Big Jo's from Santa Monica to Hong Kong

Big Jo's is a fast food burger joint offering casual, on-the-go dining experience serving a variety of staple Californian-American choices to the Far East which is opened by recent expats from the US.

There is another branch of Big Jo's in Santa Monica opened by their friend's parents.

With the addition of Big Jo's, it makes them another newcomer of burger joints alongside Beef and Liberty, The Butchers club burger and Caliburger.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cheese steak:

The cheese steak sandwich tasted better than anticipated because it had thinly grilled slices of juicy LEAN steak.
There was melted cheese oozing inside with caramelized onions and mushrooms slices.
It was quite heavy as a sandwich but there was cracked pepper here and there that made it more appetizing.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled Cheese sandwich:

Basically it was a wheat toast with so much gorgeous cheese in it.
The cheese that they used was Cheddar cheese imported from the US.



I was impressed with all that gooey cheese and I loved the orange vivid colour of the cheese.
Each bite was sensational because there was so much cheese in it and each part of the toast was evenly crammed with cheese that was not pungent or heavy!!


All I can say is D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!!!!
I WANT THIS AGAIN ASAP!!!!!!!!!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Big Jo's
Shop C, G/F, Wai Cheong Building, 5-9A Gresson Street, Wan Chai

Snappy waitresses at Shelter Lounge

Shelter Lounge (Sheung Wan)

Originally planned to celebrate a friends birthday here but luckily we chose another restaurant because the waitresses here are snappy.

The restaurant was half empty and I wanted to change tables so I asked the waitress if I could sit near the bar and she screamed back with a "WHY".
It's the first time a waitress has ever questioned me why I wanted to change tables let alone scream back at me which angered me.
Due to the noisy environment if the waitress couldn't hear the customers requests maybe she should have said pardon instead of acting like an uncivilized waitress with a tantrum which was hopefully captured on cctv.

Since I had already ordered the food I decided to stay but it would have been fun if I left the restaurant and someone would have to do some explaining afterwards.
But who knows, they could make up any bullshit to cover their arses.

The breakfast was disappointing and localized.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Breakfast:
The tomatoes had weird evaporated salt on them looking like white powder.

The mushrooms were pathetic with 90% Asian shiitake mushrooms and 10% button mushrooms.

Dry and hard bacon and the sausages tasted weird.



Lastly the potato waffles which I was looking forward to were fried in old oil or fried twice because the colour was not golden yellow, but golden in Chinese standards.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Pinakbet from Cinta J

Cinta J Express (Wan Chai)

Pinakbet is a northern Philippine dish made from mixed vegetables steamed in fish or shrimp sauce.

The one at Cinta J express consists of bittermelon, aubergines, French beans, pumpkin and some pork steamed in shrimp sauce which the bright pink colour is coming from the shrimps.

Overall, it was ok, but the vegetables were not soft enough and the pork was too oily for my liking.

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Sam's home cooked food

Sam's Kitchen (Western District)

I was intrigued by this old and shabby restaurant so went and tried their dinner.

The dining area is upstairs.

Inside the restaurant, it feels quite cosy.


On the wall, I found some really cool fruits jellies displayed there.
(Not sure how long they have been there because the sugar has melted and the colours have faded).

Ordered the tofu because I love tofu, the product shot is exactly the same as the one on the review.
Am I seeing an identical photo?

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tofu:

I really liked this dish because it was my favourite tofu served with spring onion sauce.
The pairing of bland tofu with spring onion sauce was so nice because it enhanced the taste and it went down very well with rice.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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Best grocer in Kennedy Town

Kennedy Town is a big trek for me so I grouped a few places to dine.
I planned going there on the 2nd of June which was a public holiday Monday but couldn't because they don't open on Mondays.

Sundays would be a great day to go because they have fried chicken but they don't have a place to sit or a bar table to facilitate people dining there.

At Sunday's Grocery, they sell fast food, alcohol, condiments and these iceballs which are served in fancy cocktails.





I would have ordered the sandwich but since I was going to have more food that evening I settled for the Chicken fingers.
Next time I am going to try the Jewish penicillin.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken fingers:

The chicken fingers came in a sturdy and trendy box lined with grease paper.
There was kewpie mayonnaise and ketchup to accompany the chicken.

The chicken was perfectly fried and tender inside.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Cool matchsticks:

While I was there, I picked up some really nice matchsticks which were in a cute cigarette packet the same size as a normal matchbox.



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Venchi world in Central

A while ago you could only get Venchi chocolates from specialists shops like The Royal House in To Kwa Wan.
Now, there is a Venchi on Stanley Street, Central serving chocolate, coffees and gelato.








Quoted from the press release: “Founded in 1878, the secrets to Italian premium chocolate brand Venchi are fresh and quality natural ingredients, having developed over 250 unique flavors exuding truly Italian taste, including chocaviar, chocolate cigars, and chocolight series that is low in calories and has no added sugar.”
The shop offers “Pick & Mix”, where customers can pick their favorite chocolates to be measured by weight.











For diabetics, they have Venchi Chocolight which has no added sugar and low in calories as well as a gluten free range.

Mini book metal tin cudotti chocaviar gift box













The creme brulee was my favourite because it had gooey sweet caramel in the middle.
The other too were rich with a heavy cocoa taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Creme brulee:



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
creme cocoa:


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
75% Cocoa:




★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Wild hot kudzu drink @ 葉香留

葉香留 (Wan Chai)

Since my last visit, the Kudzu drink has gone up from $9.5 to $11.

I like the taste of it because it tastes lke boiled bitter watercress and not because of its health benefits.



It probably does not have any herbal benefits because the lady was really moody and depressed like she was going through menopause.
As I said, I went for the taste and not the Qi, Yin Yang BS!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
kudzu drink:



It was warm and savoury with a sweet aftertaste.
You can also add salt to enhance the taste but it seemed that salt was already added.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
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