Lian

> Location : Shop 2004, Podium Level 2, International Finance
Centre Mall, Central, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Viet/thai/Bar/Bistro
> Tel. # : (852) 2521-1117
> Website : N/A

Another creation from the M.A.X. Concept group (Maxim e.g. Rice Paper), Lian is a classy, business oriented Vietnamese/Thai restaurant located in podium level 2 of the I.F.C. mall. When you first step into Lian, you will spot an entertainment room to the right and the actual restaurant and bar to the left. The restaurant/Bar itself consists of about a 10 seating Bar, a very creative large square table with water decorations in the middle of it. The table itself definitely will be shared among the visitors very much like a bar table. The lighting is dim, there's a mirror up on the roof and on opposite sides of the restaurant to make the atmosphere feel bigger. There's a window looking out into Central with about seven booth style seating available by and away from the window. There is also a bar that serves especially juice and wine.

Lian's menu contains your usual appetizer section along with short orders, rice/noodles/bread, Lian's selections, and vegetables. There are symbols indicating which are Vietnamese or Thai dishes. There's also a separate menu for drinks and dessert.

So onto the food! In any Thai related restaurant, you're going to find "Stir fried morning glory with chili and preserved shrimp paste" in the menu ($58 HKD). At Lian, they keep the consistency alive with that salty, shrimpy flavor from the dish. Nothing extraordinary but done just right.

Next up is the "Green tea smoked duck, pineapple caramel chili lime salt" ($165 HKD). The lime salt is provided on the side to put on your duck. At first bite, I noticed the smoke flavor doesn't overwhelm the other qualities of the dish. It blends in well with the lime salt, the sweetest from the pineapple caramel and there's even a hint of spiciness. Most of the smoked flavor comes from the duck skin and in its entirety, the meat is very tender. It's basically a dish of many flavors yet done very well. It doesn't make you question why a certain sensation is added onto the dish. Some sourness, some saltiness, some sweetness and some spiciness. A good dish overall.

Lastly, is the most expensive dish in Lian's menu which is the "White Miso marinated Chilean sea bass wrapped in cucumber lime leaf and lemon grass flavor, purple pickle" ($ 175 HKD). When it comes to miso on fish, we think of the Japanese. If you ever had miso roasted fish in Japanese style, there's always a strong definite flavoring of miso on the fish but not enough to overwhelm the fish's meat flavor. Yes, this is a Vietnamese / Thai fusion restaurant so it's hard to follow this concept. However, from the first bite into this dish, I noticed the miso flavoring is barely there. You notice it's there but not enough to trigger any delightful sensation in your brain. At the very least, the sea bass is tender and fresh (you can tell if you don't taste that fermented flavor to it). the purple pickles was a nice compliment with the light-tasting sea bass. It was a bit sour, very much like those Japanese style pickles used for bentos or rice porridge. I actually asked one of the waitress about the extreme lack of miso flavoring and the wateriness of the dish. She actually had that same notion when she tried it herself and told the chef about it before. However, the chef thinks that's just how it should be made. So possibly, my experience wasn't an inconsistency, it was just meant to be. Yet, if we were to use the stereotypical standards of what people think is good or not, this dish will dissatisfy many. With the compliment from the purple pickles, I think the miso sauce doesn't need to be extremely obvious but stronger would be nice.

For dessert, I had the caramelized pineapple and fresh mango served with snow pine leaf ice cream. This dessert is a two-sided item and the pastry side goes very well with the ice cream side. A very simple dessert yet done very well! One of those dishes you just have to try to understand!

So it boils down to me shaking my head a little about the most expensive dish in the menu. I expected a lot more from a $175 HKD item. But hey, others might like it. My opinion? Not many though. Yet, I take nothing away from the dessert and the duck dish. They were done extremely well and I give them high marks! So my verdict for Lian is...

< 3 1/2 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 >

Chili N Spice

> Location : Shop 117, Podium Level 1, The Westwood,
8 Belcher's St., Sai Wan, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Thai fused with Singaporian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese
> Tel. # : (852) 2542-7777
> Website : http://kingparrot.com/eng/theme_chilli1_hk.php

Sorry it has been awhile, haha. but i gotta apologize again! since these two restaurants were unexpected visits, i didn't bring my camera with me =( however, i managed to take pictures with my camera phone with one place but the other i had to use my brother's which is low res. anyhow, i'll be visiting this place more times in the near future anyways so i'll surely replace them with better quality ones!

chili n spice is part of the king parrot group, which comprises of all sorts of cuisines from russian to shanghainese. chili n spice alone has four other branches: causeway bay, stanley, shatin, and tseung kwan o. when i first stepped into this place, there were a lot of nice decorations all around. the place is fairly big with a lower level and a higher level of seating. when i say higher level, it doesn't mean second story, but just a few steps higher up. the waitress' i had contact with all seem to be of thai or indonesian decent and their attitudes and service were overall very positive.

i ordered three things. firstly, i went with the tom yum gong as a soup starter. like thai simple kitchen which i reviewed the other week, they added some prawns in the soup. ingredient wise, it was pretty much the same (the usual coconut milk, basil leafs, mushrooms, etc). taste wise, there certainly is a difference. while simple thai had a more sour taste, chili n spice was a bit less sour yet you can sense a sweeter sensation. seriously, i wish to know what exactly is the standard for this thai soup. but judging it in a more artistic sense, chili n spice's tom yum gong is certainly in its own position because of the sweeter taste. note, the sweetness is not so much where it overwhelms the sourness. after all, the sour taste is the highlight of this and many thai soups. in the end, i definitely give this soup a go for ordering.

the second thing i ordered is the sauteed thai baby cabbage with black mushrooms. baby cabbage is a less common vegetable so check with your waiter before ordering! according to my brother, they don't always have this dish because of the baby cabbage. the reason for this (i believe) is because cabbages are a seasonal vegetable. they tend to do better in cooler weather and since it's still consider summer time right now, the heat won't help most of the cabbage crops. the base sauce of this dish is very much like a lot of thai sauteed style vegetable (e.g. morning glory). a bit salty but the baby cabbage's sweetness blends in well. the slices of carrots added into the dish also helped balance the taste. the black mushrooms were also very good. they were nice and juicy and easily bite into. i must say, besides morning glory, if you ever get a chance to order thai style baby cabbage, do it! yes, i know it's just vege, but this is vege that will make your mouth water!

on the side i want to discuss about presentation. this place doesn't give up on anything when it comes to presentation from what i see. the menu is very colorful and i could tell from it the plates and platters they use to hold their food are all very creative and unique. looking around the other tables definitely tell me so.

to connect this thought, our final dish is the chicken green curry with pumpkin and coconut milk. they also have a similar dish next to this one called duck green curry with lychee and coconut milk. both sounded very tempting but i had to go with the pumpkin since i have a lot of experience with thai curry and fruits before. first of all, presentation wise, they used this clay pot made into a shape of a chicken. obviously very unique. yes, chicken holding chicken, haha. this dish definitely is not mild at all. it is not super spicy but still enough where you need to drink some of the ice water here and there. besides the title of the dish, other known used ingredients are eggplants, basil leafs and this one round/green vegetable is used (i really want to figure out what this round green thing is! it's like the size of a cherry tomato but it's green and not as sour as a tomato). the chicken was cooked just right. not a minute more in fact. it seemingly had a raw texture to it but it is cooked of course. so it had a chewy texture when bite into. the green curry was spicy and sweet due to the coconut milk and probably some from the pumpkin. the eggplant, pumpkin and other vegetable were very soft and hold most of its taste from the cooking process. i think the overall combination of these ingredients are done very well. however, i personally would like to see this dish having a stronger taste to it. perhaps a little bit more sweeter in the green curry would do the job right. the green curry i had at central is the perfect example of what i think is green curry done right. however, take nothing away from chili n spice's green curry. the presentation and combination of ingredients is certainly a boost. taste is good but like i said sweeter would make it more memorable in my opinion.

in the end, chili n spice gave me a overall good first impression. there are still a lot i need to try from this place! the green curry just didn't quite get me going. so i couldn't give this place that extra half a point. the dish is still good! but not in the excellent status. for now, i give this place...

< 3 1/2 out of 5 >