Ramen Jigen 侍元拉麵 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

Ramen Jigen (侍元拉麵) is a Japanese ramen chain that has been expanding pretty rapidly the last little while. Apart from Wong Tai Sin and Tsuen Wan, they now have a new branch in Lai Chi Kok as well.

Little nugget is a fan of tonkotsu ramen (with pork bone broth) so this was a no-brainer for him. The broth here was supposed to be really heavy and extra concentrated but I didn't get the intensely porky flavors. In fact, it lacked the depth of flavors one would expect from a concentrated broth of a tonkotsu ramen (despite the color of the broth). But all these came undetected by little nugget as he was seen really enjoying his noodles.

(The barbecued pork and wood ears were decent but the egg was hard-boiled!) 

They have a version of the same noodles which I thought was infused with shrimp broth. So, it was a little lighter in flavors (but the same hard-boiled egg, wood ears and char siu). This one came with some dried sakura shrimps.

A little better than the previous tonkotsu ramen but not too much.

This place reminded me of Ajisen Ramen (味千拉麵), a Japanese ramen chain that took all of us by storm some 20 years ago but has since dropped off a cliff in terms of its presence in the local dining scene. To make matters worse, it's self-service all the way like a food court.

Not the way I wanted to close out 2021!

Food Rating: 3.5/10

Price: $$

Address: Shop 7-8, 2/F, Pacifica Mall, 9 Shamshing Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Website: www.facebook.com/侍元拉麵-107697991097097/

Visiting The Happiest Place on Earth one last time in 2021

Just one day removed from a very busy itinerary in Tai O, I was reminded that we had purchased tickets to the Happiest Place on Earth. And no, it's not Finland. 

As usual, I voiced my displeasure on our busy schedule to the "Authority" to no prevail so as an act of protest, I decided to come in late to join the gang instead of going early in the morning.

Some selfies at the water fountain before passing the entry point.

The moment I passed thru those doors, I realized it's probably the busiest I've seen the Hong Kong Disneyland since it first opened.

I finally met up with the gang and a few stops later, here we were at the Main Street getting ourselves ready for the parade. Little nugget wasn't happy about not getting his favorite cotton candy so he's giving us the poker face.

At last, he wins but not after waiting in line for more than half an hour! Needless to say, he's a happy camper now.

Next, he was seen laying the big hurt on the cotton candy!

That was a really weird-looking blue-colored "beard" LOL! 😝😝

Because of the cotton candy, we missed out on the parade but there was no way we would miss the laser show. This was really stunning and of course magical for the kids.

After a super busy 5-day long weekend, I was just happy that it's time to return to work. Not that I wasn't glad to spend time with little nugget but quality time doesn't necessarily mean a hectic schedule is required. In fact, I have breached this to my better half many many times. As long as we're together, even the simplest things in life can put a big smile on little nugget's face. But hey what do I know about raising a kid?

P.S. I had this really empty feeling over Christmas holidays this year. Thinking back, 2021 was one of the few Christmas (202o too) that we have spent in Hong Kong. In previous years, we'd spend it overseas. 2019 we were in Tokyo. (2018, my sister was in town so no traveling for us!). 2017 we were in Dubai taking a flight to Paris. This Covid-19 thing has really put a lot of stuff in perspective. Like I told my friends, the last two years felt like episodes of a Hollywood movie. But this is really life drama.

Chill Cafe 潮食地 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It's been a while since I last brought little nugget out to breakfast (with him sleeping in during weekend most of the time). So, last night before going to bed, I told him to make sure that he woke up early this morning and to my pleasant surprise, he did just that.

Chill Cafe (潮食地) is our breakfast venue this morning, a relatively new breakfast spot just a stone's throw from my usual breakfast spot.

I was a bit surprised to find out that apart from the hipster decor, they have the breakfast menu to match too. A full page on noodles and that's not all..... 

Another page on sandwiches and all-day-breakfast. Not bad for a small cafe like this one.

The pantyhose milk tea wasn't bad.

Little one had the macaroni with ham, egg and potato served in a piping hot tomato soup. From what I've seen, he seems to enjoy it.

I had a deep-fried fish fillet with fried egg, sweet corn and butter toast. It wasn't bad but at least a couple notches below what I used to get from Lok Tin a few steps away. 

It was nice to spend some father-and-son time together. I was joking with him throughout breakfast and he pretended he was mad at me.

Time to head home now as the naughty boy will be meeting his friends in Disneyland for another full day of activities soon.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop B, G/F, Laws Commercial Plaza, 788 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 6711-1368

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 9:30pm daily

Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus 捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Tempers flared during our ramen lunch today between Jelloman and me so after walking around K11 Musea and the harbourfront, I decided to walk away to clear my head a little bit. With hours away from dinner, I thought I should have more than enough time to visit my favorite cafe in Sham Shui Po, Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳) before heading home.



Yeah, I needed something to cool myself off and this was perfect - iced Tek Tarik. The tea is really intense today and it would be nice if there's more condensed milk there to balance things up a little. 

These two have really formed a formidable combination (for my choice of afternoon tea) that's way too difficult for me to turn down. I'm talking about their iced pulled tea and butter kaya toast.

Perhaps not the jammiest kaya toast in town but definitely one of the most buttery ones. These are so addictive!

Someone had to face the music tonight at some point and I could assure you, that is not going to be yours truly!

 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 188 Yu Chau Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sham Shui Po

Tel: +852 2253-6911

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily

Ramen House Konjiki Hototogisu 金色不如帰 H Zentre (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After a run of action-packed days, it was nice to finally sleep in till middle of the day. We were debating whether to just spend a lazy day at home but one thing led to another and here we were at H Zentre.

I have been here a couple of times already but Jelloman and little nugget were both first timers. Since little one has been asking for his favorite ramen for weeks, I thought we better check out Ramen House Konjiki Hototogisu (金色不如帰) located on the ground floor of H Zentre.

The main dining room was a little more crowded than we liked so we opted to sit here near the entrance.

Shoyu Hamaguri Soup Ramen (貝汁醬油拉麵) – Little one knew exactly what he wanted. The house specialty soy sauce based broth infused with their signature "triple soup" made with clams, pork and fish was again a very good match with the buckwheat noodles. 

The soft-boiled egg perfect again with the runny yolk.

Little one is madly in love with this broth. I, for one, thought it was pretty good but not great. I guess I'll never be a fan of shoyu ramen.

Afterwards, we walked over to K11 Musea where we haven't visited for the longest time. It was nice to see a good crowd near the harbourfront (otherwise, it really doesn't feel like it's Christmas holidays).

We took some time to admire the view from up close. Hong Kong is such a beautiful city but it's going to take some time for it to recover from the effects of the pandemic (and that goes for everybody in the world). I hope this is the end of the tunnel soon.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$$

Address: G/F, H Zentre, 15 Middle Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2735-8318

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:30pm daily

Paradise Classic Olympian City 樂天經典 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

None of us was really in a celebrative mood all week so I decided that less is more on Christmas day. Rather than doing something sexy, we simply walked around Olympian City (almost pointlessly) and went for dinner there. Not surprisingly, most Chinese restaurants in the mall weren't attracting any customers on this big day. We got plenty of options before finally deciding on Paradise Classic (樂天經典).

They always have a very good selection of double-boiled soup. Tonight's double boiled sea conch soup with chicken feet and meat was very very nice. A lot of us were very impressed.

Crisp-fried crystal prawns with salted egg (黃金蝦球) – This came with a bit of spicy kick.

Again very delicious. I had to fight off little nugget for the final piece.

Hot plate tofu (鐵板豆腐) – One of the house specialties around here. Always like the crispy layer on the outside.

Fried rice with Chinese sausage (臘味炒飯) – One of my favorite dishes tonight. The portion was pretty generous (including generous portion of Chinese sausage) and surprisingly not too oily. Very good choice on a chilly day like this.

No one regretted the fact that we didn't have a western style meal to celebrate Christmas tonight. Little nugget and the gang have been busy with different activities all week so they were all too happy to have a quiet night like this. Same goes for yours truly who's simply enjoying his second day-off as many days.

 

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop UG09, UG/F, Olympian City 2, 18 Hoi Ting Road, Tai Kok Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Olympic

Tel: +852 2177-0760

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:30pm daily

Odyssée Creative Dining (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Odyssée Creative Dining has been on my radar screen ever since its time as Le 39V but we never really got to check it out personally. However, now that they've rebranded as Odyssée with a focus on "Creative Dining", perhaps it was time to get acquainted.

I had a late start to get my Christmas celebration planned out. This was part of the reason for picking Odyssée as well. They still had tables available a couple of weeks before the BIG day.

Of course, the harbour view from a hundred floors up is one of the selling points here.

Chef Aurelie Altemaire is the chef de cuisine at Odyssée. She has previously worked in Paris, Atlanta, Los Angeles and London (under Joël Robuchon for a decade) before making the move to Hong Kong when her husband Chef Albin Gobil was appointed chef de cuisine of Gaddi’s at The Peninsula Hong Kong back in 2019. So, there's a lot of experience there.

Cold French Onion Soup – The Christmas meal started off with a small amuse bouche of cold French onion soup. We had a similar amuse at Gaddi's a couple times before but this one came with a different recipe altogether. It was a clever play on the classic onion soup with contrasting texture and temperature. Onion marmalade jelly and Parmesan cheese foam, were sprinkled with fresh chives and crispy crumbs on top.

Not a bad start.

Scottish salmon – I had salmon gravlax as my starter today. The gravlax decorated nicely with cured beetroot, slices of green apple and dill, was finished off wonderfully with chilled beetroot consommé and dill oil. A refreshing dish with a good balance of sweetness (beetroot) and acidity (green apple).

Hokkaido scallop – Everybody except me had the seared scallop from Hokkaido, served with lobster quenelle and baby spinach. It was matched with a rich lobster bisque sauce. A much heavier starter than the previous gravlax dish for sure.

Bresse quail – For main course, some of us decided to have Bresse quail, a modern twist from a Christmas turkey where the poultry was stuffed with chestnut and cabbage, before being roasted in the oven. This was OK but the shredded chestnut and coleslaw didn't exactly mesh well with the French quail. 

Miyazagi A4 sirloin – I was craving for some succulent beef today so I went with the grilled A4 wagyu sirloin with salsify chips and deep-fried white asparagus. This came with some nice smokiness and charred marks from the grill and there was also the extra kick from the Malabar pepper sauce.

Suckling pig – Little nugget didn't like beef or quail so I have already asked for an off-menu main course for him when I made the booking.

The suckling pig looked pretty succulent to me and the spaghetti underneath it came with little one's favorite tomato sauce. 

He was handed a chef hat for a pose in front of his dish!

Odyssée Christmas Log – This wasn't a tough choice for me as I have always enjoyed having Christmas logs around Christmas time.

The thick layer of chocolate ganache matched the interior of what I thought was hazelnut praline cream and nuts perfectly, with the mandarin sorbet providing some lovely acidity to offset the sweetness. 

Mont Blanc – Mom had her favorite Mont blanc cake which came with a hidden meringue centre in the middle.

Petite fours were mini financiers and exotic tarts.

Each kid was given a gingerbread man cookie as a gift. A pretty nice gesture from the kitchen. 

The three dishes I had were all fine (good but not great) but there were elements from the meal that I didn't fully enjoy. It all started with the rather-mechanical table service, which wasn't very warm and welcoming. I thought the space was a bit cramped as well and we felt like we were pinned at the corner with the neighboring group making a lot of annoying noises throughout the meal. That really put a dent in our dining experience.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$$

Address: Shop A, International Commerce Centre (ICC), 101/F 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kowloon

Tel: +852 2977-5266

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:30pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily