Adventure #91: 信得過

Going for a quick lunch before picking the kids up in the afternoon.  Pig's liver has always been one of G's favourite foods.  Today we decided to try 信得過 Trusty Gourmet in Wanchai.  Trusty Gourmet specialises in pig-inards and according to our food guide, it does not cook with MSG and only uses locally produced piglets, so I guess we can "trust" it!

The pig's livers 白灼黃沙乳豬潤 were cooked just right.

Trying not to order too many pig-inards dishes, so went for spicy chicken

口水雞 instead.  Presentation was excellent.  The first dish consisted of meat from chicken drumstick.  The meat was really soft but the bone was not cooked through, the meat surrounding the bone was still a little pink.  I sent it back and they replaced it without complains. Good service! The replacement dish were of meat from the breast, hence a bit tough.  So, the choice was entirely up to the patrons, softer meat but a little pink or slight tough totally cooked breast.

To finish, we had intestine soup with rice vermicelli 豬生腸米線.  Yum!

Not a place one can frequent but the quality of pig-inards dishes is excellent.  When you have craving for pig-inards, you know where to go!

Trusty Gourmet

Shop A, G/F, Fasteem Mansion
307-311 Jaffe Road
Wanchai
Tel: 2838-7373

Adventure #90: Daruma Ramen House

Once again, we drove to Tai Hang wanting to try 民聲冰室.  Argh....it has temporarily closed and opened a branch in Sau Kei Wan!!! And since we were already at Tai Hang which is full of little eateries, we decided to try Daruma Ramen.  There is usually a long queue outside but since we were early, we didn't have to wait. Daruma is famous for it ramen in pork bone soup base 豬骨湯拉麵.

G order the supreme ramen 一品豚骨拉麵 which he thought was excellent! Soup base great, egg runny (a must for G), ramen just the right texture. Most interesting of all was the dollop of fish egg roe  明太子

Mine was the same but with the spicy soup base.

Just for fun I thought I would order something different to drink.  I asked the waiter what's a 波子氣水.  He was like - you never had it before? Well, no. So, that's what I got.  Anyway, it's called 波子氣水 coz it has a glass marble half way down the bottle (can't really see it in the picture).  Tasted like cream soda. G called it bubble gum soda. 

The ramens were really good.  Wasn't disappointed at all.  Definitely come back again.

Daruma Ramen House
92E, Tung Lo Wan Road

Tai Hang

Tel: 2565 6600

Adventure #89: Kai Kee Noodle

Going shopping at TST today, so decided to try out Kai Kee which is famous for its deep fried head of fish balls (don't know what that means!), deep fried cuttlefish balls and deep fried cuttlefish cakes. Wah, will be so heaty after lunch - got to look for a 涼茶 shop after!

This is the deep fried head of fish balls 炸魚片頭

The inside was really smooth, good!

Between the cuttlefish balls and cuttlefish cake, we chose the former 炸紫菜墨魚丸.  The balls were filled with cuttlefish pieces and Japanese seaweed.  Full of texture. 彈牙又有口感. Very good.

And finally, the dry noodle 豉油皇撈麵.  My favourite as it most resembled the dry noodle 乾撈麵 we have in Malaysia.  So now, whenever I miss Malaysian food, I know just where to go!

Kai Kee Noodle
G/F, 15C Carnarvon Road

Tsim Sha Tsui

Kowloon
Tel: 2301 2099

Adventure #88: Fofo by el Willy

Tonight for a change, we decided to try Spanish food. Fofo by el Willy sounded rather interesting. Although we booked late in the week, we managed to get a table for 2, even if it was by the entrance.

The restaurant, at the top floor of M88 was beautifully decorated.  I particularly like the white penguins lining the walls and on top of the lightings.  Not to mention the pig above the leg of ham!

Instead of bread, we were given a Spanish version of bruschetta to start our dinner.

Worth mentioning was the service which was very good.  Waiters were polite and attentive.  When we ordered just 1 order of soup to share, they even split it into 2 bowls for us.

Gazpacho - traditional cold tomato soup with vegetables
The best gazpacho we ever had was at a restaurant in Cordoba. Although this was not as good, it was a very close second.

Gambas al Ajillo - saute prawns with garlic & lemon
Prawns were fresh and served with lots of garlic, couldn't really taste the lemon though

Organic eggs cooked at 63 degrees in crispy potatoes & onion nest with chorizo
This can be served either with Iberian ham 36 months, foie gras & truffle or chorizo. We chose chorizo because we think it would go well with the eggs and we were right! Remember not to order with foie gras & truffle.

Mixed before eating.  The runny eggs together with the salty chorizo and the crispy potatoes.  So much texture and so much flavour. Best dish of the night!

Cochinillo - crispy suckling pig with potatoes, onions & black truffle gratin
We are fans of crispy suckling pig and this was very well done. 

Montadito de foie gras - pan fried foie gras with truffle & confit onions
We were a bit disappointed with this dish.  I prefer foie gras with something fruity, I think it brings out the flavour of the foie gras.  Foie gras with truffle sounds good but doesn't taste as good - too rich.  We had to scrape every last bit of the the fine line balsamic vinegar on the edge of the plate to complement the foie gras.

I like the plates which they changed after every course.

Churros - Spanish crispy fried doughs with warm chocolate & vanilla ice cream
For the finale, it was a tussle between Fofo's special apple tart and the more traditional Spanish dessert, churros dipped in chocolate.  The churros won out and to us it tasted better than the renowned churos joint that we had in Madrid on or last trip there. This was a wonderful end to this wonderful dinner.

The food we had tonight was very good.  Definitely come again.  Would be better if there were 4 of us instead of 2.  Then we would have been able to sample more dishes.

Fofo by el Willy

20/F, M88

2-8 Wellington Street

Central

Tel: 2900 2009

Adventure #87: Brunch Club & Supper

Today's Sunday.  Again, no kids. Wanted to go some where for brunch and maybe relax and read the Sunday papers for a while. We used to go to Soho for Sunday brunch but wanted to try something different today, so we went to the Brunch Club & Supper in CWB.

The restaurant is on the first floor.  Entrance looked ok but as soon as we gone inside, I was a bit disappointed.  Tables were close together and certainly not a place to relax with a morning coffee and read paper.

When ordering the eggs benedict we realised this was not the place to be - menu asked to choose eggs benedict with ham OR spinach OR bacon. Huh?????
When the dish arrived - egg was ok with runny yolk but the spinach - had stems - kinda like Chinese stir fried veggie! Horrible!

The flat white was really FLAT.......

Toast with peanut butter and jam was just down right plain.

If I wanted to eat Western food cooked by a non-Western chef, I may come again. But since there is absolutely no reason why I would want to do that, so.....no thanks. Besides the food, the service by the Nepalese waitresses were also non-existent.  They were not rude but just indifferent. 

There is a branch in Central but no courage to try it.

Brunch Club and Supper
1/F, 13 Leighton Road
Causeway Bay
Tel: 2890 2125

Adventure #86: Wei Kee Noodle

Back from KL.  No kids this weekend, so G and I decided to venture further afield. One of G's favourite food is liver and this brings us to Wei Kee 維記咖啡粉麵 in Sham Shui Po.

Wei Kee also serves other 茶餐廳 type food but it's 豬潤麵 is undoubtedly the best we had. Although they use 公仔麵, the soup is full of the taste of liver! Yeah!

Wai Kee Noodle Cafe

G/F, 62 & 67 Fuk Wing Street

Shop D, G/F, 165-167 Pei Ho Street

Sham Shui Po

Tel: 2387 6515

Mon - Fri: 6:30 – 20:30

Sat, Sun and Public Hols: 6:30 – 19:15

Adventure #85: Ms. B's Cakery

3 of my close friends (Amy, Elke and Michael) have their birthdays within a day of each other in July. So, we decided to have a celebration together.  I set out to look for a cake that fits them and Ms. B's Cakery which does the most flamboyant looking cakes in town came to mind.  Browsing through their website, I chose Madam Butterfly.

Madam Butterfly looked absolutely gorgeous.  From the website this was described as: Exotic & Intense blend of Beetroot, Pistachio & Chocolate layered Chiffon with Apricot Compote, Fresh Cream and crowned with Dark & White Chocolate Another Signature Cake with Hand-painted Sugar Butterfly.

This was how it looked inside.

The photo taking session was highly successful as it was such a beautifully assembled cake. The tasting session however was another story.  The hand painted sugar butterfly had so much colouring, it stained our fingers black when trying to remove it from the cake. The chocolate layer didn't have much chocolate taste.  The pistachio layer didn't taste like pistachio at all.  The only saving grace was the beetroot layer and the apricot compote mixed with fresh cream.

The reviews on Ms. B's cakes were mixed.  I guess I will have to try more to get a proper verdict, unfortunately not much stomach space to spare these days.

Ms B's CAKERY
39 Gough StreetCentral
Hong Kong
Tel: 2815 8303
Daily 11am - 8pm

Adventure #84: Restaurant Kampung (Bukit Tinggi)

After tasting the wonderful 冬粉生蝦煲 at Restaurant Leung Chee Hoong, we just have to go back again. So, on Tuesday evening, dad's home early and we decided to have dinner at Bukit Tinggi.  However, when called to book a table, we found out that the restaurant don't open on Tuesday!!! Bummer!

Mum suggested Restaurant Kampung (鄉村小吃). Perhaps out of desperation, we decided to give it a try. So, off we go to Bukit Tinggi.

Took us a while to find the restaurant which is off the little main road.  It was a little empty when we got there....hopefully it was because we were early.

Chicken cooked in Chinese wine 雞酒 with Chinese fungus 木耳 and lots of garlic.  Very aromatic and the sauce was sweet from the wine.  Not much meat on the chicken (kampung chicken perhaps??) but otherwise a good dish.

Tofu pok stuffed with minced meat. So good and popular with the kids that we had seconds.

This is 田七菜, no idea what that was and never had it before but the leaves were soft and smooth.  Nicely cooked.

Steamed patin fish, local favourite. Again, nicely cooked.

Finally, the dish we came for!  Sadly, not as good as the one at Restaurant Leong Chee Hong.  Prawns were as big and meaty, the soup base good. May be a little too many different veggies in the soup. 

The general dishes at this restaurant were much better than the other.
But for the 冬粉生蝦煲, the other one was much superior.
So, maybe restaurant hop the next time??? Hahahaa.

Adventure #83: Wai Sek Kai (KL)

Past 10pm, tummy itchy, so my brother took us to Wai Sek Kai (Eat Street) in Pudu. I have never been to Wai Sek Kai which is rather famous amongst locals and some of the stalls there have been around for over 50 years.

One of the more popular stall is the chee cheong fun stall. This stall just not serve the usual fish balls and other accompaniments, only chee cheong fun.

Ordered chee cheong fun with sweet and chili sauce.  Another way to enjoy this is with curry.....not tried that before.  Cheong fun came, looked ok and tasted ok, not much wow factor though.  Prefer the one in Petaling street.

The pork ball noodle on the other hand was a pleasant surprise.

Being us, we just could not stop at 2, we also ordered fried keoy teow to try.

And that was our mistake.  No no. Should have stopped at 2, my bad!

Wai Sei Lai

Jalan Sayur, off Jalan Pudu

Opposite Sek Yuen Restuarant on Jalan Pudu

Adventure #82: O&S (Sea Park)

Today, we went to O&S in Sea Park for lunch. I don't recall ever being there but G had been and likes it. It is a very popular place with lots of very good quality hawker stalls. And hence, it was a nightmare looking for parking.  We drove around a couple times and eventually found one.  Just as we were about to turn left into the space, a motorbike tried to squeeze through past us on the left! This is one of the irritating things about driving in Malaysia.  Crazy people on motorbikes trying to squeeze past everything not realising that most of the time the driver in the car cannot see them. We had so many near misses this time.

Anyway, he was caught between the parked car and our car.  Scratched the side of our door with his steering handle.  And what could we do? He didn't looked like he could afford to pay us, so we had to let him go.  Just hope the food is good enough to make up for this mishap!

The freid keoy teow looked and tasted very good.  Up to the standard of the Penang ones.

Same could be said for the prawn noodle.

This chee cheong fun stall serves Penang chee cheong fun - i.e with prawn paste sauce. G didn't like the sauce, so I order one with normal sweet sauce.  Mistake. No good.

Food's good.  Better luck next time, I hope!

Adventure #81: Ah Tuan Ee's Place (The Curve)

Back from 4 days of sun, sea and not-so-good food at Pulau Redang.  Meeting some old friends for dinner tonight and am really looking forward to some good local food. Not hawker food though as we would like some where comfortable so we can sit and chat. G picked Ah Tuan Ee's Place, a nyonya restaurant.

We booked for 7pm but with the rain and the traffic, we didn't get started till about 8pm.  Oh well, that's Malaysian timing for you. While waiting I noted that by 7.30pm, only 4-5 (including us) tables were occupied. A rather worrying sign for a Friday night!  However, as it turned out, the food was rather delicious. Phew!






We ordered a beef rendang which was very tough, so we sent it back.  The restaurant took it back without a word and offered to either replace it or exchange it. Good service.  Rather than risking another plate of tough rendang, we exchanged it a fish dish.



aTe's golden tau hoo was fried tofu topped with a sweet-ish but very delicious mixed (couldn't tell what meat though!) meat topping.

Sambal kang kong, a must have dish. 

At the risk of being over-sambal-ed (if there is such a word! Haha), G ordered this egg plant with sambal for me (egg plant is my favourite veg).  Thanks dear and it was very good :)

This chicken kapitan was also very tasty. Never had it before but will certainly have it again.

Sambal prawns, cooked in spicy tamarind sauce with large onion rings.  Full of sambal flavour, a little sweet and not too spicy.  Very nice.

We swapped the beef rendang for the ikan belah belakang - black pomfret, stuff with aromatic chilli mix and deep fried.  The chilli mix was certainly very aromatic but the fish was a little dried.  Still a good dish.

The restaurant also serves Perut Ikan (in Malay means fish stomach), a well known (and apparently hard to find) nyonya dish made with 12 different type of veggies and herbs and then cooked with prawns and pickled fish maw.  Maybe try it next time.

Ah Tuan Ee's Place
The Curve, Level 1
Western Courtyard
Mutiara Damansara

Tel: +603-7710-3603