Little nugget winning gold on his 7th birthday!

My little monster finally turns 7 today. Jelloman and I both took a day off to spend time with him but first thing first, it's the little boy's first performance in front of a large crowd since he joined his school choir last year.

He told me he had butterflies in his stomach when he stepped onto the stage. But once the music started, he was ready to rock.



The crew and I woke up early to make sure that we got first row seats to the performance and despite waiting for hours for little one's turn (they were the last team to perform), it was totally worth the effort. What a nice performance and a total group effort. Not surprisingly, they were rewarded with a gold performance award and little guy was estatic about it.

Afterwards, we had a quick lunch at the nearby New Town Plaza. Nothing fancy, just a family gathering for the three generations. We then had some desserts at Honeymoon Dessert (滿記甜品).

It's been ages since we last enjoyed Chinese desserts outside so the birthday boy was thrilled about it.

Before leaving the mall emptyhanded, we stopped by COVA to get a cake for the birthday boy.

He's a sucker for blueberry cheesecake so we knew exactly what he would choose from the bunch.

Happy birthday son! I hope you had a great time today. Now, time to focus on the upcoming exams cuz your last exam results didn't really sit well with the big shots.

Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine 御寶軒 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Last week, Cousin P from New Zealand pinged me on Facebook telling me that she would be in town for Chinese New Year. She's been gone for almost a decade now and really wanted to meet little nugget in person. After checking out a few places, we finally decided on Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine (御寶軒) as the venue of our "re-union".



We were pleasantly surprised to be offered a private dining area (sort of). Always nice to have some privacy for our heart-to-heart talks. 

I was obviously too happy to see my cousin so I totally forgot about taking pictures of our dim sum. Good thing was, I did manage to take a few selfies together with her. Time really flies. Her son who was just a small kid when their family decided to return to New Zealand a number of years ago, is now in university! A young man ready to find his first job. How exciting!

Steamed prawn dumplings (筍尖鮮蝦餃) – Always nice to start things off with some har gow. The thin wrapper wasn't bad and I love the bamboo shoots mixing in there with the prawns.

Steamed beef tripe with 'chu hou' sauce (柱侯金錢肚) – Very tender and not too spicy for our palate.

Baked barbecued pork pastry (蜜汁叉燒酥) – Finally, a photo! We always love to order this here and it certainly didn't disappoint. The pastry was so flaky and this time around, not over the top with its buttery texture.

Deep-fried taro puff (蜂巢炸芋角) – Flaky with lots of taro in the middle. The sauce with minced pork was oozing out slowly after my first bite. Would have been nice to have some dried shrimps (蝦米) there too for some extra bite and flavor.

Steamed rice roll with prawn and crispy golden net (金網脆皮蝦腸) – Not bad (I didn't remember having this myself).

Pan-fried purlie potato pumpkin cake (紫薯南瓜餅) – I was curious about this dessert when I saw it on the dim sum menu. Ended up having two pieces of them at the end. The pumpkin flavored mochi skin had this nice chewy texture to it, complemented nicely by the center of delicate purple potato purée. There's a reason why I had two of these! So yummy... 

Black sesame glutinous rice ball with grated peanuts (擂沙湯丸) – Always enjoy having fried tong-yuen sprinkled with grated peanuts. 

I'm sure we had much more dim sum than we've written here but I was too busy chatting with my cousin that I totally lost track of the dishes we ordered. But this meal was much more than good food for all of us. It was really nice to see my cousin again after so many years and knowing that our families are both doing well amidst the pandemic, that's priceless. During the meal, we even went as far as to call my aunt (my cousin's mom, my dad's little sister) via FaceTime. She has been a bit stranded in Wellington since the start of COVID. I felt a little sorry that she needed to scramble in front of the camera in such short notice but we were all just thrilled to see each other's face again. With our lives slowly getting back to normal, traveling should be back again and maybe, just maybe we could get a trip together to New Zealand to finally introduce little one to my aunt face-to-face. 

Food Rating: 6.3/10
Price: $$$
Address: 10/F, 1 Peking Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2613-9800

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 3:00pm, 6:00pm - 10:00pm daily

Henry (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

I had a bit of a late start looking for a place for our New Year's day dinner so I wasn't particularly surprised to find that most of my favorite restaurants were already fully booked. Fortunately, I still have a couple of ideas up my sleeves including Henry, the modern American steakhouse at Rosewood Hong Kong. 

I thought everyone would rather have Chinese food on New Year's day so I was expecting a fairly quiet place here tonight but it wasn't the case at all. 

Some sourdough, cultured butter and ham to start things off for us.

Large plates but tiny portions! That's okay though as we had a pretty BIG lunch anyways!

Jumbo lump crab cakes – First up were the crispy golden crab cakes with sweet corn and bell pepper.

The succulent crab cakes served with a special pepperoncini aioli, came with plenty of jumbo lump crab meat inside. They were so addictive and I love the extra heat from the pepper to match the sweetness of the crab meat.

 

A5 Wagyu Ribeye cap – A5 wagyu from Miyazaki never disappoints. 

I wasn't a fan of black garlic and wagyu together to be brutally honest. The well-marbled beef on its own was delish enough that a small touch of sea salt already made it so heavenly. So tender and buttery! 👍

USDA Black Angus Tenderloin – After having the succulent A5 wagyu, it's time to enjoy the USDA prime black angus tenderloin which I specifically asked to be served medium.

Texture-wise, there was obviously a big difference between this and the A5 wagyu. This came with some exquisite flavors from the aging. The flesh was juicy but not as soft as I expected. Not surprisingly, everybody including little nugget prefers the wagyu ribeye cap. 

The beef was accompanied by two pots of sauce, Béarnaise sauce and what I thought peppercorn sauce with truffles.

Boston lobster – Last but not least, little one's lobster poached in butter. This looks like a pretty small lobster to me. 

Looks like everyone was happy about this New Year's day dinner tonight. Little guy wanted to go back to Lobster Bar & Grill in the first place but we joked with him that this is the "new Lobster Bar". And surprise, surprise he bought the idea!!! 😝 

Food Rating: 7/10

Price: $$$$

Address: 5/F Rosewood Hong Kong Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: +852 3891-8888

Website: www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/hong-kong/dining/henry

Opening Hours: 5:30pm - 10:30pm daily, 12:00pm  2:30pm (Sat - Sun)