Virgin apple pie mocktail

Stumbled upon this restaurant on the way to Ole's Spanish restaurant so decided to come here instead.

When I arrived, the waitors obviously had the impression I was just venturing up there to have a look but when they were nicer when they realized that I was genuinely going to dine there.

It seems that photos are not appreciated so I am just going to write about the drink.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Virgin apple pie:

The Virgin apple pie drink which was a nice mix of apple juice, pineapple juice garnished with cinnamon.
It was refreshing and not too sweet and tasted evidently of just juice because the cinnamon did not come through.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lettuce with deep vein thrombosis!!



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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Colette's (Central)

Bare your mind, body and soul for food

Naked Gurume Gyarari sounded like a taboo at first!!


When I heard the name I thought it was going to be wildly exotic with topless sexy male models serving food!
However, when I got there, the entrance leading to the restaurant was quite mysterious because it was plain black and white.
Naked Gurume Gyarari combines art with gourmet food and they have an exhibition room next door.

Here was what we tried.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Black truffle lotus roots chips:

Delicious crispy lotus root slices that came with a lovely dip with Yuzu garlic cream and black truffle paste.
I couldn't quite taste the Yuzu but the truffle was nice and strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Hotate with jewel leaves:

Diver scallops, mixed mesclan, crispy bacon bits, tofu cheese vinaigrette.
I loved this dish because it had my favourite jewel leaves which are crisp and sweet paired with the fresh tasting scallops.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Lobster risotto bisque:

Smoked turkey cognac reduction, parsley lime risotto, croutons, lobster bisque.
The soup was nice and filling with a substantial amount of risotto, however the saltiness could have been toned down.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tuna tartar:

Poached quail egg, big eye tuna, cucumber, ginger cilantro truffle oil served on a Crispy wonton wrap.
Delicious minced tartar packed with flavours from the ginger and truffle topped with a perfectly runny quail egg.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Toro y 48 months Iberico ham wrap:

Tuna belly, 48 months Iberico cured ham, seagrapes, negi, mixed quinoa and Shiso cress.
The tuna belly was quite similar to the tuna tartar above but it was refreshed by the juicy seagrapes and flavoured by the Iberico ham while the crunch of the Quinoa balanced out the oiliness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fiddlehead fern and shimeji mushrooms (to be launched):

Again another one of my favourites because fiddlehead fern is crisp and sweet, similar to spinach.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Foie gras with guava sorbet:

The foie gras was paired well with blueberries which took away the greasy feeling and the guava sorbet helped to refresh the palette for the main course.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Uni and quinoa pasta:


sea urchin, mixed quinoa, bacon loin, cherry tomato, garlic cream, parmesan and linguine.
The pasta was quite creamy and heavy but the crunchy quinoa helped to balance it out.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Braised tako and bone marrow pasta:

Octopus, bone marrow, tomato, cilantro, quinoa, kombu, bonito and linguine.
The linguine was really tasty in tomato and herb sauce with slices of braised octopus.
On top of the linguine there were two slices of bone marrow which added to the silkiness of the linguine.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Blueberry sushi:


Star anise, Japanese black sugar, muscovaso and pistachio.
The blueberry sushi was fun and creative, it was sponge cake wrapped with thin slices of cucumber which replaces the seaweed.
The taste was surprisingly nice because the cucumber slices and cake were refreshing.
The sauce had some agar in it which made it interestingly viscous
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Naked Gurume Gyarari

1/F, 28 Elgin Street, Central

Mother's Day cake range by Maxim's

HAPPY MOTHER's DAY!!!



Maxim's have launched a good choice of cakes for the big day.
My favourite is the Diamond Box which is a strawberry cake with a beautiful box and a white chocolate shaped diamond on top with flowers beside it.




The next on the list in terms of taste and appearance is the Flower Cake and the Sunflower Black forest.



I like the flower on the cross section when you slice the Flower Cake and the Black forest is always a popular flavour.



Then there is the sweet Macaron Tower or the Flower rainbow cake to choose from.



For mango lovers, there is the Sunflower mango crispy or the Rose blossom for rose lovers.




If all those choices were not enough, there are also two more fruity and summery cakes for energetic mums:







For down to earth mums, there are Chiffon cakes and for mums with green fingers they will love the Tiramisu Garden!!



It appears that Maxim's was a popular choice for the Mothers day cake.



☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Diamond box:
Thanks to Maxim's PR for sending me a redemption card for the Diamond box.


Basically there was a strawberry chocolate base that was part of the bottom half of the pillow, in the middle it was soft cake with fresh strawberry slices and strawberry mousse.


The mousse was light complemented by the strawberry slices.
On top of the cake, it was decorated with a pretty jewellery box containing a diamond made from white chocolate.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Purple sweet potato icecream at DK

The Dessert Kitchen (Tsim Sha Tsui)

TRIED THIS BEFORE THE GROUP BUY DEAL WHICH WAS WHY I COULD DINE IN.

To be honest, this desserterie has been opened for a long time but non of their desserts captivated me until now.

Currently in HK, there are about 10 shops that do nitrogen icecream.

The most successful one is Lab Made which was later copied by Tutti melon, and now this dessert place has it too.
The others ones are served in high end restaurants such as AVA Splash.

Previously I have attempted to try Tutti melon but they ran out of nitrogen which was such a joke.

Anyway, at Dessert Expert, I was lucky because they had two flavours I wanted to try which are rotated fortnightly.
[Flavours that they had: black sesame and tofu, caramel pudding, white peach, dark chocolate, Okinawa brown sugar, purple sweet potato, cherry tomato and yoghurt and sweetcorn with lava salt.]

[at the time I dined, I did not know there was a special offer on Yahoo which was $20 for two scoops making nitrogen icecream DIRT CHEAP.
http://hk.deals.yahoo.com/hong-kong/offer/148353

I paid $70 for two scoops on this visit.
Compared to Labmade, it is so much cheaper so lets find out about the quality.

As with all nitrogen foods there is a risk of oesophagus burns like the teen girl who loses stomach after drinking liquid nitrogen cocktail in the UK.
So far there are no reported cases in Hong Kong yet.

It appears that they were using Nitrogen to make the icecream before the group buying offer but when I went during the group buying redemption period they just scooped the icecream from somewhere!!


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
purple sweet potato:



It was really nice with a piece of dried sweet potato and sweet potato puree on top.
The sweet potato cracker was chewy and not crispy and the sweet potato puree was velvety but tasted artificial.
Anyway, the icecream was good because it was not too sweet but I did not like the artificial sweet potato taste which ruined it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
cherry tomato and yoghurt:



Surprisingly this was delicious by Hong Kong Standards because most places make savoury items taste sweet.
I went to Ice Cream Gallery for their savoury icecreams but they turned out to be sweet and disappointing.
This flavour was really nice and tasted how I expected it to be.
It was garnished with sundried tomatoes and croutons which reminded me of tomato flavoured icecream soup.
I loved the taste, it was savoury with a hint of tangyness from the tomato which matched perfectly with the yoghurt.
The croutons and sundried tomatoes went well with this flavour because they were related and you could associate it with Italian food or even tomato soup.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Photos of the desserterie:



Bird's eye custard powder!!


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Anna Sui Sweet purple potato icecream

Lab Made Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Laboratory (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Went to the TST branch to get the Anna Sui flavour and the shop was plastered all over with Anna Sui.

The aprons and icecream machinery were also plastered with Anna Sui too.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Anna sui:

I was surprised it did not taste as good as I expected because I had a crappy Sweet potato nitrogen icecream at Dessert Kitchen and it had a stronger sweet potato flavour with real sweet potato puree in it.
In got a bit too sweet towards the end and I did not like the pieces of savoury potato crisps in the icecream.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

New coffees launched at Bei Coffee

Went into Sai Kung again because I was bored and managed to try a new coffee and their apple crumble!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Photos of the coffee joint:


Environmentally friendly tissue.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
apple pie:

I was quite surprised the apple pie was freshly made, the apples were sliced when I ordered it.

There was a hint of coffee in the apple crumble because they like to add coffee to their food and the apples were crisp and tangy so the apple crumble was not too sweet.
The crumble had a nice buttery smell without being too heavy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Coffee with Earl Grey:

This coffee will be launched in May and basically it has earl grey in it.
As a non coffee drinker, I would prefer less coffee and more tea, but it was not that bitter.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Ironman coffee:

Video of the coffee being hand dripped by Bei Coffee's Michael shows the new coffee that will be launched which claims to be a strong one.
The rate of the water being pour in affects the taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The third coffee that will be launched is the Coffee with Rose which would be interesting but I don't like rose.

For more information of this Coffee shop, please see:

https://www.facebook.com/bei.coffeekan