A taste of Beijing in Macau

I am not familiar with Macau so my friends chose this place and they booked the private room for our early Xmas gathering where there is a special menu for MOP8,888.

The restaurant was big and spacious with high ceilings.


We started with Beijing Kitchen Appetizer Platter which was presented really nicely on a tray.
There was tofu, scallops and jellyfish.
The tofu was my favourite because it gets mashed up with the spring onions to make it tasty.

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Next we had the Double Boiled Abalone and Dried Seafood Soup which was a surprise because I have never seen such a big pot of soup for one person!


There were lots of goodies such as fish maw, big abalone and whelks in the soup.
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Then came the Traditional Beijing Style Duck which was roasted in a wood fired oven:



I liked the way the duck was served because it was served on three plates, duck with skin, just duck and crispy duck skin on its own.
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Next we had the fish and lamb.
The Steamed Garoupa fillets were steamed with Jinhua ham slices.
I really liked the deep fried salt and pepper lamb Gigot because the lamb was soft with crispy.

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The Braised Sea Cucumber and Quail Eggs was an interesting combination but both are high in protein.
The sea cucumber was soft in delicious rich gravy.

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The braised beancurd with minced pork, prawns, chili and Sichuan Peppercorn was a shocker!


My tolerance for spicy dishes has gone up but this was extremely spicy.
It was so spicy I could use the sauce as chili sauce!
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Then we had the Beijing Kitchen Style Braised King Prawn which were big and springy.

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The Sautéed bitter melon with salted egg yolk was really nice because I love crisp bittermelon and it had bits of salted egg yolk on it.

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There was also a "Beijing Kitchen" Dim Sum Platter in the set which was really good because I got to try the vegetable dumplings.


The dumplings were amazingly tasty with just vegetables and egg.

There were cute roujiamas as well which tasted great with chili sauce.

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For dessert we finished wit the Grand Dessert Platter.
You get four desserts and my favourite was the purple potato sago.

Seasonal Fresh Fruits.

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We also tried this new molten black sesame cake with refreshing chili and lime icecream.


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To be honest, I was quite full by the end but I hope to come back for more dumplings and try some other dishes.
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Beijing Kitchen:
Address: Estrada do Istmo, Cotai Grand Hyatt andar 1 Macau, Macau
Phone:+853 8868 1930

Pick your cuisine of fancy at Mezza9 Macau

At Mezza 9, they have a good variety of cuisines which are cooked in different counters.
That night we had Portuguese cuisine headed by Chef Ricardo and sat on the corner with a lovely view of the pool.


The staffs were friendly and spoke really good English.

Here was what we had:
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Portuguese platter:

We started with the Portuguese platter which was great for sharing.
There was Alavao cheese, Portuguese sausage, salad, ham and melon, bruschetta with salsa, crab cake and bacalhau.
My favourite was the strong tasting cheese, crab cakes and bacalhau.
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Codfish, green pea cream, tomatoes, confit garlics:

This was my favourite because the codfish was firm and flaky with a nice saltiness paired with thick green pea cream.
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Roasted baby chicken, tomatoes, bacon, oregano:

The roast chicken looks different and not the typical roast chicken because it is chopped up and surrounded in delicious vegetables and herbs sauce.
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Pork neck, clams, bell pepper paste:

In the pot were chunky pieces of pork and clams.
The clams were sweet and springy.
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Portuguese style pan fried USA beef sirloin, coffee sauce:

The beef sirloin was meaty which went well with the buttery coffee sauce that had a hint of bitterness.
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Charcoal grilled sea bass, traditional portuguese butter sauce:

Compared to the bacalhau, the sea bass had a softer texture with a nice buttery taste.
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Portuguese green soup:

The green pea soup was very creamy with a nice grassy bean taste which resembles a mix of snow peas and peas.
It is nice to come across a green pea soup that tastes quite different to the usual green pea soup.
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Portuguese pork sausages, fried egg, french fries:

The pork sausages were a surprise because they are made from mashed potatoes with pieces of meat shaped into a big burger patty topped with a fried egg.
The chips were nice and crispy and the runny egg yolk was just perfect when it was mixed into the sausage.
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I will have to come here again and try their other cuisines.

Address:

Mezza9 Macau
Estrada do Istmo e da Universidade de Ciencia e Tecnologia de Macau, 4 Andar (piso L03) do Hotel "Grand Hyatt Macau", COTAI ("City of Dreams"), Macau

Truly freshly steamed seafood

Insteading of starting winter with a hotpot, we decided to try this new restaurant called Steamy seafood cuisine, which is the latest trend where all food gets steamed.
It was my first time trying out steamed seafood.

The restaurant is big and spacious.


There is a chilled section that displays the seafood and other dishes.



Prices of the seafood are clearly displayed on the board.




There is a sauces and condiments bar for the seafood and they also have tubs of Apollo icecream.


The menu was really useful because it tells you how long to steam each type of seafood for.


At Steamy seafood cuisine, you steam one type of seafood at a time which is good because you can enjoy it freshly steamed and move on to the next seafood when your ready.


Beneath the steamer is a pot where they will place rice and meat so that by the time you finish all the seafood, you will end up with delicous congee infused with a mix of seafood flavours.


I really enjoyed the dinner because there was a good variety of seafood and I got to try a whole Alaskan crab and these huge oysters which I have not tried before.

Here was the seafood that we had:
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Balmain bugs:
I couldn’t wait to eat this because there was roe on it and I don't often come across Balmain bugs let alone Balmain bug roe.


After it was cooked, the roe was vibrant orange.




Although the balmain bug tastes good, the roe stole the show because it is similar to prawn roe where it is crisp and filled with salty briny liquid.
The balmain bug tastes like tender sweet lobster but I would prefer it if they didn't put crushed garlic on it because I like eating seafood plain when it is fresh.
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American Stone oysters:

These oysters were huge and remained the same size after they were steamed.


They tasted sweet and satisfying because of the size but one is probably enough per person.
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Alaskan crab:



I have always wanted to try this and it was just fun to share a whole one!
It was so good that I want a whole one to myself next time.
The crab legs are big and the crabmeat comes out easily when you use chopsticks to push it out.
The crabmeat was just simply sweet with a strong taste of the sea!
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I can't wait to come back for the oysters and crab.

Steamy seafood cuisine:
Tel: 2770 6883

31-37 Jordan Road.

2/F Pak Shing Building

Jordan

McDonalds Hokkaido salmon burger in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s McDonald’s has followed the steps of Taiwan and Thailand by launching the Hokkaido Salmon burger.


Taiwan launched the salmon burger in 2014 while Thailand launched it earlier last month.
The difference is that Taiwan used dill sauce and Thailand uses spicy mentaiko sauce, which is slightly spicy, and Hong Kong’s McDonalds are now serving the Thailand version.

To be honest I think dill sauce would be better as dill is normally paired with fish and this other blogger says so because he has tried both.

Anyway, I was lucky there wasn’t much sauce because I prefer Dill sauce to spicy mentaiko sauce any day!
The salmon patty was coated in golden breadcrumbs and the texture of the salmon was flakey but not dry.
It was a nice burger but on the small side.

Although the sauce wasn’t good the onions made up for it because there was a nice raw onion spicy kick to it.

It is just as good as the salmon burger at MOS but the salmon texture is different, at MOS version is like slow cooked salmon and at McDonalds the texture is like a fried fish filet.

Salmon burger at MOS:
http://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong/review/tseung-kwan-o-mos-burger/2297951