White diamonds of ALBA at 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana

As the weather is cooling down, I took this opportunity to go Macau to experience the Grand Resort Deck at Galaxy.

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana has launched a white truffle menu as it is the season for white truffle so how could I not try it.

The white truffle menu has five courses which is available now until the end of January so I suppose you could book Christmas dinner there and spoil yourself with a White truffle Christmas dinner.

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana couldn't be a better place to go for white truffle Italian dishes because chef-owner Umberto BOMBANA is hailed as "Best Italian Chef in Asia" and "Worldwide Ambassador of White Truffle".

With a talented chef, it is not surprising that the newly opened Macau branch rapidly gained one Michelin star while Hong Kong holds Three Michelin stars.

I definitely agree with Umberto BOMBANA that less is more with white truffle and the five courses on the white truffle menu are just that.

On the white truffle menu, there is a scrambled egg with white truffle, risotto, homemade Tagliolini, poularde de Bresse and truffle icecream.

This was such an amazing dinner I had three choices from the White truffle menu.

Started with a good selection of bread with olive oil and sweet balsamic vinegar.

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Amuse bouche was a colourful mix of Heirloom tomatoes.
The yellows are the best because they have a fragrant sweet taste.

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Scampi carpaccio was a match made in heaven because it had my two favourite elements scampi and sea urchin and the green apple and celery made every mouthful refreshing.

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Now to the star of the evening, the first of the truffle dish was Homemade Tagliolini.
The White truffles were shaved in front of you and it was evidently generous.
The sauce made of butter and aged Parmesan (36 months) was full of flavour but not too over powering to go with the delicate aromatic white truffles which had a strong earthy musky aroma that worked in harmony.

The Tagliolini was soft yet springy and hung the sauce well, so each mouthful was joyful.

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Following the pasta it was poularde de Bresse.
Bresse chicken is known as the best table chicken in the world.
The bird has a white coat of feathers and there are pockets of fat underneath the skin which keeps it succulent during cooking.
Simply the best paired with the best because Bresse chicken has a sweet creamy taste which works wonders with the truffle.
There were two pieces of chicken, thigh and breast but both were surprisingly tender that you would get confused but you can tell by the colour.

Before dessert came, we had grape sorbet on top of yoghurt foam.
I don't know why but I could taste lemon grass in the yoghurt.

To finish off, it was Truffle icecream and a warm hazelnut cake covered in white truffle slices.
The icecream was over whelming because the truffle taste was so strong.

The hazelnut cake which I thought was cake all the way through actually had a runny hazelnut centre.

Lastly we had tea and petit fours which ended the meal nicely.

8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana (MACAU)

https://www.galaxymacau.com/en/macau-restaurant/restaurant-directory/international/otto-e-mezzo-bombana

McDonalds cajun pineapple burger

Had the cajun burger again but it tasted different this time.
It was spicier with chili powder in it.

The waffle fries were ok and they were crunchy with a nice seasoning.



Halloween jokes by McDonalds.
Some are funny and some not!

Don't be dull, be colourful, go to Djapa

People who know me will know that I love anything that is colourful and sparkling.
Takashi Murakami's The dream lion caught my attention and I was mesmerized by that and everything else because it was so colourful.
The stairs going up were so artsy fartsy.

On the upper floor, there is a giant polka-dot pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama.

Other striking pieces:

On the table, the glasses were beautiful and I loved the colourful circles on the bar tables over looking Lee Tung Avenue.

Scanning the menu, it was Nipo-Brasileiro (Japanese-Brazilian) which I am so cool with especially the Brazilian influence.
Started with drinks which were both a nice surprise.
The cocktail choices were all captivating with the use of lots of fruit.
My friend had the DJAPA refresher which had the most outstanding presentation, but from the menu the other drinks like blushing geisha, princess mononoke would be more captivating because of the name but if there was a picture, people would probably go for the DJAPA refresher.
But anyway, people will look at IG these days to check things out.

When you take the straw, the G string will fall on the table.
I had a non alcoholic drink called the Brazilian paradise which was served in an elegant chalice and I put the G string in front so you can see what it looks like.

For food, here was what we had.
Started with a juicy pineapple cabbage which was finely shredded cabbage mixed with pineapple.
It was very refreshing and there was a strong fiery ginger taste to it.

Then we had the salmon mikan which was a bit like carpaccio paired with mandarin pieces and yuzu.

The turbot yuzu was a tangy ceviche with a crisp crunch of mountain yam pieces.

Next was the not so raw Hokkaido scallops paired with crisp tart apples.

The highlight of the night was the bobo.
It was delicious puree with juicy bits of pineapple contained in a squash.
I would be happy just eating the stuff in the middle with rice as a vegetarian dish without the prawns.

The sun tanned crabs were fun too which deserve a few photos!!! 

These tiny morsels have visible crab roe in them!!

For carbs, we had the seafood rice and coconut rice.
I liked both because I like carbs, the seafood rice with whitebait and nori was tasty and the coconut rice is a bit different to the coconut rice you get in HK because it doesn't take milky or sweet but it has a toasted coconut flavour to it.

The meat lovers had skewers.

For dessert we had chocolates which were rich and the filling was so silky that it melts in your mouth.

The sago pearls were huge and chewy, but the taste was nice.

To summarize, the environment and food were in harmony and nothing was out of place.
I hope they will keep the standards because I am going to go there for lunch again and check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/hkdjapa

Halloween themed dim sum

Yum Cha is well known for their creatively cute novelty dimsums.

I went there for lunch and they were serving some scary treats because it was Halloween.


There was a long queue but food came relatively fast.

Here was what we had:

Steamed shrimp dumplings:

The shimps were springy and it was just shrimps inside so you won't get any nasty fatty pork and lard.

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Flying bats wonton:

This was my favourite because I like fried things and inside it was delicious prawns.
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BBQ pork finger puffs:

This was on the sweet side and it was made with shortcrust which made it crumbly.


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Steamed mummy sausage buns:

This was a bit different from the usual buns because it had a sweet preserved sausage in the middle.
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For dessert we finished with these cute pumpkins filled with starchy red beans.


https://www.facebook.com/yumchacentral