loved the cheese cannelloni paired rightfully with tangy tomato couli.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
M6 kobe beef, beet root mash, with wild vegetable, gravy sauce and Himalayan rose salt

The beef was actually the best.
I liked the colourful vegetables and the thinly sliced lean beef which was enhanced by the salt.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chocolate mousse with grand marnier

The chocolate mousse was really rich and the grand marnier balanced it out, however the grand marnier was rather strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Pandan boot-jai-go

Apart from the crepes that I went to Cheung Chau for, anything else I ate were just extras.


Tried this place because they had pandan boot-jai-go!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
pandan boot-jai-go:

Apart from the colouring, there was not much pandan taste.

The texture of the pudding was just like steamed dense flour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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砵仔王 (Cheung Chau)

Price: $5
Service: the sheer look on their faces!
Yummy factor: ok
Sweetness levels: bit too sweet
English Menu: no
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Durian glutinous rice dumplings

Went past this place and noticed these glutinous rice dumplings thinking it was the usual mango filling inside, but they had DURIAN!!!!


I havent seen Durian in them before so got some to try.
They cost $8 each which is slightly pricey.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Durian glutinous rice dumpling:

It was lovely and cold because they got it from the fridge.
The taste of this was so delicious because the dumpling skin was soft and gooey and it was filled with fresh sweet durian meat!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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E - Hap Dessert House (Cheung Chau)

Price: $16
Service: ok
Yummy factor: delicious
Sweetness levels: just right
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Big balls!

In Cheung Chau, there are lots of places selling HUGE BALLS, oops I mean huge fish balls.
I went to this stall randomly because they had five flavours:
Curry, Green Curry, Satay, Gravy and plain.


I chose the gravy because it was not spicy.
I also had a skewer of offal as well.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fish balls in gravy:

To me, fish balls are not really my cup of tea because I often find grounded fish bones in it and there is not more than 10% of fish in the mixture which is why it does not have any fish taste and needs sauces and more MSG in the mixture.
As I was a spolt brat, the fishballs I had were homemade which had more fish meat than flour in them.
Anyway, the fish balls here were ok, at least they did not contain any bones and they were springy and elastic.
The sauce was sweet and savoury which helped flavour the outside of the fishball and because it was so big by the time you got through to the middle there was no sauce left and it just tastes like the ordinary fish ball with a hint of sweetness but no fish taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Offal:

Not my cup of tea because the colour of it was dull and they stank.
Something was not cleaned properly which stank out everything in the pot.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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TUNG YUEN SNACK (Cheung Chau)

Price: $19
Service: OK
Yummy factor: ok
English Menu: no
Air Conditioning: no
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Traditional desserts don't work for me

After trying the strawberry series, came back to try the Durian pancake and this other grass jelly dessert with durian in vanilla sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Durian pancake:


There was a pile of these in the fridge which must mean they were made a while ago.
The cream tasted artificial and the durian meat was not that fresh.

I prefer the pancakes at Chung's because the pancakes here are thick and not so soft.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
grass jelly dessert with durian in vanilla sauce:

The grass jelly dessert fared better because I loved the vanilla sauce with ice crystals that cool you down.
The durian meat was quite heavy but it was the most expensive element in this dessert.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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Price: $5X
Service: OK
Service charge: no
Yummy factor: Could be better
Noise levels: Noisy
Glass of water provided: No
English Menu: Yes
Air Conditioning: Yes
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