Pier Lounge Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Little nugget will be down and out for the next couple of weeks after his surgery earlier this week. He’s obviously very much on his grandparents’ minds. Even when they were enjoying dinner at Pier Lounge in the Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel tonight, their grandson was still top of mind.

To wish him a speedy recovery, they've ordered a Black Forest Cake for him with a message on top: “You’re brave like a lion!”.

Any chocolate lover would love this.  The cake features layers of moist chocolate sponge matched perfectly with velvety chocolate mousse and cherry filling. I just wish there were a bit more of those tangy tart cherry bits hidden throughout the sponge but all in all, a pretty tasty Black Forest cake. I guess I really miss having a Black Forest cake.

Everyone’s doing their part to help Little nugget cope with his recovery. Just like his grandparents, I hope he stays strong. With his courage, I’m sure he can do it~!

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, Pier Wing, Hong Kong Ocean Park Marriott Hotel, 180 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Ocean Park

Tel: +852 3555-1700

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

Cheung Hong Yuen Kai Tak Sports Park 祥香園餐廳 啟德店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We didn’t have much planned for this long weekend since little nugget was down and out after his surgery. For the most part, we’re staying at home, except for this morning when I have an early pickleball game at Kai Tak Sports Park (啟德體育園).

I didn’t know much about the pickleball facility at the sports park until last week, when we had a gathering with our friends here. A friend escorted me around the venue, and after dinner, I even got to visit the outdoor pickleball courts. To my pleasant surprise, the courts are actually cheaper than the private ones at industrial/commercial buildings and better yet, there were open slots even on the weekends. We ended up booking an hour slot to test it out this weekend.

To be brutally honest, I haven’t woken up for a game this early since high school but I have to admit it was a lot of fun despite the tremendous heat. The outdoor courts being under a roof helped a little, but we were still sweating it out within 10 minutes.

After the game, our friend took us to Cheung Hong Yuen (祥香園餐廳), a local cha chaan teng just a short walk from the sports park, for breakfast.

Iced milk tea (凍奶茶) — I learned from their Lai Chi Kok outpost that Cheung Hong Yuen always has a very strong, robust milk tea. I’ll give them that. The tea was creamy again today. A nice way to start the day for my tummy!

Butter pineapple bun (菠蘿油) — Somehow, I never had the pleasure of trying their pineapple bun. The thick slab of frozen butter was the best companion for the bun and to my surprise, it actually came with some scrambled eggs. Not bad.

Noodle soup with satay beef (沙爹牛肉麵) — The noodles were OK but the broth could have been more flavorful. The beef was a little rubbery today, but with the outstanding iced milk tea, I wasn’t complaining.

I’m starting to like the Kai Tak sports facilities more and more. And the fact that they have a dedicated mobile app for booking makes everything so much easier. Perhaps we should do more pickleball games like this from now on.

Food Rating: 5.2/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 1, G/F, Kai Yan Court, 6 Muk Lai Street, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kai Tak

Tel: +852 5975-4011

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

Cheesy The Goat 自私蛋糕 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

My quest for the best cheesecakes and the most bizarre flavored one in Hong Kong has taken me through the social media of some of the most popular online cake shops. There are some really interesting flavors out there.

One of the most bizarre (or interesting, depending on how you look at it) cheesecake options I came across was the mentaiko cheesecake (明太子芝士蛋糕) from Cheesy The Goat (自私蛋糕), an online cake shop focused solely on cheesecakes.

So, I decided to order one of Cheesy The Goat’s cheesecakes for our indulgence this week. While the mentaiko cheesecake received a lot of serious consideration, a creamy savory dessert sounded like a pretty filling late-night snack. Onto our second choice: an Oreo cheesecake (焗曲奇芝士蛋糕). That would make a bit more sense as a sweet treat.

This is Cheesy The Goat’s Oreo cheesecake 2.0. From what I’ve heard, it’s a step up from its original Fish Glue Jelly Oreo Cheesecake.

The refined version features a top layer made from crushed Oreo cookie crumbs.

The middle is a creamy Oreo cheesecake filling, and the base a baked, crisp Oreo cookie crust. Although it’s “just Oreo” from top to bottom, the different layers with slightly different textures give the dessert another dimension. The only thing I didn’t like was the light whipped cream underneath the crushed Oreo cookies. It felt a bit pointless when you already have all those creamy Oreo layers right under.

Next up, savory mentaiko cheesecake. Bring it on!

P.S.  Cheesy The Goat has 7 pickup spots across Kowloon, Hong Kong Island, and the New Territories, making their cheesecakes much more accessible than those with conventional physical stores.

Food Rating: 6.7/10

Price: $$$$

Tel: +852 9759-1676

Website: https://cheesythegoat.com/

Instagram: Cheesy_The_Goat