lunchtime cravings for $69 @ Joe Bananas

Havent been to JB's for ages since their kitchen stopped, but recently read mandalay's review and saw they had buffets during lunch.

A wide choice of meats, salads, that were changed rapidly as soon as they were depleted. The tandoori chicken I had with yoghurt sauce was good, but that disappeared fast.

The mussels, which I had no expectations, tasted very juicy without that frozen bland taste. But of course they are the frozen ones. The fried rice was just as spicy as mandalay described.

I enjoyed the coleslaw as much as everything else, proper coleslaw, not the syrupy ones at KFC.

Apart from western food, they also had chinese food such as fish suimai's, mini wrapped glutinous rice with chicken.

The range of drinks was good as well, which were included and soft drinks that were refillable, I had the lime soda. There were also hot drinks such as coffee/ british tea at the drinks table.

Best of all was the piping hot bread and butter pudding. However I thought it had been slightly hongkongnised cos I could taste faint coconut in it. Although there was lumpy custard to accompany it, I was happy to see it.

 

 

 

Egg tarts and sliced cake @ Hoixe

Felt a bit peckish, so I got an egg tart and a cake slice for tea.

I let the egg tart cool down for a bit, so there was less eggy taste in it, the egg tarts here are sometimes ok, and sometimes not.

Today was ok, the pastry was thin, and the filling was ok.
As with all egg tarts in HK, the pastry was very oily, a patch of my A4 sheet went see-through after i placed the egg-tart on it!!!

The cake slice was nice and moist.
Not sure how many days they are pre-made and then packaged, but it seems it has shelf life of a week before the Best before date.

Chocolate truffle cake and Colourful lamingtons @ Pacific Coffee

I love trying new things at Pacific coffee, so far I have tried their summer coolers such as the Cranberry and mixed berry, and the Cranberry and strawberry.

I tried the mixed berry one first, a bit of disappointed, the berry taste was a bit fake. The strawberry one was better, not that artificial. But in general the Chillinos served at Pacific coffee consists primarily of crushed ice and syrup. It doesn’t taste milky. It tastes Ok when you drink it immediately, but as I can’t, I drink it slowly, but when you leave it for a while, the ice and the liquid separates, so your left with flavoured watery liquid at the bottom.

The next thing I tried were the colourful Lamingtons, cube shaped sponged cakes, with cream in the middle, dipped in shredded coconut.
I think there are 8 flavours, passion (orange), mango (orange), blood orange (red), blackcurrent (purple), apple (green), guava (pink), chocolate, coffee (both brown.

The texture of the Lamingtons are nice and soft, with light cream oozing from the centre, the coconut is light and fresh, and not dry due to being in the fridge too long.

The lastest cake I tried was the Chocolate Truffle cake, I was expecting a rich thick centre, but I was greeted with crunchy chocolate in the middle.
There was lots of chocolate mousse on the outside, not the bitter tasting one.
But overall it tasted OK.

Tofu Burger @ Freshness burger

Finally tried the Tofu and avocado burger.

Visited the TST branch, the service there was not as efficient as the one in Causeway bay.
Anyway, the tofu burger was 80% similar to one shown on their advertised picture.

The only discrepancy was the avocado, I was looking for traces of avocado lumps as shown in their advertised picture, I felt that because it was Tofu and Avocado, the amounts of avocado should be as much as the tofu.

Anyway, I like the burgers at Freshness, because of the butter lettuce, the special mayonnaise that is slightly tangy served with the fish burgers.

The tofu burger also had that lettuce and mayonnaise, the only thing I didn’t like was the Teriyaki sauce, and it didn’t go well with it.
The Teriyaki sauce was abit over powering, slighty sweet and strong in smoked aroma, and the mayonnaise was creamy, so I felt it didnt complement that well.

Otherwise, I liked the solid tofu and the mayonnaise.
I thought the tofu size, could have been more generous, perhaps as thick as the beef patties, being a vegetarian burger, the tofu needs to be bigger in proportion to compensate for not eating meat. As well as that if there has been more avocado, the tofu could have stayed at that proportion.

Apart from this, the rest of the food was Ok, the pork burger had the signature thin shredded cabbage, dry and crunchy with refreshing sauce on it.
The Lemon tea surprised me too, light and not too sweet, with a subtle gentle tea taste in it.

avocado sauce, no avocado pieces to be seen

 

Burger in JAPAN: avocado pieces, more in quantity

 

Poster: Tofu + Avocado, same in amount

 

Fried chicken with cheesy coating @ KFC

Got the fried chicken with cheesy coating, it was just like the advertised picture.

I was assuming the cheese bits would be melted during the cooking process, but you can actually see cheddar bits on the coating.
(well actually it is cutlet powder coated in cheese powder, so thats why it didnt melt)

On its own, the chicken isnt that cheesy, only a slight hint from the cheese powder.

The sauce that came with it, was quite nice, strong creamy liquid cheddar, but it was slightly spicy, with red bits of spices in it, probably chili.

The tub of sauce was quite sufficient for the chicken, the plastic used for the tub was good grade, good for packaging but bad for the environment.
But anyway, quite a nice little tub, so I have kept it for future use.

 

Strawberry frappe and Strawberry iced tea @ McCafe

Tried both the strawberry frappe and the iced tea, both mixed with strawberry puree/syrup, it contained bits of strawberry seeds.

Strawberry frappe just tasted syrupy and very sweet, very cold due to the crushed iced.

I thought the strawberry tea was much nicer, frothy foam made from the cocktail shaker.
The sweetness of the strawberry complemented the delicate tea.