Mysterious Black pearl @ BreadTalk

The name of this bread looked interesting because it was called the BLACK PEARL.

There was no indication on whether it was sweet or savoury but by the labelling I am guessing it was sweet because it was charcoal bread filled with black glutinous rice and mochi.

It was black and round.


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BLACK PEARL:
The filling in the charcoal bread was not that even because on the first bite it was mainly glutinous rice.


Towards the middle, there was less glutinous rice and more mochi.


The taste of this was quite nice because the bread itself was not too sweet and it was filled with chewy mochi and glutinous rice which gave it more depth.
The taste of the glutinous rice was quite strong which gives the bread most of its flavour along with its sweetness.
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Getting refuelled with piri sauce for full FLAME

http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2287914

Flame (Wan Chai)

Since my last visit, there are new items on the menu...
Hooray!!

I could eat here everyday!

They now have bottles of chili sauce on every tables, there are three different types, the green one tastes the best but I don't know why they don't have it now on the tables after I took the picture.
The bright red sauce tastes slightly sweet and spicy, while the darker red sauce has a spicy bean taste to it.




They now serve breakfasts, mighty melts and poutine.


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Poutine:


It was quite amusing when I ordered this because no one has ordered it before.
When I asked for it, the lady was quite puzzled, so then I said "you know..poutine, its on your menu", she was like, "I don't know".
When I collected it, it was basically melted cheese on fries, they forgot to give me the chicken gravy as stated on the menu
I was really looking forward to that.
Overall, the fries were quite nice with melted cheese but it was missing the delicious gravy.
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Beef and mushroom pie:


The beef and mushroom pie was delicious and it was filled with rich beef gravy with big chunks of tender beef.
The pastry was baked just right and not too soft.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Chinese style spaghetti bolognaise with ham @ V8

V8 (Wan Chai)

I was reluctantly buy food here when there is no choice.

This time I got the spaghetti bolognaise which I knew I was not going to like but it turned out even worse.
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Spaghetti bolognaise with ham:


The beef was not fresh and it stank, there was bits of grounded bone fragments.
The meat sauce was tasted SWEET, obviously Chinese style.
The spaghetti was so soft that it tasted like canned spaghetti.
Anyway for $23 you can't expect too much.
It is not reccomended for expats.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ ♥'s ☆iPot☆

iPot - The Shabu Shabu Expert (Tin Hau)

This is a newly opened Taiwanese style individual shabu shabu with all you can eat sides and drinks.


Basically you choose a soup base which comes with meat at different prices.

When I read reviews on this place there were three that caught my attention: tomato soup base, Hokkaido soup base and the curry soup base.

As I was not sure how spicy the curry would be I did not choose that, but the tomato was tempting because at the end you can make risotto from it, but in the end I picked the Hokkaido soup.

Basically the food selection is at the front of the restaurant, with the vegetables on one side, drinks and sauces by the window and a separate fridge with dumplings, tofu etc.




I liked the way the tables were designed because you could neatly fit two hotpots on one table.


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Hokkaido soup base:


Here was my delicious hokkaido soup base which was lovely and milky.
I was worried it might be too milky but it was delicious because there was pork broth in it as well.
There were wolfberries and red dates in it too.
After blanching the greens in it, the broth tasted even better and I kept drinking it and it was refilled for me.
I really liked their refills because they refill with broth and not water which makes it bland.
I was quite satisfied with my broth base because I did not need to use the sauce much.
As well as the Hokkaido broth I tried the Japanese sukiyaki soup base which had sake but I found it too sweet and buttery because there was quite a lot of butter in it.
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Meats:





Most people chose beef but I chose the chicken which was the cheapest and I prefer chicken.
The chicken was marinated in soy sauce, garlic and spring onions and it was chicken thigh meat too so it was extremely tender and silky.
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My selections:


Here is a picture my dumplings and vegetables.
The sakura prawn cake was really nice because the sakura shrimps in it were crispy.
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Taiwanese fruit beer (Pineapple):


I have never liked beer but this tasted really nice, it tasted better than other fruit beers at that alcohol volume.
It only had a hint of beer which made it easier to drink and the percentage of alcohol was quite low at 2.8%.
This is not included in the meal but it was worth trying.
There were other flavours too: lychee, mango and grape.
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Ice-cream:


The ice-cream was such a good way to end the hotpot meal because it was therapeutic and cools the tongue.
It probably does not happen to anyone else but I always scald my tongue when I have hotpots.
I would recommend choosing chocolate or coffee because by the end of the hotpot your tongue is so burnt you need a strong taste to revitalize it!
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Specials:


That night they had abalone slices with salad cream.
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Improvements:
Water or tea offered at the drinks bar would be great.
Some of the vegetables could be trimmed because they were like big plants when you got them from the vegetables selection.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I cannot wait to come again and I am gutted I missed the Taiwanese black pudding on the menu because it seems the only place in Hong Kong that you can get Taiwanese black pudding 豬血糕!!
I wonder if it tastes like black pudding...

McDonalds : McCurry Burger Hong Kong

WARNING: The McCurry burger is really spicy!

Tried the new McCurry burger and it was spicier than I thought it would be!!

So be warned.

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McCurry burger:
The McCurry burger is spiked with tumeric, chili, black pepper and cloves.

It is a quarter pounder topped with McCurry sauce and diced onions.
Basically the burger was REALLY spicy and this was the spiciest burger I have tried at McDonald's and it was even spicier than the chili hot wings.
There is a MEGA McCurry too which has a double quarter pounder patty.
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Iced Fresh lemon tea:

Basically this was plain red tea served with lemon slices in it with a separate tub of syrup.
The bitterness of the lemon rind made the tea really bitter and the tea itself was quite bitter.
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Although this was too spicy for my liking I would love to try the burgers at the McDonalds in India such as the McPaneer.

Back at Maya Cafe for more rice pudding

I really love the Vegetarian food at Maya Cafe that I went back for more rice pudding.
The rice pudding this time tasted even better the orange blossom water was stronger this time.

But I will be back again for the brunch and lunch deal again too because it is really good and it has all my favourites included such as juices, pudding and the Mezze.

On this visit, they had bread too.