Pici Pasta Bar Lai Chi Kok x Napoli Matfia (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

My team is off to a school event tonight leaving yours truly without an itinerary since early afternoon. As the adverse weather has been wreaking havoc all day (and all week), I stayed home most of the day until early evening. Finally, I decided to head out for supper and the destination was Pici, my neighborhood pasta bar who's currently celebrating its 10th anniversary.

To commemorate the occasion, the casual Italian spot has invited "Culinary Class Wars" winner Napoli Matfia to curate a special limited-time-only menu running from July 1 to July 31. I didn’t personally get to watch the popular Korean culinary show on Netflix, but I’ve definitely been aware of the hype it created and the ripple effect it’s had on the local dining scene. So I was curious how his limited-time dishes would stack up against some of Pici’s old classics from the regular menu. Tonight is the night, let’s find out.

Tagliolini Sicilian Prawn Tartare e Bottarga ($180) — I decided to order all three limited-time dishes to get the full experience, and kicking things off was this tagliolini Sicilian Prawn Tartare e Bottarga.

The fresh, house-made tagliolini tossed in a rich, velvety emulsion, was topped nicely with a layer of Sicilian pink prawn tartare, finished off with grated bottarga on top. I thought the slightly lemony sauce really brought out the natural sweetness of the buttery prawn tartare. Not bad.

Pici White Poultry Ragu & Truffle ($160) — The handmade pasta was cooked perfectly al dente (though, personally, I felt it might’ve been a touch too al dente) but it didn’t seem to mesh well with the poultry ragu, made with a rich blend of duck, chicken, guinea fowl, and turkey. The generous portion of shaved fresh truffle also didn’t quite bring everything together like I thought it would.

Chestnut tiramisu ($70) — An elevated version of the very same mocha-soaked creation the chef made in the famous “convenience store challenge” on Culinary Class Wars. I was expecting the chestnut flavors to be front and centre, but they weren’t quite as prominent as I’d hoped.

That said, it was still a more-than-serviceable sweet treat: a sumptuous mascarpone base, mocha-soaked ladyfingers, and silky chestnut purée beautifully topped with an espresso–marron glacés sauce and chopped chestnuts for a crunchy finish. 

This was a pretty big meal for someone who wasn't hungry at all! Last September, while we were in Seoul, we tried to get a table at Napoli Matfia’s highly acclaimed Via Toledo Pasta Bar but sadly, we learned that it had stopped taking reservations. Later, we found out he had shut it down for his new project — a massive new five-story culinary space in Seoul.

So, this limited-time menu ended up being a great consolation prize — more than 10 months later.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop G03, G/F, D2 Place TWO, 15 Cheung Shun Street, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok
Tel: +852 2557-7227
Website: www.pici.hk

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Pizza Maru Kai Tak Sports Park Mall 2 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We have a birthday party to attend tonight, and it’s for one of Little nugget’s oldest friends. By “oldest friend” I mean he’s from little one’s preschool more than six years ago. That feels like such a long, long time ago.

The kids got to play at one of the playhouses at Kai Tak Sports Park before dinner, but the dads knew better than to join too early. Instead, we all showed up at the dinner venue — Pizza Maru, a popular Korean-Italian fusion brand known for its health-conscious pizzas made with well-being dough, alongside authentic Korean fried chicken, pastas, and craft beer.

We got ourselves an exclusive private dining area (sort of), so we were shielded from the noisy main dining area.

Rose toppokki fried chicken — Nobody would ever say no to these crispy Korean fried chicken pieces. They were nicely complemented by Korean rice cakes, finished with their homemade spicy rose cream sauce and special honey butter powder.

Maru 5 premium pizza — The eye-popping signature pizza from Pizza Maru featuring Korean-style BBQ beef, pepperoni, bacon with potato wedges, spicy chicken, corn, and mozzarella cheese. There were also cheddar cheese, mayo, steak sauce, and chili sauce on top of the tomato-based sauce to tie everything together.

Mentaiko seaweed shrimp pizza — This one was more like a flatbread with mentaiko cream cheese sauce, shrimp, flying fish roe, seaweed, mushrooms, onion, cherry tomato, rocket salad, rice paper chip, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, mayo, and sesame oil. It was a very, very busy dish with a ton of ingredients and the kids seemed to love it!

Pepperoni pizza — Some of us were purists when it came to pizza so a simple pepperoni pizza with a tomato sauce base, lots of pepperoni, red onions, mozzarella cheese, parsley, and onions already did the trick.

Honey butter fried chicken with corn ribs — Another Korean fried chicken. This one came with roasted corn, parmesan cheese, and Pizza Maru's original honey butter powder, but no rice cakes.

Toowoomba seafood casarecce — The weakest link tonight seemed to be the pasta dishes. This casarecce pasta was tossed with onions, king trumpet mushrooms, oysters, prawns, parsley, and spring onions, but it didn’t receive many rave reviews from anyone.

Following the meal, the kids squeezed in some board games, which is always a ton of fun. Too bad a few of the kids left right after the playhouse and didn’t get to join this fun-filled dinner tonight.

It was nice for little nugget to hang out with his long-time friends from preschool again. It’s been a while since we last had a gathering, as everyone’s been busy with their respective school activities and studying. But they would never forget each other — especially the COVID days, when they used to hang out almost every single day without school.

Food Rating: 5.7/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop M2-010, G/F, Kai Tak Mall 2, Kai Tak Sports Park, 38-39 Shing Kai Road, Kai Tak, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Kai Tak

Tel: +852 2110-1277

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

Manada (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I’ve got a pickleball game in a couple of hours, so I didn’t plan to eat much beforehand. After an hour of game time at RAIL-IN (深圳湾睿印), I headed down to the restaurant level looking for something quick. The first place I came across was Manada.

Manada is a modern Korean restaurant focused on fusion dishes with a Korean twist. I wasn’t planning on having a fancy meal so this should do the trick.

RAIL-IN is up against some serious competition from the more luxurious malls in Nanshan District, including Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳湾萬象城) and Coastal City (海岸城). So far, the dining scene here didn’t seem very busy at all. At least not until I showed up.

Potato pancake (雪花芝士酥脆土豆餅) (¥48) — The crispy potato sticks were pressed together with some kind of potato purée. If you don’t have a genuinely crisp crust, a “pancake” like this is always going to be a letdown. And unfortunately, that was exactly the case.

Burnt caramel white miso Basque cheesecake (焦糖白味噌巴斯克) (¥48) — This was the main reason I came in in the first place, after seeing their poster for the cheesecake.

I thought the texture wasn’t bad but the white miso hardly stood out.

If they didn’t mention white miso on the menu, I probably thought it was a plain cheesecake!

Just when I was finishing up with my meal, my pickleball partner arrived. It's time for some much needed exercise although I did some light jogging last night and now, got a sunburn to show for it.

Food Rating: 4.9/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B219, Level B2F, RAIL-IN Mall, Nanshan district, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区深圳湾睿印负2层B219店铺

Closest Metro Station: Hongshuwan (紅樹灣) / Hongshuwan South (紅樹灣南)

Tel: +86 18616345523

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/8b/ntTM

OUR Bakery MixC World 萬象天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Dubai chocolate — the viral, luxurious chocolate bar known for its creamy pistachio–tahini filling and crispy toasted kataifi ("knafeh") — has absolutely taken the world by storm since it first blew up in late 2023.

Since then, the concept has expanded far beyond the original bar. In Hong Kong alone, I’ve seen Dubai chocolate brioche, toast, cakes, and more all carrying the same signature flavor combo. In Korea, it’s the viral Korean Dubai chocolate chewy cookie (or dujjonkku) that’s currently making waves in Seoul.

This Korean version takes direct inspiration from the original Dubai chocolate bar: chocolate + pistachio + shredded kataifi. But here’s the twist — this cookie comes with a thin chocolate marshmallow shell, giving it an almost rice-cake–like chew rather than a traditional cookie bite.

I had the chance to finally experience it personally while we were at MixC World (萬象天地) in Shenzhen this afternoon.

OUR Bakery is one of the few Korean bakery spots in Shenzhen and Hong Kong offering this popular cookie. They make them fresh in-house in an onsite kitchen — small batches, one tray at a time.

Little nugget decided to grab a soft serve here while we waited for our chewy Dubai chocolate cookie.

It took a while but eventually a fresh tray of Dubai chocolate cookies came out. As expected, it didn’t last long (sold out in minutes) but we didn’t waste a second grabbing a few on the go.

Dubai chocolate cookie (¥23) — This really tasted more like a mochi than a cookie. It delivers the flavor explosion of the original Dubai chocolate in every single chew.

The outer “crust” flavored with cocoa powder, is slightly chewy, almost like a glutinous rice wrapper. Inside is the same famous filling: creamy pistachio–tahini blended with crispy toasted kataifi.

I thought the texture was a little funny at times (cuz I was expecting a cookie not a mochi) but I did enjoy the soft, sticky mixture of melted marshmallow, cocoa powder, and butter combining well with the rich fillings of crunchy toasted kataifi (shredded pastry), creamy pistachio paste, and tahini.

According to my little personal assistant (AI), a Korean Dubai chocolate cookie goes for around $40 to $70 these days, so these ones at OUR Bakery selling at ¥23, are definitely a huge bargain.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop NL167, MixC World, Shennan Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道华润万象天地NL167号铺

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

Tel: +86 (0755) 8696-5772

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/e5/TauM

 

Myth Jokbal Causeway Bay (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Myth Jokbal (豬腳小姐) is our go-to spot in Myeongdong (明洞) whenever we’re craving bossam and jokbal, the two most reliable Korean pork comfort foods in Seoul. Most of the time when we arrived in the Korean capital, we would immediately head there after checking into our hotel.

This time, we were spending the afternoon in Causeway Bay. I didn’t realize they had an outpost in Hong Kong, so I was genuinely surprised when I stumbled across a branch on Tang Lung Street (登龍街). Could it possibly fill the role of our dinner venue tonight? 🤔🤔🤔

Bossam and Jokbal ($438) — This came as a 3–4 person portion, accompanied by small plates of Korean condiments. They really know how to make an entrance. The giant silver platter was stacked with both bossam and jokbal, and it looked absolutely impressive the moment it hit the table.

In case you don’t know, bossam is boiled, lean pork belly normally served with wraps, while Jokbal is braised pig's trotters cooked in a sweet soy-sauce mix, offering a chewier texture. Both are easily some of my favorite Korean dishes.

The pork belly here was fattier than what I’ve had in Seoul, but in a good way—it translated into a richer mouthfeel and a more satisfying bite.

As for the braised pig trotters, they were nicely chewy and held up beautifully against the sweet soy sauce. The balance was spot-on. Yum.

I’d say Myth is one of the most authentic Korean dining experiences you can find in Hong Kong, especially if you’re specifically here for bossam and jokbal.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop C, G/F, Soundwill Plaza II - Midtown, 1-29 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Causeway Bay

Tel: +852 6717-1238

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 11:00pm daily

Caan by OUR Shenzhen Bay MixC 深圳灣萬象城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

When we first thought about coming to Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳灣萬象城) for dinner, Korean food wasn't what we had in mind.

However, as soon as we saw the crowd lining up at every Chinese restaurant (no surprise for Chinese New Year), we had no choice but to go with our Plan B. Since Jelloman was circling around Zone B of the mall at the time, it made perfect sense to settle for something non-Chinese there, with Caan by OUR Bakery leading the list of candidates.

I have always wanted to try Caan's Korean-inspired comfort food, but I didn't expect to do it during the week of Chinese New Year.

Kimchi fried rice (¥45) — Always enjoy having Korean kimchi fried rice. This came with fried egg and sausage. Not bad at all but the presentation could have been a little better.

Salmon carpaccio (¥78) — The beetroot-cured salmon carpaccio was pretty tasty. Likely the best dish tonight.

Bacon cream pasta (¥65) — The kids would never say no to a carbonara.

Truffle fries (¥58) — Pretty decent.

Roasted spring chicken (¥79) — I didn't get to try this one, but our friends were raving about the tender and juicy spring chicken. It must be a very satisfying dish. I heard the salad was not bad as well.

After scrambling back and forth and wasting a lot of time in the process, it was a blessing to finally find a dining place within the mall where we could sit down for supper. Most importantly, it was the precious time we spent with our good friends, sharing stories and laughter together. That's what truly matters.

Food Rating: 5.6/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B115, Zone B, Level B1 Shenzhen Bay MixC, 3213 Keyuan South Road, Nanshan, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区粤海街道海珠社区科苑南路3213号深圳湾万象城B1层B区B115号铺

Closest Metro Station: Houhai (后海)

Tel: +86 18124700566

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/5e/OqaM

T+T (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★★☆

Like my previous two meals at Frassi and de nuit to kick off this Taipei trip, my third meal was a dandy. T+T is a Michelin starred restaurant specializing in Asian fusion. After stints at top restaurants in Asia including Singapore’s Restaurant André, Johnny Tsai opened his own bistro T+T in 2018. Short for “tapas tasting", T+T is best known for its small plates that blend western cooking techniques with an Asian twist, which helped the restaurant snag a Michelin star in 2021.

After checking out of my hotel this morning, I hauled my bags to breakfast at Capella Taipei and then headed to T+T.

Quail egg, sesame oil, seaweed — The tasting menu started off with a fun little bite inspired by Korean cuisine. A marinated quail egg sat on a jelly made with sesame oil and what I thought was Korean Doenjang (大醬, or soy bean paste), with the nori cracker and perilla tying everything together. A nice appetizing nibble.

Oyster, garlic, vermicelli — It was immediately followed by an off-menu treat.

 

This one was inspired by Taiwan's famous oyster vermicelli (蠔仔麵線). An oyster wrapped in crispy kataif noodles was deep-fried and served with garlic mayo and shaved katsuobushi. Seriously delicious! The crunchy kataif paired with the zesty, garlicky mayo really made the dish pop, and the oyster, marinated in milk and sake, was fantastic.

Scallop, pine nut, pumpkin — The second dish of the tasting menu was grilled scallop topped with chestnut purée and roasted pumpkin, and finished with a Korean inspired pine nut emulsion. There were some nice smoky flavors from the scallop and perhaps the pine nuts too.

Sea bream, winged bean, sambal — Pan fried sea bream was served with a powerful laksa sauce with crunchy winged green beans drizzled with the intense Sambal.

The spicy kick from the punchy laksa sauce really took the sea bream to another level.

Kanpachi, yuzu, Korean perilla — Thin noodles served cold in a light broth flavored with yuzu. 

The refreshingly cold noodles were topped nicely by a layer of marinated kanpachi and Korean perilla tempura. Not bad.

Duck, truffle, wheel pie — Next up, piping hot wheel cake (車輪餅).

The wheel cake was packed with duck confit and truffle cream sauce that brought a slightly spicy and peppery kick.

Wagyu, pear, scallion — This was inspired by the Korean barbecue. The charcoal grilled New York cut wagyu steak was nicely matched with a sauce made with scallion and beef jus.

Condiments of lettuce, apricot, pear, and Korean chili paste were reminiscent of a traditional Korean BBQ spread. The wagyu was juicy and succulent, working well with the garlic purée and savory-sweet scallion beef jus. My only complaint was that the sauce leaned a little towards the sweet side.

Abalone, ginseng, chicken — One more seafood dish came in the form of Korean abalone on a bed of rice soaking up the ginseng chicken soup underneath.

The piping hot ginseng soup burnt my tongue!

Lemon, chayote, dark plum — My pre-dessert was green apple sorbet and slices of green apple paired with dill, dark plum syrup, lemon juice, and chayote. It had a burst of acidity and fruity notes, helping to cleanse my palate almost instantly.

Coconut, peanut, Gula Jawa — Dessert was custard cream and coconut sugar mousse/gula jawa peanut wrapped in a coconut sugar wafer, served alongside a scoop of milk ice-cream.

And a cup of tea to help with my digestion.

I almost got killed by the amount of food being served here this afternoon!  😆😆 It was a lot for NT$2,680. This had to be the best NT$3,000 (including tax) I've spent on this trip.

P.S.  T+T is one of the toughest reservations to secure in Taipei. In the end, I was only able to get a high bar table instead of a regular one. But sitting at the bar came with some neon lighting from the wall, which made taking photos a bit tricky. So, my apologies for the poor quality of some of the shots!

Food Rating: 7.5/10

Price: $$

Address: No.11, Lane 165, Dunhua North Road, Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Taipei Arena

Tel: +886 2-2719-9191

Website: https://www.facebook.com/tt27199191/

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 2:30pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily