Sunday, April 21, 2013

Lovely private dining fit for celebrities

Amina Modern European (Tsim Sha Tsui)

Thanks to Amina Modern European restaurant for inviting me to this tasting.

Before I came, I did not realise it was a private kitchen so when we were walking down Cameron Road, we over shot it because I was looking for the commercial buildings.
This building requires an entry code access.

When I arrived at the restaurant, we had a really nice spacious private room.

I felt that this place is a really good place for celebrities to dine because it was truly private without windows.

We tried their monthly set menu and oysters from their bar.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bread with aubergine puree:Started off with the bread and aubergine puree.
The aubergine puree reminded me of Mediterranean baba ganoush.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Oysters:
The oysters are from the US and the size of them were huge.
The oysters were opened nicely and did not have any shell fragments in it.
I like my oysters in natural form so I only applied lemon juice to it and the oyster was lovely and creamy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
STARTER: Crab pumpkin salad:
The colour of this was really nice and on top of it there was a poached quail's egg which was mega cute!
It must be hard poaching a quail egg because of its size.
The pumpkin salad was lovely and moist packed with crabmeat on a bed of delicious sprouts.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
STARTER: Beef Tartar:
The beef tartar was nicely done it had finely chopped garlic, black pepper in it.
The cracker on top was extremely delicious and reminds me of a Ryvita.
For improvements I felt that the beef could have been minced more finely because the beef was still in long strips.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Seafood ink soup:
I was really looking forward to this soup because the ink soup I had at Naha did not bear much squid ink taste.
When it came, it was artfully decorated with white cream on top.
The soup tasted really nice because it tasted of fish as well as squid ink which was added when the soup was nearly done so that the taste is still there.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Foie gras, parma ham and hollandaise sauce:
The foie gras was thinly sliced and cooked evenly which was delicious with the parma ham and toast.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Crab cake:
Usually crab cakes are round but this one looked like a croquette.
It had fish roe on top which gave the crab cake more flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ENTREE: Guava sorbet:
The sorbet was interesting because it is usually served for dessert. I believe it was there to act as a refresher and prepare you for the main course.
The guava was really strong you could smell it despite it was frozen and it had real guava in it because I could taste the grounded guava pips.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MAIN COURSE: Beef cheek braised in red wine:
I love beef cheeks because it is the most tender part of beef.
When I put my fork into it, it did not need any effort because it was so soft that you could use your fork to separate it!
The taste of this was delicious with rich red wine sauce and buttery mash beneath it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
MAIN COURSE: Chefs special – Scallops trio delight:
Each scallop was seared and topped with toppings, from left to right was dried prawn roe, caviar and carmelised scallop.
The size of these scallops were huge, they were slightly seared and still tender inside.
My favourite was the first because the prawn roe acted like salt with a prawny taste.
The carmelized one was good too because the caramel was glazed onto the scallops giving it a crispy texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Jasmine and osthmanthus tea:
I do not really drink floral teas but this was surprisingly nice because the osthmanthus was not that strong and the Jasmine balanced it out.
It was pretty with osthmanthus flowers floating on top.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dessert:
The raspberry sorbet was really nice and refreshing, it was lovely and tart followed by the delicious macarons.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Delicious chicken tandoori drumettes

Pizza Max (Jordan)

Tried this restaurant because of sunflowerting's photo featuring Mo Mo on the menu which is Nepalese.

It was interesting because this shop is called Pizza Max which obviously serves pizza and pasta but they also serve Indian and Nepalese food.

I was meant to come here ages ago but I didn't know the had seating so I left it for a while.

Anyway finally made it there and the capacity for diners was bigger than I imagined.




They have simple sets which is quite a good deal because it includes a slice of pizza with nepalese dumplings or the chicken tandoori drumettes.

For lunch they have my favourite butter chicken curry and if you don't eat Indian food there is spaghetti bolognaise.

As well as those delicious selections they had my favourite pita bread and chips!!!

I really liked this cosy joint because it reminds me of London and the people that work there spoke good English.
The guy is Philipino which was hard to believe because he had no Philipino accent, but Philipino's are the best connoisseur for food.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mo Mo with chili sauce:Mo Mo's are Nepalese dumplings which are served with chili sauce. The dumplings are made with onions.
There are three choices for dumplings at this place: steamed with tomato sauce, panfried with tomato chutney or steamed with onions, green peppers and sweet chili sauce.
I ordered the last one because the ones I have tried before came with Chili sauce.
I used to get them at 2 Star's Fast Food in Wan Chai but it takes ages for the dumplings.
Anyway, the dumplings were served soon after I ordered.


They looked delicious when they arrived and I imediately took them out and put them on another plate because the sauce was quite spicy. At other places you add the sauce yourself.
The sauce is different too. At this restaurant they have made a sauce especially for the dumplings rather than a condiment.
Anyway the dumplings were delicious, the minced chicken was packed with onions and the delicious sauce spiced it up.

The sweetness in that sauce was soothing too because the chili was very spicy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Buffalo chicken wing lollipops:Although they are called buffalo wings they were Indian style with Tandoori spices and mint sauce, but it stated that on the menu which was why I ordered it. I love TANDOORI chicken.
It was good the dumplings were served first because the taste of this was strong.

The drumettes were perfectly grilled. The skin was removed and the chicken had been loosened around the bone so that it was marinated all the way through and the chicken comes off the bone easily.

Parts of the chicken drumette were slightly crispy but it was not at all dry.
There was lots of thick tandoori paste on the chicken and the texture is hard to describe because it was velvety and almost felt like it had pate all over it.
The Tandoori chicken that I have tried before were usually chicken legs or chicken breast but here they have used the drumette part which makes it so tender and tasty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
I will be back for the butter chicken curry and pita bread!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Why is it called mousse when it is not mousse!

Crumbs (Jordan)

Walked past and noticed this Premium green tea mousse with green tea mochi so decided to try it.


At this branch you can dine there so the menu offers more variety than the other branches other which only offer froyo and scones.


I have tried their scones and froyo which were quite nice but not addictive enough to make me come back.

This branch only did takeaways according to the photos on Openrice.

Water is self service.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Premium green tea mousse:When I ordered it I was quite suspicious whether it was really mousse but the Chinese and English stated it was mousse so that was why I got it.

However when it arrived I was quite disappointed because it was not mousse, it was evidently a pudding so why call it mousse.


Luckily the dessert was ok and not too sweet and the mochi was nice.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Get your cholesterol pumping!

澳門新龍記 (Santo Antonio)

Macau is famous for noodles topped with delicious toppings especially crab roe.

This is one of the restaurants that is famous for them, the other one is 牛記咖喱美食 Estab De Comidas Ngao Keo Ka Lei Chon which I must try on my next visit.

I chose this place first because they had Silkie chicken noodles and the squid patties reviewed by many Hong Kongers.

The menu was quite extensive and there were too many items I wanted to try.


The decor of the restaurant was basically the same as the Hong Kong restaurants.


★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salted lemon with sprite:
There were two big pieces of salted lemon in the cup which was sufficient to flavour the whole bottle of sprite.

I do not like sprite but the saltyness of the lemon got rid of the artificial taste of the sprite.
The saltyness of the drink was just lovely.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tossed noodles with crab roe:

The crab roe was really nice but too salty, the taste of crab was as its max, but after I finished it there was so much orange oil left on the plate so it is not very healthy.
It was pretty cheap for MOP23 which is approximately HKD$23.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tossed noodles with silkie chicken in wine:
As well as the noodles with crab roe, I was looking forward to this too because of the silkie chicken in hua dao wine.
The wine taste was lovely and strong and the noodles did not have the alkaline taste.
It would be great the chicken was not so bony.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Squid patties:
The squid patties were ok, but not as good as I expected them to be because the squid taste was weak, but after adding the chili oil to it, the patties were delicious.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chili oil sauce:
I was surprised the chili oil sauce was great because it had black beans in it giving it more flavour and not just spicyness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Supplementary Information: Macau food tour:
Planned and dined eateries:
澳門新龍記
Dairy Queen (Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro branch)
Creme brulee shake: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2293088
馮記三盞燈豬腳姜
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2290054

Planned and missed eateries:
Tonkin ( pig's brain was sold out)

Ad-hoc eateries:
大玩町 - pork chop bun
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2289768
Gloria Jean's Coffees
http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2289695
豪庭緬甸美食 (that branch is not listed on OR)
Dairy Queen (Tak Va Store branch is not listed on OR)
Le Cafe at Gold Sands hotel:
Cold food: http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=48237

Why is it called mousse when it is not mousse!

Crumbs (Jordan)

Walked past and noticed this Premium green tea mousse with green tea mochi so decided to try it.


At this branch you can dine there so the menu offers more variety than the other branches other which only offer froyo and scones.


I have tried their scones and froyo which were quite nice but not addictive enough to make me come back.

This branch only did takeaways according to the photos on Openrice.

Water is self service.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Premium green tea mousse:When I ordered it I was quite suspicious whether it was really mousse but the Chinese and English stated it was mousse so that was why I got it.

However when it arrived I was quite disappointed because it was not mousse, it was evidently a pudding so why call it mousse.


Luckily the dessert was ok and not too sweet and the mochi was nice.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...