A small Shaanxi joint with an interesting English name

I have always wanted to get buns from this place because the pictures of these purple rose shaped buns looked good and the name Duke Big Bun sounded interesting.
Missed this place on the first visit because it was so well hidden and there is no telephone number to call and no one replied me from their FB page..

Anyway, finally found it one night and it was impressive there is an English menu too.

I got the purple potato rose bun, green tea and red bean bun and a tub of Liangpi.
The pumpkin brown sugar bun was sold out so I will try that next time and the roujiamo as well.

The steamed buns were ok but the colour was different from the pictures.
The sweet purple potato rose bun looked like a chocolate rose.

The green tea and red bean bun was ok,

As for the Liangpi, I loved it, it tastes nice without the chili oil but after adding it the spices and aromas came alive and it is not as spicy as it looks because I ended adding the whole bag!

The tofu pieces were chunky and delicious because it had a spongy structure and absorbed all the flavours. 

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Duke Big Bun 大包公
G/F, Ming Sun Mansion, 

375 Shang Hai Steet, Yau Ma Tei

Relaxing place above a public swimming pool at Oakland (Hung Hom)

I rarely go to HH because it is inconvenient but found out there was this interesting place called Oakland founded by three talented people.
It took me a while to find i because it was on the 1st floor above the public swimming pool.









Inside there was a comfortable sofa and nice décor.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Here was what I tried:

Thai Nong drumstick with shum shum shum fries:

The chicken drumstick was surprisingly good because the chicken was juicy and springy paired with their delicious chili sauce that had a nice fiery kick without the Hong Kong style sweetness.
The fries are topped with cheese and bacon according to the menu but there was not much cheese on it.
Although there was more mayonnaise than cheese, it still tasted good.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Toast with egg:

The toast with egg was ok but the mushrooms at the bottom were a bit watery.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Apple crumble:

The apple crumble looked a bit burnt but it was amazing because the apples in it were tart and there were cranberries in it too.
It came with icecream but it was nice without it and I would prefer custard or cream to go with it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Custard pudding:


The custard pudding was thick and creamy.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆
Meringues:

The meringues were light and crispy without being too sweet.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

https://www.facebook.com/%E5%9C%9F%E5%9C%9F-Oakland-1672325313053788/?fref=ts

Arome bakery's blueberry yoghurt cup

Arome bakery has launched a new blueberry yoghurt series with tarts, rolls and dessert cups.
I wanted to get the blueberry yoghurt roll but it was sold out so I got the yoghurt cup.










It was nice that the texture was thick and not like weird gelatin pudding but the taste was a bit strange because it didn’t taste like yoghurt.






The taste was more like thick sour cream with sweetness or sour clotted cream with a sweetness.
Basically it was heavy thick cream.
There is a difference between Yoghurt and cream.
After mixing the blueberry at the bottom, the sour cream taste was better disguised.
Although it failed as a dessert, the sour cream/clotted cream would go well with scones if you ignore the slight sourness to it.

Localized pizzas at Hong Kong's PizzaExpress

I love Pizza Express when they first opened in Hong Kong because it tasted just like the Pizza express in the UK but the menu has changed.
The pizza base is not thin and crispy.

For lunch, there is not much choice especially the pasta with only one choice of carbonara.

The salad was really good, crisp salad drizzled in sharp dressing.

For two persons, it is better to get the set for two to share because the pizza is really big and it works out to be around $6x per person.
The pizza wasn't nice because the pizza base was chewy and thicker than the normal bases served in UK and the cheese was just stringy and tasteless mozarella.

Although the cheese wasn't good, the ham and mushroom were good and luckily they didn't use Asian mushrooms.

The staff at this branch were really friendly and nice.

Fresh taro milk made with REAL TARO at Check-In Taipei

While I was walking past Hollywood Road I could smell this strong whiff of delicious cooked Taro and it came from Check-In Taipei.
I decided to ask what dish it was but it turned out to be this drink called Fresh Taro milk so I had to get it.



The drink was slightly thick with real pieces of mashed taro in it and the taste was so good because it was not too sweet yet you could taste the natrual savory taste of the taro.
It was filling and satisfying.


Discovered that they are doing special set dinners as well as bento sets.

I am coming back soon for the dinner.

Gritty mussels at FRITES Belgium on Tap

Having missed Belgos, I decided to get my mussel fix from FRITES Belgium on Tap.
There are two new branches at Causeway Bay and Central.
Went to the Central branch because it was close to the MTR.



The building is new and you can still smell cement and other industrial smells which wasn't pleasant everytime the elevator opened.

Anyway, ordered the mussels mariniere with fries.

The fries were nicely done and tasted delicious with the creamy mayo but the mussels were really gritty.
I think they should improve on this and it was lucky that I only got one pot otherwise it would be wasted.
The bread tasted weird because there was oil on it (clearly not butter) and it was a bit rancid.






It is a genius how the pieces of onion got burnt!!


The bill: