Yesterday we had a belated birthday celebration for my sister, my niece and myself. For some reason, all these birthday celebrations have been accumulated since July to August. Then later on, we went to Ap Lei Chau market for buying seafood and cooking at home. Sorry I made a mistake for not uncovering one of the dishes. Guess what - it's my nieces' and nephew's favourite dish "(white rice - means tiny) fish omelette" (白飯魚煎蛋). Yesterday, all the seafood were so fresh. Besides, it's really cheap. HK$93 for 3 small garoupas. $45 for 1.2 catties of razor clams. $25 for 1 catty of "PP shrimp". $30 for 2 catties of clams. $25 for 1 catty of snails. $24 for 0.75 catty of "white rice" fish. $20 for 0.4 catty of red clams (北寄貝) without shells. $24 for 0.6 catty of spare ribs. $25 for 1.5 catties of chicken thigs. $5 for 1 catty of bean sprouts. $15 for 1.25 catties of Beijing Choy Sum (vegetable). So total is around $350 (incl. eggs/scallions...etc.). $350 for 12 people on a seafood dinner - amazing! Besides, I enjoy cooking as always. I even like cooking until sweating. It is a good exercise. I really hope I can go to those professional kitchen in the restaurants someday and try cooking there, as it will make me sweat even further.
-The left one is for all the dishes (oops. made a mistake for not uncovering the omelette!)
-The middle one is the red clams with bean sprouts. Ok for this one, I prepared the sauce first as it is a quick stir fry. The sauce is oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper powder, sesame oil, corn starch. Then I used some chopped garlic and scallions to quick stir fry the clams first with quite a large amount of oil 3 soup spoon (for this kind of clams, we need to be generous with using oil.). Then the clam meat will become more tender and the juice will be stored inside and not to be hard to chew. Remember the wok should be heated up quite much but the oil should be cool. Then for the bean sprouts, you need to drain it well. Again the wok should be heated up. Then put more oil as well (about 1.5 soup spoon. Actually it should be more to 2.5 soup spoon but I cut down a bit for health purpose.). Put the ginger slices and garlic and the white parts of scallions into the wok and make it a bit brown. Then put the bean sprouts and very very quick stir fry it for a 30 seconds. Cover the lid and cook for another 30 seconds. Then put back the clams for another quick stir fry. Remember it should be high heat all the way. Then put the sauce in the middle and thicken it. Done!
-the left one is easy. PP shrimp in boiling water. But remember to put some ginger slices in the boiling water and some wine.
This noon we took a boat ride from Saphan Taksin to Nonthaburi. Along the river side, besides the hotel area from Shangrila to Sheraton, there are lots to see. It's a beautiful sunny day. I didn't notice we spent already one hour something to reach the final destination Nonthaburi. Afterwards, we take a taxi to Pak Kret.... to be continued. Stay tuned.
I was told that Jordan Air is quite nice. So finally because of the CX airfare for summer time is extra high, I chose to fly Jordan Air (3 times cheaper than CX's). Though they don't have a seat-back TV, it's still quite enjoyable that they have a LCD TV on every other rows, showing some Hollywood movie. Then the meal reminds me of the good old time. First, they have a separate salad dressing, some soft cheese with cracker, and a small bag with salt, pepper, wet napkin, tooth pick, sugar, creamer...etc. By the way, their main course beef noodle is quite nice though a bit dry, at inflight meal standard. I seldom try inflight meal dessert but this one pineapple crumble on sponge cake is surprising to me and I took it all. It made me feel like the first time I took the Northwest Airlines to Honolulu. Now CX and other airlines often claim to go simple. Yes, simple with no pillow and blanket (unless you ask). Simple with no tooth pick and separate salad dressing....etc. It's simply a cost saving actually. So it's quite an enjoyable ride for me. Sometimes it's good to try other airlines.
As now this hotel becomes a hot topic again, here are the photos I took in the summer of 2006. My sister's family and I had such an unforgettable time, especially my nephew Jason, because all the staff in the Oriental called him "Mr. Jason". At the breakfast, he was given much attention and given some special mango Tango drink. This is the good part of the Oriental's services. In summer of 2007, my another sister's family went there and the staff were so attentive. My niece asked for a "cold" chocolate, then they served a cold chocolate without ice. The next day, she ordered an ice chocolate, then they gave her a icy cold chocolate with ice. Ain't it something?
The management company told that the decoration guys on some of the floors of Island East didn't lock up the windows as they wanna have some fresh air in. Then I queried "wouldn't it be strange for more than 3-4 decoration guys who didn't lock up the windows?". In fact, I do agree that because I also had this experience last week with my office. The worker left the window open and gone for lunch. I stayed at the office over lunch until they returned and questioned how come they left with the window open? Any accident or breaking in happen at just a few minutes!". Now this happened to Island East. There are people who often under-estimate or neglect something which they often "it wouldn't be in such a coincidence".
Been there last year actually. Tried their fusion food and not bad. At least, it's not crazily fusion. For the right photo, in the front it is somtum on fried snapper. So instead of those smelly crab or shrimp, fried fish is a good alternate. This is what we call fusion. Then the second behind is beef fillet with tangerine peel. I think it's kind of a Cantonese cuisine actually. The taste is not bad. So further behind is the mixed stir fried green. Not too gravy and this is what I like. The second photo is the dining area of Flava.
I guess for those who have ever been to the Emporium shopping mall, they should pass by this open cafe on the ground floor's main hall. I do have a lot of food I like from this restaurant. First is the seasonal lobster bisque, the second is their various salad and their beef noodle. Their hot dog is also nice! So the left one is the chef salad I like the most. Right to it is the typical fried rice. Yummy!
So after our guessing game on the pressed duck, here are the other dishes we had in Le Banyan:
Brought my sisters' families to this restaurant next to Central Market and it's another branch of Tsui Wah Restaurant 翠華茶餐廳, very successful restaurant chain in Hong Kong. Actually, most people forgot they were first famous for their fish balls in shark's cartilage soup, like Hui Lau Shan famous for its Turtle herbal jelly.