A social place to gather for Italian food at 121BC

I have always wanted to dine here ever since I saw a photo of the green pea lasagna because I love lasagna and green peas.
The menu changes really often so you have to keep checking which is really difficult for me because I don’t know where the menu gets updated.
There is always a menu on the restaurant wall, but I find it intimidating to go there to see what is on the menu and leaving if it doesn't interest me.

Finally went here and tried the food.

They are currently doing a banquet denoted by the starred items on the menu that cost $450 per person.

We had a light dinner that night so here was what we had:
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Vitello Tonnato:

The veal slices were a bit like pastrami but the taste was not as strong mixed with tuna puree.

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Octopus, Squid Ink, Green Chilli, Crackling:

I loved this dish because the octopus was not chewy infused with a delicious squid ink taste.

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Caramelised Lamb Ribs, Orange, Caraway:

The lamb was soft and came off the bone easily with a delicious sweet crispy coating.

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Lasagna, Eggplant, Tomato, Smoked Scamorza:

A wholesome lasagna packed with delicious veggies.
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Wagyu Skirt Steak, Radish, Bone Marrow Butter:

I loved this juicy steak paired with evilicious bone marrow butter and crunchy radish.

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Zucchini, Pine Nuts, Ricotta Salata:

The julienne zucchini was refreshing and light flavoured by the pine nuts and cheese shavings.
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Pumpkin:

The pieces of chunky pumpkin were sweet and mushy.
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Stracciatella, Beetroot, Balsamic, Basil:
The beetroot dish was a bit too sharp for my liking and tasted like beetroot soaked in strong vinegar.
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Pannacotta, Coffee Caramel, Almonds:

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Chocolate and Hazelnut Cremoso, White Chocolate Crumble, Sea Salt:

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Olive Oil Cake, Vanilla Cream, Strawberry, Candied Olives:

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For desserts I liked the chocolate mousse which had a tad of sea salt in it and the olive oil cake had a strong orange peel taste but no olive oil could be tasted.

Dining in a modern art filled room

The Popsy Room in Sheung Wan is a small gallery for artists to exhibit their art with a space for dining but now there is a bigger and better place at the Popsy Modern Kitchen for more people to dine there and appreciate the exhibit.

I loved the décor because it was sparkly and glistening and they had these huge acrylic spheres and flowers.

For me, I was just mesmerized by the sparkling décor because we were in the room in the corner that was decorated with white and silver elements, which I just love.
In the main room, there were portraits of local celebrities with threatened animals shot in Africa by Sean Lee Davies with a message to protect endangered animals.

The menu was quite good and offers more choices than the Popsy room with beautifully illustrated pages and I love the way the drinks are called Poptails.

For dinner,  here was what we had:

Started off with a strong macho drink infused with chili, rosemary garnished with floating blueberries followed by some bread and butter.

Then we had bread:


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Crispy volcano egg:

Started with this colourful dish with a molten egg on a bed of asparagus puree and chopped mushrooms.
The egg was wrapped in this delicious wafer thin crispy parsley sheet and garnished with strands of fried purple potato, which looked like silk.
I liked the simple flavours because you can taste each of the elements, which don’t really need any special sauces.
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Scampi in the clouds:

Next we had the angel hair which was beautifully laid on the plate. It looked like a small portion but there was quite a fair bit of pasta in it.
The angel hair was very creamy and I felt that a little more salt or sea urchin flavour was needed but the crayfish balanced it nicely.
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Roast Angus beef tenderloin:

A nice juicy tenderloin paired with filling risotto that was not too creamy.
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For dessert we had the Earl Grey Disco.

A delicious earl grey and chocolate mousse paired with rich red berries.
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Popsy Modern Kitchen:
5/F Wellington
Central

Zumufi pronounced Hongkie style

This relaxing joint caught my eye because it stood out amongst the market and jewelry wholesalers on Wing Kut Street.


They basically serve smoothies and Paninis.
Their name ZUMUFI which is rather cool and pronounced Zuuu Moooo Feeee if you pronounce it with a Hongkie accent!!

For me it reminded me of Smurfs because of the spelling.
When you order a drink they will ask for your name and write it on the tag and attach it to your drink when it is ready to avoid confusion with other customers.
Unwanted tags can be placed in the glass bowl where they donate $1 to charity for every tag returned.

There were two series for the smoothie Zumufi and Zumufi+
The plus series contain more superfood ingredients and they do not use milk in any of their smoothies.
In the end I went for the Skin+ and Detox+
I chose the Skin because I like avocados and the Detox+ because of kale and cilantro.
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Skin+

As expected I really liked this because it was sweet and natural with blended avocados and you could also taste the orange juice and bananas as well.
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Detox+

The detox tasted stronger compared to the Skin+ but the watermelon taste was strong.
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Panini: Ham & Cheese

When it comes it doesn’t look like a ham and cheese panini because all you see is spinach leaves but after you take a bite you will realize that you can still taste the cheese and ham.
I really liked it because of all that spinach and the fact that it only costs $29 with decent cheese and ham which wins the paninis at Starbucks or Pacific coffee!
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Zumifi:

Shop D, G/F, Willy Commercial Building, 28-36 Wing Kut Street Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

A cure for red eye at the Butchers club

I am not really a fan of beef burgers let alone beef but since this place has opened there are so many good comments so it must be good.
Till now I have still not tried their beef burger and the first burger I ate there was the vegetarian one which was pricey but delicious.

Went early for the bacon roll and there were some people filming there.


On the kitchen end, you can see each patty is weighed before it is cooked.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bacon roll:

The bacon roll was not that impressive because I was expecting the bacon to be tastier but it wasn't.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Red eye reduction:

This was another reason for coming!!
The Red-Eye Reduction is from the secret menu and has a Beef patty, cheddar cheese, maple-glazed bacon, fried egg, hash brown, maple hollandaise sandwiched between French toast buns.

I liked hash brown and the French toast tasted like American pancakes but this was extremely messy and a challenge to eat it with just bare hands.
Anyway, the star of the show was the beef patty and it did not disappoint because the beef had a velvety texture like sweetbread and it was lean but tender.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The Butchers Club Burger:
112-114 Wellington Street,
Central
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Liangpis and Roujiamas at Chang'An Taste

Tried this before at the Hung Hom branch which was not good because the Original roujiama I had was tasteless and dripping with oil.
It did not have cumin and spices that I was expecting.

When I found out that they had opened a second branch in Hong Kong, I decided to give it a visit because of the liangpi.

This time I had the beef and cumin roujiama, chicken roujiama and the liangpi.

There are two types of liangpis, one is soft and one is hard, but both evidently look and taste like Cantonese Chinese flat rice noodles (hor fun)

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
beef and cumin roujiama:

This was filled with juicy lean slices of beef with green peppers, cumin and chili.
A very tasty pairing of spicy chili and beef in a flavourful gravy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
chicken roujiama:

This was spicy and sweet but the sweetness was not annoying.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Original liangpi (dry):

Basically the tub of vinegar and red oil were the sauces that made the liangpi come alive.




The liangpi was very appetizing with a vinegary taste and touch of cumin.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Original liangpi with sesame sauce :

The sesame sauce was really pale and beige which looked similar to Tahini but the taste was too heavy and thick that I didn’t like it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

Chang'An Taste:
G/F., 406D Des Voeux Road West

Hong Kong Star ferry tokens

When you board the Star Ferry, you can pay by using an octopus card or cash.

At the Central Pier there is a machine where you can buy tokens if you don't have an octopus card.

 

Just for fun, I got a token and the machine gives you change as well.

I was expecting a metallic token but it was a plastic one.

Token slot:

Fare information:

The ferry journey to TST was pleasant..