Pizza Hut Taikooshing, Hong Kong.

Pizza Hut, not a stranger to anyone and it might be the first pizza chain restaurant landing HK. When there was not enough pizza restaurants at that time, pizza hut was very popular back then. So just like McDonald's, KFC, I would occasionally visit them for a quick meal and recall some teengers' memory.

1. ok, when we talk about Chinese English, there are also some English Chinese like "order" in this card. Besides, I need to check with beautiful Chinese teacher Nikki on the above Chinese grammar as I don't find it in a fluent wording. So do you know what they referred the Venice sweet cream? Check the below. 2. Tomato soup - it's pretty good and at least it has some nice veggie to go with though they use quite much tomato paste for the soup.

3. tuna salad in balsamic vinegar - the balsamic vinegar is not that nice. The veggie is ok. 4. pizza in salsa sauce. Mmh.. salsa? It's just a tomato sauce with some herbs. Where is the hot and the aroma of shallot, celery...etc.?

5. stir fried mixed mushroom chicken linguine - so the HK style of cooking pasta is generally very soft. Taste wise, it's pretty ok. 6. ok, this is the Venice sweet cream pie. Apparently it's a pizza and it's just some cheese on it with a tiny dash of sugar powder in the middle; so where is the Venice sweet cream sauce? It's on the side in that tiny cup. It's actually Eagle's brand condensed sweet milk. Wow, don't Pizza Hut know that condensed sweet milk is so recognised by 99% HK people?

Dr. Frog's, Chaweng Noi, Koh Samui, Thailand

Passed by this restaurant during my stay at the Sarann on Chaweng Noi. It's just a bit upward after the Sarann. When I noticed it claimed as "cutting edge cuisine", why not try if it's true.

1/2. the shop entrance.

3/4. the restaurant was built on a very steep ruggy rocky cliff with a panoramic view to Chaweng Noi and the east coast of Koh Samui.

5. Someone fishing on the big rock below. 6. Ordered a very special non-alco. drink (forgot the name) but it's awesome - blended with some ginger, lemon, watermelon juice. When I first looked at the color, I didn't think it's that good.

7. Ordered this seafood pizza. It's wood-fire flamed. The seafood is very fresh and at least the Chef used some scallop, fish chunks, shrimp, squid. That's what we call seafood. We finished it all though it's pretty big. 8. Another delight - stir fried flat rice noodle. When I looked at the color, I didn't expect it has the burnt aroma of high heat frying (in Chinese we call it "wok fire").

EXP (noodle/pizza), a M.A.X. Concept restaurant, Taikooshing, Hong Kong

M.A.X. Concept has been expanding its outlets in a gradually diverse way. Overall M.A.X. Concept outlets are doing quite well in terms of price, environment, services and quality. The first one I tried might be the Noodle Plus above the Hong Kong Airport Express terminal in 1998. It might be also the time Fusion food got bred up. So tonight I went with my sister and her kid - 2 adults and 1 kid tried 2 pizzas, one cold soba, one salad, one pasta, one dessert and 2 drinks. It's supposed for 4 adults and 1 kid but we could finish them all. I really enjoyed the meal especially after our 3 hour play at the Fun Land winning the Super Jackpot.

1. Prawn on Pomelo Salad (HK$38) - Apparently it's a Thai salad. The dressing is very nice and a bit spicy but not much. The prawn is very fresh and I like the green. 2. Prawn with mango/grapefruit over wheat cold soba (HK$56). My nephew Jason took 1/2 of it. So you know how good it is. Yes, the soba sauce is awesome!

3. Go Mango (Hk$25) - Mango, apple juice blended together. Quite a nice quenching juice. 4. Berries merry - 3 berries, strawberry, blue berry and cranberry with apple juice. I found it a bit too sweet and I believe it might have been put with some syrup. 4. Seafood on spinach linguine(Hk$70) - Very nice match and taste too. The seafood (sea bass, cuttle fish, prawn and mussel) is very fresh.
5. Pepperoni Pizza/6. Parma Ham Pizza - both pizzas are really nice. The cheese is not too much and makes it less rich and not upsetting your stomach much. Highly recommended. It's about HK$70 for one and I think it's even better than Pizza Hut or Spaghetti House.

7. Jason's favourites - the 3 mini sweet pudding with coconut ice cream (HK$26). From the left, it's citrus pudding, taro pudding and coffee pudding. The 3 of them are really nice! 8. This MAX Concept outlet is called EXP, and it's just by the ice skating arena in City Plaza phase II, Tai Koo Shing.

Live from Down Under, reported by Maria

Our friend Maria went to Down Under for visiting her brother's family and will have her warm Christmas in Southern Hemisphere. So below is some of her journey's photos. Merry Christmas 2008!

1/2. Maria's sister-in-law home made Chicken pie! I really wanna try it by myself. It looks good and Maria told me it's irresistibly tasty!
3. Thai style pizza - Maria told she just pointed at this one subconsciously. According to her, it's amazingly good and probably she really missed Bangkok. 4. It's the pizza shop she visited

5. Chicken Pie by a restaurant in the town Leura, close to Blue Mountain (2 hour drive from Maria's brother place - another 2 hour drive from Sydney). 6. Sandwich - I like the way they put the veggie. Note that they also have the Five! What I learned from London this January for "give me five". The latest trend is to eat five different color of veggie or fruits.

7. View from the restaurant - so good seeing such green. 8. Maria had an afternoon tea set in an antique shop in Leura. She said the cream is perfectly creamy and the jam is home made - very mouth watering.


9./10. The Antique shop in Leura.

11. Botanic Garden - quoted from Maria "We have lunch in the Royal Botanic Gardens. It's like eating in the woods, birds , big and small, gathered and waiting at your table side, as soon as you finished, they quickly jumped to your table and ate the left over. Interesting!" Wow, the birds really had some manner.

12. The burger - it looks very juicy. 14. Quiche - Maria told it's amazingly good.