Veggie Pret London Vs Hong Kong

There are two branches of Veggie Pret in London.
One near Shoreditch and one near Oxford Circus.

The one at Broadwick Street is spacious.

Veggie Pret is now available in Hong Kong with a slight difference.
Due to high rents, they have a special cabinet which is green for Veggie Pret products at every store which makes it convenient for vegetarians as there are lots of branches everywhere.

Supreme Chinese seafood

Victoria Harbour Restaurant is everywhere in Hong Kong but Victoria Harbour Supreme which is part of the same group specializes in fine Chinese food and there are only two branches.

I dined at the Wan Chai branch which is spacious and equipped for wedding and events with a huge screen and two smaller screens beside it which can show other videos simultaneously.

Here was what we had that night:
★☆★☆★☆★☆
Chilled crab:
I love Alaskan crabs because they are big!
This one was colossal weighing eight catties.

The claw was the size of my fist.

The crab was cracked open so it was effortless eating the crab meat.

It was moist and sweet on its own but their was kombu sauce which brings out the sea flavour even more.
★☆★☆★☆★☆
The fish maw and whelk soup was shockingly affordable at $48 per person pot or $188 for a big pot for six.

A nourishing msg free soup with a generous piece of gelatinous fish maw.

★☆★☆★☆★☆
Next was the South African abalone which was braised in rich oyster sauce with goose feet.
The goose feet were soft and the bones detached easily.

The abalone was soft with a natural sweet taste infused with oyster gravy.

★☆★☆★☆★☆
Then we had this baked large prawn covered in uni.

The prawn was fresh and springy but the sauce on top had too much salad cream so it was hard to taste the uni.
★☆★☆★☆★☆
Finished off with saddletail garoupa which was surrounded in lots of healthy wolfberries, black fungas, loofah, celery and potato noodles.
The fish was silky and the noodles were the best part because it is soaked in fish soup which was so delicious to drink.

★☆★☆★☆★☆
For vegetables, we had sumptuous Chinese cabbage rolled with Jinhua ham in sweet pumpkin puree.
The pumpkin puree and ham worked in harmony with the fresh Chinese cabbage.

★☆★☆★☆★☆
Dinner ended with this pleasing almond dessert. It is different to the usual almond dessert with egg.
There are two layers, the bottom layer is steamed egg white and the top layer is the almond puree so you can taste both the egg and almond and the sweetness is just right.

★☆★☆★☆★☆
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海港薈 Victoria Harbour Supreme
3/F, Harbour Centre, 25 Harbour Road Wan Chai.

[Cheung Kung Koon 張公館] Food for Tycoons

Thanks to M and the super twin brothers for inviting me to dinner at Cheung Kung Koon 張公館.
It is located at the new V Point with a beautiful view of the harbour surrounded by other buildings which feels like you are in Shanghai.

Cheung Kung Koon serves high quality modern Chinese food where you will find local celebrities dining there so the food must be good.

Here was what we had:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
鯊魚骨花膠湯
Shark bone and fish maw soup:

This was soup boiled with shark bones and fish maw hence the lovely milky cream colour.
The star of the soup was the 1.5cm thick fish maw that had a super sticky texture so you could imagine how much pure collagen was in it.
It was such an unforgettable experience eating this because it was so soft and extremely gelatinous which meant it was good in quality.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Crispy sea cucumber with goose feet:

Goose feet and sea cucumber are always paired together but the special thing about this dish is that the sea cucumber has a crispy surface as it has been coated in a light coating and fried.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Steamed egg and crab claw with Chinese wine:

The steamed egg was silky and there was lots of crab meat which was infused with a fragrant wine flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
川芎白芷魚頭湯:
Fish head soup with Chinese Angelica and Ligusticum wallichii (Szechuan lovage)
This is a herbal soup that is good for you. For more details the staff will happily explain it.

Anyway, I loved it because it had a strong fish taste with a nice bitterness from the herbs.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
麻辣燒賣:
Spicy shaomai

These shaomai are no ordinary shaomais because they are spicy with a lovely Sichuan kick to it.
I loved them because the spiciness balances the heaviness of the pork.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
菠蘿叉燒包:
Charsiu buns with pineapple

These charsiu buns will give you a surprise because it has real pineapple that is not sweetened hence they are very moreish.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
九宮格:
(冰鎮鮑魚 / 麻醬無花果 / 冰菜蕃茄沙律 / 炸墨魚滑 / 酸薑皮蛋 / 釀秋葵 / 椒鹽九肚魚 / 酥炸鴿蛋 / 咕嚕肉):
The palace box:
A good sampler of nine items but the only problem is that they are quite filling so probably a good idea to share this.
The nine items are: chilled abalone, fig in sesame sauce, chilled tomato and crystal lettuce, fried quid patty, preserved egg and ginger, stuffed okra, salt and pepper bombay fish, fried pigeon egg and sweet and sour pork.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
脆皮咕嚕肉:
Sweet and sour pork

Obviously my favourite because the coating was light and crispy and the pork was meaty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Chicken with lotus root chips:

Although the chicken was the star of the show, the lotus chips stole the show because they were so addictive and taste like crisps.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
鐵皮叉燒:Sizzling roast pork

This was juicy tender charsiu on a bed of deliciously sweet soya beans.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
水煮龍躉Fish slices in hot chili oil

The fish slices were silky but because they put okra in this dish, the fish was even more viscous with a strong spicy taste that was a bit too spicy for me.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
鳳凰炒長遠:

This was stir fried glass vermicelli with egg and beanshoots.
I loved the fragrant egg taste and springy soft glass vermicelli that went well with the juicy beanshoots.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
乾炒牛河:
Stir fried beef noodles

A flawless noodle dish that was not oily.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
龍蝦湯瑤柱貴妃飯:
Lobster soup with scallop and crispy rice

Last but not least was this golden soup which had a lovely sweet lobster taste with some creaminess that is best dipped with the crueller to soak the broth.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
三色豬仔奶黃包:
Tri colour steamed piggy bun:

I loved these buns because they used vegetable colourings which you can really taste.
The green one has a spinach taste, the orange has a carrot taste and the pink one is beetroot.
Inside the bun was this delicious soft custard filling that was not too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Pomelo sago:

This was served in a beautiful Thai style bowl, the crispy sago pearls gave it an interesting crunch that you will remember.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Almond pudding:
I was too full to try this as I had the sago pudding.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Hot sago pudding:

Both puddings come in these gorgeous Le Creuset pots which are tempting to take home.
Anyway, I liked the warm sago pudding because it wasn't too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
◎ⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓢⓤⓟⓔⓡⓖⓘⓡⓛ◎
Cheung Kung Koon 張公館:
http://www.ckkdining.com/index_web.htm

[Petite House] Egg puffs with gelato

I was glad I tried this new joint at Festival called Petite House because they have Paninis as well as sweet treats like pancakes, egg puffs and of course gelato.
The gelato is made fresh every day.

The decor is open and modern.

I started with the Panini which was difficult to choose as there were two that were good ( The parma ham and buffalo mozzarella and the ham with fontina cheese).

For dessert it was a battle choosing between the purple potato egg puffs and the black forest pancakes.
In the end, I ordered with Ham with Fontina cheese panini and the purple potato egg puff.
+++++++++
Fontina cheese panini:

I loved this because the panini was crisp and light while the fontina cheese was melted and gooey.
There was sweet apricot mustard in it as well which balanced the heaviness of the cheese.
+++++++++
purple potato egg puff:

I didn't have any expectations for this because desserts in HK are way too sweet.
Surprisingly, the sweetness was just right because the purple potato gelato isn't very sweet which balances the sweetness of the waffle.
The coconut pieces were the best because it was soft young coconut meat which made me wish it was taro flavoured gelato instead of purple potato.
There were cute oreo biscuits on the waffle to garnish which are about the size of the egg puff bubbles.

+++++++++
Well, I guess I have to come back again for the black forest pancakes and the other panini.