Myth Jokbal Myeongdong 미쓰족발명동 (Seoul, SOUTH KOREA) ★★★☆☆

It was supposed to be my solo trip to Seoul but Jelloman decided to tag along at the last minute so I had to alter my plans a little including the accommodation (from Gangnam to Myeongdong, yawn~!).

After taking the early flight, we finally made it to Myeongdong more than 6 hours later which included 2 hours in a long traffic jam.

Fortunately, check-in at the hotel was efficient and as soon as we dropped off our luggage, we immediately headed out for a very late lunch (it was almost 4pm!). Since Jelloman knew Myeongdong a lot better than I did, I decided to let her choose our lunch spot, which led us to Myth Jokbal Myeongdong (미쓰족발명동).

First opened in 1987, Myth Jokbal Myeongdong is primarily a jokbal (Korean braised pig's trotters) specialist hidden on the quiet side of bustling Myeongdong.

We wasted no time going for their original jokbal set (44,000 won for 2 people) and were quickly started off with a hot pot!

OK, it was for the noodles.

The garden salad with nuts and balsamic vinegar was served in a generous portion.

Now, the main event – our delicious braised pig's trotters. 

I thought the skin was really flavorful having been braised for hours in soy sauce, spices, onion and garlic. The meat was reasonably tender and it worked well with Korean chili sauce on the side. 

Just when we thought we had a mountain to climb with this incredible portion of pork's leg in front of us, our kimchi pancake arrived! This was slightly crispier than the ones I had in the past. On top of the kimchi, there was egg, scallions, peppers and chopped octopus. Not bad.

This was a pretty nice start to our trip. Now it's time to get some shopping and in less than 2 hours, we have another high-anticipated meal waiting for us.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: ₩₩

Address: 21 Myeongdong 3-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Closest Metro Station: Myeongdong

Tel: +82 02-3789-8799

Website: https://redtable.global/en-us/food/10080

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00am daily

Sugar Desserts Luk Yeung Galleria 小方糖甜品 綠楊坊店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

Sugar Desserts (小方糖甜品) is a Chinese dessert chain with multiple outlets across the city. They just opened a new branch at Luk Yeung Galleria (綠楊坊) in Tsuen Wan last month and I just couldn't wait to check it out personally.



A pretty small dessert menu during soft-opening.

At around 1:30pm, the place wasn't exactly buzzing.

Black sesame sweet soup (芝麻糊) – This was alright but it lacked the richness and graininess that characterize a delicious black sesame sweet soup.

The only thing I liked about this dessert was the filling inside the sweet dumpling. There was a mix of white and black sesame paste providing a subtle contrast in flavor profiles. (But too bad that the glutinous rice wrapper was way too thick).

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop F17, Level 1, Luk Yeung Galleria, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsuen Wan

Tel: +852 6279-4884

Opening Hours: 1:00pm - 10:30pm daily

Sun Heung Yuen 新香園 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I am finally back to my exercise routine but first up, it's time for a nice breakfast before I start picking up my squash racquet this morning. Sun Heung Yuen (新香園) is very close to my sporting venue making it an ideal breakfast spot for me.

Iced milk tea (凍奶茶) – As usual, an iced milk tea to start off the meal. This is typically a bright spot for Sun Heung Yuen as they have one of the best milk tea in all of Sham Shui Po. I did experience some off days from this kitchen when the tea ended up with some bitterness that overshadowed its fragrance. 

But not the case today. Very creamy and silky smooth with lots of fragrance.

Signature beef and scrambled egg sandwich with toasted bread (招牌蛋牛治) – I am always tempered to try the spicy and numbing version (麻辣口味) of this but decided better of it.

This was again very good with the scrambled eggs doing a nice job of complementing the juicy beef. Very nicely done.

Food Rating: 5.9/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 186 Yu Chau Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Sham Shui Po

Tel: +852 2728-7118

Opening Hours: 6:30am - 11:45pm daily

Golden Tao Tao Ju MixC World 金牌陶陶居 萬象天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

With our little nugget in the capable hands of our parents, Jelloman and I decided to do a quick day trip to Futian. We got onto a train at around 9:30am and it didn't take long before we arrived at Golden Tao Tao Ju MixC World (金牌陶陶居 萬象天地店) for our dim sum breakfast.



It was a rare occasion when we entered the dining room to find only a few people already seated.

Signature Hong Kong style milk tea (招牌港式奶茶) (¥23) – I haven't had my milk tea fix yet so this was a no-brainer.

Tao Tao Ju jumbo prawn dumpling (陶陶居大蝦餃) (¥39) – Still one of the best har gow in the business.

It's not just the incredible size. I thought they had the right mix of diced prawns and minced prawn too.

Steamed dumpling with minced prawns and sea urchin (海膽百花鳳眼餃) (¥46) – A little like a har gow but they have added small patches of sea urchin and salmon roes on top to make it look more premium.

Not bad.

Stir-fried rice rolls with beef briskets (牛腩啫珍珠腸) (¥36) – One of the fixtures on our to-do list here but the run was about to end. We both thought the rice rolls were pretty delicious and the same could not be said about the beef briskets. It was time for a change and we'll leave it until next time.

Traditional sponge cake (傳統馬拉糕) (¥25) – Very very spongy and surprisingly light for a sponge cake. 

This is as good as it gets for a dim sum breakfast in Futian. Now, time for the main event – my arcade game time.

Food Rating: 6.7/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop SL186, Level 1, MixC World, Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道华润万象天地L1层SL186号铺

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 (755) 8323-9212

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 4:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/2a/f-n

Madrid Sizzling Steak 鐵板世家 馬得里 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

My neighborhood food scene is getting more and more exciting these days! After welcoming a number of new additions last month, Madrid Sizzling Steak (鐵板世家 馬得里) became the latest to soft open in the proximity.



According to the signage, Madrid Sizzling Steak appears to be a seasoned player in the industry, boasting a starting year of 2003 but frankly speaking, I have never really heard of them.



My breakfast combo of noodle soup and iced milk tea. Let's see how each one stacks up against the competition.

Iced milk tea – The tea was neither particularly strong nor fragrant, but there was enough balance between the amount of milk and tea. Not bad.

Instant noodles with egg and chicken steak – This left me a little hesitant to come back for a second time.

The noodles were a little overcooked and the chicken steak wasn't executed as well as I would expect from a steak specialist. This was very local, cha chaan teng style without much finesse (perhaps marinated the chicken with herbs, rosemary etc.?).

Of course, I must take some responsibility for not ordering a breakfast steak at a veteran steakhouse. If I was looking for this kind of instant noodles for breakfast, perhaps I should look otherwise.

Food Rating: 4.2/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G09C, 2/F, Cheung Sha Wan Plaza, 833 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 3619-1159

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

Vission Nine Cakes, Pies & Desserts (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After getting my ramen fix at Zagin Soba (座銀), it was time to settle my craving for sweet treats. With that in mind, I started walking slowly towards Vission Bakery, one of my favorite bakeries in Soho but little that I knew, they were already sold out on most of their signature items.



Just when I was feeling a little helpless, I began following the footsteps of others to the right of the bakery shop and guess what I found, Vission Nine Cakes, Pies & Desserts, a new cake concept from the same folks behind Vission.

I was absolutely overjoyed!

I am ready to bring a few of these home to share with my family.

Pistachio log cake – Apparently a signature cake here, featuring layers of pistachio sponge cake, sandwiched with layers of pistachio ganache and pistachio crunchy spread that are cut through with a blackcurrant compote. It was finished off with decadent pistachio buttercream on the outside. 

Definitely a pistachio lover's dream!

Passionfruit cheesecake – This came with a tangy passionfruit glaze, topped beautifully with mascarpone cream in a digestive crust. This wasn't bad but I like the creamy pistachio log a little more.

I managed to kill two birds with a stone this afternoon. Now since I am just a stone's throw from the Central-Mid-Levels escalators, perhaps I should take some time to check out Tai Kwun, which I haven't done in about a year.

Food Rating: 7/10

Price: $$$$

Address: LG/F, Chui Man House, 9 Staunton Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Website: https://www.vissionnine.com/

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily

Zagin Soba 座銀 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

After a run of important meetings to start off September, I finally got a well-deserved afternoon off and guess how I decided to spend it. First, I went shopping at one of my favorite boutiques in Soho and I followed it up with a late lunch at Zagin Soba (座銀), a Japanese ramen shop that I haven't visited for a while.



Originated from Osaka, Zagin Soba used to be one of those ramen shops where getting a table was nearly impossible without some significant waiting time. But not anymore!

As usual, I took a seat at the counter table and watched the guys inside the open kitchen work.

Chicken sauce tsukemen (dipping noodles) ($168) – The noodles and chicken fillet were served separately from the bowl of flavorful sauce which was a thicker and creamier version of a typical chicken soup.

The noodles were served at a temperature that fell between cold and room temperature.

All this while the flavorful sauce was served piping hot, with purple onion, bamboo shoot and diced chicken meat.

I tend to be a bit lazy when it comes to eating ramen, so tsukemen isn't usually my top pick. Instead of dipping my noodles into the sauce bit by bit, I decided to put a small batch of them inside the bowl so it could clog up the umami-rich flavors a little more. This seemed to be more efficient. 😅😅

With the current exchange rate of Japanese yen, HK$168 sounds a little aggressive (It has never really come down after COVID). No wonder people have decided to just fly to Japan for their ramen noodles instead of staying in Hong Kong and paying the hefty prices.  

Food Rating: 6.6/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, 7 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central

Tel: +852 2447-1398

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Australia Dairy Company 澳洲牛奶公司 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I promised my little nugget that we would do a make-up meal after visiting the Hong Kong Scout Centre in Jordan this afternoon. He thought I was lying but I had every intention to keep my promise.



We ended up going to Australia Dairy Company (澳洲牛奶公司), a place I know really well. At least before COVID.

They still have one of the best iced milk tea in town. Very fragrant and creamy. The tea was right on the spot in terms of its richness.

The butter toast with ham and scrambled eggs were also not bad.

There were slices of barbecued pork hidden underneath the soup and spaghetti.

Of course, the visit won't be complete without ordering their steamed egg pudding.

I didn't realize it but it seemed to be this guy's first experience with the "Australian cow (澳牛)". This was how most people called it in Hong Kong.

He's loving it!

Service was very attentive and servers I thought were very polite (I thought in the past, they weren't rude like other people said they were) this afternoon. We need to come back a lot more often. 

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: G/F, 47-49 Parkes Street, Jordan, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Jordan
Tel: +852 2730-1356
Working Hours: 7:30am - 11:00pm (Fri - Wed), closed on Thursday