A colourful and nourishing dinner at Azure

Met up with a BBC to have dinner here and found out that it was Azure Restaurant Slash Bar's 8th anniversary hence the special menu.

The menu is colourful and artistic because they have invited street artists and local artists to celebrate on the day.

It is a 4 course set dinner at $588 per person which is served from now until 30th September 2014.

For celebration drinks, there are lots of choices all paired with Absolut Vodka.

My friend has the Absolut pineapple Martini which had Absolut vodka, syrup, fresh pineapple garnished with pineapple.

As a tea lover, I had the Rose Bowl which had earl grey tea in it.
It was made with Absolut citron, earl grey tea, lemon juice, raspberry syrup and garnished with a strawberry sliced like a rose.

I loved this drink because you could taste the earl grey tea as well as the raspberry.

Started off with bread which wass warm, crusty and soft inside.

It was paired with a delicious trio of butters.

From left to right: herbs, truffle and tomato.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Started off with the Compostelle ceviche which is Citrus marinated Hokkaido scallop with chilled tomato tea.

This was light to start off with.
Beneath the scallops was tangy cooling tomato tea.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Then came the Big Apple which was soup.
There was finely chopped celery and radish slices in the bowl and the soup is poured infront of you.





I was really looking forward to this soup because it is healthy and therapeutic!

Apple and celery cannot go wrong.
The soup was made with Granny Smith green apples which are slightly tart hence the addition of some sweet apples. It was like drinking warm apple puree with crunchy bits of celery.
Surprisingly, the soup was rather filling and light because it does no contain any cream, nor was it too sweet or sour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
For the mains, there was a choice of salmon, quinoa (vegetarian) or tenderloin.
I felt that salmon and Quinoa were the best choices.

Norwegian sea:
Sous vous salmon, ink rice cracker, lemon gel, shiso and plum juice

There was no hesitation choosing the sous vous salmon because when it is cooked that way it brings the best taste of salmon.

As expected, the salmon was so soft and silky that it melts in your mouth and the shiso and plum juice beneath it gave it a pretty colour beneath it as well as a complementing zesty taste to it.

On top of the salmon it was garnished with a black squid ink rice cracker which was tasty as well.

Green pleasure
Quinoa, roasted vegetables, radish, walnuts And Greek yoghurt

The presentation of this was beautiful with quinoa either side.
I tried some of the Quinoa and it was soft and tasty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bubbles time
Champagne strawberry macaron

Finished off with a fun dessert, it was a glass of strawberry foam which was bubbly and viscous made with strawberries and champagne.

The ganache in the macaron was infused with champagne.
I loved the macaron because you could really taste the champagne in the chewy ganache.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I was impressed from the beginning to end, everything was colourful, simple, delicious and healthy.
It was my third time here and I still love it!
Definitely a great girls night out!

Azure Restaurant Slash Bar

All you can eat Japanese food

Kaneda has been in operation for at least ten years because when I went to hong kong for holidays, the locals would take me there.

There are no reviews by me at this branch because I did not write reviews back then, however when they started a second branch in Wanchai I reviewed that one.

It is good that they have new items compared to ten years ago and the ordering sheets are in a better format.


Here was what we had:

The fried section had a nice variety of choices including cheese mochi, potato wedges and oyster cutlets.

There was seafood tempura and vegetable tempura as well.


In the sushi section, the seared salmon was my favourite and the soft shell avocado rolls.


There were handrolls too which we did not try.

For sashimi, the abalone slices, tuna is also worth trying because they were fresh and tasty.

Then we tried the cooked items.

The stir fried vegetables had a nice hint of freshly cracked black pepper.


For salads, there was tofu, duck salad and burdock.



For carbs, I had the soba noodles which were refreshing.

For dessert, they have mochi icecream which comes in various flavours.

They also have fruit sorbets as well.


Mondays to Thursday are cheaper so these are the days to come!!!

Restaurant:
Kaneda
Room 302, 3/F, Multifield Plaza, 3-7A Prat Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

Exclusive cucumber gelato flavour by XTC

Attended the launch of Dettol's all day fresh cucumber bodywash where you can get free cucumber gelato exclusively by XTC if you download the 「All Day Fresh」app to make a movie and share it on Facebook.

The nifty app is quite cool because it has Priscilla Wong in the background of the video where you can pretend to interactive with her.

The gelato booth will be outside the world trade centre between 12pm to 8pm on the 3rd of August.
If you miss the booth, you can simply share the video on Facebook and get a coupon for the gelato.




Photobombed by the guy in the middle!



I tried the cucumber gelato and it was refreshing and cooling with real pieces of cucumber in it.
The sweetness was just right.



XTC Gelato (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Dolci Sogni is Out of place

Dolci Sogni opened ages ago but it did not stand out on that street because the front of this shop is black and inside it is black as well.

It is strange because on that street, the rest of the eateries are local cha chaan tengs, noodle shops and places for affordable local grub so this boutique style joint seemed out of place on a shabby street.
Personally, I think they could be in a better location such as Causeway Bay or Central.

Tried their pistachio nitrogen icecream.







I found the icecream too sweet and it tasted powdery with a strange aftertaste which I believe is the PreGel pannacreama they are using.



I will probably come back and try their savoury items.

◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎

Dolci Sogni (Wan Chai)

Simply not good at Simplylife Cafe

Went here for a quick bite so grabbed the salmon danish for $15.


After ordering, I had to ask for it to be heated up because they were served cold.


The danish pastry texture was not crispy or flakey, it was soft, chewy and buttery just like the pre-packed croissants.
On top, there was a slice of melted processed cheese and beneath it was grounded cooked salmon.
For $15, you can't really expect much because other places charge $3X for the same crap.

Simplylife Cafe (Quarry Bay)

Improved salmon quiche at 2/3 Dolci

There were not many food options at Quarry bay, so decided to get food from Dolci.


Previously tried the salmon quiche at the Central branch so got it again.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salmon quiche:


The size of the quiche was bigger than the previous ones.

In the middle, there was a slice of salmon.
The quiche had a nice eggy taste with a cheesy top layer.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

2/3 Dolci (Quarry Bay)