Have a pink Hello Kitty Christmas

Maxim's Cake Shop (Wan Chai)

Thanks to Maxim’s and their marketing group for this lovely Hello Kitty Christmas tree cake.

Who said Christmas trees couldn’t be pink!

As well as the Hello Kitty Christmas tree, they have also launched a Cacao berry cake which I shall post later when I get it.

The Hello Kitty Christmas tree cake comes boxed in a Hello Kitty cake box.

The cake comes with candy stars and white chocolate Hello Kitty pieces to decorate the cake.

After sprinkling the stars and decorating it with the white chocolate pieces, the cake was ready to eat!
(Yes I know I did not put the green thing directly on the top of the cake.)


Basically the cake is a strawberry mousse cake with sponge and strawberry in the middle.

The cake was light and delicious.
There was real grounded strawberries in the mousse with soft cake in the middle layered with real strawberries at the base.

I liked this mousse cake because there was more proportion of mousse than cake.

Fancy sushi rolls to go from Sugo Sushi

Sugo Sushi (Central)

To be honest sushi is everywhere, and it is usually the same old combination of salmon and tuna.
At Sugo Sushi, the shop, decor and presentation is fun and modern.

Two bright glass cabinets with sushi to choose from.


Drinks counter offering a wide range of drinks.

So far my favourite place for sushi rolls with a bit of fusion would be Sugo, Beautifood and School food.
K-Roll is getting there, but I am not a fan of spicy Korean ingredients although they do have a tuna roll which is not spicy.
I chose this place instead of K-Roll because there were so many different rolls and each one can be seen in the cabinet displayed just like cakes!

At Sugo, all their rolls have cute American names and each one is so tempting because there were different styles eg Californian, Mexican, Japanese, Korean etc.
“TUN-O”, “SPY-DA”, “EBI EBI PRAWN”, “YAKINIKU”, “SALV-O”, “UNAG-O”, “GANGNAM”, “TERRY TERRY CHICKEN”, “P.H.A.T TUNA”, “NO WAY JOSE”, “S.F.C ROLL”, “CALI”,“S.C.B” and ‘SAN CHOY BAU’.

The prices of these rolls are quite reasonable and filling ranging from $22-$26 and the size of these rolls are quite big too.

For the drinks, they had my favourite Dry soda range:

Here was what I had:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rhubarb dry soda:

The rhubarb soda was really light and refreshing, it was tart and I liked the way it was clear too which meant no colouring was used.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
NO WAY JOSE:
All the rolls were tempting but I chose NO WAY JOSE because it had taco ingredients in a sushi roll which were Mexican beef, taco sauce, sour cream, cheddar cheese and lettuce!
It was really nice of them to slice the huge roll for me.

As you can see, the cheese, beef, lettuce and sauce were neatly tucked in the centre.
After it was sliced, the roll held together nicely unlike other places.

The roll was really tasty because of the spicy beef and cheese and it was like having chili con carne in sushi form.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Confusing ordering system at Urban bakery works

Previously came here for the icecream but the croissant was sold out.

Came here again for the croissant and luckily all of the flavours were available.

Went to the counter to order and was told that you have to go to the croissant section to get the croissant then you have to bring it back to the counter and pay.
Ok did that, and decided to order a drink too.
They were kind enough to let me order the drink there but I didn't realise you had to collect it at the drinks counter.

Anyway, apart from me, there were other confused customers who were referred to the other counters!~~

With the usual Cafeteria setups, patrons will take a tray and push it along a track to the counter where they pay for it.
But here there was no track so it was not immediately obvious and looked like you ordered from the counter because everyone was queueing there.




Anyway, the croissants were ok luckily, but a little too hard and flakey.
The earl grey tea was how it should be.

Memory of school common rooms

At school, I have always been curious of the Teachers room, the only room that pupils could not enter so when we got our common room it felt really special.
It was a place just for 5th year pupils at secondary school.
Whilst it was exciting progressing on to the 5th year, at the same time I was dreading it because it was the last year of school before heading off to college and not everyone attends college so you don't see them anymore.

Thanks to JJ for inviting me to The Common Room which reminded me of school.

It was a lovely gathering environment for drinks and food.
The small twisting flight of stairs at the entrance was interesting.

Anyway, here was what we tried:
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Pulled pork poutine:Melted chedder cheese and bbq sauce

Addictive fries topped with delicious gravy and bbq sauce with melted cheese, and the pulled pork makes it satisfying.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken lollipopsCoated with maple syrup

Irresistible chicken lollipops with a crispy coating enhanced by the maple syrup and sweet sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Charred sweet corn salad

This was simple and delicious, nachos topped with corn, purple onions and diced tomatoes flavoured with spices.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Flatbreadcaramelized onions, wild mushrooms, goats cheese and truffle

This was a bit like pizza and a bit like crackers topped with delicious goats cheese on top with the fragrant truffle and sweet caramelized onions and earthy mushrooms.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Portobello mushroom slidersgruyere, caramelized onions and avocado

These sliders were cute and I loved the way the mushroom was bigger than the bun.
It was really satisfying and meaty but not heavy because it was just a juicy mushroom in the middle with melted gruyere cheese and guacamole.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Madison lobster roll seasoned with lemon juice and paprika and served on toasted bun
Anyone who loves the lobster roll at IEM will love this!!
Meaty, sweet and fresh lobster in the middle, seasoned by plain lemon juice and paprika.
I will definitely be back for this because it is simplistic and yummy and the bun was really nice because it was not sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bailey’s coffee cheese cake with Bailey’s irish cream with coffee

To finish off we had this cheesecake topped with Bailey's Irish cream which really enhanced the flavours of the cheesecake.
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Chocolate pudding with molten chocolate centre.
If the cheesecake was not enough, we had this delicious gooey chocolate pudding with a molten centre.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For drinks I had the AIRMAIL which had Aged rum, honey, fresh lime juice, champagne and orange flower water.
The name AIRMAIL was so classic because these days people don't send letters and with the internet you don't need to send airmail.
When it arrived, there was folded paper plane on the drink which really represented the cocktail.
The drink was nice and strong to start you off in party mood!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Then I had Tom and Jerry a Christmas drink which had a dash of spiced rum, whisky bourbon and an assortment of spices like cloves, cinnamon, star anis and just a sprinkle of nutmeg, with generous milky foam on top.
It was served warm in a mug.

The drink was gorgeous sipping it slowly having the foamy milk contrasted by the warm drink at the bottom.
It had tones of mint and cinnamon bringing you a lovely season of Christmas!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Feel the warmth and the fun of hotpot

鍋居火鍋專門店 (Sham Shui Po)

Thanks to 鍋居火鍋專門店 for holding this tasting.

I have not had many hotpots before because the weather was always hot.

Luckily, it was relatively cool that day.
For the hotpot broths there were satay, tomato, and silkie chicken inside a pigs stomach.



I adored the silkie chicken broth because it had the natrual sweetness from the chicken and the silkie chicken was good to eat.
Normally I do not eat organs but the pig's stomach was surprisingly nice and tasted like abalone.
While I was there, I saw another table have the young coconut with spring water and free range chicken broth (椰青礦泉水走地雞鍋).
They poured the coconut water in the pot and scraped the coconut meat into the broth to give it a really sweet flavour.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the hotpot and my favourite items were the fried tofu skins which were light and crispy.
They were sinfully delicious after soaking the delicous broth.

There was also fresh mountain yam too.

Then there was the pigs throat which looked interesting!!
As I have never tried it before, I had to try it because I havent seen it elsewhere.
It was similar to eating cartilage and they taste great after dipping it in sauce.

Lastly there were delightful golden preserved eggs which I have always wanted to try.
On my next visit, I will ask for the sauce to be put on the side because it can get quite spicy.

The peanuts (wong fei hung) were delicious as well because they were roasted with sichuan peppercorns which gave them a special fiery kick.

Can't wait to come back!
This was a very special tasting because it was featured on the HK Headlines free paper.

Third branch of Maison Eric Kayser on Caine Road

Maison Eric Kayser Artisan Boulanger Café (Mid-Levels)

Went to the opening party briefly because I had a tasting afterwards.

It was really nice to meet Eric Kayser.

There were so many items rolled out for guests to try throughout the party, starting from savoury bites to sweet items nearer the end.

There was a new chicken sandwich called Le Poulet which has a green chicken filling because of the pesto sauce.
I tried the mini version which was quite nice but the bread was chewy and tough.

My favourite were the eclairs especially the pistachio one because it had a lovely nutty filling in the middle with lovely icing on top.

When we left, we were given some mini financiers, madeleines and macarons.




The Madeleines were sweet, moist and buttery.

I loved the mini financiers because they had a strong almond taste.
They reminded me of Coconut macaroons but with a strong almond taste.



Dining Offers: Tasting Event

English breakfast tea with blueberries

Loyal Dining (Central)

Had some time to kill so came here for a drink.

The pumpkin tea with lotus nuts seemed interesting but ended up ordering the English breakfast tea with blueberries.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
English breakfast tea with blueberries:

The pieces on top did not look like blueberries nor did they smell like blueberries and worst thing was that there was no English Breakfast tea taste and it was too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★