Little Bao - Hong Kong

Date of visit: Saturday, 5 April 2014

I'm an aspiring restaurateur. In my dreams my restaurant will be bright, sleek and modern with communal tables. And no, we won't take reservations. The indicator of our popularity will be the long line in front of our door. And yes, I have Momofuku in mind as I describe my dream restaurant.

Apparently there is a new-ish restaurant in town that fits the above descriptions (maybe not sleek part though). In the name of research, I made a visit on a public holiday... Luckily there was no visible line and we got the last table in the second seating after 15 minutes of wait.

Gin & Juice ($78) - cucumber, gin, lime and ginger (left) and "Mac & Cheese" ($108) - steamed rice rolls, metaiko cheese sauce (right). Very refreshing cocktail that helped washing down the overly salty cheesy cheung fun. It didn't taste like mac and cheese, but it was interesting and the cheese crust on top was some yum stuff. Just too salty... 

Pork Belly Bao ($78) - slow-braised pork belly, leek & shiso red onion salad, sesame dressing, hoisin ketchup. I had a bit of the pork belly but I don't know what it tasted like overall... I only know my date really enjoyed it.

Fish Tempura ($78) - fresh market fish, tamarind palm sugar glaze, pickled lemongrass fennel salad. Very fresh fish and very messy to eat as the fish flaked apart...

LB Green Tea Ice-Cream Sandwich ($48) - deep fried bao, green tea ice-cream, condensed milk. Their signature dish! Even if people can't get a table, they will order a green tea ice-cream bao to go.

LB Special: Salty Caramel Ice-Cream Sandwich ($48) - deep fried bao, salt ice-cream, caramel. We thought both ice-cream sandwiches were great, but the salty caramel was slightly better. Salt ice-cream was really salt ice-cream!

Like any other hip restaurant, they gave us stickers. In fact, they gave us three - two dark blue's, one pink... why three though? Anyway, if I don't stick movie tickets / ferry tickets / other memorabilia in my planner, they will be forever lost under the piles of random stuff in my room. This is why this sticker of a weird looking baby is now in my Moleskine.

Rating: 3/5

Food: The food was definitely tasty and interesting, but I feel that I could get the same quality elsewhere for 70% of the price. I'd be happier to pay the full price if the portions were larger. But the restaurant is called Little Bao (飽) after all, maybe we aren't supposed to fill full?

Environment: The restaurant is really small! I must have apologised to the woman sitting beside me and vice versa for more than three times for accidentally hitting each other. I have sensitive ears and the music was slightly too loud for my liking. But it's cool to see that in a quiet part of Staunton Street, so much was going on in a tiny restaurant.

Service: There wasn't much service really... but the staff were all friendly.

Price: $541 for two cocktails, a starter, two baos, two dessert baos and still water. Bear in mind the portions are tiny... Overpriced? Yes, but that's the cost you pay when you want to be hip. Poor students like me are probably better off staying lame.


Little Bao
G/F, 66 Staunton Street
Central
Hong Kong

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Florsflor Eats Ramen (Part I)

(Hello, dear readers! I'm still alive! And extremely happy to discover that I have readers who aren't family / friends whom I have forced into reading my blog! Thank you.)

I was once determined to be a ramen connoisseur of Hong Kong, sampling what the city's noodle houses have to offer in a bowl. To be a true ramen connoisseur, one should be familiar with the Spectrum of Ramen Yumminess. Thanks to Ajisen Ramen, you can get a taste of the bottom of spectrum easily at one of their seventeen outlets scattered around HK. Or can you? Is Ajisen that bad? Let's find out by filling in the rest of the spectrum! Not by going to Ajisen, mind you.



Even though the ramen craze has died down a bit recently, dealing with the aftermath of a full-blown food craze is easier said than done. A brave friend of mine has taken on this challenge and actually made some progress. Before the verdict is out, I guess I have to continue to slurp my non-existent-unless-I-starve-myself-for-12-hours waistline away...


Ichiran 一蘭

Instead of joining long queues, I would normally wait the opening crowds out. So waiting four hours for a bowl of ramen is out of the question for me. I visited Ichiran at 5pm in late December. The wait was about twenty minutes. I didn't wait though, my friends did, thanks!!!

For first-timers, Ichiran recommend the choice of "half" for their Original Red Sauce. I followed suit. It was a mistake because the sauce was the best part and there wasn't enough...

I was hoping to finally find the Holy Grail of ramen, but I was let down. It was tasty and reminded me of Butao, which was surprising because the broth looked lighter. Yet, Butao is cheaper and would fill me up for a whole day. Whereas my bowl at Ichiran came to $99 ($89, + $10 for woodear mushroom) and I went for desserts afterwards.

Rating: 3/5



Kenko Syokuhin Ramen 健康食品拉麵

For better or worse, I have trained my system to reject greasy and overly salty food, which is exactly what ramen is about. If it isn't for the headaches and funny stomach reactions, I'll slurp more often than I do now. For this reason, I'm glad that there's a place that serves "healthy" version of ramen. The broth here was memorably less greasy than the broth at other ramen houses. But was it healthy? Definitely no. I like the ramen here and I think it deserves more attention than it receives.

1st visit: Tonkotsu Ramen with Soy-marinated Egg ($78) - the broth wasn't greasy but the chashu was fatty.

2nd visit: Beauty Set ($80) - came with a bottle of Yakult! I enjoyed the lemon-y herb-y (pesto) taste.

Rating: 4/5



Nagahama No.1 Ramen 長浜No.1拉麵

I work in Central, where the density of ramen houses is almost as high as the density of offices. Nagahama No.1 Ramen is located in Kau U Fong, not the most convenient area to go for lunch if you aren't around the area already. I've been here twice since I started my internship in January and have plans to return. Though it isn't as good as the praises have claimed, the noodles aren't mushy, the chashu is great and the broth is milky. Not to mention I can never resist free pickled spicy beansprouts. Yum.

1st visit: Tonkotsu Ramen ($72) - two kinds of chashu! I'm a sucker for blowtorch charred-siu and good puns.

2nd visit: Tamago Ramen ($82) - some people are crazy about soy-marinated eggs and I'm not one of them. But sometimes the eggs do "complete" a bowl of ramen.

Rating: 4/5



IPPUDO 一風堂

I like IPPUDO because it's consistently good and conveniently located in neighbourhoods that I hang out in. They do great side dishes too! Pork Belly Bun, anyone? It's one of the few ramen houses that charge a 10% service charge, understandable though as it's more like a restaurant. If only the noodles aren't so MSG-laden... down 1 litre of water and you will still feel thirsty.

Special Akamaru Shinaji ($88) - came with free kakuni!

Rating: 4/5



Shugetsu 周月

This place is famous for its home-made thick noodles / infamous for the oiliness of its tsukemen. As mentioned above my stomach does funny things when I consume too much grease, I went for the good old noodle soup. My ramen was slightly salty (even I picked "regular" flavour rather than the 重口味 original level) and there was an obvious alkaline taste... almost like I was eating a bowl of wonton noodles. I had some of my friend's tsukemen. Their thick noodles are chewy and robust, much better than their thinner and straighter friend. But overall the tsukemen was too greasy and salty.

Grilled Kurobuta Pork Belly Ramen ($98) - I like the grilled pork belly and that's it.

Rating: 2/5



Coming Up - Part II: I'm going on a quest to find my favourite bowl of ramen in Hong Kong. On my to-eat list there are more ramen joints than anything else. By visiting places on or not on the list, I believe eventually I'll find the One True Bowl. In the meantime, give me a shout out if you'd like to come with me on my epic journey.


* My culinary hero J. Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats wrote a very interesting and in-depth guide to ramen styles. Even if you're only slightly interested in ramen or think the whole of this food craze is ridiculous, this article will open a new world to you. Very good read!!

School Food - Hong Kong

Blogging from a sofa in Oak Mansion! That sofa with lots of dog fur. Good to be back! Just kidding, I miss Toronto.

During my eight-week blogging hiatus, I've managed to study a bit, read a few books and finish all the newly released Candy Crush levels (even the Dreamworld episodes...). This means breaking of the promise of posts on NYC and DC. I'm gonna write about London one day. One day. I'm not very good with promises.

Date of visit: Sunday, 29 December 2013


Dreamy taste in my mouth?

I've never liked the term "出pool飯". But who am I to let an opportunity for a free meal slip by? We've been talking about this meal/gathering since 2012. Now, our friend Yvonne had to repay with interest accrued. Our agreed deal with three meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner, we could still get it done within a day.

This meal was also a gathering/farewell meal, as me and Konny were back in town and two other friends were going away. After a long discussion on where should we go ("no MK please", "are you kidding me, TST? Suitcase hell!"), Gig cleverly suggested School Food. I saw School Food in Myeongdong on my Korea trip last summer and it's been on my to-eat list ever since. Waiting time was about 30 - 45 minutes on a Sunday at 2 p.m. Pretty bad, but not too bad.

It was very difficult taking photos (let alone good photos) of your dishes when you were a party of 8. It was even more difficult when people in your group couldn't wait 20 seconds before digging in. You know who you are.


School Naengmyeon


Chicken Gangjeong Green Onion Salad. I prefer Chicken Nuggets...


Squid Ink Mari with a very biologically shaped mayo. From reviews, this is apparently a signature dish that is supposed to taste amazing. But no, this tasted rather seafood-y and not fresh squid-y!


Blooming Mari... This is on School Food's logo (or is it its slogan?) so it should taste good too? No! The beef was rough and tasteless and the rolls were just blah.


Street Topokki. When they said spicy, they meant SPICY. I have an OK-tolerance for spicy food in the sense that I can put a full spoonful of HK-style chili oil in my noodles and still not break a sweat. I don't know if my tolerance has dropped after not having spicy food for a few months, but man this was horrible. After your first bite you'd be like "this is not..." and before you could finish your sentence, the heat hit your tongue, then your throat, then you couldn't speak (ok, exaggeration). My friends couldn't take the heat so I finished it all... IT GAVE ME PHARYNGITIS (or so I believe), WHICH LED TO A FEVER, WHICH LED TO ME BEING BEDRIDDEN ON NEW YEARS' EVE AND MISSED THE COUNTDOWN OF 2014. I HATE YOU, STREET TOPOKKI.


Carbonara Topokki. This was OK but I'd go with Spaghetti Carbonara any day. And look, a proof - SOMEONE AT THE BACK clearly couldn't wait 20 seconds, look at her plate/chopsticks!


Deep Fried Shrimp Mari. I'm gonna pick Genki Sushi's Japanese Fried Shrimp Roll over this. As for the ugliness of this photo, the same people couldn't wait. Annoying.


Rating: 1/5

Food: Definitely more hype than quality. No dish was especially outstanding. Since our friend was paying we didn't want to order too much. It was not enough food for the eight of us, but I was glad we ordered so little. No point in eating plenty of bland food... It seems that School Food is very proud of their "made-to-order" principle, but did I notice any difference? Nope.

Environment: There is no door, the entrance is just a missing wall. As I ate, I felt that I was under the scrutiny of Times Square patrons. To make things worse there were lots of people waiting outside. Each table is really close to the next, but it was still comfortable.

Service: Not at all understaffed because there would always be someone that you could spot. But asking them to come over is another story. Our meal time was limited to 1.5 hours but it was reasonable I guess for it was a popular restaurant.

Price: Surely I was expecting more than 8 pieces of rice cakes when I was paying $70 for a topokki? Frankly, I wouldn't mind paying more if the food was good... Just that our meal wasn't worth what we paid for.


School Food
Shop 1302, 13/F
Times Square
1 Matheson Street
Causeway Bay
Hong Kong

Website
Facebook



School Food sucked so we headed to Citysuper for our ice-cream fix. I LOVE the soft serve/scoop ice-cream from there! It's been a soul-soothing dessert since high school. Citysuper's undergone a renovation earlier this year. I was happy to see its re-opening when I came back and Kasho Chaya is now Sweets House Cha Cha, with a more extensive menu! I had my usual matcha/milk twist ice-cream with smoothie. The smoothie was good, but next time I'd just have my ice-cream on a cone.

----------
Thank you once again, Yvonne! Still feel bad for having you paid for us. But I doubt you'll have to wait long for my 出家飯! Here I wish you a happy love life with Alan!

* Notice the improved quality of the photos? All taken with my new iPhone 5S, a Christmas present from my father. Merry belated Christmas y'all!

TO-EAT LIST

Last updated: 16 August 2015

Hong Kong
Bar
Foam
The Globe
The Roundhouse

Cafe
3/3rds
Holy Chef
jrink
MUM Veggie + Coffee + Sweet
Panino Giusto
Spoil Cafe

Coffeeee
% Arabica Kiosk at Bakery Cafe
Craft Coffee Roaster
Sensory ZERO
Urban Coffee Roaster

Chinese / HK style
Ah Fong Shanghai Wonton 阿芳餛飩
Bon Bon Cafe 車品品小食
For Kee Restaurant 科記咖啡餐室
Kwan Kee Claypot Rice 坤記煲仔小菜
Sing Heung Yuen 勝香園
Si Sun Fast Food 時新快餐店

Dinner Places
22 Ships
Aberbeen Street Social
Carbone
Chôm Chôm
Crafty Cow
The Diner
Fish & Meat
MAN MO CAFE
The Principal
Le Relais de l'Entrecôte
Restoration
Serge et Le Phoque
Tony's Hell

Korean
Chef's Noodle 韓廚麵
Mix & Rice
Seorae 喜來稀肉

Quick Bites
Aloha
The Butchers Club Burger
Healthy Chicken
Not A Burger
Panda Burger
Pololi
Three Potatoes 叁薯


Japanese (Mostly Ramen)
Baikohken 梅光軒
BB Ramen
Betsutenjin 別天神
Kamitora Ramen 神虎拉麵
Ramen Kureha 拉麵來
Ramen Iroha 富山麵家
Samurai Ramen 武士拉麵
Tokyo Agura Agura 東京ラーメン
Torihana Tei Ramen 鳥華亭

Sweets
?


London
Dishoom
Franco Manca
Prufrock
Nordic Bakery
M1LK
Yum Bun

Copenhagen
The Coffee Collective
Mother

Toronto
Aunties & Uncles
Dark Horse Espresso Bar
It's All Grk

Hey Meatball - Toronto

Date: 6 November 2013



4 - 6 November was my hell week (my workweek is only three day long but you could put another day in there as I had to pack for my US trip and I hate packing). To celebrate my temporary exit from hell, I went to have really photogenic meatball spaghetti with my awesome Swiss friend, Alexia.



I've totally just discovered the stone/concrete robot as I think about what caption to write. Perfect.



Hey Meatball has a chalkboard sign on which they write/draw random funny things. Exploring the shop's Instagram geotag page, previous jokes include IT'S BALL-O-WEEN for Halloween and EVEN MILEY COULDN'T WRECK THESE BALLS with a wrecking ball doodle (referring to my guilty pleasure - Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus). On our day of visit, it was poking fun at the Toronto Mayor Rob Ford who had admitted to cocaine use.



Hey Meatball is a farm-to-table restaurant, all the ingredients they use are natural and are sourced within a 100 miles radius. I always appreciate it when restaurants use good ingredients. After all, you are what you eat. One point to note, this menu seems to be less flexible than the online menu? I guess you can always customise.



I do! I do!



Lemon sodas. Alexia was disappointed because it was supposed to come in a jar as shown on the website. Instead they served tap water in a jar... Well, at least this plastic cup could hold more soda than the tiny jar.



Annoying Orange, I've forgot about you already.



I had Spaghetti with Pork + Beef Balls with Tomato Sauce and Cheese.



I like the texture of the spaghetti, it was slightly flat and very dense. I was so full half-way through my pasta I added spicy salsa/preserve/hot sauce for some kick. There were three levels of heat, ranging from no heat to Oh God, which is what I had obviously. It was very spicy but it definitely made the dish and helped me to eat more.



Alexia had Polenta with Braised Rib, Sausage, Pork and Beef Ball with Bolognese Sauce. I stole a forkful of the braised rib and it was so tender, "fall-out-of-the-bone" tender. It was my first time eating polenta, not usually a fan of corn-based products (I love sweet corn though, I eat it straight from the tin), it was like mashed potato.


Rating: 4/5

Food: Who'd have thought meatball spaghetti could be this tasty? Confessedly I think I'm pretty good at cooking pasta, but I know I couldn't cook what I had here at Hey Meatball. Everything was fresh, the meatballs were cooked and seasoned to perfection, the sauce was delicious. I want to go back but there's simply too many places to try out before I leave Toronto! :(

Environment: Cool decor with a big open kitchen. I like the red chairs together with the wood tables, very simple but effective. The restaurant was a bit dark though that's why we chose to sit by the windows.

Service: It's a fast causal restaurant. You'd have to order at the counter. They'd take your name and call you by your name when your order's ready. There's limited service but the folks behind the counter/in the kitchen were all friendly. I like how they called you by your name instead of your order out loud. It's always better to be known as yourself than the girl who ordered meatball spaghetti...

Price: $15 for a massive plate of pasta made with good natural ingredients and heart, along with a big cup of natural lemon soda. Though Hey Meatball is self-service, I thought it was almost a bargain because you could taste the freshness of the ingredients. I have been long deprived of affordable fresh food in Hong Kong.


Hey Meatball
719 College Street
Toronto, ON
M6G 3C1
Canada

Website
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Black Camel - Toronto

Hiiii, I'm back from the States! Posts on NYC and DC eateries coming soon. But before that, let me finish my pre-US Toronto food posts:

Date of visit: Tuesday, 5 November 2013



On Tuesday, I had an exam on Yonge/Bloor. A few days before the exam, I had already decided that I would walk up to Black Camel for a post-exam celebration sandwich. This café had been on my Toronto to-eat list ever since reading about its slow roasted brisket and roasted pulled chicken sandwiches. You could see how popular it is by the fact that they have a Twitter account to tell the world when they have sold out.



Cool shopfront. No name, just a camel!





I ordered a cup of coffee and a sandwich. The coffee was too light-tasting for my preference. I'm not saying the coffee wasn't good, but I like my coffee like I like my men - STRONG. For the sandwich, I had the Slow Roasted Beef Brisket sandwich with Black Camel BBQ sauce. I didn't know I could get a second sauce/condiment for free, even though it was written on the menu (thanks to post-exam blindness). I should really have ordered it with chipotle mayo / horseradish.



Normally I prefer something lighter (such as Roasted Pulled Chicken) but I felt like eating something more flavourful after an exam. Besides, someone left a tip on Foursquare saying first timers should go for the Slow Roasted Beef Brisket sandwich with Black Camel BBQ sauce. (Why do I trust Foursquare tips?)



Layer upon layer of tender and juicy brisket, which took five days to prepare - three days to marinate, twelve hours to cook and twenty-four hours to rest.



So much sauce was dripping that after a few bites I had to stop eating and clean my hands! That's why they gave me a wet wipe.





Rating: 3/5

Food: According to various reviews and websites, Black Camel is the one of the best, if not the best, sandwich shops in Toronto. And I was let down. The beef brisket was tender and flavourful but I'm not a fan of the bun. The sandwich was wrapped in tin foil so it was natural to think the bun would be warm but it wasn't! Their Twitter keeps track of the number of buns remaining so you would think it would be good, but sorry to say it felt rather like a supermarket bun to me. But apparently it's called a Portuguese bun and it's a signature??? A lot of people seem to like it, though.

I still believe my experience could have been better and I was just unlucky. I would go back to sample the Roasted Pulled Chicken sandwich and Pulled Pork Shoulder sandwich and perhaps have the Eggspresso Breakfast Sandwich for breakfast. Time to eat something other than Timbits for breakfast. I want to eat everything on their menu!

Environment: Located in Rosedale, a nice neighbourhood in Toronto, Black Camel is a great spot for people-watching. It is a small shop with several bar stools indoors and four tables outdoors. As a devoted food blogger, despite the cold, I sat outside so I could take better photos. Though I was close to freezing to death, I enjoyed watching the world go by as I sipped my coffee.

Service: There wasn't much service as Black Camel is a café. But from my interaction with the barista/cashier and from eavesdropping on other customers' conversation with her, she was as nice as she could be in a busy café.

Price: Sandwich + medium coffee = $9.59. I wouldn't say it was cheap but it wasn't expensive either. Plus the sandwich was incredibly filling and it got me into a semi-food coma...


Black Camel
4 Crescent Rd
Toronto, ON
M4W 1S9
Canada

Website

Sunrise House Restaurant - Toronto

Date of visit: Wednesday, 30 October 2013



It's crazy considering how close the campus is to Koreatown and I have never visited. So when my friend suggested we head to K-Town for lunch, I couldn't say no! I'd picked Sunrise House Restaurant after discovering it (and drooling over geotagged photos) on Instagram. It turned out one of the Korean friends in our group had been there before. She said it was good, so good it must be?



Each item on the menu ranges from $6 - $9 (apart from a few pricier options) and there are LOTS to choose from. It took us more than a while to decide what to order.



Bright green walls! Woke me up after a morning of boring lectures.



Banchan (side dishes), my favourites are miyeok muchim (seaweed) and japchae (sweet potato noodles). I asked for a refill... and contemplated to ask again...



I had the Bulgogi Bibimbap. There was so much rice and veggies I could barely finish. It was really tasty as well, with the red pepper paste. I enjoyed every mouthful of this spicy veggie rice goodness.



We also ordered a Kimchi Seafood Pancake to share. So much seafood and vegs hiding under the crispy batter. I thought it tasted quite different from the kimchi pancakes I'm used to, but it was still good.



Table full of yum yum~ My friends found their meals very enjoyable too, even if the kam ja tang (pork bone stew with a mountain of bean sprouts) was a bit bland.



Free candies!


Rating: 4/5

Food: Unfortunately my mum doesn't cook, or I can use the phrase cooking that 'tastes just like mum's' because supposedly that means really good comfort food? Bonus points for being a no-MSG restaurant!

Environment: Cosy home-style restaurant with only 5 - 6 tables. It's so tiny that I was amazed by how fast the kitchen could churn out our dishes.

Service: It's a small restaurant so there was only one waitress. She was friendly and reminded us that we could always ask if we wanted more side dishes!

Price: Came in a little bit more than $9 pp. I definitely was willing to pay more for what we had!


Sunrise House Restaurant
661 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON
M6G 1L1
Canada

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