Kam Mama Kitchen 金嫲嫲懷舊冰室 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

While little nugget was having his online church service on Zoom this afternoon, I decided to quietly sneak out for some fresh air with our helper deputizing me as the technical support guy. Honestly, I didn't have any concrete plans on how to spend my Me Time so I was pleasantly surprised to bump into Kam Mama Kitchen (金嫲嫲懷舊冰室), a brand new Hong Kong style cafe in the no-man's land just between Lai Chi Kok and Cheung Sha Wan,

Located on the mezzanine floor of a commercial building, Kam Mama Kitchen took full advantage of a trio of LED TVs to display their latest food and drink menu. 

This location should be relatively busy on a weekday with many commercial premises around the neighborhood, but on a Sunday afternoon, ZZZzzzzz......

I was thinking about dining in but thought better of it. 

Cantonese soy sauce fried noodles with shredded pork meat (豉油皇肉絲炒麵) – While I sat around waiting for my soy sauce fried noodles, I could hear the chef firing up the wok to get things rolling.

This was pretty tasty. Despite having it almost half an hour later, I could still feel the wok hei (鑊氣) which is just amazing.

This place deserves another chance. Let's see if I can arrange another hour of Me Time next weekend so I can come back for more.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G55C & 115, G/F & 1/F, Lai Sun Commercial Centre, 593-595 Fuk Wa Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 9172-0583

Sing La 星怡 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It's been a long time since Jelloman and I had a lunch gathering with our parents. With our self-imposed ban on dining out, we were largely limited to take-away food since Chinese New Year until most recently that we started to relax our "dining rules". Since we have a long weekend coming up, I thought it'll be a good time that we finally do a catch-up lunch together. 

Most of us are big fans of Malaysian and Singaporean food and I have taken that into consideration when I picked the venue for today's lunch. Satay Inn was easily my first choice but when I was told that they were still closed for business, I had to turn my attention to the new kid on the block - Sing La (星怡) at iSquare. They are not exactly brand new but most of us have never been here before since they opened late last year.

This guy couldn't care less as long as he has his game in his hand.

Shrimp sticks (蝦棒六條) – I thought these would be like crispy spring rolls but they turned out to be more like Japanese tempura.

The batter was very very flaky working well with the stringy texture of the shrimp. Very addictive. I almost had to order another one of this to satisfy everyone.

Stir-fried green dragon vegetables with garlic slices (蒜茸炒青龍菜) – The name "green dragon vegetables" doesn't ring a bell but this came highly recommended by our server so we decided to give it a try.

While they looked a lot like Chinese garlic chives (韭菜), it tasted nothing like it. In fact, the texture was way better (more smooth) and it came without the strong flavors. I definitely won't mind having this again.

Singapore Hainanese chicken rice (新加坡海南雞飯) – Look at the diminutive portion of the chicken (compared to the rice)! It was so embarrassing!  

Nothing wrong with the flavors here but the portion was just way too small for the price we were paying.

Beef Rendang Rice (巴東牛肉飯) – We had this when we came here at lunar Chinese New Year's Eve. The aromatic beef rendang was again very delicious today. Everyone was complimenting on the fact that the beef was so tender and juicy especially the tendon part.

Singapore Hokkien Noodles (新加坡濃湯福建炒麵) – This wasn't bad but it paled in comparison to the stir-fried Malay shrimp noodles we had last time. We were expecting rich flavors coming from the premium broth (based on the name of the dish) but that was missing in action. 

Nyonya turnip cake (娘惹蘿蔔糕) – This was sold out last time we were here.

This was pretty nice. The texture of the turnip cake, I thought, could have been a little softer but everything else was perfect, the scrambled eggs, bean sprouts and the extra kick of spiciness. Definitely worth the extra waiting time.

Kaya toast infused with pandan (南洋咖央多士班蘭) – Of course, lunch at a Singaporean restaurant won't be complete without a bit of sweetness at the end. And this was an easy call. 

The restaurant offers three kinds of kaya toast (egg yolk, durian and pandan), and for me, it was a no-brainer that I took the one infused with pandan. We had this on our last visit too but this was way way better than last time. The toast was thin and crispy, and that's already half-way there for a perfect butter kaya toast. 

Deep-fried durian dumpling (炸榴槤湯丸) – I am not a fan of durian so I was more than happy to take a pass on these deep-fried durian balls but judging from the expression on everyone's face, these must be pretty tasty. 

Judging from the crowd here this afternoon, it looks like Sing La is no longer a hidden gem. It also comes to show that there's a shortage of good Malaysian / Singaporean restaurant in town.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 303, 3/F, iSQUARE, 63 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2117-1300

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

Ren Ren Heping Restaurant 人人和平小飯店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

My NAS server which I just bought two months ago, passed out a couple nights ago. I was of course devastated as it carried almost all of my data from the past two decades. In an effort to save both the drive and my data, I took it to the repair shop in North Point this afternoon hoping it would heal up very soon.

Speaking of North Point, it's been a while since I last set foot on the area. I distinctly remembered there was this BBQ meat place called Ren Ren Heping Restaurant (人人和平小飯店) which came highly recommended by a famous local food blogger. Without hesitation, I decided to stop by for a quick look.

It was very clean and tidy for a BBQ meat restaurant. I like it!

Let's see what they have for me on their take-away menu. Looks like they're more than just a BBQ meat place. 

Xinhui Gujing style chargrilled goose (荔枝柴燒新會古井燒鵝) – I got ourselves half a goose so hopefully we don't have to fight for those crispy skin.

It was chargrilled with lychee wood (荔枝柴) so not surprisingly, it was full of smoky flavors. I thought the skin was really nice and crispy, the meat slightly on the firm side and for part of the goose, a little too much fat for my liking. But all in all, not bad.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop A, G/F, 6-8 Fort Street, North Point, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: North Point / Fortress Hill

Tel: +852 2570-8616

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

La Patisserie des Idees (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I had trouble stopping my sugar cravings all week last week and it wasn't getting any better this week. Right after work, I decided to stop by La Patisserie des Idees, a neighborhood pastry shop in Lai Chi Kok and one of the hidden gems on Kowloon side to see if there's anything there that would interest me.

Sesame – Delicate Japanese black and white sesame mousse separated by a layer of black sesame dacquoise in the middle, and finished off nicely with silky matcha chantilly on top.

A sucker for anything with sesame, I was of course head over heels over this one. The silky smooth sesame mousse was very addictive and I love the black sesame crunch on the bottom giving the dessert some much-needed texture (on top of the mousse). Nice start.

Lady Earl Grey – I had this a while ago and did I tell ya that I'm also a sucker for anything with earl grey tea in it?

Earl grey mousse with mandarin cremeux, crunchy chocolate and earl grey dacquoise. The patissier here has always been very good mixing different textures together and it's again in full display with this one.

There's a fair amount of acidity in there thanks to the mandarin and combining with the earl grey tea flavor, it actually tasted a bit more like jasmine tea to me. 

This is why I keep coming back......for more....

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$
Address: Shop 224, 2/F, D2 Place One, 9 Cheung Yee Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok
Tel: +852 9282-6827
Website: www.lapatisseriedesidees.com
Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm (Tue - Fri), 11:00am - 8:30pm (Sat - Sun), 1:00pm - 7:00pm (Tue - Fri)

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

After getting my haircut, I was supposed to head home for supper but my day wasn't done until I got something for my little one as a surprise. So, one thing led to another, I ended up going to Sham Shui Po for some brand new water guns as I promised little guy that we would have some new ones for the next trip to the beach. This was where I bumped into the dad of little nugget's best friend and we rounded up going to the "toy street" together. After walking around the toy street for half an hour, I showed him where I usually go for my afternoon tea in SSP - Kopitiam Bagus.Bagus (捌哥.捌哥特色馬拉茶啡廳), a place I haven't visited since last December.

Butter kaya toast – My favorite item here hands-down. I have already called to make a take-out order but I guess we could always change to dine in.

Even after sitting here for half an hour, the toast was still as crispy as ever (though not warm). The pandan flavored kaya jam and thick slab of butter were perfect. 

Teh tarik – And how could I not have the iced pulled tea to wash it down?

This was done before our afternoon tea session. I didn't find the water guns I liked but ended up getting this astronaut costume for little guy's school project. I can't believe kindergartens are actually doing projects on astronauts and space. That's pretty advanced for 6 year old kids.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

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

ATUM Restaurant and Dessert Bar (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I didn't get to enjoy anything on my birthday yesterday so I thought perhaps I should take a rare afternoon-off in busy April to relax a little bit. That's the least I could do for myself I guess. To maximize my annual leave, I'm going to meet up with my hair stylist as well but first thing first, time for a late lunch after leaving my office a little late. 



I picked ATUM as my lunch venue for no particular reason other than the fact that I knew at this hour, they would have a table available for me.

I didn't know if it's pure bad luck or what but every time I came here, the daily soup was always some sort of vegetable soup (which I hated) but to my pleasant surprise, they had something different in store for me today - Thai-style seafood bisque. This was pretty good. I like the touch up of olive oil and fresh chives.

My main dish was creamy risotto topped with bacon wrapped asparagus. 

Beautifully decorated as always! This was OK. I actually wanted to order some of the other more sophisticated dishes but I guess I won't have time for that this afternoon.

It's been 6 weeks since I last met my hair stylist. Can't wait to see him (and his 2-year old son) again.

Food Rating: 5/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 101B, 1/F, K11 Art Mall, 18 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui / Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 3586-1959
Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 11:00pm daily

Fine Foods (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Unlike last year's birthday where I attended a special training at CHP followed by an amazing lunch at Gaddi's, I didn't do much this year. With the current dinner ban, it was impossible to enjoy a good meal somewhere nice. So, I was resolved to just lay low after a normal day of work.

Jelloman did cook me a few special dishes tonight highlighted by this incredibly tender abalone. Well, if we want to get the records straight, the abalone wasn't really cooked by her. They came out of the can like this already.

Well, this dish was cooked by her. At least, the part where she delivered the cooking instructions. Of course, our helper did the rest. These roasted pork belly was more on the hard side. A bit of a challenge for someone with hypoplastic teeth.

We did save the best for last. A birthday cake from little nugget. Getting the cake from Fine Foods at Royal Garden Hotel was my idea as we haven't had anything from them for years.

Sakura Red Bean Cake – This was Jelloman's idea. She said it was on Fine Foods' featured list since it's a new creation. Yeah, I'm all for trying out new creations.

This wasn't bad. My first thought was that the texture was really reminiscent of an ice-cream cake.

I thought the sakura flavored cheese was really really light so not surprisingly, it was overshadowed a bit by the red bean cream.

All in all, the flavors of the ingredients did mesh well together. I just thought they could've added a little more textures or crunch to the mix for a better mouthfeel.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: Lobby Level, The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2733-2045
Website: theroyalgardenhotel.com.hk/index.asp

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Celebrating A Pandemic Birthday.....

Oh yeah, it's my birthday today. I didn't realize it until birthday blessings started to pour in early in the morning wishing me a year wiser. Honestly, I don't know who came up with the idea of wishing someone a year wiser on their birthdays. 

I want to make this crystal clear. I have never been a fan of birthday celebrations my whole life. At age 20-ish, when my friends asked me if I wanted a big feast as part of my birthday activities, this was my reply - "Why have a good meal only on our birthdays!? Why not enjoy a good meal when you feel like having one?". It's been my mojo ever since. Looking back, I have been truly blessed with some really amazing food almost my entire adult life and I will be forever grateful (to the one high above) for that. 

Like a lot of people I talked to, I have developed a mild case of depression from the now 2.5 year old pandemic. When you have your life taken away from you for an extensive period of time, I guess it's normal to be depressed. As someone who enjoys food, traveling and simply going out, life has never been the same the last 2.5 years. When having a nice meal doesn't get me excited anymore, I think I got a problem.

It's a normal working day for me today. Meeting at 2:30pm so I should have enough time to finish this chicken steak and if I'm lucky, I should have enough time to wash everything down with my iced milk tea.

Pâtisserie Tony Wong Metroplaza (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

The pandemic has limited our weekend plans to just parks and parks these days. But with the number of cases going down recently, perhaps it's time to visit the shopping malls again?

It's been a while since I last visited Metroplaza and Pâtisserie Tony Wong would be the first order of business there according to little nugget after he saw this cute looking Koala-shaped pastry on display.

And just when I ran away to get my camera, someone stole the koala's ear!!! 😡 

What The Koala? – I thought this was really good. Around the silky smooth black sesame mousse were runny mango ganache, black sesame cremeux and a tiny bit of cocoa sponge with the cocoa crumble base providing some lovely crunch. There weren't all that many good black sesame desserts in Hong Kong (western ones) and this could very well be on top of that list.

Pufferfish – I didn't get to try this one but according to little one, it paled in comparison to the previous pastry.

A tropical themed dessert with mango mousse, coconut cream, mango jelly and coconut dacqouise on a sweet almond crust. Actually not bad but the first one was just too damn good.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 329, 3/F, Metroplaza, 223 Hing Fong Road, Kwai Fong, NT, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kwai Fong
Tel: +852 2410-8118
Website: patisserietonywong.com

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

Chadon 港嘢茶檔 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

So I was wandering around Jordan waiting for my sweet soy chicken wings from Tai Ping Koon (太平館餐廳). It's been a while since I last visited the neighborhood so I was curious of what it had in store for me. But when I dig deeper into this old neighborhood, I was pleasantly surprised to find an array of interesting shops. Some are small coffee shops with throw-back themes and there are also modern cha chaan teng (茶餐廳), or so-called Hong Kong-style cafés like this one called Chadon (港嘢茶檔).

Very colorful décor highlighted by all these fake neon light signs.

Pretty interesting food menu they got here too, including dishes like Potato Not Simple (薯不簡單).

Who is Deep-fried chicken leg (懷舊炸大雞髀) – A local cha chaan teng classic. The chicken leg was fried-to-order with this picture-perfect golden brown color. When it comes to deep-fried chicken legs, I can honestly say size does matter and this was a huge XXL sized chicken leg they've got here. Very succulent. Too bad the fries were just OK.

Who is Sweet Swiss chicken wing (誰是雞翼) – I saw this on the menu and wonder how it stacks up against Tai Ping Koon's famous sweet soy chicken wings that I just ordered. To my surprise, they weren't all that different after all. The wings here came with a slightly "lighter" sweet soy sauce and the texture was a bit on the softer side. But the difference was very very subtle (they cost half the price of the ones from TPK!). 

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$

Address: G/F, 7 Pak Hoi Street, Jordan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Jordan

Tel: +852 2368-3383

Opening Hours: 7:30am - 6:00pm (Tue - Sun)

Tai Ping Koon Mau Lam Street 太平館餐廳 茂林街 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

During the pandemic, everyone has an itch that needed to be scratched. For me, it's about visiting some of the old places I used to visit during my hay days. And one of those is Tai Ping Koon (太平館餐廳), one of the best local soy-sauce restaurant in town famous for its baked soufflé (焗梳乎厘), sweet soy chicken wings (瑞士雞翼) and fried flat noodles with sliced beef in premium soy sauce (瑞士汁炒牛河).

I don't know if this branch of Tai Ping Koon on the corner of Mau Lam Street (茂林街) is their first one ever but it sure looks like it judging by its vintage 1980's retro décor.

To be honest, I miss the nostalgic vibe a little more than the food itself. But since my little nugget has never been here before, it's totally worth the extra effort of coming over.

Fried flat noodles with sliced beef in premium soy sauce (瑞士汁炒牛河) – With little one still banned from dining out, it's again dinner in take-out boxes. Of course, a meal at TPK won't be complete without their signature fried flat noodles with sliced beef tossed in their premium sweet soy sauce.

I thought the fried flat noodles were again working really well with the gluey sweet soy gravy and choy sum. The only blemish was perhaps the sliced beef which was a bit rubbery today. I guess they're not using wagyu beef after all.

Spaghetti with ox tongue and tomato (牛脷燴意粉) – Pretty nice too. The sauce made with tomato (and red wine?) and mushroom was perfect. The sliced ox tongue very tender.

TPK style soy sauce chicken wings (瑞士雞翼) – Another signature item on the menu here. I thought the chicken wings were pretty tasty but the sauce could be a little sweeter. 

We didn't get to try the other signature dishes (roasted pigeons, crab, soufflé etc.) but I'm counting on the fact that we could enjoy a big feast here when the dinner ban finally gets lifted in about a week.

 

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 19-21 Mau Lam Street, Jordan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Jordan

Tel: +852 2384-3385

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 12:00am daily