Exotic high tea with a great view of Hong Kong

Mango Tree (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Tried the scrumptious high tea set at Mango tree which had a great view of Hong Kong.


There were two sets to choose from: Delight or Deluxe for two.
DELIGHT HIGH TEA SET $368
Savoury items:
Deep Fried Vegetarian Spring Rolls
Deep Fried Thai Shrimp Toasts
Grilled Chicken Satay
Pomelo Salad with Crab Meat
Spicy Prawn Salad with Green Mango
Sweet items:
Sago Pudding with Coconut Cream
Thai Pandan Layer Cake
Mango Cheesecake
DELUXE HIGH TEA SET $468

Savoury items:
Crispy Rice Crackers
Chicken in Pandan Leaves
Pomelo Salad with Crab Meat
Spicy Prawn Salad with Green Mango
Barbequed Jumbo River Prawns
Sweet:
Sago Pudding with Coconut Cream
Thai Pandan Layer Cake
Mango Cheesecake

Both high tea sets come with two drinks with a choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic or you can add $100 for a cute bottle of Moet & Chandon.

Choice of drinks:
Cocktails: Pineapple mojito, Watermelon pop
Mocktails: Lychee smash, Coconut treasure
Juices: various fruit juice smoothies, Young coconut

We tried the Deluxe high tea set.

I started from the bottom plate which had the heavier items, then moved on to the second plate which was salads, and then the sweet selection.

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Bottom plate:

Barbequed Jumbo River Prawns
Before I ate them, I could already smell them, the texture of the prawns were nice and springy.
Crispy Rice Crackers
The rice crackers were really nice and crispy, it was light and had minced prawns on top with a hint of lemongrass.
Chicken in Pandan Leaves
The chicken was really tender and tasted really nice with the sauces provided.
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Middle plate:

Pomelo Salad with Crab Meat
The pomelo salad was really refreshing with pieces of delicate crab, there were lots of grated coconut in it too which made it really fruity and fragrant.
Spicy Prawn Salad with Green Mango
This was quite spicy but the green mango balanced it out.
Soft Shell Crab Rice Paper Rolls
The crab was nice balanced by the salad leaves in the wrap.
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Top plate:

Sago Pudding with Coconut Cream:
It had bits of taro, sago and sweetcorn and the sweetness was just right.
Thai Pandan Layer Cake
The pandan taste was nice and strong and the sweetness was soothing.
Mango Cheesecake
For those who do not like cheesecake, you can change it to sticky rice with mango, but the sticky rice goes hard after it cools down which is why it is Mango cheesecase by default as the sweet platter is eaten last.
Personally I really liked the cheesecake here and a lot of people will like it too because the texture was soft like mousse and light.
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Lychee smash:

I loved this because it was refreshing and it had a hint of lime and mint.
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Sticky rice with mango:

The ones I have tried before are purple rice so this was quite different as it was white glutinous rice.
I felt that it tasted better because it was not so heavy and it was warm and soft.
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Lychee homemade icecream:

This was interesting because usually you get Lychee sorbets, the taste in icecream form was interesting.
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Mango homemade icecream:

The taste was a bit milky.
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Coconut homemade icecream:

This was my favourite because the coconut taste was strong and had natural with bits of coconut in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Rhubarb tart to die for

La Rotisserie (Sheung Wan)

Had a craving for potatoes that day so La Rotisserie sprung in my mind and this other place for baked potatoes or curried potato salad.

As La Rotisserie was nearer to the MTR, I checked it out first.
The roast potatoes that day were a bit chunky and the quiches and tarts were really appealing because I have not tried their spinach quiche and the Rhubarb one I definately had to get because not places places do Rhubarb in Hong Kong.

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Spinach and goats cheese quiche:

I avoid goats cheese because sometimes the taste can be really awful but decided to try it anyway.

The goats cheese here was pleasant and it had a sharp taste and a crumbly texture.

The quiche was loaded with delicious spinach and it was really delicious.
I wanted the tomato quiche too because I was craving for that eggy, cheesy filling but there were other things I wanted to try.
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Lentils:


These were lentils and not many places cook it this way so I had to try it as well.
I thought they were vegetarian but it had bacon in it, so its not suitable for vegetarians unfortunately because it was delicious!
For $25, I got a HUGE pot of it which I could not finish!
Although I am not vegetarian or a bacon lover, it definately tasted amazing with the bacon because it added savourness and smokyness to the lentils.
As well as bacon, there were crispy diced onions, tomatoes, and herbs.
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Rhubarb tart:


This tart was divine as well!
There were huge chunks of rhubarb generously placed in every square of the tart.
The combination of the custard egg filling and rhubarb was great and it was not too sweet.
It tastes better than rhubarb crumble too, but if there was one infront of me right now I would want to eat it as well.
I love rhubarb because it has a really sharp taste, it basically looks like a crimson coloured celery stalk but the leaves are poisonous.
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Luckily there was a ledge on their shop window so I could eat it there!

How long will New York Fries last in Hong Kong

New York Fries (Tseung Kwan O)

New York Fries used to be the talk of town with their first branch at Harbour City.

Then they opened another one at Langham place and more popped up.
Unfortunately, there are now two branches left in Hong Kong and I wonder how long they will stay before they pack up!
I used to get New York fries at least once a week but since they localized the fries I don't really like them.
For some reason Hong Kongers do not like fried foods.
Ireland's potato is a good example.
The fries here are meant to be soft but they have now localised them and made them crispier by frying them longer (in my point of view - burnt!!).
The colour of the fries are really dark.
The fries I get from Chinese shops are over done, but this is how the locals like them.
At NYF, they have the usual condiments for hotdogs, eg olives, sauces, onions etc.

My favourite is always the vinegars, and Cajun seasoning.

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Poutine:

Compared to the fries I got when they opened a few years ago, these are much darker.

The cheese is not cheese curds, they are basically cubes of cheese.
The fries were ok, but not as delicious as they used to be because they were too crispy and overdone for my liking.
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Confusing packaging by Lucullus Gourmet Shop

Lucullus Gourmet Shop (Tseung Kwan O)

Saw these cute mini boxes of chocolates at Lucullus so decided to get them.
On each side of the box there is a different product shot which is confusing.

It turns out that the product information is labelled at the bottom of the box!!



The box I got turned out to be Super sour chocolates ( Strawberry flavour).
The taste was ok and it was quite sour as stated with strawberry jelly in the middle.

The Italian truffle cheesecakes were cute, especially the mini size.

Chocomais and Chococrunch by Awfully chocolate

Awfully Chocolate (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Thanks to Mjqueen7e for getting me Awfully Chocolate's chococrunch range.

There are two flavours Chocomais and Chococrunch, both of which I wanted to try.

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Chocomais



When it was opened there was a strong popcorn smell.


There was strong sweetcorn taste infused with dark chocolate, it was slightly savoury too which was nice.
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Chococrunch

The appearance of these looked like dusted maltesers.

The taste was interesting because the centre was biscuit and it was dusted with coffee which balanced out the sweetness of the milk chocolate.

It is similar to eating Tiramisu in dry form.
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Great desserts for sharing @ Spade by Lassana

Great desserts for sharing Jul 01, 2013

Spade by Lassana (Mong Kok)

I first noticed this icecream parlour at Yau Tong's Domain Mall where they mix ingredients into the icecream just like Turkish icecream.

There is a gorgeous sweet smelling scent that you can smell when you are in the shop.

As well as savoury sets, there are sweet sets.
The savoury sets are quite a good deal and the portions are big too.

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Salmon and egg mayonnaise toast:

I couldnt resist showing the croissant sideways so that you can see there are so many layers in the croissant.
The egg mayonnaise was lovely and creamy without being too heavy, and there were delicious pieces of salmon in it.
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Earl Grey tea by Mighty Leaf Tea Brand:

This is another close up picture too because I love the way the teabag is made.
Inside the artisan tea bag, it contains whole tea leaves which give off a really strong leafy taste similar to decent Chinese tea leaves.
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Berries toast:


The toast came with a separate dish of honey but it was sweet enough and did not need the honey.
The toast had a similar texture to the croissant and it had a buttery taste and aroma too.
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Lassana Premium Green tea icecream:

The above is another premium icecream being made.
We tried the green tea with red beans and mochi.

Since the red beans and mochi balls were mixed in the icecream for a period of time, they got a bit frozen so the texture was a bit hard but likeable.
The texture of the icecream was chewy and elastic just like Turkish icecream.
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Anyway, the location is convenient so I will be back for the squid ink salmon sandwich and tea because it really does taste good.

Everyone's a Chocoyou designer

ChocoYOU is an innovative chocolate company based in Hong Kong, allowing everyone to create their very own chocolate with ingredients they like on the chocolate they choose.

Every bar is different, and unique, and 100% personalized.

ChocoYOU and its parent company Chocorati are founded by television-executive-turned-chocolatier Alexis Kwong Alvarez. He started making his own chocolate creations at home, mastering the art of tempering and blending Asian ingredients with chocolate. When he left the media industry in December 2010 after 16 years, he toyed with the idea of starting a chocolate company with the encouragement of his friends to share his passion.

If you have seen their chocolate bars before, each one has its own design to it, even if you don't order it is fun to try it out on their website by choosing the chocolate and the type of ingredients you would like to put on it.

There are so many choices for chocolate from milk, dark to chili or even curry.
The ingredients are really diverse from colourful candies to printing photos on a piece of chocolate plaque.

Each chocolate bar can be named and labelled on the packaging too.

I was really priviledged to get an invitation from Alexis to create three chocolate bars.

It took me two days to choose because there were so many choices and I wanted the taste and the colours to match because as well as taste I am a person that likes to design things as well!

From the choice of chocolates, I reduced it down to three: Dark chocolate, mint chocolate and Curry chocolate.

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Supersupergirl mania:

Clearly this chocolate was more on the design so I chose mint chocolate for this one and I did not want other ingredients to over power the mint taste so I chose candies such as silver balls, silver flakes and marshmallows to go on top. 
This was one of the bars I chose to put a photo plaque on it.
It came out how I expected because silver, white and pink go nicely together.

Ingredients: Mint chocolate, marshmallows, caramel crunch, photo, Silver pieces and silver ball candies.
I have to admit, it was too pretty to eat, hence I have not tried this one yet!
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Dark snowy forest:

I chose dark chocolate for this and I felt that berries taste good with dark chocolate so I picked Raspberry crispy pieces, dried whole strawberries, and dried plums because dried plums are rare.
I also chose coconut flakes and pistachio nuts to complement the red colours of the berries.
In the end I named it Dark snowy forest because it had coconut hence the snow and the forest represented by the green pistachio nuts and berries.
It was really good that each ingredient was generously sprinkled on giving the maximum taste in every square of chocolate.Ingredients: Dark chocolate, Raspberry crispy, dried whole strawberries, dried plums, dried coconut and dried pistachio nuts.

Taste: I loved the taste of this because the dark chocolate and tart berries were really nice complemented by the gorgeous coconut pieces.
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Savoury madness:
It was really good, they also had savoury ingredients which I chose because it would be weird choosing sweet ingredients.Ingredients: Chocolate curry, Himalayan pink salt, basil, oregano, vegetarian bacon bits and crispy chicken noodles.

Taste:
As expected the taste was really really nice and you could instantly smell the curry when you took the bar out from the packaging!
The curry and herbs tasted really nice together and the crispy noodles, bacon bits added to it extra savouryness, hence the name Savoury madness!
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When I got my chocolate bars, it was fun sharing it and showing my designs as well as sharing it because it tasted nice.

Thank you Alexis for this fun Chocolate experience.

To start creating your own chocolates, visit ChocoYOU.com and don’t forget to like them on Facebook here.

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