Browsing Tag:
Food
Some who follow me on my instagram (@maxieissuper) would know that I recently went to Hong Kong. Hong Kong used to be such a popular shopping destination for Filipinos because of brands such as H&M, Pull and Bear being unavailable in the country. But these brands have been setting up shops in Manila over the past few years which is why Hong Kong to me has ceased to be a shopping destination. But since Hong Kong was once a British colony, it has accumulated a wide mix of various cultures. I find that parts of it are so hard core Chinese while other parts are so beautifully influenced by Western culture. I say this because of the endless traditional/local and modern restaurants available all over Hong Kong. I really had a difficult time trying to balance Cantonese food and modern/fusion restaurants but I did my best, given the time constraint. Here’s a photo diary of everything we ate!
Hing Fat
This restaurant was actually located right outside our hotel! We had nowhere to eat because we had a very early flight so we went ahead and tried it out. To be honest, this wouldn’t be the best first meal to have in Hong Kong. Everything was just so-so.
Salted egg custard bun
This was interesting. The only thing I enjoyed.
My favorite dimsum in the world, Hakaw. This looks so pretty but it didn’t taste as good as it looked.
Asado Roll.. The roll was too thick.
Roast duck.. Wasn’t very tasty.. literally! It’s as boring as this description.
Overall: I wouldn’t return. It was an edible meal but far from satisfying.
Rating: 2/5
Reservations: no need
Adress: G/F, 8 Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
How to get there: Exit L5, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station
Takomaru at City Super Food Court
Having my favorite takoyaki as the first thing I eat in the City Super food court at Harbour Square has always been a tradition for me. This time, it would be the second thing I ate on my HK trip but it’s fine.
Overall: These pretty balls are the reason why the only takoyaki I can eat in MLA is from Hana at Little Tokyo. Because everything else fails in comparison. But, I haven’t actually had my taste of authentic takoyaki so I’ll have to wait for a few weeks ’til my trip to Japan and finally try authentic Takoyaki. My impression on these MIGHT (but hopefully not) change by then.
Rating: 4/5
Address: Shop 3001, 3/F, cookedDeli by city’super, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Godiva
This Godiva soft serve has graced my Instagram feed more than a million times already, it’s reached Iconic-Instagram-shot level on my books. I knew I had to try it. I can’t remember the exact price but I found it quite expensive for a soft serve. It’s a good thing that it tasted as good as it looked! I went for just dark chocolate soft serve vs the vanilla-dark chocolate soft serve because I wanted to get my money’s worth! Haha. It was very rich and I loved the chocolate on the edge of the cone. It was a delight to nibble on.
Overall: It was worth the try but it didn’t also change my life so I probably won’t return because I know that there are still a million other places to try in HK! But I think everyone should try it once in their life.
Rating: 3.5/5
Address: Shop 3222, 3/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Spring Deer
I discovered this restaurant from Leslie of Shoot First Eat Later but was convinced to go by my friend, Nats. I asked our hotel receptionist to help us get a reservation and he told me that he thought it would be impossible for us to eat there for dinner but he tried calling anyway. He called around 7:25pm. We were fortunate enough to have had a chance to dine at Spring Deer given that we arrive there before 7:45pm! It was a good thing that it’s only located a few minutes away from our hotel. I was so excited.
Some steamed white chicken soaked in Chinese wine served cold. The oldies liked it.
Super fresh veggies. Is the bok choi or pechai? I’m not sure…. I’m not the biggest fan of veggies. Hehe.
I was told that we absolutely had to order the pecking duck, and so we did!
The skin and meat were very succulent and tasty. I approve!!
But I did not like the very thick, homemade wrapper. My mom said that I was already used to the Filipino-Cantonese style of pecking duck which used thinner wrappers while Spring Deer uses authentic wrappers. Fine, I’ll take it. The oldies, again, enjoyed it a lot. We also had some lettuce for the minced duck. However, the minced duck had a lot of celery bits which I did not like so I only consumed one lettuce wrap.
Overall: The dinner was satisfactory for me but the oldies (Mom, Dad, Grandma) all seemed to enjoy it. I would still go back though, to try the different dishes they offer. The place was packed and I was able to see different delicious-looking dishes!
Rating: 3.5/5
Address: 1/F, 42 Mody Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
How to get there: 1-min walk from Exit P3, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station
Some random snaps
Lab Made
While doing research for my foodtinerary, I came across Lab Made a couple of times but did not get the impression that it was worth trying. But I chanced upon a small store located near The One Mall and I just knew that I had to try it. A lot of the flavors were sold out by the time we arrived (9:45-10:00pm). I tried the most interesting one that was available: Salted Caramel.
To be honest, I was already sick of salted caramel but Lab Made was defintely able to make it interesting because of the cinnamon-sugar (oops, I’m not so sure if it was just sugar or cinnamon sugar.. feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken) coated honey stars! The consistency was so silky and creamy. I was going home happy. :)
Overall: I was so glad to have tried it! They change flavors regularly so I’m definitely going to try it again, if given the chance!
Rating: 4/5
Address: Shop G42, G/F., Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
How to get there: Exit B1/ N5, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station
That’s all for day 1!
xoxo,
For those who follow with my Instagram account, a lot of you may notice how my account description says “Beauty blogger and sushi monster” but 70% of my posts contain food. My daily state of happiness is correlated to the yummy food I eat. My friends often push me to blog more about food but I have always felt like I’m not eloquent enough to describe my feels whenever I eat. So, I thought that it would be best to leave the food-reviewing to food bloggers since I already felt content with sharing about my food discoveries on my Instagram account.
All of this changed when I got my first invite (Thanks, Aldous!) for a food tasting in Burgers & Brewskies located at Estancia Mall. I was very hesitant at first because of my insecurities as well my hesitations about having to compromise myself. But I decided to give it a shot because I’ve been a fan of Burgers & Brewskies ever since their branch at Burgos Circle.
Our group of bloggers headed by Aldous Calubad was accompanied by one of the Owners of B&B, Marc Nocon during the entire night. He graciously described each dish that was served and happily answered any of our questions. He was also joined by his partners Mike Floro and Francis Balbarin who popped by once in a while.
First up on the tasting menu were the appetizers.
Avocado Fries (seasonal offer)
I imagined the avocado fries to be stiff and was hesitant to try it. But I was wrong. The avocado fries were, in fact, soft enough to bite comfortably, but not at all mushy and I love how it was coated with breadcrumbs to elevate the texture of the avocado fries. It went perfectly with the garlic cheese dip. I really enjoyed these.
Fish Popper with Chipotle Aioli
The fish poppers were battered nicely and fried to a soft crisp. But I think the chipotle aioili was the component that really brought this dish to life.
B&B has a wide variety of wings and we were able to try three flavors: Angry Korean Wings, Salt and Pepper Wings, and Honey Garlic Wings.
Angry Korean Wings
The most unique for me would be the Angry Korean wings because of its distinct Gochuchang flavor but it was caramelized well to add some sweet to the spicy. I honestly didn’t find it too spicy. It had just the right amount of hotness. It definitely did not leave me wanting to have a gulp of milk but I did enjoy the mild kick it brought to my senses.
Honey Garlic Wings
For those who don’t tolerate spicy food well, they also offer the classic honey garlic wings.
I also have to mention that I enjoyed how their wings were cooked perfectly. They were soft enough to easily detach to the bone (unlike in its awful neighbor, which is supposedly dedicated to serving WINGS but unfortunately failed to deliver by OVERCOOKING the wings).
Bacon Chicharon with sweet and spicy vinegar
Wow, these are by far the best bacon chicharon in the Metro. I’ve tried a couple. One common denominator among the various versions of bacon chicharon that I’ve tried is the toughness of the bacon. I expected the same with these but W-O-W. These thin slices of bacon which were lightly coated with batter were SO crispy and so addicting. Apparently, they make their own bacon which I’m guessing contributes a lot to the quality of the bacon chicharon. I don’t know what kind of sorcery they have to perform to whip these babies up but wow, I’m so impressed! They were a tad bit oily, but HELLO, it’s bacon. The sweet and spicy vinegar was the perfect match to these bacon chicharon.
Buffalo Balls
This was another one of the surprises of the night for me. I didn’t expect much from these balls but I was impressed with how they really taste like my favorite kind of tangy Buffalo wings in balls form. Marc explained how he wanted to create these balls to match with people who like to drink. It’s the perfect bar chow for those who don’t like the fuss of having to getting their hands dirty trying to bite into regular wings. I think the idea is quite genius. The balls were moist and juicy and you can really see the chicken meat when you bite into it. My only comment about this dish is that, some might miss the experience of biting into the the actual chicken bone. Either way, this is another dish I enjoyed.
Sausage Platter with Curry Ketchup and Spiced Mustard Aioli
I had a few bites of this and enjoyed dipping the sausages into the unique dips it came with.
S.P.F (sweet potato fries) with secret secret spice mix
These have been one of my favorite dishes ever since I tried it in the Burgos Circle branch. The perfect combination of sweet and salty.
Now for the burgers:
Call the Nurse (spiced mustard aioli, B&B cheese sauce,seared mac and cheese, and candied bacon)
Call the Nurse will always be my favorite B&B burger just because I think it really nails the spot with its sweet and salty tones. It’s the utimate burger worthy of the hashtag, #foodporn.
Seasonal* Holy Guacamole Burger (guacamole salsa, nacho chips)
One interesting fact about B&B is that they regularly switch up their menu items according to the season to keep their customers at their feet with new offerings every time they visit. Just like now, avocados are in season and they conveniently created a guacamole burger.
Walk of Shame (egg potato hay, lemonaise)
I think this is such an interesting dish because of all its components. It has a lot going on: poached egg, bacon, potato hay, lemonaise. But it all comes together nicely.
This is how it looks like after Chef Francis demonstrated how Walk of Shame should be eaten.
Don’t Have a Cow ( lentil and bulgar wheat patty, curry ketchup and garlic shitake mushrooms)
As a person who has a lot of vegetarian friends, I really wanted to include this dish because I think it’s great how restaurants make an effort to cater to vegetarians because there aren’t a lot of vegetarian dishes, more so, vegetarian restaurants in the Metro. I’m not a huge fan of veggies, so I can’t properly judge this dish. I’ll have to bring one of my vegetarian friends here next time!
We were treated with 3 desserts to cap of the incredibly filling meal we had:
Chef – Vanilla Ice Cream with Spiced Chocolate Powder and Candied Bacon Bits
This was my favorite dessert. A bite of this creamy vanilla ice cream coated with bitter chocolate powder will treat your tongue to a sweet and bitter flavor and once you swallow, you feel the slight kick of the chili kicking in. Just enough to feel a tingle in your throat but not too much to send you coughing and gasping for air.
Cripy bacon slices coated in chocolate
These were the absolute bomb! Again, super crispy bacon slices covered in chocolate with a hint of spicy to further bring dimension to the dish. I couldn’t help but have 1, 2, 3, or 4 pieces of this!
Creamy Soy Panna Cotta with Spiced Candied Bacon
Chocolate pudding with Cinnamon Oatmeal Streusel.
This was a nice flavor profile to break off all the grease on my tongue. Rich and creamy.
Like I said, I was really hesistant to join this tasting event because I don’t want to have to compromise my standards but knowing that it was a B&B event helped me decide more easily because I’ve always enjoyed dining in this restaurant.
I love how most of the B&B dishes keep me excited for more because of the incredible amount of creativity that comes into play into each of their dishes. B&B’s dishes are fun, exciting and executed very well. There are times when I like my burgers classic, in order to really taste the beef patty. But B&B has brought a whole new experience in my food-loving life. They definitely don’t serve your classic burgers and instead provide a refreshing take on burgers through different delicious components.
That’s it for now for Tales of a Hungry Maxie!