Kee Wah 2015 mooncakes

Kee Wah Bakery is a chain of bakery stores in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, founded in Hong Kong in 1938 by Wong Yip Wing (1911–1999), they are well known in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities for their traditional Chinese pastries and delicacies.

It is also famous in the UK because stores in Chinatown would import some and people from HK would send them over. However, in the recent years people have been getting fed up with traditional mooncakes due to health reasons and family sizes are as not big as before.

The traditional sized mooncakes would last you for days because they are quite sickly and during the mooncake season, there are so much mooncakes about that when you share it with people, the chances are that they have already had some.

Before the festival, many bakeries start selling mooncakes which attracts people to buy new and specials flavours for themselves, then nearer the festival, people will start buying mooncakes for others.

Anyway, there are so many varieties at Kee Wah, ranging from traditional to modern ones that there is a mooncake for everyone.
This year they have a mix of East and the West with Tea mooncakes such as Earl Grey egg custard mooncake and Jasmine egg custard mooncakes!!

They have also done a joint venture with Ocean Park Conservation Foundation HK where they will donate HKD$5 for every panda themed mooncake set gets sold.

You can also get a cute panda bag for $1 by spending over a certain amount (see in store for details)

Here is part of the collection from Kee Wah that I got my hands on.

My favourite had to be the cute panda tin and the chocolate custard mooncake.

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Assorted custard mooncakes:

Mini chocolate custard mooncakes

The chocolate and custard was really nice with a strong chocolate taste and hints of custard.
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Mini egg custard mooncakes

The custard was good because it was rich but not too sweet.

As well as traditional mooncakes, Kee Wah has also launched these cute panda mooncakes in a tin tower.
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Assorted Mini Panda Mooncake Gift Box

Assorted mini panda mooncakes:

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mini white lotus with yolk:
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mini yellow lotus with yolk:
This was smooth sweet lotus paste with savoury egg yolk and sweet pastry.
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mini red beans and egg yolk:
The taste of red beans and egg yolk was interesting.
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mini Chinese ham mooncake:
This were crammed with Chinese ham and nuts with a chewy texture and sweet taste.
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Blackforest hot chocolate

Tried the new blackforest hot chocolate, which has a really fragrant berry smell.
It tasted a bit like chocolate mixed with blueberry and ribena but it is quite sweet which will satisfy your sweet cravings on a cold day.
The eggettes are tempting once you see them making it so perhaps I will try the chocolate orange or the Russian Borscht next time if I am in the area.

The Granville experience at Granville Island Hong Kong

As well as my lovely British background, I have also fantasized if my parents were Canadians or Americans and I would totally be different.
Anyway when I first heard of Granville Island it somehow made me think about American soaps but Granville Island is actually CANADIAN.
There are now three Granville Islands in Hong Kong, I prefer the one at Sai Ying Pun because it is too close to the MTR!
The front of Granville Island restaurant looks EXACTLY like the Granville Island entrance in Canada!!!!!
At Granville Island, they serve a variety of Western food and craft beers.
I don’t drink alcohol but there were two that are worth trying because it has a light alcohol taste.
Tried the Swedish Kopparberg elderflower and lime which is nice because the alcohol taste isn't strong and I like the lime.

Also tried the Deadfrog which has a chocolate aftertaste.


For dinner here was what we had:
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Sweet potato Fries($78):

A nice change from fries which were chunky sweet potatoes but they were a bit dry.
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Jumbo Hot Buffalo Wings 6pcs($98):

These were really crunchy as claimed because it has a double coating which keeps it crispy and I liked the tangy sauce complimented by the sour cream.
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Caesar Salad($98):

The salad was a good decent bowl of lettuce in creamy caesar sauce, a must for any dinner.
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Garlic Prawn Linguine($168):

The pasta was al dente with spring prawns.
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Flame Grilled U.S.Prime Sirloin Steal 10oz ($388):

Didn't try the beef because I don't really eat beef.
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Free Range Chicken ($248):

Loved this and it tastes better than it looks because the chicken is tasty but the skin could have been crispier.
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Granville Island Baby Back Ribs ($348half $498full):

These were good as well because the meat was soft and the BBQ sauce was smokey and sweet.
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I would recommend the buffalo wings, roast chicken and ribs.

Granville Island:
Address: G/F, 64 High St, Sai Ying Pun
Phone: 2323 2237

Great condiments and broths for hotpots at Dragon Court Premium HotPot Cuisine

Hotpots can be boring when the broth and condiments are just the typical items.
I liked it here because there are some unique dipping sauces for the hotpot

There were other options as well as hotpots such as the roast suckling pig, plump meaty goose and sashimi.

Here was what we had:
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Fresh Chinese yam with blueberry sauce:

Started off with fresh boiled Chinese yam which has a starchy texture complimented by the sweet blueberry sauce.
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Crispy pork belly:

Next we had the crispy pork belly which were cut neatly into cubes.
The pork skin was crispy and the layers of fat and pork were even that it gave it a soft and meaty texture.
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Roasted goose:

The goose was served in a glass dish and it the goose meat was velvety.
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Roasted suckling pig:

The suckling pig was served sizzling on black pebbles which kept it hot.

The pork was soft and tender that it almost melted in your mouth.

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Double boiled whelk and peach tree gum soup:


I liked this clear soup because there was a strong whelk taste and there were bits of glistening peach tree gum which is resin from peach trees.
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Sashimi:

This was a fresh platter of assorted sashimi.
My favourites were the salmon and scallop.
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After we finished the starters, it was time for hotpot and the first thing you do is mix your sauce.

They have minced dried prawn paste which is different.

There is also grated galangal (sand ginger) and crispy XO sauce.
I definitely recommend lots of galangal because it has an aromatic taste and makes everything in the hotpot taste good.

Chinese drunken chicken broth:

For the broth we had the drunken chicken which had a strong Chinese herb taste.
It got sweeter because of the red dates.

Here were the items we put in our hotpot.

Deluxe marble beef slices:

Sea cucumber with prawn roe dumplings:


Assorted minced platter:


Black and white cuttlefish balls:


Vegetables:


Fish:


The fish was great because they gave you the WHOLE FISH.
Personally I think the head, fins and the tail taste the best.
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Memories of school canteen at Pati by Lassana

If you live or work in Lai Chi Kok, you will know that there are not many food options.
There are two sides in Lai Chi Kok, the industrial side which branches to Cheung Sha Wan and the residential side.
The residential side has slightly more food options thanks to D2 and the Industrial side is just getting better with Pati by Lassana.
Pati by Lassana is located in a food court, which did not exist a few years ago, the food choices were impressive and reminded me of the canteen at school and university.

It looks like British cafeterias as well.



There were all my favourites such as salads, baked potatoes, chicken and even fried fish.
With all these delicious items in front of me, I had to pig out so I had the set, which comes with a drink and ordered an extra chicken drumstick.



The fish was really good because the breadcrumb coating was crisp with no rancid oil taste and the fish was flakey. Next time I will stop them from putting the weird Chinese salad cream because its sweet and weird.
As for the chicken drumsticks, it was also satisfying because it was meaty and moist but again I didn’t like that Korean sauce.
To conclude, the food is fit for expats if they don’t put Chinese sauces on it.
For drinks I was glad there was Earl Grey tea because HK style tea is just not on.