Augustin's Waffles

> Location : Times Square, Basement 1, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Belgium Waffles
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.citysuper.com.hk/

Usually when it comes with waffles or even pancakes, almost anybody would think of it as breakfast food only. But waffles as a snack? In Europe, it is a totally different situation! Augustin Peiffer, the man behind Augustin's Waffles, teamed up with City Super to bring these pleasant aroma, tasty Liege (Belgium) waffles to Hong Kong! This decision was based on the "Best of Belgium" event at City Super back in 2005. Since the unveiling of Augustin's Waffles at that event, City Super now host these delicious waffles at the Times Square (Casueway Bay) and New Town Plaza (Shatin) City Super outlets.

To bring you the best traditional Belgian waffles, fresh yeast and smelted caramelized pearl sugar are used to make the waffles on the spot! Everytime you walk by the Augustin's Waffles booth, you can't help but notice the pleasant aroma of the waffles. For $15 HKD a piece about the size of adult male's hand, it really isn't bad! I suggest you to wait for the freshly cooked waffles instead of the ones that are already cooked and put on the side. Even though they reheat the waffle on the waffle maker for the ones placed on the side, I think the ones right off the waffle makers tastes much better because it's toasty, the texture and slight heighten sweetness. The ones reheated gets a bit dry which makes the eating experience dull. So make sure you wait for the ones that are still cooking!

< 4 out of 5 >

Delifrance

> Location : 1/F, Shui on Centre, 6-8 Harbour Rd., Wanchai
(check website for other locations)
> Cuisine : French deli, coffee and Bakery
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.delifrance.com.hk/

Many locations throughout Hong Kong, Delifrance is a massive chain serving various types of coffee (espresso, cappuccino, latte, etc), bakery items (cakes, cookies, tarts, bread, viennoiseries, etc) and food (sandwiches, soup, salad, pasta, pizza, etc). From Hong Kong Island to Kowloon to New Territories, Delifrance is hard to miss with so many locations. Sometimes Delifrance to me is almost like another Star Bucks. Why? Due to the fact that it isn't hard to find one when you want it! In fact, Delifrance can be found in other parts of the world too! Since this place is so easy to run into, I'm going to make this review short and sweet. I'm going to be specific and talk about one particular sandwich I had a good experience with.

The Delifrance club sandwich is a great sandwich with a lot of ingredients. The ingredients are as follows: 3 slices of whole grain wheat bread, turkey, ham, tomatoes, lettuce, smashed boil eggs, and mustard. This sandwich is not small at all. With 3 large pieces of whole grain wheat bread, you can imagine it to be a decent size. Excluding bacon like most American style club sandwiches, the Delifrance club sandwich is like a health sandwich. You have whole grain wheat bread which is your source of grains and is very healthy. You have your vegetables in lettuce (fiber) and tomatoes (vitamin c). You also have your protein from the eggs. The lack of mayo and bacon helps the sandwich to stay away from all the fat and cholesterol and the sweetness of the whole grain wheat bread along with some mustard is a comparable replacement for the mayo. Taste wise, the highlight to the tongue would be the mustard, ham and turkey. Second in line would be the bread. The bread carries a define grain wheat taste especially in its crust. The crust of the bread is chewy which at first seems kind of annoying. On a personal level, I think it was good that it didn't break easily base on its texture and some entertainment factor if that makes sense at all, haha. It feels like sour dough bread's crust but harder to break. It takes away your usual soft crust sensation giving you that fun to eat experience along with the taste which had a nice, strong grain wheat taste. Yes, it does take a little effort, but in some weird way, I enjoyed it! Here's a good comparison: Beef Jerky.

From my point of view, some people like to stay away from chains because the more there are, the quality gets worst. Yet, base on this one sandwich we discussed here, I think it is safe to deny that comment! This is a great, tasty and light sandwich by Delifrance that anybody should order. Definitely there will be a revisit to this review to help some non-experienced understand better. Heck, even me, haha. Anyhow, hope this helps and my verdict base on this sandwich is...

< 4 out of 5 >

Honeymoon Dessert

> Location : Basement 1, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Chinese style desserts
> Tel. # : (852) 2917-7233
> Website : http://www.honeymoon-dessert.com/

One of the most famous chinese style dessert here in hong kong uses mango. So mango with what simon? At honeymoon dessert, they provide a mango, pomelo (grapefruit), coconut milk with sago dessert that is very wonderful! So what the heck is sago anyways? Sago is very much like snow bubble at your local refreshment shops that serves boba (tapioca). It is often used in a lot of chinese liquid desserts.

Honeymoon Dessert started in Sai Kung, Hong Kong which is a very beautiful tourist attraction area. Honeymoon Dessert now has multiple locations all over hong kong so it is hard to not experience this place if you live here or come visiting Hong Kong! The one i attended is in Times Sqaure (city super food court) where Curry in a Hurry and Ganpachi ramen are.

Going back to the mango dessert, it holds a refreshing not too sweet yet not too water down flavor. one of those 'just right' taste. The mango is very fresh along with the pomelo. The coconut milk adds that extra kick in the liquid when you eat the dessert and the sago gives your mouth that unique chewy sensation.

So give it a try next time you see Honeymoon Dessert! From sago, to grass jelly to traditional chinese style desserts, don't hesitate because you'll regret it! As a lot would say, there's always room for desserts!

< 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 >

Dan Tana's

> Location : 9071 Santa, Monica Blvd, West Hollywood,
California, 90069, U.S.A.
> Cuisine : Italian
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website: http://www.dantanasrestaurant.com/

Cute little Italian joint ... or so I thought! : A friend and I had a concert at the Troubadour next door and were hungry. The doorman recommended Dan Tana's for a drink. We had never heard of this place but stuck our heads in anyway. We asked for a table of two. The host told us we were lucky because it was 5 min before it would get really busy! He did mention the table was not so good and we quickly discovered why - it was in the way of several booths and we were cramped. But that's okay, the people watching and food made up for it.

The portions were pretty large. We actually shared an appetizer - the MOZZARELLA MARINARA - and an entree - Chicken Parmigiana, with sides of sphaghetti with meat sauce. The mozzarella was fantastic; we felt like we were eating a cube of fat (in a good way!) and could feel a heart attack coming any minute. The bread, btw, was standard toasted french bread - nothing extraordinary. The entree was very large and split between us, we still got a healthy portion (probably 8 oz) of chicken. The spaghetti side was not that great - a bit bland for me - I've had better spaghetti with meat sauce at other restaurants. But perhaps an entree of spaghetti would taste better? The chicken was great though. We were definitely too full for dessert, though the waiter made a good attempt to persuade us.

The service was excellent. The host was very nice to us as well as our waiter (who at first, we thought were the same person b/c they looked similar). Our water glasses were constantly filled. The waiter was friendly and funny. We left a healthy tip. We both said to each other that we'd definitely return again, though, now that I hear it's difficult to get reservations, I'm not so sure.

BTW, the other patrons are not very diverse if that matters to you. We were the only minorities in the place and we felt a little out of place. Granted, we were going to a concert so not as dressy as the others. But we did see a lot of folk, who looked like they had just come off of their yachts/golf courses.

> Pros : cute decor, friendly waitstaff
> Cons : crowded
> Overall rating : Highly Recommended

Ganpachi Ramen

> Location : Shop 103G, Basement level, Times Square,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Japanese Ramen
> Tel. # : (852) 2917-7232
> Website : N/A

Now this is exactly the same time i had curry in a hurry for your information, haha. ramen huh? i guess i kind of miss shinsengumi from westminster, california too much i had to eat some ramen on the side, haha. hakata ramen, yeah! =) so again, for people who didn't read my other review, ganpachi is located in the basement level of times square. there's a big food court there with various cuisines to choose from. this whole food court is ran/hosted by city super. everytime you order something, you have to pay through the city super people. ganpachi has two other locations at silvercord and APM according to their business card. hibiki ramen and hachiban ramen express is also part of the same group which are located at harbour city (tsim sha tsui) and city plaza (tai koo) respectively.

anyhow, how's ganpachi's food? i had one of their pig tail bone soup base ramen. the ingredients are as follows: bean sprouts, corn, green onions, crispy seaweed, bamboo shoots, pork strips, sesame and of course your ramen noodle. the soup is light and not too salty. the soup taste is well defined for the most part. the ramen texture was about between soft and medium. on a side note, some of the pork slices reminded me of bacon the way it's cut, haha. i think after contemplating everything, the one thing that i would ask for is to make the soup base stronger. it was definitely light and refreshing but i think it could be just a little bit stronger in taste. my sister who comes along with me while i review food sometimes agrees with me on that part.

ultimately, it was good for the most part. the portion definitely doesn't lack. the bowl was big and the ingredients is all in there. corn is different for me in japanese ramen. i usually don't see it used much. in a lot of ramen i order. i can't disagree it is presented nicely as seen in the photo. it was on the right track to becoming a great bowl of ramen. just with my personal take, the taste needed to be a bit more define/stronger. but hey! for fast food base operation ramen, it's pretty good already!

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >

Curry in a Hurry

> Location : Basement 1, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Indian style fast food
> Tel. # : N/A
> Website : N/A

Curry in a hurry! now there's a rhyme you wouldn't think of for a indian fast food chain right? haha. i think it's quite clever. so what's up with this place? located on the basement floor of times square in causeway bay, there's a food court filled with all sorts of cuisines. this place is actually hosted by city super. everything is paid through city super after you order. anyways, one place in particular that pops out to simon is definitely curry in a hurry, haha. again, deprived of indian food, i went straight to this place. curry in a hurry is managed by the restaurant curry pot. this particular curry in a hurry does not have everything on the original menu. so how do we order? well, simply everything you can see in the front is what you can order. it is about 1/3 out of the menu you get to choose from. still, there are a good variety of stuff to choose from.

they have these sandwiches made out of naan and these burrito lookin' things i really want to try out. but i had to go the traditional way and order some curry with some roti chenal. basically it's a soft type of bread kinda of like naan but usually made into a bigger surface area and much softer. buttery and very good! so the set i got was called, "double happiness." basically it comes with 2 big pieces of roti chenals, a vegetable curry, a chicken or lamb curry and indian style coffee or a drink of your choice. the vegetable curry had peas, carrots, corn, green beans and potato in it. it's a nice yellow texture. taste wise, it wasn't particularly special but not horrible either. i say, it's better than "alright." how about the other curry? i went with lamb for the other curry and this one i enjoyed a lot more. the taste reminded me of some of the indian restaurants i've been to when i had lamb style curry. there's quite a few pieces of lamb inside so don't be afraid the portion is lacking. the curry was good and does well for a fast food standard! going back to the roti chenals, the two pieces they gave you were incredibly big. that was a big plus to me and plus it tasted pretty good.

price wise, the set was $40 hkd. most of the items are between $20-40 hkd so it isn't bad at all considering the portion they give you. in the end, there are so many different types of things you can choose from this place. i will definitely come back and revisit this review. as for now, base on fast food standards, i believe this place deserves a...

< 4 out of 5 >

Reflexion Natural Dining

> Location : East Point Centre New Wing, 555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : European-Asian Fusion
> Tel. # : (check website)
> Website : http://www.reflexion.com.hk/

Located on the 12th floor of sogo department store, Reflexion is a very comfortable, well-decorated restaurant. serving european style asian cuisine, reflexion is definitely intriguing especially when it's located within a department store. the area isn't very big but the decoration as just mentioned negates this notion. if you're waiting for a seat, there's are four very comfortable seats with reading material nearby. water flowing bamboo decorations and many other eye-catching designs. before i continue, here's a little introduction straight from the reflexion website: "Our family has been involved with innovative and high quality cuisine for over 100 years in Switzerland. Our philosophy througout the decades has been to use only the finest ingredients, the most natural vegetables and fruits, and to source only grain-fed meats and the freshest seasonal food.

Today, we are inviting you to our first restaurant in Asia right here in Hong Kong. We have secured a long-term partnership with SOGO and our vision is to combine our European and Japanese know-how to develop service standards, food and ambiance dedicated to your special needs and desires, in other words, a reflection of your sense."

alright, alright enough with all this extra stuff! so how was the food? lets just say i was being very observant or this place would score below a 3. why simon why? i applaud the many years of experience, but besides environment, eye-catching, soothing decorations, and designs, the other important fact is taste. now, don't stop reading let me finish here! okay, so reflexion has a lunch set menu, dinner set menu and also a section of daily specials. since it's lunch time, i took a peak at the lunch sets. deprived of indian food lately, with the closest thing resembling indian food, my eye went straight to the "mild chicken marsala curry served with jasmine rice" ($48 hkd). each set comes with a drink, a salad or soup and also your main course. as the menu indicated, the restaurant uses no msg, 100% olive oil. so the salad comes, a small good looking salad. it has cherry tomatoes, lettuce, red lettuce, cucumber, beats and using black currant dressing (it seems like pomegranate). the salad was very raw, very fresh and definitely as the website advertised, they use the freshest stuff. the dressing was very neat with a sweet slightly fruity sour sensation. not your typical heavy on dressing salad. fresh, healthy, good stuff.

so, you begin this review like there suppose to be a drop somewhere right? so here comes the marsala curry. consistency is the key to every place you eat at right? fresh, i can't deny. organic bean sprouts, not too hard, not too soft potatoes (just right), jasmine rice, all good stuff. chicken? well done! soft, tender, i really loved the texture and just the way its done. a "life saver" i would call it in this review. so what's left? the marsala curry. one word, salty. i'm not particularly sensitive with any types of taste. i can stand the extremes of a lot of flavors. however, the curry is just so salty, there was a frown on simon's face =*( was it a consistency issue? like i said in the beginning, i was being observant. so i saw the table next to mine ordered the same dish. watched his expressions and trying to read the words coming out of his mouth. he didn't seem to twitch or acted negatively. so what's my take? inconsistency. i'll give this place the benefit of the doubt 'cause simon is a nice guy! by some lucky chance, the bad chicken marsala curry dish comes to a food critic. well, my sister in law and mother was around too. my mother had similar reaction as me (salty) with her dish and my sister in law seem to have a decent reaction. so yes, the chicken and fresh ingredients was the plus and i thank the people of this restaurant for being persistent with their words. so the verdict, yes the points. a struggle between two scores and the good chicken and ingredients allowed me to choose the higher score...

< 3 out of 5 >

Katong

> Location : G/F, 8 Mercer Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Singaporean
> Tel. # : (852) 2543-4008
> Website : N/A

Right across from malaymama is a restaurant that serves laksa and prawn mee in singaporean style! the restaurant, katong, offers similar types of food as malaysian food. there are slight differences in ingredients and types of dishes offered. first of all, katong's prawn mee has more extra toppings to choose from such as meat ball, squid ball or fish ball. for $5 hkd more for selective prawn mee dishes, you can get prawn mee in dry style. the other difference between these two places is that, katon offers mee siam. mee siam is a sweet and sour wet rice vermicelli dish which comes with the usual prawn or shrimp, egg and tofu. pricing wise, these two places are about the same plus or minus a few hkd for comparable dishes. substitutions are also available if you want different types of noodles such as flat egg noodle, vermicelli, rice noodle, or rice vermicelli. so besides mee siam and prawn mee, and prawn mee dry, katong also has laksa, singapore dessert and also singapore snack to choose from.

okay, onto the food! having enough of prawn recently from malaymama, and the other thai restaurants, i went with shrimp instead. shrimp what? i got the mee siam with shrimp, egg and tofu pot. costing $36 hkd (compared to $48 if you choose prawns), this dish as i mentioned above is a wet sweet and sour rice vermicelli noodle dish. the sweet and sour flavor isn't extreme. the sensation is mild which is just right. other ingredients also spotted are green onions, onion bits and pork bits. the egg is boiled and already cut into a few slices. this dish is extremely unique because there aren't many wet noodle dishes in asian food. wet rice dishes are more common such as ying yang fried rice or fujian fried rice. the flavor isn't something you can grasp and love quickly. coming in only three varieties, mee siam isn't katong's top priorty. overall, this mee siam dish is a good dish. it definitely has its resemblence with singaporean stir fried rice vermicelli flavors if you ever had it before. it is one of those delicacy type of dishes. not the usual eat it and love it type. i highly recommend it if you enjoy something unusual and good!

on the side, i wanted to try katong's highlight "snack." this snack is called rojak ($28 hkd). rojak is a singaporean salad which contains small chucks of oily stick, cucumber, guava (the hard white kind), pineapple, crushed peanuts on top, a type of eatable chinese root and dressing made out of thai black shrimp paste. the dressing pretty much covers every part of the salad. each and every ingredient of the salad is nice, fresh and crispy. the dressing is a very unique sweet flavor and a tiny bit of saltiness. the type of sweet flavor reminds me of those small chinese red round slices of cracker/candy. i forgot what its called, haha. but the flavor is similar. but obviously as the cook told me, it's made out of a thai black shrimp paste. again, this is one of those delicacy flavors. the sweetness from the dressing is not a fruity sweet or like a orange chicken sweet, it's like a sweetness with a touch of spice to it like rosemary. very unique indeed.

drink wise, katong offers a wide selection of drinks from coke to barley water. a total of about 23 drinks. one drink i enjoy drinking when going to malaysian or singaporean restaurants is barley water. pretty much it's a mildly sweet drink, slightly thick and has that touch of barley (rice) flavor. kind of like mexican horchata but mixing the cinnamon and other specific ingredients. anyhow, katong is a good place for prawn mee, prawn mee dry because of their wide selections. their laksa are pretty good with my prior knowledge. of course, if you want mee siam, malaysian cuisine can't offer that. so anyhow...

< 4 out of 5 >

Rice Paper

> Location : Shop 3319, 3/F Gateway Arcade, Harbour City,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
> Cuisine : Vietnamese
> Tel. # : (852) 3151-7801
> Website : N/A

Howdy people! i'm back to make you'll tummies hungry! haha. a nice change for today's review with some vietnamese style cooking. a total of three known locations (sheung wan, tsim sha tsui, causeway bay), rice paper is a chain opened by the mei sum company. mei sum is a company which opened many chinese restaurants and bakeries all over hong kong (ever since i was little) and also is the same company who holds the rights to star bucks hong kong. the rice paper i visited is the one at tsim sha tsui. if you ever go there next time and haven't been there before, on the top floor of the parking structure to that shopping mall, there's a fantastic view of all the skyscapers of hong kong island! really beautiful indeed.

so onto the food! so i don't talk about the physical nature of menus much by at rice paper, their menu is done incredibly nice! as pictured in this review, the front is a cut out of a wood fence like pattern. what's neat about this is, if you look around the restaurant, you can find the same patterns actually use like a fence. the inside has a lot of pictures. the design give you the feeling of a modern decoration / furniture books you can find in bookstores. a nice taste definitely to the business.

okay, i didn't get to the food there, but lets start here! so if you eat vietnamese food a lot, you know there's more to vietnamese food than pho, broken rice and vietnamese spring rolls. have you heard of 7 course beef before? back in garden grove, california, there are great places for stuff like that. here at rice paper, they title it, "7 great ways to enjoy beef." each order serves 2-3 people and cost $195 hkd. how it works is, 5 items come first and the last two comes later. so the following are the 5 items: roast beef on prawn crackers, beef cake, beef roll, deep fried beef ball, and beef with basil. so lets start talking about each of these. roast beef on prawn crackers reminds you of carne asada nachos in a sense, haha. prawn crackers is the same as shrimp chips for your information. the beef is minced and grounded and tastes roasted for the most part. it isn't strong in taste and is depedent i say 50% from the shrimp chip flavor. beef cake looks very much like japanese style beef cakes. the taste fairly mild and for the most part just the taste of beef. i must comment first that these 5 items comes with your infamous vietnamese fish sauce therefore using it makes these items taste much better! next up is beef roll. yes, i swear that everything on this plate reminds me of something, haha. what this time? this item reminds me of los angeles style hot dogs! the beef wrapped around the cucumber, carrot and bean sprouts looks like bacon wrapped around the hotdog. therefore if that's the case, you can tell that the beef used in this item has a lot of fat. i say it's about 25-35% fat and tendons. this item is good overall but i just wished it had less fat and tendons for a better tasting/biting experience. next is the deep fried beef ball. this item is not simply fried but they also add some tempura flakes around the beef ball before frying it. it's a neat touch and goes nicely with the fish sauce. so that was 5 items and what's the next two? first up, minced beef congee. this has to be one of my favorites out of all 7 items. the congee has a light yet define beef taste to it. ginger strips are added inside and broken rice is used for this congee. every bite somewhat reminds me of steamed turnips for some odd yet positive reason. a very simply item yet i must say, it's very good! last but not least, is the raw beef hotpot. a small size pot with fire below is used for the hotpot. inside contains carrots, turnips, onions, and squash. cooking the beef and using the fish sauce to eat it is quite wonderful for the most part. yet again, the beef isn't too lean and contains quite a bit of fat. the beef before its cooked also comes with onions, mint and some noodles on the bottom. this whole experience had its ups and downs. i'll say almost to above average but not quite. but hey, try it out for yourself!

so out of the 7 course loop we go into the deep fried vietnamese spring rolls ($48 hkd). judging by its texture, these spring rolls are fried using rice paper and not normal egg roll skin. the usual vietnamese places i go to use rice pepper for non fried spring rolls and regular egg roll skin for fried spring rolls. the spring rolls contain ground meat, cucumber and other ingredients. fairly simple yet very good. the rice paper gives you a softer crunchy experience compared to regular egg roll skin. dipping this in your usual fish sauce (i should mention this fish sauce has a slight taste of spiciness to it) makes this dish good. the dish also comes with some lettuce and lime. it's good to wrap it with the spring roll and use a little lime and dip it into the dish sauce for a full positive experience!

up next is rice paper with sugar cane prawns ($72 hkd). the rice paper comes in a nice tall glass. this dish contains butter lettuce, crispy noodles, star fruit, pineapple, banana and herbs. the prawn meat is wrapped around the sugar cane. so this dish is all about imagination! depending on how you want to order the wrapping, you will need to wrap a piece of rice pepper, lettuce and also add the prawn with sugar cane, banana strips, herbs and whatever else you can fit in there! lastly, like always, dip that sucker into some fish sauce and savor the many flavors! you get the saltiness of the fish sauce, the sour, sweet senesation from the pineapple, the sugary sweetness from the sugar cane, and the meat sweetness from the prawn meat. everything was fairly easy to bite through. i would suggest you if you run out of lettuce, ask for more if you have rice paper left so you have something wet to soften the rice paper. for the inexperience, rice paper is suppose to be soften before eating it. literally, it's like a piece of paper. usually you dip it into some water to let it soften before wrapping your ingredients into it. in our case, water isn't provided in such a fashion therefore lettuce is your best bet.

::taking a deep breath & exhaling:: alright! onto the last item. now we have the confit of duck with turmeric rice ($68 hkd). turmeric rice? turmeric is an indian perennial herb. it is from the same family as ginger. usually besides turmeric, turmeric rice is cooked using butter, onions, garlic, onions and other ingredients depending on the desired specific style. the end result is a yellow looking rice kind of like rice cooked in curry powder. this dish is truly not simple. besides the rice, there's duck, lamb, eggplant pickle and vietnamese mint. both the duck and lamb meat were nice and soft. one of the pieces of duck meat was a little fat but overall it was good. the rice was great mixing with the eggplant pickle. the pickle had a sweet and a bit sour taste to it. the rice had a slight taste to it by itself without the pickle and essentially getting the aroma of the turmeric. yet, adding the lime along with the eggplant pickle with the rice completes the purpose of this dish! this is one of those dishes where you have to do some work to get the purpose out of it. eating simply the rice without the other two things will leave you disappointed. so if you go, make sure you follow the rules! at least that's how the dish became good to me =)

rice paper in the end comes with a nice dim environment. sometimes i think maybe it's a little too dim. but of course not so much you can't see anything. selective dishes i tried were great and some i simply hope it had better quality ingredients. i really enjoy their rice paper section of their menu so make sure you check it out! the rice dish i just discuss was good overall and the 7 courses of meat had its positive notes and negative notes. service was good for the most part but could be better in my opinion with little effort. cost wise as indicated above, it isn't too bad. it's pretty much normal in hong kong. in the end, this mei sum restaurant does a good job with the decorations, environment food and non-food wise. very unique and creative dishes you can order too. ultimately, the so so quality of some of the ingredients and the lack of taste with some of the items (too dependent on fish sauce) hurt the final score. it's still a neat experience and everyone should give it a try! a type of vietnamese cuisine away from the ordinary pho and broken rice.

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >