Hong Kong Brew House

> Location : LG/F, LKF Tower, No. 33 Wyndham St.,
Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Bar/American/Mexican
> Tel. # : (852) 2522-5559
> Website : click here

Great drinks, great food, great environment and great service; that is what every food enthusiast wishes to see in every restaurant. Environment comes with construction cost and a good area/district comes with a high rent (unless you own the property). Yet, El Grande Holdings is willing to put such effort and sacrifice into Hong Kong Brew House in Lan Kwai Fong!

With almost two dozen restaurants under El Grande, Hong Kong Brew House's goals as a bar/restaurant shouldn't be taken lightly. Already assuming you know where Lan Kwai Fong is =D, Hong Kong Brew House has already been around for quite sometime. Every time you go in during peak hours (evening time of course), it's a peanut shell party all over! Every table has free peanuts to offer and it's a custom to toss your shells on the ground! Its served because peanuts has always been a great snack to go with a nice cold glass of beer! There are TVs around the whole place and even a big projection screen at the center of the bar when there is a major televised sporting event. The service at Hong Kong Brew House is great. They are quick/prompt and friendly. I've never seen them run out of man power to serve you quickly. There's always 2-3 at the bar and 2-3 at the tables to serve you right away!

Moving on to the next topic, the title of the restaurant definitely tells us all something; "Brew House." Hong Kong Brew House is a great place for beer from all over the world. They have the most common brews to some of the most uncommon yet most refreshing brews. The common beers or as their menu would call it (boring beer), contain the usuals such as Budweiser, Corona, Heineken, Bluegirl/Carlsberg (commonly ordered in Hong Kong), Guinness, Asahi and a few others. Straight from the draft they have Stella Artois and Hoegaarden. But the greatest of all has to be their imported brews straight from Belgium!

One in particular that is a must have is Chimay. Chimay, as I've hinted before is a beer from Belgium (in the Hainaut province, abbey of Scourmont), near a municipality called "Chimay." The history of Chimay beer goes all the way back to 1850 with the Trappist monks. To make a long story short, the Trappist monks' every moment is of great dedication. From their crop fields to their worshiping of God, they put a lot of work into it. However, one day, crop growing became a light industry and in order to proceed with their lives, they decided to make the best cheese and beer! Until today, Chimay beer is still brewed at the Abbey of Scourmont to ensure its quality! Chimay comes in three types: Chimay Red (7% alc. vol.), Chimay Triple (8% alc. vol.), Chimay Blue (9% alc. vol.). Each type comes in either a 25.4 fl. oz. bottle or a 11.2 fl. oz. bottle. Because of its second fermentation process within the bottle, a bigger bottle of Chimay will definitely be unique to its little brother. The Volume of beer during this process changes its taste making it fuller and smoother. So essentially, Chimay has six types of beer! Well, actually, there's eight but I'll let you do the research on the other two =D (For information about the other types of imported beer, please check their website)

Just beer? Of course not! The Food at Hong Kong Brew House is excellent and nothing short compared to a lot of restaurants that serves American and Mexican dishes. They have various types of appetizers, salads, soups, pizza, pasta, sausages dogs, some Mexican specials, burgers, steaks, and so many other choices! Besides beer, Hong Kong Brew House serves cocktails, sparkling/white/red wine, spirits and much, much more!

My experience? Well, one thing I love to order when I go there is their chimichanga! You don't know what it is? Well, just imagine a chicken burrito fried, on a plate, with melted cheddar and jack cheese on top and other tasty ingredients on top also, and with guacamole, sour cream and diced tomatoes on the side to spread all over it! To me, this is the greatest dish at Hong Kong Brew House and I've ordered it every time when I'm not sick of it =D The chicken is a little spicy as the menu indicated and ranchero sauce is present also. The chimichanga was nice and hot when it came and it was definitely tasty with all the sides spread on top! The chicken inside was tender, and all the other ingredients were fresh tasting from my knowledge. At $95 HKD, it's a tiny bit more than your usual set meal/western dish. However, located in Lan Kwai Fong and considering the great quality, it's definitely justified!

Another item I love to order is the Hot Wings, which is one of their "Brew City Snack Selections" or in short, appetizers. Hot wings is basically buffalo wings as most Americans would call it. It's a total of one pound (for $88 HKD) of tastiness with a "kick of spice" as their menu would call it! Served with ranch sauce and some celery sticks! There really isn't much to say but it's juicy, tasty, tender and that infamous buffalo wings flavor! Of course, ranch dressing is the best dip for it. While typing this, it seems like I can taste it right now!

One other item I would love to share with you is the "Brooklyn Reuben." As their menu description says, "Grilled rye bread stuffed with a mountain of corn beef, pastrami, smoked turkey, sauerkraut & melted Swiss cheese." On the side, it's served with a stick of pickle, thousand island dressing sauce and some fries! This type of sandwich is famous for the sauerkraut taste which is cabbage, specially fermented to give it a slight sour/sweet taste. I'll tell you right now, this sandwich is big! And as their menu describes, it truly is stuffed with all sorts of good stuff! Every bite is a little craziness from each ingredient from the corn beef to the pastrami to the smoked turkey to the sauerkraut! At $100 HKD, again it seemingly is pricey but for such goodness, as a food freak, I seriously think it's justified but do you think so? Your decision =D

I think anyone should expect the pricing in Lan Kwai Fong, much like the pricing of a bottle of water when going to Disneyland (but of course not as ridiculous!). Yet, Hong Kong Brew House makes you forget pricing because their quantity of their selections and the quality of any of its choices (I'm pretty darn sure) is all excellent! I try over and over again to think what is bad about this place from service to environment to its food/drinks and I seriously cannot think of one thing! The place is almost always full during the "usual hours." But finding a seat shouldn't be too tough because there are always people who bar hops in Lan Kwai Fong. My verdict is obvious and my recommendation is a "go if you're a beer lover and go if you're a food lover." Enjoy if you ever get a chance to go =D

< 5 out of 5 >

味軒 (Wei Xuan)

> Location : G/F, No. 60 Connaught Road, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Chinese/Taiwanese
> Tel. # : (852) 2854-2899
> Website : N/A

Right next to the bridge, fairly close to I.F.C. is a neat little restaurant called Wei Xuan (味軒). Wei Xuan is a small restaurant (seats about 20 or so). There are a few highlights to the place but to me, the best thing is their hot and sour noodle soup! Hot and sour soup is an old doctor's medicine. It uses the healing properties of black fungus, vinegar, white pepper, and chicken broth. Besides these ingredients, bamboo shoots, tofu and shredded pork are commonly used by chefs. At Wei Xuan, they take this soup to the next level and make it into a soup base for noodles!

You can choose from thick or thin noodle (thick noodle is somewhat like Japanese udon), ho fun (flat noodle), and rice noodle to pair with your hot and sour soup. Their are various meat balls and other things you can pair with your noodle soup but to me, the best is the meat ball (pork) with satay stuffing! The meat ball is so good and so juicy that almost every time I bite into it, the juice squirts out! As for the noodle choice, I enjoy the thick noodle a lot. Seemingly, it's like Japanese udon but it's not. But it's slightly chewy and to me, it's great with the thick hot and sour soup base.

Besides this, Shanghai vegetable rice pairing with sweet and sour spare ribs is another excellent selection. I tried this once before and it's definitely something simple yet great. For appetizer, their taro strips spring roll is also a nice selection coming with a nice sweet dipping sauce!

Yet, the highlight is still the hot and sour soup noodle. It is definitely a nice treat once in awhile at Wei Xuan. To me so far and from what I've heard from food lovers, this is definitely their best specialty. I really can critique Wei Xuan entirely (everything it serves) or just focus on what I really had before/liked. But to be fair, I really only had the stuff I talked about above and I can surely give them all above average scores! (From what I heard, everything I had IS the only choices that are truly worthwhile) The Shanghai vegetable rice pairing with sweet and sour spare ribs is good but if it were me, I would go for the hot and sour soup noodle first before anything else! It's more unique for first timers.

So in the end, Wei Xuan is a nice place to go if you're in for something hot, sour and with noodles! Solely giving a score for that, I would give it a 4 out of 5 but with everything else accounted for, I would say about a 3 1/2 out of 5. Please don't let my indecisive nature not make you want to go try it out! Please do try if you enjoy Taiwanese/Shanghainese style cuisine and especially if you're a fan of hot and sour soup! So what's your final verdict Simon?! You're being so wishy washy!! Well, I guess I'll go with my gut feeling...

< 3.5 out of 5 >

雲貴川 (Yun Gui Chuan)

> Location : 5th Floor, Shing Hing Commercial Bldg.,
21-27 Wing Kut St., Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Yunnan & Sichuan Noodle
> Tel. # : (852) 2854-2389
> Website : N/A

Various locations in the Kowloon area, Yun Gui Chuan has landed its first shop in Hong Kong island at Central (boarder of Central and Sheung Wan)! Famous for its infamously spicy Yunnan and Sichuan noodles, Yun Gui Chuan is no kitty cat in the soup noodle market in Hong Kong. My first visit was surprising because I didn't know it was so close to my office! It's on Wing Kut street too, just right down the road! Hidden inside Shing Hing Commercial Building, some spiciness was about to enter my mouth...

Yun Gui Chuan offers various themed soup noodles (inspired by Yunnan and Sichuan cuisines/both of these Chinese provinces are to the North West of Hong Kong) with various different types of noodles to choose from. Besides noodles, their famous chicken wings are great too! Pricing wise, it's an average of $40 HKD (plus or minus a bit on what you specifically ordered) for a bowl (the three main noodle sets). But don't be concerned, ingredients are fills up every inch of it! Whereas, if you want a smaller bowl, you can always ordered the $25 HKD version. Either way, everything on the menu is customizable As for service, the Central shop was friendly overall and I had nothing to complain about. The wait for the food wasn't long at all too! I had the chance to experience three items from this place and i'll discuss about them now.

For every soup noodle set, you will get a cup of fresh lightly sweeten soy milk! So yeah, first up we have the mixed seafood soup noodle. The bowl was huge! I got to choose from three different levels of spiciness. I asked for medium but they warned me about it so I chose little spiciness. You could add more if needed for your information. So little spiciness wasn't too bad but still I definitely was challenged a bit still =D The soup was sweet, a bit sour from the fermented cabbage (in a good way) and perfectly done saltiness level. The bowl came with all sorts of goodies inside. The following is a list of what's inside: Green onion, lettuce, bean sprouts, peanuts, sesame, fish skin dumpling, fermented cabbage, shrimp wrap, crab roll, ja ja diced pork (like ja ja mien), fried cuttle fish ball, fried fish paste, albacore, Sichuan spicy oil (according to my friend), pepper bits, and scallions. Multiply each item by a few to a lot of times and you have a bowl that's extremely busy! It was like a kid in a candy store digging through all the different flavors within the bowl...

Noodle wise, I went with the "sweet potato" noodles. Although it didn't tasted sweet, it was interesting overall. They were like semi-clear thin tubings and extremely slippery. Besides this type of noodle, you can also choose from rice noodle, Shanghai Lai Mien, egg noodle (oil type), elbow macaroni, flat noodle (ho fun) and other types. I personally would have gone with Shanghai Lai Mien or egg noodle if I had to choose again but it's definitely a personal preference.

All the items inside the mixed seafood soup noodle were good. Especially the fish skin dumplig (the skin of the dumpling is made out of fish skin). The taste and texture were just excellent to me. Everything else was fresh, good and as expected. How about the second item? Well, this was the pig soft bone (the part at the pig's middle spine area) meat soup noodle. This is a great choice if you want some red meat in your system. I personally was brought to this place with a friend so this is what she had. I did get a chance to have some of the soft bone pig meat and I mean the taste was just delicious! I can't imagine what it would be like with the whole experience. So I definitely would recommend anyone trying it because I definitely will =D

Lastly, we have the chicken wings. These things are as popular as the noodles I tell you. Each order has six wings. You can divide up the flavors however you want. As for me, I had half spicy Sichuan style and Sinkiang herb seasoned style (Sinkiang is another province in China). Personally, I love the herb seasoned style because of the aroma and the taste that lingers around your senses so much! The spicy Sichaun style was good and your expected spiciness to it. I'll tell you right now, it gives me good memories of this one place called Wingnuts back in Costa Mesa, California (U.S.A.), a restaurant that specializes in check wings and ribs!

So Yun Gui Chuan was all plus' from me. I mean, the environment might not be some fancy grade A place nor is it some dirty "dai pai tong" style, but it's clean, the service is good and of course, most importantly, the food (at least what I had for my first experience) got me raving it! I'm really torn with what score I should give this place. Both good scores but until it somehow disappoints me with my next attempt, I'll keep this nice score up for now =D

< 4.5 out of 5 >

Ivan The Kozak

> Location : LG/F 46-48 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Old Eastern European (Ukrainian, Russian)
> Tel. # : (852) 2851-1193
> Website : www.ivanthekozak.com

Labeled as the "one and only authentic Russian and Ukrainian food in Hong Kong," Ivan the Kozak is a lovely restaurant just slightly hidden to the inner left of Cochrane Street in between two restaurants/bar. Once inside, the environment is cozy like a cottage style home. There are a lot of cultural decorations and lighting all around the restaurant. The overall lighting is a little bit dim but if you want a brighter seating location, there are a few tables right next to the window (for daytime using daylight). There's a bar and from my best judgment, the restaurant can hold about 40-50 so people. There's even the infamous "vodka ice room" where the temperature is negative 15 degrees Celsius (clothing provided to keep you warm) for you to drink up to the various types of vodka in traditional Russian style! For further information about this unique activity, check out their website.

Ivan the Kozak provides a regular menu (in its native language/Chinese) that consist of caviar, soup, salad, hot/cold appetizer, main course, and desserts. For pricing ranges from $20 HKD so for soups, $50-60 HKD so for salads and appetizers, $40 HKD so for desserts and $100 HKD plus for main courses. There's also various types of drinks available such as beer (various types of European beers), wine, hard liquor, and other types of cold/hot drinks. Besides all this, they also have a lunch special that consist of two parts: You can get the all you can eat buffet bar with coffee or tea for $59 HKD. The buffet bar consist mostly of various types of themed salads such as mix vegetable, turnips, mushrooms, eggs, cole slaw, red cabbage, pancake strips and other various types of salads. There's also different types of soups such as fish, vegetable, cabbage and Ukrainian bortch. Some fruits are even provided, bread and other minor items. Overall, a good amount of selections. Just for $20 HKD more, you receive the main course which you get to choose from. Every week, there's a new list of main courses that alternates.

For my experience, I got to try the Ox Tongue stew and the Baked Duck Chest for the main course. For the ox tongue stew, the meat was soft and melts in your mouth almost literally. The sauce is semi-thick with mushrooms inside and the taste is mildly salty and just right. Broccoli and your choice of spaghetti or rice is included. The rice is ordinary just like most places but the spaghetti included was spiced in this semi-curry powder like flavor. It was rather unique and I would definitely try it out if I were you rather than rice! The Baked Duck Chest is tender with every piece and this thick white mushroom /eggplant gravy like sauce is poured on top! The sauce has a little sweet taste to it and well balanced with its saltiness. This also came with broccoli and your choice of rice or spaghetti.

I had a very good time with these set lunch main course and the salad/soup/dessert buffet. I would imagine that the items from the regular menu would be EVEN better! Please check the website for the web's version of the menu. There will definitely be another visit from me soon and an update on it! For now, my verdict is...

< 4 out of 5 >

Krispy Kreme

> Location : 51 Elgin Street, SoHo, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : American Doughnuts
> Tel. # : (852) 2580-8338
> Website : http://www.krispykreme.com.hk/

What else do I need to explain? Krispy Kreme in Hong Kong is the same old goodness from the states! Starting off at the Causeway Bay location on Lee Garden Road, Krispy Kreme Hong Kong has expanded to Central (address listed above) and also at the Times Square MTR station.

Various selections of doughnuts, coffee, chilled drinks and also early bird specials, Krispy Kreme Hong Kong serves it all! Some of the selections they serve besides the infamous original glazed are caramel kreme crunch, strawberry shortcake, New York cheesecake, and glazed raspberry filled. There are 11 other choices for you to choose!

Pricing wise, for each original glazed, it costs $10 HKD and $88 per dozen. For everything else, it's $12 HKD each and $110 per dozen. There's also a two dozen deal of original glazed for $168 HKD! A good choice if you want to treat your co-workers to some doughnut goodness.

As for their coffee, this is what their advertisement has to say, "Krispy Kreme ensures that our coffee meets the same exacting standards as our doughnuts, We believe that the perfect doughnut deserves the perfect cup of coffee. That is why we are proud to serve Illy premium blend coffee in all our stores, Illy coffee produces a single, unique and unmistakable blend of traditional coffee that will complement your Krispy Kreme experience." Illy coffee? A famous Italian coffee company for over 70 years, you can't go wrong with that!

So what are you waiting for? How does it taste? It's a world wide thing, don't waste time reading what I have to say anymore! Just go now to your nearest location and enjoy some doughnut goodness today!

< 4 out of 5 >

Florinda Cafe

> Location : Shun Tak Centre, 200 Connaught Rd.,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Chinese diner dishes, Portuguese custard tarts
> Tel. # : N/A
> Website : N/A

new review :

Rushing out of the house, i didn't get a chance to eat my bowl of "smart start" cereal. as most know, when you skip a meal, your metabolism begins to slow down and by the time your next meal comes, your body will absorb whatever is within your food faster and convert more of it into fat. so takin' the bus that day, to get to the office from the bus stop, you need to walk through shun tak centre. so yeah, Florinda Cafe is right there so i had to get the "po tat" meal, haha. yeah, that's the cantonese's way of sayin portuguese custard tart.

for about 20 dollars, you get two egg white or mixed (egg yolk and white) po tat and a pretty decent size drink. so since im such a health freak usually when it comes to breakfast, i went with two egg whites. so, any different from last time simon?? still crispy, flaky, that shiny semi-burnt texture ontop, the oh-so-sweet-and-tasty egg white filling... just wonderful! so most must be asking me what's different between this and lord stow's and if i'm going to up the score for this place. well, first of all, the score isn't going down. just that, there's this extra charisma, this sensation that is indescribable in lord stow's that macau's is lacking. is this "sensation" a whole 1/2 point or 1 point? i'll say 1/2 which allows me to give this place a new score. for its consistency in pleasuring me with their egg tarts! another thing i want to mention about is, another macau highlight is the porkchop sandwich with crispy bun. this is one thing i want to try one of these days that people emphasize a lot about macau cuisine. so next time you're eating macau cuisine, go try it out!

< 4 1/2 out of 5 >


old review :

So what exactly is a portuguese custard tart? well, if you go to chinese dim sum often enough, you'll order the egg tarts in them rolling carts or people carrying them around on plates. yes, very similar to the one pictured in this entry. besides puff pastry, egg yolk (egg white or both) and sugar usually being the similar ingredients compared to egg tards from dim sum, there are other aspects that make a portuguese custard tart different. here's a list of the usualy ingedients used in most recipes:

1) milk or heavy cream
2) vanilla extract
3) egg yolk or egg white or both
4) slices of puff pastry
5) fine white sugar or sugar syrup
6) cornstarch or plain flour

besides these, there are other unique ingredients people use such as butter, nutmeg, cinnamon, zest of a lemon or orange, honey replacing white sugar or sugar syrup. all these parts give the custard an extra kick to the taste. but in the end, in an aesthetic and taste sense, portuguese custard tart is cooked till it has a little brownness (right before it's burnt) on top of the filling and golden brown texture on the pastry.

so at shun tak centre, which is around sheung wan and central, there's a chain opened by the wife of the centre's owner (btw, this guy has 7 wives. haha). the chain is called Florinda Cafe. it's just a casual restaurant with your usual hong kong diner style food. but for breakfast, the highlight has to be (you guessed it) the portuguese custard tart! so first of all, what is the relationship between the portuguese and macau? well, at one point back in the days, macau was a portuguese settlement. due to the influences of the portuguese settlers, macau's cuisine contain some portuguese influences. one of which is what we've been discussing about! anyhow at Florinda Cafe, the custard is made using typical dim sum egg tard pastry, however, the cooking method and ingredients are the same. crispy, flaky, sweet, the brown texture ontop of the filling is felt and yes, it's wonderful! i need to mention that at macau's, you can get both just the egg yolk version or just plain egg white custards. i'll need to find out where you can get these with the fat puff pastry crust. but for now, go get 'em at macau's restaurant at shun tak centre or check for other locations around hong kong! or if you wish to make them yourself, check out allrecipes.com on how to make their version of portuguese custard tart!

< 4 out of 5 >

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao

> Location : International Finance Centre, Shop 2018-20,
Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Northern Chinese
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : HERE

Howdy! just like last time, a picture first! here's a picture of a giant xiao long bao using a straw to drink the soup from shanghai. more xiao long bao stuff in the next paragraph. anyways, yesterday (saturday) before my brother and i went to work, we hit up a local chinese diner right off the street in sheung wan, near wing kut street. there are a lot of these places in hong kong, a small place, usually seats outside also, somewhat old/ghetto lookin'. but if u pick the right place, your experience could be a miracle. ok, i didn't get the damn name of this place, but i'll figure it out and tell u next time. haha. so according to my brother, this place is famous for its porridge in the morning. so we both ordered a bowl of duck egg lean beef porridge. usually, lean beef is prepared simply salted or plain in this type of chinese porridge. they just add it into smaller pieces and boil it along with the rice. however, what makes this place different is that, they cook the lean beef seperatedly first in like a stew therefore becoming very soft after a long period of cooking time. since the lean beef is cooked in this stew, it now incorporates a nice sweet/slightly salty taste to it. to my believe, they take some of this and boil it with the rice and duck egg. the result? a very good bowl of porridge! on a hot morning with a hot bowl of porridge = a free workout. sweatin' like a dog, seriously. haha. overall, i had a great experience in such a simple environment. ask me and i'll show u where next time!

rewinding a little bit, two nights ago, i went to ifc to eat dinner with my bro, sis and niece. besides from shanghai, i don't have too many experiences with restaurants dedicated to xiao long bao. besides the one in time square in causeway bay (second floor), crystal jade la mian xiao long bao in ifc isn't too bad at all. we ordered the following: egg white with dried scallop, scallion oil la mien, two orders of regular xiao long bao, and tofu skin with green bean vegetable. the egg white, tofu skin dishes are all very common siu sik dishes. in cantonese, siu sik literally translates to "small eat." basically, they are small simple dishes. in a sense, if u ever had japanese yakitori, u'll understand what i mean. the two things i'll emphasize on is the scallion oil la mien and the xiao long bao. seriously, the la mien had nothing in it besides noodles and oil. but don't be fool, as simple as it sounds, it noodle is good base on its texture and taste from the scallion oil. but try to eat it somewhat quick 'cause from my experience, after leaving it out for a bit, the noodles absorbs the oil completely and somehow the noodle tasted really dry/somewhat hard. so if u want dry noodle, give this a try next time. so the main thing even the name of the restuarant is trying to convince us is the xiao long bao. first of all, xiao long bao is all about steaming it properly where the soup/juice is still within the skin along with the meat. places that aren't popular for things like this steam it too long therefore when u use your chopsticks to pick it up, the skin rips easily. so check, this place does it correctly. second of all, there has to be a 'good amount' of soup inside. sometimes, but rarely, some places when u eat their xiao long bao, there is barely any soup inside which is just horrible. this place? perfect, nice and juicy. thirdly, well, it's properly eating of the xiao long bao. or i should say, simon's proper way of eating xiao long bao, haha. first, hold your chopstick in one hand, a soup spoon in another, pick up the xiao long bao in your chopstick, put it ontop of the spoon. bite open slightly if it isn't open yet, the top of the xiao long bao so it creates an opening. suck up and drink the soup like a straw from this opening (becareful! it's hot!). now, after savoring the soup, take that spoon and shoove that bao into your mouth. good? yes, it was good. haha. so let me translate really quick, when we say 'xiao long bao,' it litereally means, small nest bun. u know those brown things made out of straws in dim sum places? well, that's a better way of explainin' nest. overall, i had a good time. until i go to more of these places, i will have a better personal comparison on what i believe is a good xiao long bao place.

well, i'm out to explore more of hong kong! until next time, take care and good luck ~

< 3 1/2 out 5 >

Te

> Location : 1/F, Cheung Hing Comm. Bldg, 37 Cochrane St.,
Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Japanese style pasta
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.te.hk/

If there's one reason that will keep me in hong kong forever would be the FOOD. i'm not talkin' about the chinese food here. but i'm talkin' how very much like nyc, downtown la, there's cusines from all over the world. just lookin' at the streets filled with different types of restaurants makes me feel like a kid in a candy store! haha. yeah, i enjoy eatin' different types of food if u haven't figured it out. yesterday, i went out to central with my bro, sis, sis in law, and 2 nieces and ate dinner at two restaurants. haha, yeah TWO. we first went to a japanese style pasta place called TE. it was good overall, can't say it's excellent or bad. it's a type of food i would called it as "safe food." not something sophisticated but simple and good. i had "F" on the menu which was the creamy tuna pasta. the pasta used was the regular type of spaghetti in most red sauce. this particular dish was in a white sauce as guessed by the word creamy. not strong in taste at first. u really need to mix it a bit first because the sauce sinked onto the button. i didn't get to taste much of what the others ate but i did get a few bites out of what my niece cherie ordered. it was just the regular red sauce pasta. regular is an understatement because as generic as it seems, it actually tasted pretty darn good. i'm not particularly sure, but my guess is the tomato had to be pretty fresh along with a few additional spice and i would guess, a bit of sugar to heighten the taste. about 55-65 hkd a plate. it's not exactly cheap for the portion they gave u. i say about 3-4 big bites and you could really finish it. in conclusion, if u want pasta but not italian, well, check TE out. then again, most of u people readin' probably won't be in hong kong anyways, haha.

< 3 out of 5 >

Pizza Express

> Location : SOHO Square, 21 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Various types of Pizza
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.pizzaexpress.com.hk/

Right across from TE, is pizza express. first thing i thought of was when i saw the name was cpk, california pizza kitchen (from the states). a lot of different salads, pizza, pasta as you would imagine. i won't go into details about what i ordered but i will explain to you about the crust. the crust is kinda thin, like in sicillian pizza. crunchy, crispy, not oily at all and a nice texture to it. the experience was good overall, kinda like over at TE. i haven't really seen/tried enough to recommend anything. but if u're in a cpk type of mood, pizza with all types of different ingredients and flavors, u should definitely turn to pizza express unless u haven't had enough of pizza hunt. about 100 -120 hkd a pizza, the price gives u the freshness and delicacy of different taste. size wise compared to price, not exactly big but it's a bit below average size.

< 3 out of 5 >

Cafe Siam

> Location : 40-42, Lyndhurst Terrance, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai
> Tel. # : (852) 2851-4803
> Website : N/A

So all that was yesterday for dinner. today for lunch, i went up a place near by, in central also, called cafe siam. cafe siam is thai cusine. if you think simon had enough of thai food (thai spice), well i haven't yet. haha. i ordered two things. the first thing i ordered was tom yum gong fried rice. tom yum gong is originally a soup with chicken, lemon grass, coconut juice and a few other spices and ingredients. however, what made this dish funky was, practically, they took the soup and used it as a sauce to make fried rice out of it. with two prawns on top of the fried rice, the taste was as expected. a bit spicy and sour as usual. interesting overall. so if you like the taste of tom yum gong a lot, u should definitely try this out. the other dish i ordered was chicken green curry. i've ate green curry from all over the place before and this HAD TO BE, the best green curry i have ever had. first of all, green curry usually consist of thai bail leafs, choice of meat, some coconut milk and green curry powder. i believe, a lot of the times, restaurants tend to save money and not use too much coconut and green curry powder, and replacing it with a bit more water, the curry gets diluted a bit. in cafe siam's green curry, my experience was a very strong, distinctive taste of all the ingredients within the dish. nothing was left out of my taste buds. in the end, it's definitely a place i will come back to.

< 4 out of 5 >