C-amera I-n A-ction in the K-itchen

CIAK In The Kitchen (Central)
Aftering dining at Urban bakery works, dined here as well.


This place is called CIAK (in Italy CIAK is a popular Italian film magazine).
Hence the design incorporates the roll film and the use of the clapper board.


Coincidentally that day, they were filming an interview on CIAK and the chefs!


It was confusing when I ordered because there is only one counter where you order and pay for the bakery items.
When I ordered the guy did not quite know what I wanted (hopefully the people are more trained now).
After I paid, I took the receipt to the counter and the girl did not know what I ordered even though it was printed on the receipt.
If that had been a greedy bugger, that person would have probably asked for a more expensive item.
Anyway I told her what I ordered.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
pesca all'alchermes:

Basically it was a Tuscan brioche infused with alchermes liquer for $25.
Visually it looked like two donuts sandwiched together with cream in the middle.


The brioche was nice and soft but the liquer taste was not that strong and seemed to have stained the brioche red on the sides, but the vanilla cream was nice and you could see vanilla seeds in it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Christmas dinner at ToTT's

ToTT's and Roof Terrace (Causeway Bay)

Thanks to the PRs at Excelsior hotel for inviting me to this Christmas dinner at ToTT's and Roof Terrace.

It was such a lovely evening dining with a nice view of Hong Kong and meeting ET, Sammy Wu the Director of Food and Beverage.

Here was our menu for the night!


It was hard deciding on the mains because the beef one had beef cheeks and the fish one had gnocchi, so in the end I chose gnocchi.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Appetizers from the bar


Foie gras mousse with sourdough:
The mousse was silky with velvety foie gras and delicious wine jelly on top.

tomato panna cotta
The tomato panna cotta tasted better than I imagined because I expected creamy tomato but it was infact a refreshing tomato taste which was non creamy.

seafood terrine
I loved the terrine because of the jelly and the seafood looked nice.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Poached dover sole fillet with truffle gnocchi, artichokes, baby spinach, truffle emulsion

As expected the fish was succulent and soft in a buttery truffle sauce! I was delighted with the slices of truffle on top too.
The gnocchi was nice and mildly firm with some chew to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Desserts from the bar



Ultimately the logs were my favourite especially the white one which reminded me of a cake from UK's Marks and Spencers!


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Buffet lunches at Joe Bananas

Joe Bananas (Wan Chai)

It was a friends birthday so they booked Joe Banana's AGAIN which included the buffet!!


The selection this time was matched to the budget.



I tried the fish which was ok, but slightly dry but what can you expect with a budget like that.


The pasta was a bit oily but edible, again you can't complain with that budget.


The seating was slightly uncomfortable because there were not many tables and most were high tables with stools.

Great noodles, cheap and delicious on Ping Chau Island

Sun Kee Noodle (Ping Chau)

Randomly went to Peng Chau because I have not been to there before.

I did not even bother to search OpenRice because there are not many places to eat on this Island.

This noodle joint near the beginning of Wing On Road caught my attention because it had photographs and the other places did not.


The noodles looked reasonable and for a small noodle joint on an unpopular Island to put effort into doing these high quality pictures, it seemed a possible place to eat.


After looking around, this place seemed the best choice to choose.

Inside the joint, it was quite old and shabby, but sometimes you can get delicious surprises from these places, so you just can't judge by the joint decor itself.



The menu was simple, there were only two types of noodles, one in soup and one in sauce.
The soup ones only cost around $20 and the ones tossed in sauce cost around $2X.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Noodles with cows stomach:


I really regretted not getting the combo because it only costs $6 more and the cows stomach was really delicious so I would have expected the porks trotters to taste good too if I chose that as well!
The noodles were soft and did not have any ammonia taste and the sauce from the cows stomach hung well to it because it was thick and sticky.
The cows stomach was soft and fully flavoured with lots of sauce which had five spice powder and aniseed.
The soup that came with it tasted like the typical wonton soup except that it was clear and loaded with crisp spring onions.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chili oil:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Porks blood with chives:


This was not really what I was expecting because it was literally cubes of porks blood on top of blanched chives with oyster sauce.
I did not really like it because I don't like sweet oyster sauce therefore making the porks blood taste sweet.
After reading the previous reviews, it seems that they grow their own chives.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Soba and Chinese rural pancake

Daily Fresh Soybean Milk (Central)

This was on my eat list ages ago before I forgot about it.

I discovered it again when I was writing a review for their other branch in Sheung Wan and discovered that this place had the rural pancakes.


This place is bigger than the Sheung Wan branch and offers slightly more variety such as curries and sobas but unfortunately does not serve the pumpkin rice like they do in Sheung Wan.





Again the prices are reasonable and the people there are quite flexible, they let me just order plain soba noodles and curry sauce because I did not feel like eating meat that day.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soba with Japanese curry sauce:


The plain soba was only $20 and the sauce was $5 which was really cheap and it had potatoes and carrots in it too.
The soba and curry sauce went nicely together but the curry sauce was a bit starchy because some of the potatoes have disintegrated in the curry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Rural pancake:


The pancake was quite nice, loaded with spring onions and carrots.
It tastes similar to the European pancakes but it was savoury with delicious carrots, and spring onions in every bite.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Celebrate CNY Horse year with Tsui Hang Village

Thanks to Tsui Hang Village and Cuisine Cuisine's representative for sending me Turnip pudding and CNY dessert pudding.

At Cuisine Cuisine, they have a deluxe Turnip pudding with parma ham while Tsui Hang Village has Sweet Osmanthus Pudding topped with Premium Bird’s Nest and the Honey ginger pudding to offer.

All are boxed in festive red boxes, contained in a plastic tub.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cuisine Cuisine's Turnip Pudding with Parma Ham

I like the way the parma ham and Chinese ham shreds were in a separate tub.

The Chinese radish pudding was really nice and packed with lots of preserved sausages.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Tsui Hang Village's Honey Ginger Pudding

The pudding had the typical CNY pudding sticky and chewy texture with a fragrant honey and strong ginger taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Vegetarian Christmas meal at Maya Cafe

Thanks to Maya Cafe for letting me sample this five course vegetarian meal for Christmas.

Before I tried the meal, I tried their a drink from their winter juices menu.
There were two that caught my attention:
Celebration and Heartbeet! but the other names were stylish such as Reboot!

In the end I chose Celebration because it was festive and it had pumpkin which reminded me of Thanksgiving.

The apple and cinnamon in the drink was very prominent while the pumpkin had a gentle earthy tone.
It would be nice if there was more proportion of the pumpkin in the drink.

Official Christmas menu (which was slightly different to what I tried:

Here was what I had in the five course meal:

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Soup:

This was cream of porcini soup served with almond crackers. The soup had a nice consistency that was not too thick or thin with a nice kick of black pepper in it.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Savory puffs:

Next I had the puffs which were both delicious, one was spinach and the other was potato. They were both amazing because it was spiced with my favourite cumin.

The salad on the side was also good because is was dressed in sesame sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Baked veg au gratin:

A wholesome pot of sliced vegetables sandwiched together and baked in delicious olive oil with feta cheese on top!!

This was simple and delicious paired with healthy nutritious red rice. 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Dessert:

Lastly, there was dessert, it was a lovely moist cake made with coconut and flavoured with orange blossom water drizzled with cashew nut sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Hot Chocolate:

There is a drink included and I was recommended the hot chocolate which is raw cocoa that had a rich strong taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

As well as the five course meal, I also tried the Chia seeds pudding which is interesting because it was nutty and light with a nice berry taste.

For new years eve they will have something special, featuring live dancing and mezzesl!!

Maya Cafe:
5 Moon Street
Wan Chai
Tel: 2529 3319