Hello Kitty's Birthday X Maxim’s cakes

Maxim's Cake Shop (Wan Chai)

To celebrate Hello Kitty's birthday, Maxims have made a Hello Kitty series and for Christmas there is going to be a Hello Kitty Christmas cake.


In the Hello Kitty series, there is a Big ferris wheel that comes with cupcakes for $298,
3D Helly Kitty cake $168, Hello Kitty Dessert cups $20 and Hello Kitty rainbow cake $228!

With any purchase of Hello Kitty cakes or cupcake sets, you can get a cute Grey or Red Hello Kitty tote bag for $78 (worth $398)

These cute Hello Kitty cakes will be on sale from 1st November to the end of this year!

Thanks to the PR company for this lovely tote bag that you can really use!!!!
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Hello Kitty tote bag:


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Hello Kitty ferris wheel cupcake set:
It was really fun assembling the ferris wheel which was quick and easy.
The instructions were in Chinese but the pictorial was clear enough and they even had some spare nuts and plastic fixers incase you lose any.


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Hello Kitty cupcakes:

With the ferris wheel, there are eight cup cakes, 4 chocolate and 4 plain (pink icing).
The chocolate one was really nice and had a strong chocolate taste.

As for the plain one, it had a strong buttery taste.

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Deep fried Shao mai @ 東門町

東門町 (Tseung Kwan O)

This joint sells spicy noodles and snacks.

Their first branch was opened in Kwai Hing and now they have just expanded from the West side of Hong Kong to the East side of Hong Kong at EastPoint City.

I opted for the deep fried shao mai because the rest of the food items were spicy.

There was a choice of honey or salt and pepper to go with the shao mai.
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Deep fried siumai:

The outside of the siumai was nice and crispy and the inside was soft.

The suimai was not too salty and complemented nicely with the salt and pepper.
It would be great if there was ketchup or vinegar for dipping.
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Food engulfed in flames

Charcoal Grill SHO-EN (Causeway Bay)

I don't often eat Japanese grilled items because the first thing that springs to mind is skewers of meat covered in thick sticky sweet sauce.

At this tasting, I did not have any expectations, but as I have already tried the other restaurants in this group their food seemed promising.

When you enter this restaurant, you are greeted with a glass tank of cute crawling crabs.
Then behind the bar, there is a grilling corner for the food.
To be more precise, the food is actually cooked in the flames which is fueled by Charcoal.

Here was what we tried:
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Starter platter:

A cute platter of starters including white bait with seaweed beneath it, diced sashimi pieces in spicy dressing and squid in miso sauce.
My favourite was the white bait because the other two were a bit too strong and spicy for my palette.
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Charcoal grilled Okinawan chicken:

Before we ordered this, they were saying how good it was but I assumed it was going to be dry and tough if it was not the chicken thigh part.
Well I was wrong, and the chicken was tender and juicy with an addictive chargrilled taste that was natural and the yuzu dip was addictive.
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Deep fried Okinawan chicken with powdered salt:

These were crispy and juicy wings with one of the bones removed.
The chicken was deliciously piping hot and the coating was thin and tasty.
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Charcoal grilled squid:

The grilled squid was ok but it was not as exciting as the chicken.
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Charcoal grilled thickly sliced AGU pork bacon:

This was thickly sliced bacon that was grilled in charcoal.
As you can see there is an even distribution of fat and meat and the pork was not too salty.
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Charcoal grilled red king Alaskan crab legs:

The crab legs were amazing but a little pricey!
When I ate them, it was oozing with liquid so it was not dry at all.
The shells were really crispy and easy to remove as well.
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Charcoal grilled chicken gizzards:

The fat plump grilled chicken gizzards were also delicious with a nice chew and springy crunch.
I wish they did chicken livers too.
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Black curry rice with Wagyu beef and cheese in hot stonepot:

The rice was interesting because the curry sauce was black with some addition of squid ink.
It tasted slightly sweet with a hint of curry.
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Okinawa Wagyu beef stonepot rice:

The rice had more flavours compared to the curry and I enjoyed this one more because the sauce reminded me of peking duck.
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Pacific saury

Last but not least, the pacific saury which was great for sashimi because the taste was enhanced with wasabi and soy sauce.
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Eel with cucumber

The eel was nicely grilled and refreshing paired with the julienne cucumber beneath it.
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As a summary, their Charcoal grilled items are really good and the ones I recommend are: grilled chicken, crabs legs and thick cut bacon and the rest of the menu comprises of Okinawan food which tastes great too.

Falafel balls

Life Cafe Restaurant and Bar (Central)

Went to the Wan Chai branch and one of the staff seemed to have an attitude problem but the lady in the kitchen was great.

Despite that, I left and went to the Central branch which is much bigger and spacious.

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Falafel curry balls:

The falafel balls were a bit disappointing because they were extremely hard and dry.
Luckily the sesame sauce saved it because it was dry and tasteless.
Inside the falafel there was too much quinoa and not enough chickpeas and beans.
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Back for more curry at Curries Inc

Curries Inc (Causeway Bay)

Came back for more curry because it was quite good on my first visit.
The ones I was hoping to try was not there today so had the beef massaman again and some fish balls in green curry sauce.

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beef massaman:

The portion was a little smaller this time and the vegetables were different, it was cauliflower.
The curry was sweet and not even spicy with lots of soft peanuts and the beef was soft and tender.
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Fish balls in green curry sauce:


The fish balls were too spicy and the sauce had a strong lemongrass taste which I did not like.
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Get your dose of Chinese homely food here

Home-made Cuisine (Wan Chai)

Before this tasting, I have dined here a year ago and just discovered that Red Seasons is associated to this restaurant as well.

Thanks to their marketing department for inviting me to this tasting.

Here was what I tried:

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Tender duck sauteed with preserved red bean curd, hoi sin sauce and broccoli
florets topped with Guinness beer:

Tried this before and it was delicious so I wanted to see if the standards were the same.
Everything tasted as good as before and the duck was in rich sauce with a good mix of fermented red beancurd and the hoisin sauce was great with the rice.
The broccoli was nice and soft this time.
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Tea:

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Lamb chops marinaded in dry rosemary herbs and garlic served with Thai chili’s and coriander lemon grass sauce:

The lamb chops were slightly different to ones I have tried before, perhaps it was a little over cooked because the lamb was not soft enough but it tasted nice with the green sauce which was a mix of coriander and lemon grass.
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Rice:

They had red rice or white rice to choose from.
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Prawns stir fry with dry garlic and chili’s served in a stone hot pot:

Beneath the prawns, there was so much fried garlic, peppercorns and chili.

It would be good if the prawns were gutted but they were lovely and springy.
I was hoping for more explosive tastes from the garlic and peppercorns but somehow it did not penetrate through the prawn shell.
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Minced fish patty and prawns boiled in white radish & fish stock:

The seafood soup was a great way of finishing off the meal because the taste with light with plenty of white radish chunks and glass vermicelli in the dish.
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Warming sweet potato drink with French tarts

I never dine at Hui Lau Shan unless there is something new because the usual choices are too local and it is just mangoes and coconut which I do not like.

Bravo! they now serve some French tarts by Boncolac.





The new baby white peach cheesecake was interesting because the peach was green.



There was blueberry cheesecake as well.

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Hokkaido sweet potato drink:

I wasn't impressed at first because I got my hands sticky when I held the glass cup!

Anyway, apart from sweet potato, there were lots of other goodies in the drink such as purple sweetcorn and you can really taste the sweet potato infused in the drink.
The only disappointment was that it was way too sweet.
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Strawberry tart:

The strawberry tart was really nice, it had plump mushed strawberries on top with a thin layer of custard between the tart and the fruit.
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The bill:



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