Boring sweet potato mochi snack @ Panash

Panash (Tseung Kwan O)
Initially came here to get the chocolate souffle but it was rock hard when I used the bread tongs to pick them up.

Got the mochi because it was Sweet potato flavoured.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sweet potato mochi snack:
The sweet potato mochi looked interesting so decided to get one.
Usually the flavours are chocolate, berries, cheese or plain.
I was puzzled why it was not called a pontikege because it was a pontikege and not a mochi.
There was no sweet potato taste or real sweet potato pieces in it which was disappointing.
It just tasted like the plain pontikege so why call it Sweet potato.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Back for more Fujian grub @ 真真美食店

真真美食店 (North Point)
Came back here for more Fuijian grub, it is cheap and delicious, but overall too salty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soup:

Not really my favourite but it comes with the food.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Egg :

I was expecting the egg to be cold and tasteless but it was surprisingly really nice with pieces of pickled Fujian style cabbage.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fish and tofu:

The texture of the fish was really flaky and soft, the only problem was that it was really salty.
The tofu was really firm tofu and quite salty too, both were delicious with the rice but I only had half of it to go with the rice because the taste was very strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Savoury rice:

As usual, the rice was my favourite, it tastes good on its own.
The peanuts were crunchy and fresh.

The boss was sitting opposite me and he told me the sweet chili sauce would enhance the rice which it did, adding some sweetness and spicy kick to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

A new experience at a Taiwanese bakery

TOP POT BAKERY (Prince Edward)

Thanks to Dull for this delicious garlic bread.

TOP POT BAKERY has been the new talk of town.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
French Garlic Soft bread:


Before I took it out of the bag, I could already smell a lovely garlic scent.
The bread had a delicious yeasty taste and chewy bread texture that a good bread should have.
After warming it up, the garlic and herbs were fragrant and it smelt like freshly baked garlic bread from the oven.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
A few weeks later, we decided to go to Cafe Take A Break nearby so we made a visit here.
The bakery is laid out differently to the local ones and they had samples for nearly every bread which was good.

These were my favourites (tried and liked):
Vegetable and cheese bun (natural yeast, pizza powder, cheese).
Purple potato and cheese (natural yeast, purple potato, cream cheese).
Love heart (natural yeast, chocolate, strawberry, wine).
Earl grey pineapple bread (natural yeast, pineapple, walnut, raisin, tea, wine).
Lychee bread (natural yeast, lychee, walnut, mixed nuts, wine).
Chocolate banana lover (chocolate, banana, honey beer).
Okinawa brown sugar (natural yeast, brown sugar, mochi).
Red wine and chocolate toast (natural yeast, chocolate, wine).
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Taiwanese Chinese:
In Taiwanese, yoghurt means Cheese, which explains why you see the Chinese characters for yogurt with Cheese in the English description.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Very salty food @ 金莎堡

金莎堡 (Tsuen Wan)
Went here because the place I wanted to go was closed.

I was not really hungry but needed to eat because I did not have any breakfast or lunch so I chose the Singapore style stir fried instant noodles.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Singapore style stir fried instant noodles:
When it came, it looked promising, generous shrimps, lots of beanshoots and pieces of scrambled egg.
However after taking one mouthful, I found it it extremely too salty for a plate of unsuspectingly pale noodles.

I poured red tea in it which diluted it and made it more pleasant to eat.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Okinawan sweet potato pie from Das Gute

Das Gute (Tseung Kwan O)
Discovered this new Okinawan sweet potato pie on Open Rice.

It basically had purple sweet potato filling and cream inside it so I had to try it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Okinawan sweet potato pie：
The pie looked more like a turnover or a triangle shaped puffed.

I really liked the taste of the pie because it was not too sweet but I didn't find the cream on my first bite as it was on the other side.
But it was really delicious because the velvety sweet potato and light whipped cream tasted deliciously together.
If the pastry had been flakier it would have been perfect.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Rebellious school

School Food (Causeway Bay)
After reading the reviews on OpenRice, my Japanese friend decided to take me to this new restaurant called School Food.

Got there at 2pm and the restaurant was half empty.

There was no one at the counter so my friend went to one of the empty tables, but when we got nearer to the table, they told us to wait at the counter which we did.

Anyway, we were given a ticket and told to wait in some sort of weird language, I am guessing it was Mandarin.
While we were waiting we assumed they were going to clear that particular table but they did not and told us to sit at that same table so I am quite puzzled what the wait was for.

About 90% of the diners were English speaking and we natrually ordered in English but it seemed that they were not proficient with English as my friend asked "Whats the difference between the two dishes?" which was later simpliflied to "whats the difference?".
Then we tried to order the drinks so we asked how big the size of the jar was and whether it was too much for two people and they didnt seem to get it.
We thought what the heck and ordered it anyway because we really wanted to try it.

While I was waiting, most of the staff were looking at their watches because they close at 3pm.
The restaurant was pretty empty and there were a lot of customers outside so I couldnt understand why they did not allow them in.



After sitting there for half an hour, no food arrived and one of the waitresses asked us if we had ordered so we said yes, then a few minutes later, one of them comes out and saids that one of the items was sold out which really annoyed me because the minute they passed the orders to the kitchen, the kitchen should have told them to tell us that it was sold out or within 10 minutes, not half an hour later and imediately after they asked me if I had ordered.
It just seemed that they forgot to pass the order to the kitchen when we ordered.

We left because the item we most wanted to try was unavailable and fact they told us half an hour later and during that time the other two items did not arrive.
Alot of the English BBC/ABC diners had to order or ask in Chinese because the waitors did not really speak English.

Anyway, I might come back again, but hopefully all the items are available because it is really disappointing when you come especially for a specific item and its not available!~

Goodbye Chippy and welcome Shortbread Teas

When I saw this restaurant listed on Openrice, the name Shortbread sounded really familiar so I looked up Shortbread on Openrice and found this other restaurant in Tai Po called The Shortbread Company which I intended to go but it was closed down.

Anyway, found out that the owners of this place used to own that.
The owners Clive and Karin are really really nice!

Shortbread Teas is slightly different from The shortbread company because here they serve teas and cakes.
It is located in Central which is convienient for everyone!

Ironically the location is round the corner from where Chippy's used to be!!!!


Basically there are two entrances to Shortbread Teas, you can either go to the alleyway round the corner from where Chippy's used to be (by the stairs next to the fancy dress shop) or get there from Wellington Street and go down the lovely sky blue staircases which reminds me of Victorian houses with a banister.



If you do go by the stairs method, you would expect it to be like a basement down there but its not because your faced with glass doors at the back, a bit like a patio.
The decor in there is great, its just like home. Although Timeout describes it as "the bedroom of a present-day British teenager", I really liked the tartan curtains and flowery wallpapers.

There are colourful teapots and cute things hanging on the wall.



The teapots are fun because I got a different colour everytime, next time I hope to get the pale blue one, and when the teas come, there is a 3 minute hour glass (each hour glass has different coloured sands too) to indicate when the tea is ready to drink.



The choice of tea is amazing too, there are jars of teas near the teapot displays and there are samples of each tea which you can smell before ordering.



I have been here so many times now, on my first visit, I went mad and ate 2 cakes, 1 scone and a slice of quiche because there was finally some real British stuff and FRESHLY BAKED.
There are still more items to try and the different teas as well.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★:
Victorian Sponge:


I have been searching all over Hong Kong for this cake but couldnt find a place that had it.
They used to have them at Teakha but they've stopped doing them and they were sold out when I got there.
Anyway, I was so happy they had it here.
It normally has buttercream or cream in it but Hong Kong people are not keen on cream.
However you can ask for cream and I put lashings of gorgeous double whipped cream and the Victorian Sponge just tasted amazing because the soft cake, cream and jam was heaven.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Carrot cake:



The carrot cake was delicious because it had walnuts in it too, so it eased my craving for walnut cake as well.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chocolate and beetroot cake:



This cake was moist, rich and extremely chocolately.
The secret of the texture is the beetroot because it makes it moist and gives it a rich colour without using artificial colourings.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cream tea set:


Again, I requested EXTRA whipped cream because the scone was just perfect in everyway!
If you smell the scone, it has that fragrant baked scone smell too.
Basically the best scone in Hong Kong and it tastes better than the scone at Ali-Oli's Bakery Cafe.
I loved it the way the scone is sliced before it is brought to you so you don't end up making a mess when you attempt to slice it.
Everytime they open the oven door to check their baking cakes, there is a gorgeous smell which opens up my appetite again even though I am full.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Breakfast tea:



The breakfast tea was fragrant because I loved the leafy earthy tone.
Highland toffee tea is also really popular and it has a lovely sweet irresistable smelling scent!
I can't wait till Christmas because I tried their Christmas pudding tea which will be launched in Christmas and it was amazing!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ginger cake slice:



I forgot to take a photo of the slice intact because I just couldnt wait to eat it, this turned out to be one of my favourites because the ginger was just right and not too intense yet you could actually see real pieces of ginger in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple pie:



This was made with granny smith apples, and tasted amazingly with cream.
The pastry was the best part too, it was just right and not too thick, the pastry smelt good and was dusted with delicious sugar on top.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bakewell Tart:

I was hesitant about trying this because I never liked Mr Kipling's but after I tried it I had to eat another one!
The tart of soft and chewy with a heavenly almond scent, and there was a thin layer of jam at the bottom.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★