Lovely rooftop cafe in Central

Came here because my friend Ivy insisted on going!

I was a bit iffy because I thought it was a kids cafe but when I got there, it was surprisingly relaxed with homely decor.
There is a childrens' play area at the back.
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Rotary dial phone:

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The milk bottles with flowers on the floor reminds me of putting empty milk bottles outside the front door for the milkman to collect in the morning to be exchanged for fresh bottles of milk.

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Cute paper straws

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A nice selection of cakes including flapjacks, caramel slices and scones.

SUNMAID raisins!!

A lovely toiletries corner outside the toilet.

For food I ordered the grilled cheese toast, carrot cake and Ivy chose the Vegetarian toast and the flapjack.
According to the menu, it seems that the grilled cheese toast was $45 and the cake was $45, but I got charged $105.
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Grilled cheese toast:

Simple and delicious with melted cheese and ham.
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Crunchy hummus:
Hummus with sliced and diced carrots, capsicum, red onion and celery, topped with a curry vinaigrette, lettuce and tomato.

The toast was crunchy as claimed with crisp carrots and delicious hummus that had a light curry taste.
It was very filling with all those different vegetables in it.
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Carrot cake:

Moist with finely shredded carrots and a strong taste cinnamon and cloves.
The frosting was a bit too sweet.
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Flapjack:

I never liked them at school but it was comforting to eat them with the same "I don't like it feeling".
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Overall, the food was ok but the tea selection was poor.

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Address:

Rosie Jeans Cafe

Shop 3, G/F., Kam Kin Mansion, 119-125 Caine Road, Mid-Levels

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Dreaming on a Ferris Wheel

This cake shop which was opened in December last year is finally listed on OpenRice.

It is hidden in the old lanes of Sai Kung.

The shop has a nice dreamy name called FERRIS WHEEL and the logo makes you think of macarons because of the circles around it.
It also reminds me of Ferrero Rocher because of the colour!

There is a cute Ferris Wheel display.

In the middle there is a glass cabinet of cupcakes and cakes.



I ended up getting the Earl grey mousse and the chocolate cupcake.
Both were surprisingly good and I am so glad there is finally a decent cake shop in Sai Kung because the rest are local village style bakeries which I do not like.





I was really impressed with the cake box and bag too.
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MR. EARL:
Earl grey mousse


The icing made the mousse cake pretty but I would have liked it without because the mousse was sweet enough.


Although the mousse looked dense and hard, it had a decent whipped texture which was airy and light.
The taste was rewarding too, it was chocolately with a strong earl grey taste.
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Chocolate cupcake:


The cupcake surprised me as well because the texture was soft and didn't crumble.


It was not too sweet with a strong chocolate taste and it did not have that nasty buttery lard smell and taste that the local cakes have.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Ferris Wheel Cake Shop (Sai Kung)
Room A, G/F., 20 Block Front, Sai Kung Tai Street, Sai Kung

Rockin-K-Roll

This was my first visit to K-Roll because whenever I am in Sheung Wan I end up eating elsewhere.



The staff were nice at this branch and there is a nice sitting area.

Here was what I tried.
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Crab salad K-roll:


The rolls were uniformly sliced with a clean cut.

Each piece was so moreish that I finished it quickly.
There was a fresh medley of crunchy vegetables, avocado and crab in the middle.
The crab rolls were simple and delicious that it did not need other sauces.
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Prawn korrito:


The idea of this is similar to a burrito but they have used seaweed as a wrap instead.
I loved the freshness of the salad in the middle because you could see that it was colourful and not oxidised.
There was a lovely crunch from the cabbages, crispy pieces as well as the fried prawns.
A very satisfying roll but it needed some chili sauce or something to add more kick to it.
However it was hard to eat because the fillings kept falling out.
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I liked their rolls so much that I finally tried their Sheung Wan branch, but the food and environment is much better here.

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K-Roll (Wan Chai)

Shop 1, 1/F, Causeway Centre(Brim 28), 28 Harbour Road, Wan Chai

Hooked again at Hooked

Went there again with <<IVY>> after dining at Rosie Jeans!!

HOOKED must have been flocked with chip lovers because they keep running out of chips!

A friend that I recommended this place to went today [9-april-14] and they were serving crinkle cut chips.
BUT, the staff didn't ask her which salt she wanted so she missed out on the different choices of salt they offer.

Apart from Beers, they have other beverages from Australia.
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Chicken pie (pukka pie) $55:


It was so nice that <<IVY>> brought some cutlery along because I told her they don't have forks.
Anyway, the chicken pie was nice and the filling was quite thick which meant that you could probably eat it with your hands.
The pie crust was nice and flakey and it wasn't oily.
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Battered banana $10:

Tried this on another visit without <<IVY>>.
I was surprised it was a WHOLE battered banana which was not even sliced in half!
I would advise shaking the bag before eating it because the cinnamon and sugar is at the bottom of the bag.
The banana was delicious because the battered coating was extremely light flavoured by the sugar and cinnamon.
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Hooked:

86-88 Caine Road

$1 chicken from Tao Heung

This branch of Tao Heung is located in a residential area which is not near the MTR, hence it is quite quiet on the weekdays and busier on the weekends.

At the moment Tao Heung is doing a $1  chicken (approximately a few pennies) promotion to attract diners.
Obviously people are not going to get away with just ordering chicken.

Here was what I tried.
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steamed flounder fish:

This is my favourite fish and it was steamed just right which was good.
The flesh was white which meant the fish was quite fresh.
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$1 chicken:

The chicken wasn't very meaty but reasonable for $1 unlike other places where you paying $1xx and getting the same crap.

The soy sauce for the chicken was really nice because it has a hint of spring onion in the taste.
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Other dishes:

Surprisingly, just tried the spinach with beancurd sheets and it was quite nice.
The prawns were simply boiled in its shell and that tasted good too.
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rice:

The portion of rice was quite decent but it looked like a dog bowl.
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Tao Heung:

SHOP NO.111, 1/F, SHEUNG TAK SHOPPING CENTRE, SHEUNG TAK ESTATE, 2 Tong Ming Street, TSEUNG KWAN O, SAI KUNG, N.T., Tseung Kwan O

Delicious crab noodles at Noodlemi

Discovered this new shop in late 2012 so told <IVY> about it because she likes trying new shops.

At that time I thought it was expensive compared to other noodle joints but dined here this time because this other place I wanted to go was closed.

I ordered the Aromatic Crab & Shrimp Tomato Soup with Vermicelli for $68 which is cheap because the average bowl of ramen is about $70 these days.


The seating is quite cramped and uncomfortable.

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Aromatic Crab & Shrimp Tomato Soup with Vermicelli




The broth was lovely and strong with rich tomato and crab taste but it was a bit too salty.
There were cubes of meat made from minced prawn and crab roe which was just like eating crab.
Surprisingly, I liked the noodles because they were similar to rice vermicelli but slightly thicker and did not have that Yunnan vermicelli plastic chewy texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Noodle Mi, G/F, 2 Bonham Strand, Sheung Wan

McVeggie burger 2014

When I saw news that the McVeggie burger would be available I was glad.
In UK, it is permanently on the menu called the Spicy veggie sandwich (a veggie patty with chickpeas, coriander and cumin, served with lettuce and cucumber and a dollop of sweet chilli and mayo sauces.)

The Hong Kong version has mushrooms in it and was only available at Cheung Chau during Buddha's festival.
Last year, I deliberately went to Cheung Chau for the McVeggie burger.
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/commentdetail.htm?commentid=2297433

With all the media and rising awareness of Green Monday, McDonald's has decided to serve the McVeggie burger all over Hong Kong until 7th May.

Green Monday is a social enterprise that encourages healthy, environmentally friendly living in Hong Kong. It starts with going meatless on Mondays — an easy and effective way to reduce your carbon footprint and improve your health.

As soon as the burger was launched, I tried the McVeggie and the sweetcorn pie.

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Oscar the Grouch:
I think McD's trashed the packaging!!
Instead of designing vibrant wrappers printed with colourful veggie illustrations to promote a healthy burger, they made it look like trash with brown wrapping!!
The cartoon looks like OSCAR the GROUCH from Sesame street who loves TRASH!!!

For improvements, perhaps a white wrapping with mushroom illustrations and colourful words for McVeggie??


The wrapping also reminded me of a TOAD and recycled paper!~!


On the other hand, the sweetcorn pie packaging was bright and eye-catching, you could see people having them.



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Sweetcorn pie:



I didn't really like this because sweetcorn is a vegetable and not a dessert so the creamy sweet sauce and sweetcorn tasted weird together.
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McVeggie:




Compared to the one at Cheung Chau, it was disappointing.
The patty was soft, dark and chewy which proves it has been made for quite a while because no one ordered it.
Looking around the restaurant, no one had the McVeggie burger nor was it eye-catching to people who walked past.
There was no mashed potato in the patty compared to the one at Cheung Chau.
I happened to try it again at another branch and it was even worse because there was virtually no sauce on it and it tasted rancid.
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