Pierre Hermé (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

He's finally here. The man behind the revival of the Ladurée empire has finally arrived. 

Pierre Hermé who is best known by the world as the "Picasso of pastry" has finally made his long anticipated debut in Hong Kong. But unlike Ladurée who has done their homework by picking the Harbour City Shopping Complex as the venue of their flagship store, the location of the first-ever Pierre Hermé boutique is somewhat of a peculiar one - the commercial oriented IFC Tower. 

The box itself was definitely a collector's item.  




There are about 15 different flavors to choose from. A box like this goes for about HK$330 these days.




The macaron base was slightly softer than what we were accustomed to but had more bite and depth to it. My personal favorites were the Image (Matcha green tea & black sesame crisp) and Creme Brulee (Vanilla & caramel bits).

Too bad they didn't have the XXL sizes available in Paris.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop 1019C, IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Hong Kong Station
Tel: +852 2833-5700
Website: www.pierreherme.com



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Fine Foods (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

In case you missed out on the green apple cheesecakes, there's a chance to re-deem yourself with Fine Foods' latest creation - yuzu cheesecake.

Like the green apple cheesecake, the outer shell of the yuzu cheesecake was made with a crispy layer of white chocolate. Underneath all that were yuzu flavored cream cheese,  yuzu bits and honey combs.



Perhaps it has too much resemblance to the green apple cheesecake. I was expecting more surprises.


Food Rating: 3/10

Price: $$$

Address: Lobby Level, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui East
Tel: +852 2733-2045
Website: www.rghk.com.hk
 

Restaurant at MO.OM Hotel (Olgiate Olona, ITALY) ★★★☆☆

We were supposed to head out for dinner after dropping off our luggage but the food menu at MO.OM Hotel's lobby restaurant didn't look as bad as we first thought, so we were going to dine here after all.

It's healthy food with a modern twist. First up, it was classic lasagna with spinach and what I thought was minced rabbit meat in the middle. Rabbit meat, really!? Healthy?

Next up was grilled octopus served on a bed of mashed potato. Although we could hardly find any grilled marks on the octopus, it was a reasonably good dish to end our night with.

Less than 10 hours later, we were back here again this time for our breakfast buffet. On our travel day, we would normally skip breakfast but we decided to make time for it since it's complimentary. 

We didn't get the chance to enjoy the view from the window last night since it was completely dark by the time we sat down. Turned out the restaurant was directly facing the highway. I am guessing it's the same direction where our room was facing.

This is an unusual year for me. April and May were traditionally peak season for me at work but I'm getting a break this year. I guess I am just going to enjoy it especially with my special fanfare ticket ($50)! 

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: €€€

Address: Via San Francesco d'Assisi 15, 21057 Olgiate Olona, Italy

Tel: +39 0331 327551

Website: www.moomhotel.com/en/milan-more/hotel-malpensa/

MO.OM Hotel (Olgiate Olona, ITALY)

We decided to take our chances by keeping our options open until the last day to decide where to stay in Milan. My hope was to stay somewhere in the heart of the city where we could still explore the fashion capital of the world but a late start at lunch ruined any chance of us having a stroll in Milan.

The change of plan had me scrambling for a place to stay for the night. So, when I finally found a special offer from MO.OM Hotel Olgiate Olona, I was immediately jumping for joy. 

Located just 15 km from Milan Malpensa Airport (where we will be embarking on our flight home the next morning), MO.OM Hotel is 4-star designer hotel with free WiFi and in-room entertainment.

For a little under €100 per night, it sounded too good to be true.

This turns out to be a much bigger hotel than a typical airport hotel, with facilities like swimming pool, fitness centre and bar. A clay tennis court and golf course with driving range are also available through a partner property nearby!

The property itself was a little dark but we could definitely appreciate the modern chic design.

The hotel was so big that we needed to drive our car to the other side of the complex just to get to our room. At this point, we still haven't got the bad news.

Our room was a sleek one with an all-white color tone.

The beds were standard singles but somehow they felt much smaller than a single. And the mattress was making my back hurt!

Right behind this wall was the bathroom.

Pretty adequate size and total spotless.

The shower room didn't have a door so there was a minor flooding incident when I took the shower.

Everything was looking great for a room under 100 bucks (except the mattress) until we found out about the central air conditioning system which has broken down for about a day. We weren't notified at the time of check-in so we got all puzzled when there was no cold air coming out of the vent. By the time we found that out, it was already too late.

After a few hours, our hotel was already hotter than a sauna, so I tried to go down to the reception counter asking for a room change but they said every single room at the premise has been without AC. 

Jelloman decided to open the windows for some fresh air while we were sleeping. But since the hotel is just off the A8 motorway (could see cars racing by from our window), it was like sitting at a Formula 1 race track.

Breakfast was included so we made sure that we stuffed ourselves before going to Malpensa Airport.

The hotel's breakfast restaurant is actually facing the same direction as our room (towards A8) but there was no noise with all the windows closed.

I was pretty disappointed with our stay, particularly with how the staff handled the air conditioning failure. They should have voiced it out when we checked in; at least we had the choice to leave for another hotel.

Rating: ❤

Price: €€

Address: Via San Francesco d'Assisi 15, 21057 Olgiate Olona, Italy

Tel: +39 0331 327551

Website: www.moomhotel.com/en/milan-more/hotel-malpensa/

Osteria Francescana (Modena, ITALY) ★★★★★

Ten cities and three countries in seven days. Finally we are down to our last day of this trip and separating us from a return ticket home is a stop at Modena, Italy with a highly anticipated lunch at the 3-star Michelin restaurant Osteria Francescana on tap.

Osteria Francescana is the fifth and final 3-star restaurant of our trip. Not only is it highly regarded in the Michelin guide, it's also a permanent fixture in the "Best 50 Restaurants in the World" for the past few years. In the 2013 edition of "The Best 50 Restaurants in the World", it ranked third best overall.

Meet our new friend, owner-chef Massimo Bottura!



Despite being tucked away on Via Stella, a quiet street in the heart of Modena, Osteria Francescana is not difficult to locate at all, especially with patron-chef Massimo Bottura trotting around in front of the restaurant!

 

The restaurant consists of 3-4 smaller dining rooms, each capable of accommodating 3-4 tables. The layout of each room is very simple yet elegant. 



Our meal started off with a bowl of frosty ice of almond served with coffee, capers and apricot. It felt a little like having an early dessert but no question it was the perfect palate cleanser for us.



Another nibble was a collection of macarons including one with oyster foam and seaweed and another with fresh tuna. A very unique set of macarons to say the least (7.5/10).



Our lunch officially began with a fish course - a codfish marinated with tomato, ginger and capers. The sauce was very intense giving the codfish a great deal of depth and flavors (7.5/10).



Sardines? Not exactly.

They were scampi wrapped with red mullet fillets and then dipped in a thick squid ink sauce reminiscing the appearance of sardines. This was a very impressive dish from design to execution (9/10).



The only dish I didn't mind not having was the risotto. Our server explained it as a rice made with fresh water and sea water and served with minced catfish, carp fish and vegetable in a wine and vinegar sauce. 

I found the texture a little too soft and mushy (3/10).

Continuing with the "sea" theme, here's our next course - a smoked eel served with an apple jelly. The sea eel was smoked to perfection and it melted just when we placed it into our mouth (8.5/10).



What looked like an oyster here was not really an oyster. This was lamb serving with an oyster and olive oil emulsion. Green "ice" of apple jelly provided the finishing touch and for a moment, it really felt like having a fresh oyster (8.5/10).



"Think green" was our vegetable dish of the day. A beautifully presented dish with seasonal vegetables including as asparagus, peas, broccoli, zucchini and mushroom while finished with radish, truffles and a little bit of goat cheese sauce (5/10).

The next course was described by our server as "snails cooked in a French way". Well, this was not exactly French, was it !?
 
Here we had snails cooked with aromatic vegetables, red wine, balsamic vinegar, black truffle and coffee. Yes coffee! And the result was a very complex. 



Now, I know why they named this dish "Under the grapevines" (5/10).



Time for some pasta, here we had a ravioli with foie gras, black truffles and leek topped with veal juice and Riesling wine. The rich flavors from the ravioli were nicely complemented by the strong taste of foie gras, truffles and Riesling resulting in a very flavorful ravioli (8.5/10). 

And a smiley face, how cute!

Our final dish before dessert was a meat course of pigeon breast with balsamic vinegar, chutney, truffles and horseradish snow. That was another excellent dish (7.5/10).

 

Onto our dessert section, first up was their signature pre-dessert - "Thousand Layers". 

Sugar coated leaves that were half-frozen were blended with wine, walnut, grapefruit juice, chocolate and truffles. That was very unique (9/10).



An exclamation point to this wonderful lunch came courtesy of the "broken lemon tart" with tomato, capers and ginger.

Chef Massimo Bottura came around to explain the concept behind this dessert. He explained that life is a full circle and it is demonstrated by this last dish using almost the exact ingredients (tomato, capers and ginger) as the first one (except the cod fish). 

Those were some really deep thoughts right there!

We have really enjoyed every moment of this culinary experience. Chef Massimo Bottura's cuisine has a perfect balance of tradition (risotto, ravioli...) and revolution (sardine/scampi, oyster/lamb...) that is exciting and unique. 

Chef Bottura is a real funny guy who takes cooking very seriously. And I bet he would make a great philosopher if he ever decided to give up cooking one day!

Food Rating: 9/10

Price: €€€€

Address: Via Stella, 22, 41121 Modena, Italy
Tel: +39 059 210118
Website: www.osteriafrancescana.it
S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants: 3rd (2013)



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NH Santo Stefano Restaurant (Turin, ITALY) ★★☆☆☆

After witnessing a violent street fight in the middle of Turin in broad daylight, we decided to take a U-turn back to our hotel and have dinner there instead. To our surprise, NH Santo Stefano Restaurant was a little more than just a lobby restaurant. In fact, it's one that's famous for its Piedmont specialities.



The fettuccine with duck ragu didn't exactly have the nicest presentation but it was OK, or perhaps we were just too hungry?



More successful was the grilled octopus served on a bed of tomato and red pepper.



Wrapping up our dinner was a classic tiramisu. It looked rather foamy from up top but disappointingly, it was just the surface that was soft and creamy. Everywhere else, hard hard hard!



NH Santo Stefano is a nice piece of historic architecture. Climb up this spiral staircase and you can reach the roof terrace overlooking the nearby Porta palatine and the Turin city centre.



Next morning, we had a closer look at the Porta palatine (The Palatine Gate), the remains from the ancient Roman city. What a fabulous piece of history it was!

 



Food Rating: 4/10
Price: €€
Address: Via Porta Palatina, 19, 10122 Turin, Italy
Tel: +39 011 522 3311
Website: www.nh-hotels.com/NH-SantoStefano



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Hotel NH Torino Santo Stefano (Turin, ITALY)

Turin is the final stop of our tour before we hop onto our flight back home from Malpensa Airport in less than 48 hours. In the past few years, we have really come to enjoy staying at hotels from NH Hotel Group (Belgium, Italy etc.) and tonight, we are staying at another one, Hotel NH Torino Santo Stefano in the historic centre of Turin. 



By the time we finished checking in, it was already dinner time and looked like, it would get very dark soon. So instead of having our city stroll, we decided to spend time resting in our room before dinner at the lobby restaurant. 

I am pretty happy with the size of the room (by European standard) and its minimalist design.

The bathroom was a long and narrow one.

We could see the hotel lobby from our windows.

One of the most intriguing part of the hotel's architecture is the visually stunning wooden staircase that spirals around the tower building.

The stairs would lead directly to the hotel's rooftop terrace offering a panoramic city view. Unfortunately, the entrance door to the terrace was locked tonight presumably due to poor weather conditions (too windy?),

Breakfast was included and it was served at the same restaurant we had dinner last night.

The buffet breakfast wasn't great. Bacon and egg, some bread. and a small selection of fruit. That's about all.

We missed out on our city stroll so it was time to make it up after breakfast. The hotel is just steps away from the city's most popular attractions including Palatine Towers, Turin Cathedral and Palazzo Chiablese. I love a city that's easy to explore on foot! 

     Palatine Towers

    Palazzo Chiablese

Deep down, there's a sadness inside us since we have already reached the tail-end of our long trip but the good news is that we have accomplished a lot over the past 7 days. And of course, a highly anticipated lunch is waiting for us 300km away.

Rating: ❤❤❤

Price: €€€

Address: Via Porta Palatina, 19, 10122 Torino TO, Italy

Tel: +39 011 522-3311

Website: www.nh-hotels.com/hotel/nh-torino-santo-stefano