Xiao Tin Guo 小甜谷, Western District, HK

Due to its fame in Tai Hang, the shop opened a new branch in the Western District. Unfortunately, their food quality isn't the same. In fact, only a few items are good in their original shop. Guess the owner was too flattered by her friends around and so to make an unwise move. See this new branch so empty. As I tried their house signature iced red bean frappe (photo 3), that told why the shop got so empty. The frappe is just ice cubes blended. No red bean at all, and not even some lotus seed (as it claimed so).

砵仔糕 Mini bowl steamed cake, outside of Tak Kee Western District

On walking out of Tak Kee Chiu Chow restaurant in Western District, a cheerful granny asked for trying her mini bowl steamed cake, HK$4 for 1. It smells so good that I had to eat it right away. The red beans are very aromatic and in a very nice texture. The cake itself is not too sweet. So we can taste the original cake flavour too. Have to come back for another try.

Dinner Buffet, Courtyard by Marriott HK

From 8th May 2011, Courtyard HK has launched dinner buffet at HK$228+. As a result of their nice tea buffet, I promptly tried the dinner buffet lately. It turned out it isn't as nice as their tea buffet. Smelly king crab and seafood. Salmon is a cheap graded one. Prime rib was cut in half for roasting. So it lost all the juice inside. So chewy. Only the salad is right.

Spring Summer Review: MoMo Cafe, Courtyard by Marriott HK

Again it's not the best tea buffet in terms of variety but a nice time to hang out with family for a longer tea time over the weekend (from 1-5pm). HK$128+ is a bargain for some salad, sushi, hot food, congee, noodle, fruits, cakes, ice cream and chicken pie.

Western District and Sheung Wan 西環／上環 HK

1. Western Street西邊街/2. Middle Street正街/3. Eastern Street東邊街 - all these 3 street mark the area as Sai Yin Pun 西營盤, and leading up to the western mid-levels.

4/5/6. on Queen's Rd. West.

7. See how the road side construction is beautified with some flower and green.

8. Some very stylish balconies.

9/10. These 2 classic shops witness the growth of Sheung Wan. Some Malay Cantonese speaking Chinese are in the shop, speaking words like “無相干(doesn't matter), 侵侵(mix it) (this word reminds me of how we used to say 我哋侵埋你玩 (join us and play), but need to further clarify if it's the right word as I just guess it.

Momo Cafe, Courtyard by Marriott HK - summer review

Whenever we have spare time, see your family members and your friends. Take your time to enjoy your meal and chat whatever topic. No need for something fancy, something expensive. Momo Cafe HK offers tea buffet from 1pm to 5pm at a charge of HK$128+, with 10% discount offer for HSBC credit card and 20% for platinum card. Talk, eat something, and talk. 4 hours can pass very easily.

1. Very surprised to see Momo Cafe improving their tea buffet a lot with even more variety. Scallop sushi and more and the quality is above average. Their tuna string bean salad is pretty good. 2. unlimited supply of Taiwanese milk tea. I am not into it but the tea aroma and milk is quite balanced and not too sweet. I saw a lady took 3 more after finishing one.

3. The rice roll stir fried is quite nice and also the rice dumpling, but the BBQ pork bun isn't up to standard. They mis-handled the yeast 臭粉. Supposed it should be started from a flour/yeast base (麵種) and let it stand for overnight and further mix it with more flour batter. My mom. was so good at making this BBQ pork buns but regretfully I only remember her telling this part. :) Left ear in, right ear out. 4. A sushi platter selected by Jason. He claimed "yummy".

5. All the hot food have been improved. Quite surprised with the beef steak (with mushroom sauce - not salty at all and I can taste the original mushroom flavour.). It's quite a high grade beef quality - very strong and thick beef flavour. No need to season. 6. Tom Yam noodle. Momo served more than 8 varieties of noodles, from wheat, black sesame, veggie, egg to shrimp roe.... The noodle is of quite a high quality. Not mashy and not hard with strong flour aroma while having each characteristic of the variety. The tom yam is quite Thai style - quite salty to me but that's the Thai local style.

7. Their mini chicken pies never disappointed me. Still good as it has been. 8. They set up a station of Taiwanese snowy ice and they use the original ice solid with slight flavour of condensed milk. I spent so much time on searching this original ice solid of my favourite snowy ice and didn't expect to see this old friend in a hotel cafe in HK. Those self-acclaimed authentic Taiwanese snowy ice shops should come here and see this one. Another delight is the mini balls. It's not those of Taiwanese milk tea. The black ones are filled with chocolate syrup and white with lychee syrup. When you bite it slightly, it will "pop" in your mouth. The lychee flavour is very lychee!

9. Creme brulee still good. 10. Dark choco. with melty inside. A bit too dry on the outside but not too bad. At least it's some nice dark choco. used.

Tak Kee Chiu Chow restaurant 德記潮洲菜館, Western district, Hong Kong

It was 5:30pm. My sister's family and I were at the door of this restaurant Tak Kee and we got the last table and there went up a long line. Tak Kee has been in Western District for a long time and now expanded to a bigger shop on Belcher's Street (卑路乍街).

1. Chiu Chow pickled. I really wanna tell Chiu Kong Chun to try these 2 small dishes. These are the original taste of Chiu Chow pickled. These 2 are very original and authentic. 2. Fish in aged vinegar 陳醋鳳尾魚 HK$28. The fish was deep fried so well that you can even eat the bones too. The vinegar is also nice and it's not that acidic. So this is a really good aged vinegar. Highly recommended.

3. Tiny clams with chives HK$28. Another delight and this one is very good to go with Chiu Chow rice porridge. 4. Goose meat and mixed platter HK$98. So this is the real goose meat. Chiu Kong Chun gotta taste this one! The Lo Shui (shimmering sauce) is perfect! The kidney is very tender!

5. Chinese foie gras from the above no. 4. It's awesome! BTW, there are only 2 of it. Gotta be fast. 6. Deep fried oyster cake HK$50. Very crispy and light. Good frying technique. Must try!

7. Oyster rice porridge HK$60. This portion is huge and good for 10 bowls. Jason declared a "war" to me for taking 10,000 bowls. They put the "big earth" fish chunks in it and made the whole porridge so nice. Must try too. 8. Stir fried Kai Lan with "Big Earth" fish HK$50. My favourite stir fried! I love this fish chunks.

9. Taro sweet paste - very smooth and aromatic. Of course, the lard in it is the key. Can't complain. 10. See all these Chiu Chow cold dishes.

11. the shop entrance. 12. A boarder view.