Adventure #170: Relaxed weekend brunch

The whole family has been sick for a week.  Although today is mother's day, with the older on away in Xian, we just wanted to spend Sunday relaxing at home.  Flipped through my magazine and saw this mouth watering picture! G loves anything with eggs. So, we set out to get ingredients for this.

Chorizo and Patatas Bravas with Eggs

This is my version.  Looked pretty good if I may say so.  I found that the chorizo I bought was not fatty enough, i.e. not much fat came out when frying and hence my potatoes (maybe I put a little too many) were not as "fried" as I like. Will adjust for that next time.  And I used fresh cherry tomatoes instead of the canned ones. I think it makes the whole dish less tomato-ish which I prefer.

To me, it is a luxury to be able to cook in my kitchen (it is the maids' domain). Recipe was simple and it tasted great. Excellent with chilled white wine!


Recipe
Preparation and cooking time: 45 min
Serves: 4

2tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
pinch of smoked paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
400g can cherry tomatoes
800g (1lb 12oz) potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm (1 1/4 inch) cubes
100g (4oz) small chirozo, chopped into 2cm (3/4 inch) pieces
4 large eggs
some finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. Heat half the oil in a saucepan and cook the onion until beginning to soften, then stir in the garlic, paprika and cayenne. Add the tomatoes and bring to simmer, then cook for about 20 mins.

2. Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes for about 6 mins until tender but still hold their shape. Drain well and leave to steam dry.

3. Heat a large frying pan and cook the chorizo for a few mins, then add the potatoes and cook over fairly high heat until the potatoes and chorizo brown in patches. Tip them into the spicy sauce, mixing in well.

4. Place the frying pan back on the heat, add the remaining oil and fry the eggs.  Place them on top of the potato mixture, sprinkle the parsley and transfer to the table to serve.

Adventure #169: Din Tai Feng 鼎泰豐

There are two Din Tai Feng restaurants in HK, one in TST and the other in CWB.  We walked by the CWB restaurant every Saturday on the way to the kids' classes.  After the episode the older one and I had at one of the Din Tai Feng in Taipei years ago, we never found the enthusiasm to return.

The Din Tai Feng in HK is very popular. Every time we walked past, it is packed with customers waiting for tables.  Today, we decided to give it a try.  When I got there, I was given a ticket.  Although there were a lot of people waiting for tables, the flow was well managed and smooth.

Live performances by the chefs while waiting for tables.

The restaurant is actually quite large but as a result of its popularity, there is still a long queue at meal times.

原盅鮮雞湯 The chicken soup was excellent. We ended up ordering another one.

蝦肉紅油抄手 The dumplings were excellent, the "skin" was thin and the filling crunchy and juicy and the dip was a good mix of sweet and spicy.

蒜香粉皮肉片 Ordered this because the reviews were good. But I was rather disappointed. The garlic not aromatic enough and the meat's texture rough.

小籠包 We ordered both the standard and the one with crab roe.  The dumplings were very well made. The "skin" very thin (as it should be). Preferred the standard ones.

台式擔擔麵 The noodle texture was very good, slightly chewy.  But the sauce was a little too peanut-ty for my liking.

炸醬拌麵 I had wanted to order the 香蔥拌麵 (below) but ticked this by mistake.  Luckily the older one found it delicious and had it all.

紅燒牛肉麵 I think the soup base wasn't thick enough but G liked it.

蝦仁燒賣 The "skin" is different from the 小籠包. A bit chewy.  Nice but preferred the 小籠包.

香蔥拌麵 Finally, the correct noodle arrived.  Little one loved it.  Nice but still prefer the ones from Xiao Nan Guo.

A mountain full of green vegetable.

迷你芝麻包 Sesame bun. Good. 

All in all, a very good dining experience. Always a long queue but the wait was never too long.  Despite the semi-fast food atmosphere, the service was very good.

Din Tai Feng
G/F, 68 Yee Woo Street
Causeway Bay
Tel: 3160-8998
Or
Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord
30 Canton Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: 2730-6928

Adventure #168: WTF

We have been watching Rick Stein's Spain DVD the past week and as such really wanted to try some tapas this weekend.  We had originally wanted to try 22 Ships in Wanchai.  22 Ships is one of the latest tapas bars to be opened in Hong Kong - the trend these days seems to be Spanish food.  Reviews were good but they don't take reservation.  At around 5pm today, the sky turned pitch black and started to pour.  Not wanting to risk having to queue up in the rain, we decided to try another tapas bar instead.

WTF came to mind.  Yes, WTF, the name of the Spanish restaurant.  It actually means Wine, Tapas and Fun! LOL!

We've been to WTF once before but were too busy catching up then and therefore didn't blog it.  But the food was good.  So here we were again.



Decor is modern and cosy



Interesting piece of art but don't know why Bruce Lee is in it.....

Soon as we ordered, we were given some bread.  The bread didn't taste too good (didn't like the texture) but at least the bread was warm.

Gambas Pil Pil - Prawns sizzling in olive oil, garlic and chili.  This was delicious. Simply dish but tasted great because the prawns were fresh (except for one) with lots of garlic.

Albondigas Con Salsa De Tomate - Beef meat balls with tomato sauce. This dish was ok, no wow factor, the tomato sauce tasted like it came from a can.



Chipirones Fritos - Deep fried baby squid with white aioli.  Nice but would be better if it was a bit more crispy. Not a bad dish though.



Sardinas A La Parilla - Grilled whole sardines. This was very good.

No Spanish meal would be complete without Churros!

This time there were only two of us and therefore cannot sample too many tapas.  We tried more tapas the first time and most of the tapas were great. This time round, we sampled fewer tapas but with greater details. Food still good although not all the tapas were excellent. 

Twice we came early around 7pm and the restaurant both times was relatively empty and hence the experiences were enjoyable.  It started to get crowded by 8.30-9pm. A whole difference experience by then. So if you want to relax, have a drink (BTW, their Sangria here is very good) and a bite to eat before movie or something (especially on a Friday night), this is the place for you.

WTF
G/F, 9 Elgin Street
Soho
Central
Tel: 2559 0218

Adventure #167: Fiat Caffe

Walked past this interestingly decorated cafe besides (inside?) the Fiat showroom many times but have never been inside.  Today, we were in the area and not wanting to track too far for food, we wandered into the Fiat Caffe.

Other than the food, this place is also a feast to the eyes with all the Fiat products on display. Not to mention, the little Fiat is now my favourite town car.....sadly we really only need one car in HK and G being the principal driver in the household got his BMW.

Arriving before 12 noon, we were one of the first lunch customers.  Service was very slow (maybe becasue not all the satff have arrived) hence not too sure about the quality of food.

Not long after we placed our order and took some photos of the place, the food arrived.


Fontina cheese, sweet Italian shallots and prosciutto bruschetta. A simple but well put together bruschetta. Delicious.



Ricotta cheese, egg and anchovy panini. Very interesting. Panini warm and the side salad with anchovy complemented the panini well.

Polpette meat balls in extra rich tomato sauce. The older one really like this dish.

And the coffee also didn't disappoint.

All in all, we were pleasantly surprised.  The portion was not large but sufficient.  And at under $100 a dish, that's good value for money in HK.  Most of all, the food was delicious.  Given the very convenient location in CWB, a very good place for lunch or tea in between shopping.

Fiat Caffe
Shop G5-G6, Leighton Centre
77 Leighton Road
Causeway Bay
Tel: 2960 9222

Adventure #166: 羅富記粥麵專家

羅富記粥麵專家 has 3 branches in Central.  G used to frequent the one on Lynhurst Terrace as it is across the street from where he used to work.  My mum prefers the one on Queen's Road Central, no particular reason, I think she just doesn't fancy walking uphill.

Today, we popped into the one on Queen's Road Central.  It closed for a while a few months back for renovation.  So, post renovation......looked the same to me.  The cooking area and the seating area looked exactly the same.  Put in some new industrial size air-conditioners - freezing!

The standard wonton noodle.  Noodle chewy, wonton delicious. No disappointment there.

The dumplings 水餃 were also delicious with sufficient fillings and not too thick dumpling skin.

The 皮蛋鹹瘦肉粥 is G's favourite.  Not many places does this properly anymore.  The pork is supposed to be salty and in this case, it was. And yet it didn't overwhelmed the porridge. 

Another of G's favourite is 牛肉鱼片粥 which he ordered to share with the little one. The beef was soft and the fish slices just cooked. The only complaint which the little one had on this dish was that sometimes there were little bones on the fish slices. 

魚腩粥 is my favourite. They always run out but today I am in lucky and I get to have it. This is actually a better dish for the little one as the bones on the fish belly are large and easy to remove - less chance of a fish bone accident!

G/F, 142 Queen's Road Central
Central
Or
G/F, 50 Lynhurst Terrance
Central

Adventure #165: Sift

After The Salted Pig, we strolled to Sift at Graham Street.  Sift is well known for its cupcakes, in particular its Red Velvet cupcake which is our favourite.  None of its shops serve desserts other than this one.  It is a small shop with a bar area, a couple of tables in front and a couple of tables out back.

The desserts are pre-prepared and the "chef" only has to assembled them before serving but they are delicious!

The warm molten chocolate served with vanilla ice-cream. One of our favourites.

Just looked at the warm chocolate oozing out........yummmm!

Our other favourite, stick toffee pudding. Served with vanilla ice-cream and some honey comb.

A great place to drop by for dessert, especially after dinner. But the place is small, so unless you come early, likelihood is you will have to wait.

SIFT

G/F, 46 Graham Street

Soho

Central
Tel: 2530 4288

Adventure #164: The Salted Pig

Flipping through some old magazines and saw a feature on Latin American food.  One of the restaurants featured was The Salted Pig.  According to the article, pork is more expensive than beef in Argentina and is only eaten on occasions.

The pork dishes featured were peasant type food but looked comforting, like pork stew and spicy roasted pork served on a bed of creamy scrambled eggs. So, we decided to give it a try.

The decor on one side of the restaurant is rather rustic and has bigger tables for groups of six and above.

On the other side however, the decor is more contemporary with cosier seatings for parties of 2 to 4 people.

We were seated on the more rustic side which I preferred.  There is no wine list, just choose servicing sized and type. We choose a small one (150ml I think as G drove) and Shiraz.  It was surprisingly good, although I still didn't what I had.

The bread rolls arrived. We were a little disappointed as the rolls were not warm.

I didn't find the featured dishes on the menu which doubled as a mat.  We asked the waiter and it seemed that the featured dishes were created specifically back in March to show case some Latin American food.  Rather disappointed so we ask the waiter to give us some recommendations instead.

Based on the waiter's recommendation we ordered Bacon-Wrapped Scallops served on a bed of broad bean, pea and mint mash, cider dressing.  I know.....not even a pork dish!  However, it was a good choice and the scallops were very well cooked and the mixture of broad bean, peas and mint was delicious.

For mains, it was a toss between:
(i)  The Crispy Skinned Pork Knuckle Regarded as Hong Kong's Best Pork Knuckle, marinated and cooked for 3 days to ensure perfect tenderness and a crispy skin. Served with home-made sauerkraut, roasted carrots and potatoes from their Salted Pig Sharing Feats menu or
(ii) Roasted Suckling Pig with roasted vegetables.
The waiter recommended the suckling pig.

While waiting for our suckling pig, the waitress started cutting up the pork knuckle dish right next to us.  We started to doubt our choice.

Our suckling pig dish arrived.  It looked really enticing.  The meat was soft and tender and full of flavour.  The roasted vegetables were great. The only flaw (deadly for this dish) was that the skin was not crispy enough. It didn't crack when bitten, it was actually a bit chewy!

G was very disappointed with the suckling pig, to him a crispy skin is vital to the dish.  So, after one look at the not very outstanding dessert menu, we decided to have dessert elsewhere, he didn't want to risk another disappointment.

Although the suckling pig was a let down, we only had 2 dishes here, one good and one fair.  So, unable to form a definitive view on the restaurant.  There are still many more dishes on the menu to try and most of the dishes are large and needed to be shared.  I think I will have to organising an eating party and come back here some time.

The Salted Pig
2/F, The L Place
139 Queen's Road Central
Central
Tel: 2870 2323