All your Japanese wishes in one restaurant

Restaurant: 宏 (Jordan)

When I saw reviews on this place I got it confused with another restaurant nearby because the name sounds similar.

However on HKE's review, I found out that they are under the same group.

This restaurant is located near the MTR station so it is really convenient and there is so much variety.

They basically serve udon, cakes, macarons which were all the items I wanted to try.

At the entrance of the shop, it looks like a cake shop because there are glass cabinets with cakes and macarons.


Inside the shop, there were various of posters of strawberries and hokkaido milk which are famous from Furano.

The cream in the cakes are made with hokkaido milk and the strawberries they use are from Furano, hence for the small strawberry swiss roll you only get a quarter of the strawberry because they are quite expensive.

Luckily they have an all day set which includes an udon with either a cake or two macarons and afternoon tea sets which I tried too.

Ordered two udon sets so I could choose the cake and macarons as well and tried the tea set on a different day.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Udon with egg:





I only got the udon because it was not the usual sanuki udon but a thinner type with wheat in it.
The texture of the udon was chewy but got softer as it absorbed the broth.
Overall it was nice and plain without any meat.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Udon with Japanese roast pork:


On the menu it saids ramen, but when it came it was the same type of udon as above.
I was expecting the roast pork to be dry and tough like the ones served in usual Japanese joints in Hong Kong, but the roast pork was amazing that I ate it all, it was soft and thinly sliced.
It did not have an overnight taste to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple tea:


The apple flavouring was strong but it tasted really artificial.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Passionfruit tea:


The passionfruit taste was faint but was not as artificial as the Apple.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Small strawberry swiss roll:


The sponge tasted really eggy and the cream in the middle tasted really milky.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea chiffon cake:





This was my favourite cake because the cake was really soft and there was a good proportion of cake and cream.
The sweetness was just right.
The structure of this cake was really airy just like a coral sponge.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green tea swiss roll:


The green tea taste was quite grassy and it was sweeter than the chiffon version.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bailey's macaron:


I thought the darker one was caramel but it was the Baileys flavour.
The macaron was delicious because you could actually taste the baileys in it.
The shell was chewy and crispy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salted caramel macaron:


The filling in the middle was absolutely delicious because it tasted like buttercream and because it was refridgerated the filling was like butter.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
In general my comments were good but as I have visited this place a few times they could not keep the consistency the same because some items would taste sweeter/stronger/bland on a different visit.

More Filipino food @ Cinta J Express

Restaurant: Cinta J Express (Wan Chai)

Previously this tiny joint used to be Quezon which served DELICIOUS Filipino food.
But now it is Cinta Express.


I love Flipino food, but at this joint the Filipino food is rather expensive, I wonder how the the local Filipinos can afford it.

Anyway, they have a restaurant on Jaffe Road called Cinta J Restaurant which I really hate because it is not Filipino food at all.
They just serve Chinese food there.

On the first day of opening, the lunch choices were half Chinese and half Filipino.

I chose the a la carte Palabok which was the most expensive Palabok in Hong Kong, but saying that there is a new Filipino restaurant in Wan Chai called Kawali Filipino Kamayan Cuisine which also serves Filipino food at expensive prices.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Palabok:


Compared to the Palabok at Jolibees, the portion was much bigger and there was lots of sauce.
The sauce had rich prawn taste and the pieces of pork were nice and lean.
The rice vermicelli was cooked just right, not too soft or hard.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I was quite disappointed the next day because they were back selling Chinese food because Chinese people do not eat Flipino food, and a few days later Cinta J restaurant was short of manpower so this place was temporarily closed.

Improved Shiretoko Zarusoba with more sauce than before

Restaurant: Kurotaki (Causeway Bay)

I was with Mjqueen7e who was just recovering from food poisoning and had not eaten for two days so it was a delicate choice to choose what to eat.

Usually the locals will eat congee, but congee is not as healthy as it seems because it contains a lot more oils than you think.
It certainly does not work for me because it makes me more sick, so usually I go for breads or noodles!
Again, Chinese noodles contains a film of oil on top of the broth.

Finally, came here for soba noodles.

I chose the Chilled Shiretoko Zarusoba with sesame and black garlic oil sauce for the THIRD TIME because this was my third time dining here.
As for my foodie friend, I recommended the plain soba which is just soba in soup. No meat, No oil and it was hot too!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chilled Shiretoko Zarusoba with sesame and black garlic oil sauce:
Compared to my previous visit, there was a perfect balance of black garlic and sesame sauce.


On my second visit, there was too much sesame sauce and not enough black garlic sauce.
See photos on second visit:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2282808
If you see the photos on my first visit, there was practically no sauce at all!
photos on first visit:
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2241213
Anyway, with the appropriate amount of sauce, the noodles were really refreshing balanced by the lovely black garlic aroma.


I loved the crunch from the buckwheat seeds and I wish there were more of them.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Plain soba:


Luckily the soup was quite salty, because after having had food poisoning everything tastes tasteless and there is a craving for salty foods to replace the lost salts and fluids.
As I experienced food poisoning recently I was downing MSG laden soups when I was sick which is something I do not usually do.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I would just like to Thank my Mjqueen7e who had food poisoning for treating me to soba and still dining out with me while she was sick.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I do not normally go back to restaurants twice unless there are new dishes or the items are really good.
So I suppose the soba here is good!

Next stop for glistening sparkling golden desserts

Restaurant: Next Station ... Dessert (Jordan)

I had these desserts a while ago and planned to go again to try the other desserts but I was too lazy and never got round to it, so I might as well write this review now because the crave to try the other desserts have gone down!

The other desserts I planned to try were:
Lemon and white chocolate caramel brulee
Earl grey and Oreo sawdust pudding
Lime and caramel steamed egg pudding

On this visit I tried the nougat parfait and ginger souffle.


The dessert shop was nicely decorated, it was white and simple, with a tree decal on the wall on the far end.


On the walls they have various trains to relate the name of this dessert shop....

Next Station ... Dessert




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Nougat parfait:


The nougat parfait arrived first and I have always wanted to try this because Red Ant had a dessert evening where you can order unlimited nougat parfaits.
The texture was not chewy as I imagined but it was like frozen cream with pieces of crispy almond and caramel.


The sweetness was just right.
While I was eating the nougat parfait, I noticed the caramel sauce was glistening.
(hard to see on the photo)




I was fascinated by the sauce so asked them about it and they even showed me the brand they used.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ginger souffle:


After finishing the nougat parfait, the ginger souffle arrived.
It was hot so had to let it cool down a bit before eating.
The taste of ginger was lovely and strong and it was sweet so I did not use the vanilla flavoured condensed milk.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Curry and Laksa from Macau in Shaukeiwan

Restaurant: 澳門咖喱叻沙 (Shau Kei Wan)

This shop used to be Winton world and now it has transformed into a joint serving curries, laksas, and Taiwanese roti.





There were quite a few items I wanted to try: Tom Yum noodles and Laksa noodles but in the end I tried the Taiwanese roti with beef curry.





The joint is quite small and seats about six people.




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Beef Curry:


The beef curry was thick and the colour was greenish brown.
It was extremely spicy mixed with lots of spices.
It was quite nice but it was slightly too salty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Taiwanese roti:


The Taiwanese roti was really nice because it was not too oily and it was crispy and flakey just perfect for dipping it into the salty curry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Menu:




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★