Friday, December 23, 2016

German Dinner in Wanchai

There aren't many German restaurants in Hong Kong, but King Ludwig has several branches and the one in Wanchai is where I usually go.

When talking about German food, everyone would think of knuckles and sausages, me too. I generally come here for buffet because this is the only place I know with quality knuckles on the buffet table.  

Recently I went there twice for a la carte and here is a summary of our foods.  The food portion is relatively large, not quite ideal for small groups like us having two persons only.
The knuckle says for 1-2 person on the menu, but unless you have an "Adam Richman" kind of stomach, or it would be too much for one person.

Pork Knuckle (HK$225)

The waiters usually show the full knuckle to the guests before breaking into small pieces for easy eating. The meat is always juicy and delicious, the skin is generally crispy which I really like, although some parts were just too dry and hard. I do like the thick layers of collagen as well. 


Apart from knuckles, sausages is another 'must'.  As I said, I went there twice, the first time, we had a small sampler of sausages which is good for two people. My friend said if you order for a family size one, every sausage would be double in size. I like the sour cabbage too.  There are some other restaurants serving knuckles but won't come with sour cabbage.  I was told that it requires time and skill of the chef and hence only German chefs will do so.  Others simply serve with chips.

Sausage Sampler (HK$170)
 

The second time we tried the white boiled sausages. It says 'beef' and 'pork' on the menu, but we were not sure whether each sausage has two kinds of meat or one kind of meat per sausage.  So we had half of each sausage and simply found that they both tasted the same.  I like the smashed potato as well.  Not too soft, not too hard, the consistency is just good.  Together with their house mustard, lovely combination.

Boiled White Sausages (HK$110)

Note:  If you love sausages, you need to go a la carte.  The sausages on their buffet table are never attractive!

In one of our meals, my friend suggested to start with salad.  Well this assorted mushroom salad looks lovely as well as delicious, with very fresh vegetables.

Mushroom Salad (HK$95)

In the other meal with another friend, we decided to wrap our meal with dessert.  But everything were so big (family size).  The tiramisu was the smallest, but still a little too big for the two of us.  Anyway, we just wanted to give it a try.  There were lumps of chocolate chips on top.  And underneath there were far more ingredients than any usual tiramisu, fruits, syrups, I simply couldn't tell all, but it was simply delicious.

Tiramisu (HK$95)

In one of the meals, we ordered cold drinks at the beginning of the meal.  My friend had a glass of red wine, and I had a glass of mocktail.  Both were nice and sold at happy hour rate.

Emerald Mocktail (HK$50) happy hour rate

In the next meal, we wanted something hot, so we ordered the drinks towards end of the meal.  Fortunately that went beyond 8pm when the happy hour ended, and we had to pay full price.

Christmas Warm Drink (HK$58) regular rate
Anyway, having a warm drink in a cool day is really enjoyable, although we paid a little higher.  Ginger Lemon Honey Longan drink.  Perfect to wrap up a meal on Winter Solstice day.  We went for western food on Winter Solstice just to avoid the crowd at any Chinese restaurant.

We just walked in but still got a table.  There was a bar area. We heard some noise but not disturbing at all. 

King Ludwig
Queen's Road East
Hong Kong

Hong Kong Food Blog - German Knuckles and Sausages

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Surf and Turf - Cantonese Style

Hong Kong is getting cool and one of our favourite foods in this weather is mutton hot pot. In fact one mutton hot pot for two persons is quite enough, but we just want a little something more.  The restaurant sells seafood as well.  So we decided to create a surf and turf in Cantonese style.

Mutton Hot Pot - HK$298
Mutton Hot Pot served over real fire.  We had to pre-order when booking the table, or they are easily sold out.  It is quite expensive.  The cost of a mutton hot pot is generally decided by 3 factors: taste, meat quality and service.  The cheaper ones usually won't serve with lettuce.  But ours was an expensive one, so lettuce was included in the price. Our hot pot was very delicious, but controlling the fire made us a little busy.  Even so we were happy because the waiters were very helpful whenever we raised our hands.


Fresh Lettuce - cooked in mutton soup. Woooo, you can't imagine such a beautiful combination, in terms of taste and balance of diet.  Very nice!

Tiger Prawn HK$68@
This is the seafood part of our Cantonese Surf and Turf.  Pan fried with soy sauce.  

Wu Dong in Mutton Soup HK$48
Recommended by the chef.  Because the mutton soup was so yummy, we tried not to waste the surplus and ordered some handmade wu dong noodle.  So silky smooth and delicious.  What a nice recommendation!

We had free dessert to wrap up the dinner. Another bonus!

HK$570 (US$75.5) for two persons
inclusive of tea and 10% service charge

Hong Kong Food Blog - Mutton Hot Pot

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Special Price Dinner Set

We earned some interest recently, so my sister and I decided to go for a little celebration. The restaurant nearby our houses offers special price dinner every now and then.  But we have to go on weekdays.  Take our dinner for example, weekend price is HK$495 per person, but if we go on weekdays, it's only HK$295 per person.  Almost half the price, quite a good deal.

In fact I quite like this kind of western style Chinese dinner set.  There are six courses, plus dessert. If we had to order a la carte, it will come in regular size and we won't be able to eat that many different kind of foods.  With the dinner set, every dish come in one-person portion, with seafood being the major theme.

Starter:  Sea Cucumber and Roasted Pork


Stewed 4-Head Abalone
In Hong Kong, the size and cost of abalone is generally categorized by the number of heads.  Meaning how many abalones there are in one catty.  4-Head means there are 4 in a catty.  Likewise, 5-Head will mean 5 in a catty.  So the larger the number, the smaller the abalone is.  Got it?  

Shark Soup
This is generally an expensive item.  I don't know how they can make profit out of selling at such a low price.  Anyway it was good and delicious.  

Garoupa Steak

Baked Oyster (Add on item)
We picked this from the a la carte menu.  As we both love oysters and this was allowed to be ordered minimum 2 only.  We were sure that we can take an extra oyster on top of the dinner set.  Indeed, the oyster was nice and fresh.  Good pick!

Tomato and Veggie Soup

Dao Ting Wu Dong
I don't know what Do Ting means. But it usually refers to good quality wu dong. In fact after the veggie and pasta, we were completely full.  To wrap up the meal, we had a bowl of almond tea with bird's nest and egg white.  

Dessert: Bird's Nest Almond Tea with Egg White 
(the entire thing was completely white, hence didn't take a photo)


Special Seafood Dinner Set
HK$295 per person
Oyster HK$48@ (minimum 2)
plus tea and 10% service charge
Final bill: HK$400 per person


Hong Kong Food Blog

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Mid Autumn Festival Seafood Dinner

Mid Autumn Festival is approaching.  Due to various reasons, our family had an early bird festival dinner gathering. Being tired of set menus, we decided to go a la carte.  I suggested the 'star' restaurant that I went few months ago.  Its name is Star and its quality is also star-grade.  Although we shared the bill, I volunteered to sponsor seafoods, which all of us enjoy.

Prawns Baked in Broth 上湯焗海中蝦


Sea Garoupa (dual style) - Stir Fried Meat with Vegetables
大海班(花鬼) 兩味- 西蘭花炒球

This was the giant fish that I sponsored.  It was over 3 kilo costed HK$2,800 (contributing almost half of the entire bill).  In Hong Kong, value of a fish is primarily decided by the type of the fish and whether it is manually feed or free range from the sea.  This one was fresh from the sea and rather a rare breed, hence expensive.  I need to pre-order it.  Restaurant manager showed me a video of the swimming fish on the dinner afternoon for my approval before he actually sent the fish to the kitchen.

Professional eaters can always tell the difference between manually feed and free range sea fishes.  Nevertheless, my fish had everyone's thumb up!

Sea Garoupa (dual style) - Steamed Head and Bone
大海班(花鬼) 兩味- 蒸頭腩


After eating the meat, head and bone were never wasted. They were turned into another dish.  Ohh, the silky smooth fish skin was so yummy and al dente! Although we had to deal with the bones, we all appreciated the authenticity of simplicity.  Both dishes (stir fried and steamed) applied the most simple Cantonese cooking method to the highest standard and fully reflected the freshness of the fish.

Cantonese Old Fire Soup - Almond, Pig's Lung, Fish Maw, Chicken, Pork...
杏汁花膠豬肺湯
Very rich fragrance of almond.  The soup's main ingredient is pig's lung and almond, accompanied with plenty of delicious ingredients such as chicken, pork, fish maw...and so on.  After the soup was being served, the waiter brought to the table a dish of ingredients like the size of a small hill.  We all enjoyed choosing and picking whatever we loved. After all, the small hill only reduced about 20% in size.  Lucky that I was prepared.  I brought a big plastic box and took some left-over home.  Believe it or not, the 2nd-hand soup that I cooked with these same ingredients were equally yummy as what we had at the restaurant.  Finally I pulled the pork and made into porridge.  Thought next time I should bring two more boxes.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple 菠蘿生炒骨

This is a signature dish of the restaurant - almost appears on every table. I generally do not enjoy sweet and sour food, but this one is exception. Very yummy! I like the pineapples in particular.

Lotus Stewed with Pork Belly 蓮藕炆腩仔
It is quite a home-style dish.  It won't appear in any set menu.  It was only because we went on a ala carte that we can enjoy this yummy hot pot.  Although we can make it at home, but the taste here is outstandingly good.

Pan Fried Salty Chicken 輝哥煎咸雞

This recipe is invented by the chef master. There are many ways of cooking chicken, but stir fried is really new and unique.  All of us prefer this to steaming or deep frying.  Again, another signature that appears on almost every table.

Assorted Mushroom with Tofu 珍菌脆豆付
If you tried this dish the first time, you would want it the second time and so on. The restaurant has a quota to sell each night.  If you don't pre-order, there is no chance that you can enjoy this signature dish.  The two tofu in the size of a thick toast is filled with assorted mushrooms, served with delicious gravy.  The manager said due to the complicated cooking procedures, they can only sell six dishes every night.

Steamed Dry and Fresh Vegetable with Minced Pork 梅菜肉鬆蒸菜心

As I said, we were tired of the vegetables on the traditional set menus.  The manager recommended this, quite a fresh combination - dry and fresh vegetables steamed together with minced pork.  The salty dry veggie added extra fragrance and the dish itself was not oily at all, yummy and healthy!

Free Dessert

HK$6,514 (US$835) all inclusive for 16 persons.
We were offered the largest table good for 16 persons and we had a semi private dinning area as well.  All of us were extremely happy with the quality and quantity of the foods. After all, the waiters were friendly and provided very good services. 

Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant
3/F, The Phoenix, 23 Luard Road, Wanchai
Hong Kong
+852 2528-9028

Hong Kong Food Blog - Mid Autumn Seafood Dinner

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Summer Solstice Teppanyaki Dinner

Few people celebrate Summer Solstice. It so happened that we did it last night.  Two of our team members, including myself, have our birthday in June (16 & 25), our boss took us to a Teppanyaki dinner, which was also to celebrate her promotion.  So one dinner, trio purposes.  We were amazed by the wonderful view when we arrived.  It was already 7.30 pm, but we still managed to take this photo.  See our lovely longest day light on Jun 21, 2016 - Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.



Teppanyaki is usually expensive. Going through the menu, almost all sets go beyond HK$500.  However we managed to find some cheaper sets, which were half or even 1/3 the price.  Reason being cheap is that we had to DIY.  It was fun anyway.  So we ordered 2 sets of cheap ones and 2 sets with service.  As the restaurant is a crab restaurant, they have already crabs in most of the sets.  We order 2 sets of cheap seafood and 2 sets of beef (thin/thick).  


Although teppanyaki is cooking on hot boards, the DIY version is with a little stove. We were given the utensils such as scissors, forks, tongues etc. to do our own cooking.


The thin beef came with vegetables.  Quite healthy.
Japanese food generally come with various kind of sauces.  But I would say the foods themselves were very delicious, we didn't really need those sauces.


Thick beef also came with vegetables and deep fried garlic slices.


Each of the sets came with salad and tofu. And you see, there were crab roes and crab meat on these dishes.


Tempura Soba is from a la carte.  My favourite deep fried chicken nuggets were sold out. We wanted to try some desserts, but there were only 5 choices on the menu.  When we came to order, there were only 2 options available.  Very unacceptable.


We also had foie gras toast, fried rice and miso soup, but forgot what food came from which set.  Anyway we were happy playing around cooking and eating.

The Crab Restaurant's Menu
If you don't like crabs, this may not be a good place for you, as they have crabs in most of the dishes.  On the other hand, if you love crabs, then this place is heaven.  Together with the wonderful harbour view, crab lovers must love this place.

DIY Seafood Set - HK$188
Beef Set - forgot price
Total bill - don't know (boss paid)

Kani-Ya Crab & Teppanyaki
9/F World Trade Centre
280 Gloucester Road
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Hong Kong Food Blog - Summer Solstice Teppanyaki Dinner

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Photogenic Banquet

The International Gourmet Master Chefs Association holds competitions every year globally and regionally.  The banquet here our family went for Dragon Boat Festival was said to have won the Best Photogenic Award.  Frankly we would say only one dish among all would deserve the award.  Regarding taste, we were only happy with a few, and some were even disaster.

Peking Duck K
I would give it a pass.  Not bad, but can be better.  The bread to wrap the duck all stuck together.  We end up had lumps of bread instead of sheets.


Abalone and Pomelo Peel L
This was an absolute disaster.  The entire dish was cold.  Listen, cold, not even cool - out of temperature at all.  Seemed like it was cooked last night.  But definitely this was not a cold cut dish.

Baked Lobster in Golden Sauce K
Well, I can't say this was bad, but talking about photogenic award, it was way out of the way!

Cross-Bridge Pearl Clam J
We were wondering why our menu had no soup.  In fact this was the one. Not bad, with lots of bean sprout inside, not oily.  I've given this a pass.

Duck Wrap in Lettuce J
We had duck at the beginning, rest of the duck meat was turned into this associated dish.  It was quite good in taste.  But I didn't like the head and leg.  May be they wanted to proof that this was a duck. After all, I gave this a pass as well.

Stir Fried Waygu with Mushroom and Walnut K
The mushroom and walnut were far better than the waygu.  Although we didn't expect the waygu to be dissolved in the mouth, but they were so tough and were difficult to eat.  After all we had lumps of cannot-be-eaten leftover waygu cubes on our plates.

Giant Grouper with Mushroom L
This was another disaster of the night.  First, about 75% were fish bones.  We could hardly found meat in it.  Second, there were plenty of black burns near the bottom of the hot pot.  By accident I got some of the burns and made my utensils all dirty and messy.  Totally unacceptable!

Assorted Vegetables J
This was the only dish that all of us had our thumbs up.  Not only it deserved a photogenic award, we were happy with the variation of vegetables in it.  And we also liked the light taste of savory.  A very good looking and yet healthy dish.

Fried Rice K
It didn't say what kind of fried rice on the menu.  It only said 'end of order fried rice'.  We thought this was a photogenic award dinner, shouldn't be something bad.  Well, it was rice fried rice indeed, we could hardly find anything in it, except some finely chopped ham.

Chinese Birthday Buns J
We had 3 people in our family having birthdays in June, so we paid extra for these buns.  Talking about photogenic award, I would name this No.1 of the night.  Each of the buns was larger than the size of my fist.  And inside there was an entire egg yolk with lotus paste.  They were really amazing!

The only bad thing was it came at the end of the banquet when all of us were mostly full.  Some of us decided to take them home.

The banquet also included some sweeties and fruits at the end.  So we all went home with full stomachs although not too happy with some of the dishes.

Sportful Garden Restaurant
8 Fleming Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Banquet Price for 12 people
Original price: HK$4,680 (US$600)
Special price: HK$2,980 (US$320) + 10% service charge

Birthday Bun: HK$18@ (US$2.3@)


Hong Kong Food Blog







Thursday, April 7, 2016

French Dinner

My friend took me to a French dinner last night.  It was my first time having French food in Hong Kong.  I only know couple of very expensive Michelin Star French Restaurants within 5-star hotels, but never been there. The one we went last night was situated within a service apartment in Wanchai. The place was relatively small with low ceiling, so I felt it was quite noisy, although the restaurant generally looks nice.

Both of us don't read French, so we had to rely on the English description of the foods.

Mussels in White Wine
Although I never had French food, but I do know this is a very famous French dish.  I personally don't enjoy shell foods and I thought the meats were really tiny.  However my friend like it.  And it was served with chips.  

La Piano (HK$118)
Spinach, smoked salmon, egg, cream, salad, lemon.  This was my main course.  Well for someone who doesn't eat much, this is just the right portion.  And it is indeed healthy and delicious.

Le Four (HK$138)
Duck confit, emmental cheese, bell peppers, piment d'espelette jelly, salad.  This was my friend's main course.  I shared a tiny bite and it was nice too.  When we observes the main courses of ours and the other guests', it seems they all had the same presentation - wrapped inside a thin layer of soft pancake.  Not sure if it is that restaurant's specialty or a general French presentation.

Ice Cream Crepes (HK$98)

Coffee Ice Cream with pineapple, raisin and rum.  We were a bit excited about the flame when the rum was added.  Again the pineapples were wrapped with pancake.  My friend was not happy with the canned pineapple.  Indeed for the price they charge, it would worth using fresh pineapple.  I trust that's going to be far more fragrant.

Including my friend's daily soup, we ended up paying around HK$610 including service charge. Quite affordable, I must say.

La Creperie
1/F, 100 Queen's Road East
Hong Kong

Hong Kong Food Blog - French Dinner in Hong Kong