Adventure #215: Handi

Today we dropped by the airport to send the older one off for her 2-week school trip to Kunming.  After that we thought it would be a good idea to try that "excellent" Indian place my friend Amy always rave about but never managed to take us there.  This time tough she and her son managed to join us for lunch.

We are boring people, we ordered some of our usual favourites.

The samosas

Pipping hot tandoree chicken

Poppadums.  This is delicious!

Lamb rogan josh

Spinach with cheese

A chicken curry...opps can't remember which

Garlic nan

Pilau rice

Our standard desserts

We had a great meal here. Compared with Bombay Dreams, our usual curry joint, the curry at Handi is not as good. But what Handi does really well are the starters - poppadums, tandoree and the breads - nans. A great find in Tung Chung area.

Handi
Tung Chung Road
Tung Chung
Tel: 2988-8674/2988-8675

Adventure #149: Spices

The sun was out and for a moment it seemed like spring/summer had arrived.  G and I drove to Repulse Bay late morning to avoid the crowd and have an early lunch.  We decided on Repulse Bay Hotel which we haven't been for a while.  There are 2 restaurants at the Repulse Bay Hotel, The Verendah and Spices.  Today, we chose Spices because of the al fresco dinning area.

The sun was out but weather still a little chilly, not really sure what to drink, so we had a cold beer and a warm orange/ginger concoction.

First to arrive was our lamb curry served with rice.

Then came our aloo gobi and garlic naan.

Although Spices branded itself as a South-East Asian restaurant, as a rule, we rarely try Malaysian food outside Malaysia (no need set ourselves up for disappointment), so we usually only ordered Indian food at Spices.  The quality of food is very good and best of all is the atmosphere - al fresco dinning is rare in HK and when the weather is right, ti is very enjoyable.

Spices Restaurant
G/F, The Arcade
109 Repulse Bay Road
Repulse Bay
Tel: 2292-2821

Adventure #109: Gaggan (Bangkok)

Hot on the heels of our great fine dining experience at Bo.Lan, G took me to Gaggan, a contemporary Indian restaurant.  As with Bo.Lan, Gaggan is located just off a busy main road in the heart of Bangkok.  It is housed in a 70-year old wooden clapboard house and when we were there, it didn't feel like we were in Bangkok.

The restaurant's name sake, Chef Gaggan Anand interned at Spain’s famed 3 star Michelin restaurant, El Bulli, under renowned chef, Ferran Adrià.  Thus, the food at Gaggan follows the molecular gastronomy movement of the chef's alma mater.  Molecular Indian food...hmm... I am really looking forward to my dinner.

Once again, we ordered the tasting menu.

Welcome drink - Lassi infused with liquid nitrogen.  G thinks its the best lassi he has tasted

Yogurt - THE signature dish
An amazing experience when the "yolk" bursts in your mouth and the wonderful yogurt just oozes out of its sack.

Rice poppadom crusted river sea bass with crispy lemon and cucumber chutney
Another interesting experience especially the crispy lemon "paper".

Crispy naan bread with mascarpone, truffles and 4 cheese souffle
This was my favourite. The cheese souffle was delicious and went really well with the naan.

Lamb minced kebab with chutney made into a (fake) burger cooked live on the table

Excellent showmanship. I didn't quite like the taste of this though, I didn't think the lamb went well with the macaroon like fake burger bun.

Pressurized truffle espuma with green chilly oil and waynaud organic pepper
This was delicious. I loved it.

Foie gras with spiced red onion chutney and cold raspberry foie powder
The pan fried one was as good as expected. The frozen powder was....interesting.

Umami oyster charcoal grilled Malabar style with lemon air
This was OK, not much of a fan of warm oyster.

Eggs cooked at 62C for 2 hours served with home style raw Mango curry
This was very good. Egg with mango curry, very unique combo.

Hot slow cooked potatoes with Indian vanilla and cold surprising mouse
This dish didn't do much for me.

Chicken Tikka with Makhani curry air and edible greens and naan bread
This was the only dish that was authentic "Indian" but very good Indian nonetheless.

Thai bananas, Kashmiri pears slowed cooked and served with Gardadmom and caramel snow
By now, a little tired of things frozen by liquid nitrogen. 

Salty dark chocolate cookies with artisan Roquefort and summer truffles
This was a good dessert, a nice blend of sweet and salty.

Although I didn't like some of the courses, the ones that G and I did like were excellent! For the price, I don't think you can get a better value high quality molecular gastronomy experience in Asia (with beautiful decor and ambience thrown in).

68/1 Soi Langsuan
Ploenchit Road
Lumpini
Bangkok 10330
Tel: (662) 652 1700

Adventure #78: Bombay Dreams Indian Cuisine

Updated on 30 April 2013

After the excellent dinner last night, G refused to go back to our maid's cooking. So, he looked through the various guides and finally settled on Bombay Dreams.  Bombay Dreams has been around for a long long time but for whatever reason we never tried it.

Anyways, here we were tonight hoping to keep our culinary adventure going.  When we got to the lift lobby, there was an Indian family (including grandma and grandpa) going to the same restaurant. A good indication of the food quality.....I hope. Decor was modern and classy - not the traditional Indian joint.

They started us with a very refreshing free appetizer which consisted of crispy sliced lotus root, sweet potatoes chunks with yoghurt and tamarind sauce - yum!

Lukhnowi gosht biryani, the lamb briyani was full of flavour and yet not too spicy on the palate.

Palak Paneer, home made cottage cheese chunks with spinach. G's all time favourite. Very creamy......refused to think of the calories.

Chicken vindaloo, unlike the ones we used to have in England, this is the real McCoy - fiery hot!!!

Lucky it came with yoghurt and chopped onions.  Interesting how the yoghurt was able to neutralize the spiciness and yet bring out the flavour.

The mains were really filling but could not resist our favourite Jamun-E-Gul. An excellent dish to finish dinner with.

Update on 30 April 2013

The older one will be leaving for a 2-week school trip to Xian this weekend. So, today we took her out to dinner to spend some one-on-one time with her.  To prepare her for the food in Xian (we were told some of them spicy), we decided to go for curry at our favourite curry joint, Bombay Dreams.

In addition to our favourite dishes such as the lamb biryani and the home made cottage cheese chunks with spinach, we also wanted to order a not-so-spicy dish for the older one. 

G settle on Kadhai Gosht Kali Mirch, bonesless lamb marinated in yoghurt and crushed peppercorns cooked in a Handi without consulting the waiter. And as it turned out, this dish was very delicious, meat tender and the sauce delicious but it was more spicy than a curry. Lucky the older one had a lassi which helped cool her down.

For dessert, since there were 3 of us, in addition to our no. 1 favourite Jamun-E-Gul, we also ordered our no.2 favourite Rasmalai, cottage cheese dumplings in rabri (sweetened milk). 

Rasmalai - this is made slightly different from the ones we had. The milk had a slightly more salty taste to it. A bigger contrast of sweet and savoury. 

Bombay Dreams Indian Cruisine
4/F, 77 Wyndham Street
Central.
Tel: 2971 0001
Buffet lunch 12.00 Noon – 3.00 PM
A la carte dinner 6.00 PM to 11.00 PM daily
Sunday Bubbly Brunch Buffet 12.00 Noon to 3.00 PM