Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Simply delicious glutinous rice

Keung Kee (Wan Chai)

This joint is located in the middle of no where and it is neither close to Causeway Bay or Wan Chai because it is bang right in the middle with lots of roads to cross from either direction.

I have always wanted to visit this place but getting there was a problem.

I am not the person to like Chinese preserved sausages but I will still try them out when there are a lot of good reviews and I often change my opinion afterwards.

I finally made the effort to go when I saw two consecutive ENGLISH reviews because the previous ones were mainly Chinese and not that convincing but the pictures were promising to be on my to eat list.

The glutinous rice is also Eric wan's (尹天照) favourite but he said that this place was not open all the time.
(This was said quite a few years ago)

After reading the English reviews again and again I finally went on a nice cold day!

The restaurant is quite small and cosy, and it was perfect watching the tram go past because it felt like being a scene from an old Hong Kong movie.


At the front of the shop, there is a cooker of some sort that holds the glutinous rice with holes on the acrylic windows to let the steam out.

It does not look appealing but it is surprisingly delicious!


The menu was simple but it really helped reading those two English reviews by GW98 and Paramexics because it frankly is quite scary going into one of these places.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Glutinous rice with an extra preserved blood sausage:
Basically the rice with loaded with preserved meats but I could not get enough of the preserved sausage so ordered an extra one.
I never eat preserved waxed meats because they stink, especially the duck leg but the preserved meats in this tiny bowl of delicious rice did not stink at all!!
The glutinous rice which I dislike was suddenly delicious, it was like every grain of rice was coated with flavour and it was chewy and not too hard.
The spring onions and dried Chinese mushrooms gave it more flavour too.
The tiny bowl was quickly finished leaving you craving for more.
It would be great if the preserved meats could be evenly distributed because I have been here quite a few times and sometimes there was no preserved meat or no preserved duck.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pan fried rice rolls:
Before I ordered them I assumed they were steamed but they were pan-fried as well.
Part of the rice rolls were lovely and crisp, and the middle was soft as it should be.


They were delicious complemented with the standard sesame and red bean sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Congee:


The congee had almost everything under the sun in it such as dried oysters, preserved egg, pork, pork bone but it was slightly disappointing because with all those ingredients, the taste was bland.
The ingredients in the congee were generous, there was nearly half of an preserved egg there.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pork skin:
I am not really a fan of pork skin but I was relieved there was no rancid lard taste to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Squid and meat patty @ Ka Lok's kitchen

家樂小廚粥麵茶餐廳 (Tseung Kwan O)

Went to Ka Lok again for Chinese food.

There is now an attractive rack beside the table for condiments.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Squid and meat patty:
The patty was dry and coarse this time.
It was also quite salty.
The colour was not very appetizing because it was slightly pink even though it was cooked.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Almond snowball treats from Levain Bakery

Levain Bakery (Central)

Thanks to Mjqueen7e for getting me these treats from Levain.


I have always wanted to try LEVAIN in vain but the location is really inconvenient.

Luckily Mjqueen7e was at the Island East Markets and they had a stall there.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Almond snowballs:
Initially I did not know what they were but they were interesting because they were very heavy in terms of weight when you held them.
It turns out, Mjqueen7e had already slipped in a card with the name of this but I was too excited and forgot about the card.
When I took them out, they appeared to be hard with a white icing sugar just like a snowball!

It seemed to be a cookie tasting like a buttery shortbread and it was crumbly.
The buttery and flour taste was quite strong, whilst the floury wheat taste lingered which I really liked because it reminds me of Farley's rusk by HEINZ, a teething biscuit for babies, and yes I can remember tastes as far back as that!
Thanks to these snowballs, I remembered another baby teething biscuit which is harder in terms of texture than Farley's.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Hong Kong's McDonalds: Rice Fun Bowl [Beef]

McDonald's (North Point)

Despite the negative reviews I really wanted to try the Rice Fun Bowl by McDonalds.


There is a choice of chicken of beef.

The beef is bascially the same beef patty they put in the burgers and the chicken is the chicken they use in the grilled chicken burger topped with sweet teriyaki sauce.

I am quite puzzled why it is called a Fun Bowl because it is clearly a box.
So why don't they call it a Rice Fun Box

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rice Fun Bowl [Beef]:
When I opened the box, the portion was quite small.
The broccoli was just broccoli in its most natural form because it was just blanched and the rice just had pieces of sweetcorn in it which was quite nice.
In terms of being healthy just the broccoli and sweetcorn rice is nice and healthy.


However I did not like the beef because the sauce was too sweet.


The rice was not soft enough and frankly there should be more rice because you do not get any other items in the set leaving you quite hungry!
Luckily I used the coupon from the Newspaper to get it at $25 because it is only worth $23 in my opinion.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Future choices??There seems to be an option for pork and others as well as chicken and beef!!
Will we see sausage patty aka pork in the future for the Rice fun bowl??
Will we see curry sauce??


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The memoirs of Czarina

Czarina Restaurant (Mid-Levels)

Thanks to IVY_CWK or I would never have known about this restaurant and I rarely dine in this area because it is too much effort to go there.

When she first told me I had a quick look at the reviews thinking it was another Chinese style Western place for food but then they were closing down after decades of business so I decided to give it a try.
It was interesting because it was Russian Cuisine.

I wondered how the Russian cuisine ended up in Hong Kong because they were not ruled under the Russian Empire.

There is always non authentic Russian borscht soup served in Chinese Restaurants because they use tomato to replace beetroots.

Anyway, when we arrived, there was a crew filming the restaurant.

Inside the restaurant, the decor was quite old and historic by Hong Kong standards, but commonly found in Europe.
The table mats on the table reminded me of the ones used in UK with a cork base.

The menus were mostly handwritten and difficult to comprehend.

It was like Chinese joined up writing.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Russian Borscht soup:
Although it is not authentic, the taste was better than the Borscht soups served in other Chinese restaurants.
There was lots of tomato in it.
As well as this, I also tried the Portuguese fish soup which was much nicer because it had lemon in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Prawn and potato salad:.
The potato salad was surprisingly nice, it tasted natural unlike the other syrupy sweet salad cream HK style salads crammed with sweet tinned fruit.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Seafood platter:

The salmon was a bit dry and had bones.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Baked crab with cheese:

baked crabmeat n cheese
This was extremely delicious and contained real crabmeat and not surimi.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cameraman caught on camera while I happened to be filmed by the Cameraman!

camerman at the corner filming
See corresponding video
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Monday, April 22, 2013

Gigantic desserts galore

THE STEAK HOUSE winebar + grill (Tsim Sha Tsui)

This was a sweet four gathering to try the huge desserts at the The Steak House Winebar + Grill.

As I have not been there before, I made a reservation through their website.

They actually called me back, unlike other hotels/restaurants who have websites with emails to make it look like a website!!!

Anyway, they called me and said that The Steak House Winebar + Grill has a minimum charge of $500 per person so for desserts you can just walk in and dine at their bar section.


Luckily when we got there, the bar was comfortable with sofas and nice chairs.


Although I knew the desserts were huge from the review, I didn't realize they were that big.

I was planning to order the Green Tea fondant, Trifle, Tofu dome mousse, New York on diet or the Caramel pecan turtle and a lobster macaroni.

I thought the four of us could share four desserts each having a quarter, but they advised us that they were huge and we could only manage two.

So in the end we just ordered the Green Tea Fondant and the Trifle.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Green Tea Fondant:


It was huge and had a mega amount of fondant in the middle, it seemed to take forever for it all to ooze out!


The green tea taste was quite strong but the sweetness was quite sweet.
There was vanilla sauce which we did not use.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Trifle:



The caramelized strawberry slices were really nice.
The custard was quite creamy.
It was slightly different to the British version because this one was richer.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Water:
Tap water / hot water was not free but according to some reviews it appears to be free if you persist!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Weird tasting soft pork bones

Felt like having some rice so came here randomly.

While I was deciding what to order, the waitress at the entranced seemed to be keen at luring people in the restaurant.

I wonder if she got commission for luring people in.

I did not expect the food to be good because people will walk in if the food is good and not need to be forced/lured in.

Their steaks were served in bowls with rice which was fun watching how people struggled to eat them with chopsticks and Chinese spoons!

Anyway I ordered their signature pork soft bones with rice.


When I opened the box, it was basically pork ribs in tomato sauce, the stuff they use to make their daily soup.
It was really sweet and disgusting and there was strong ginger in it, which was probably used to cover the taste of bad pork.
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