My Pappardelle with onion, mushroom and sausage

One of the things I heard a lot from my friends these days is the fact that everyone is turning into a Michelin-star caliber home chef. With the pandemic hitting us since late January, every family is practicing social distancing and needless to say, we are all eating home a lot more than we used to. From homemade barbecued pork, charred meat to desserts, every friend is sharing his or her success story on the social media so I thought it's time for me to get into the act.

It's been at least 5 years since I last cooked a meal (or a single dish). Of course I wanted this to be perfect so I went out shopping for some pappardelle for tonight's meal and got two "versions" from two different stores. This was supposed to be the better one. Let's hope I don't ruin it at the end.

Meet my pappardelle tossed with onion, mushroom and sausage. I know I'm biased but I thought my cream sauce was pretty nice. Just a bit of butter, olive oil, garlic and chopped onion; and it was perfect.

I have to admit, the pasta was slightly overcooked. The instructions on the box didn't indicate how long it would take to get the pasta ready so I searched it on the web. 8 to 10 minutes the "experts" said. I thought I was smart enough to use the lower limit of 8 minutes but that turned out to be a little too much time.

A Happy Pancake 幸せのパンケーキ K11 Musea (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Jelloman's having a lady's night out with high school friends tonight. Rather than getting stuck at home with my little nugget, I decided to bring him out for a walk. A long walk to K11 Musea! Mom decided to tag along to help keep a close eye on little one for me. After we wandered around K11 for a while, guess where we ended up having dinner (Hint: mom's a Japanese souffle pancake addict.)!?

Happy pancake ($108) - Yes, mom's a Japanese souffle pancake addict so this is a no-brainer, especially after she fell deeply in love with A Happy Pancake (幸せのパンケーキ) 's offering in Fukuoka. The plain (original) pancake serves her just fine too.

Pancake with milk tea sauce and homemade granola ($133) - Would have loved a little more royal milk tea sauce but this wasn't bad at all, with the dried fruits, spices and crushed nuts providing a nice finishing touch.

It's still early so we are not yet done here. Little nugget still wants his noodle soup and he likely won't leave until he gets his wish. But for the time being, I got him his favorite vanilla shake from Five Guys to keep him a little occupied.

For some reason, these souffle pancakes never taste nearly the same in Hong Kong compared to Japan. I wonder why.....

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 233A K11 Musea, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 2338-4515

Website: www.ahappypancake.hk

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 9:00pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 10:00pm (Sat - Sun)

Mango Tree Elements (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

With everyone practicing social distancing in April, I had to postpone most of my birthday gatherings until this month. Tonight, I am meeting up with my buddy V, whom I haven't seen in almost 6 months. There are still a fair bit of protests at some of the shopping malls so rather than picking what we'd like to eat, a safe location seems to be our main focus here.

I've been coming to Elements Shopping Mall pretty often these days. We all agree that it's much safer there comparing to other shopping centres in town. Thai food at Mango Tree? Sounds like a lovely deal.

Char-Grilled Pork Neck Fillet (炭燒豬頸肉) ($118) - The marinated pork neck fillet was served with Esan-style tamarind sauce. This was pretty decent albeit a little too thinly sliced than I hope. The one from Sweet Basil was way better.

Mixed Satay with Chicken and Beef (雞、牛肉沙爹) ($128) - These were served with peanut sauce and Thai vinegar. I haven't had their beef satay before and it was a pleasant surprise. The charred exterior formed a lovely crispy texture on the outside, which was nicely matched with the homemade peanut sauce.

Red Curry Roasted Duck (紅咖喱荔枝烤鴨) ($168) - The roasted duck fillet in mild red curry was paired with pineapple, cherry tomato, lychee and sweet basil. A little less spicy than I thought. Not bad.

Stir-fried Thai cabbage with garlic (蒜蓉炒椰菜苗) ($98) - Always enjoy the lovely crunch as always.

Sticky Rice with Mango (香芒糯米飯) ($98) - Always a crowd pleaser with fresh Thai mango and sticky rice topped with coconut cream.

We ended up sitting there until the restaurant started cleaning up; that's almost 4 hours in total! Obviously, we haven't seen each other for way too long and there were just lots of talk about. But let's hope we're seeing the end of the pandemic so me and my buddies can meet up more regularly in the summer cuz right now, it's not ideal.

Food Rating: 5.3/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 2032, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Kowloon Station
Tel: +852 2668-4884
Website: www.mangotree.com.hk

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