Falling Basil, Thai Basil, Pacific Place, HK

Haven't been here almost a year. The long queue just discouraged me every time when I tried to visit. A few nights ago, I thought I had the luck but turned out this place isn't the same. The seafood is overcooked in the risotto and the risotto much too chewy (actually hard to chew as it's just stir fried with too much oil without enough stock. So it took away the seafood moisture and so the seafood is too dried out and overcooked.). The other hot dishes are so so. The worst is their ice cream. Very disappointing that the texture isn't firm enough and not smooth either.

Man Ho Chinese restaurant 萬豪, JW Marriott Hong Kong

This restaurant has been one of the listed choices among my business friends but lately it's been fading.

1. The restaurant and the others like California and the Cafe have one common thing - noisy due to the low and enclosed environment. That's why I prefer the Lounge. 2. Chicken soaked in thick chicken stock 濃湯浸雞 (HK$400 whole, $200 half). This was the best among all the dishes and also ranked the first one to be reported. Very nice thick stock and the chicken is a selected one.

3. Honey peas with clams 蜜豆貴花蚌 HK$180. The peas is very sweet but the clam is a little overcooked. 4. This appertizer looks very nostalgic but it's made quite carelessly and if it's a cheaper restaurant, I would let go of it. This is a five star hotel outlet. What's more, the mistake keeps on....

5. Jelly fish with pig's knuckle HK$78. At average. 6. This vinegar is too sweet to go with the pig's knuckle. Not sure if they need to cater the western taste.

7. The jelly fish wasn't done right as the outer skirt was still there and it's too hard to chew. 8. See some mashy rice. I then told the captain that they shouldn't mix the overnight rice with the newly cooked rice and so created the 3 mixed rice 三及第. So awful. The worst is that the captain didn't have any apologetic manner but simply said "let me cancel it.". Sigh...

9. Celery, corn and lily bulb 西芹百合粟米 HK$140. The celery was soaked in the boiling water too long (飛水) to lose the nice aroma of celery and yet too soft. The lily bulb was rotten and the surprising part is that they used canned corn! HK$140 for some canned corn. 10. Longan American ginseng sweet HK$48. At average but the ginseng soaked a bit too long that it lost the nice ginseng aromatic but just some bitter flavour.
11. Pumpkin sesame cake HK$48. See how oily it is. To make their life easier, they just pan fried one side, leaving the other side stick on the leaf. Tried to make it look nice but it's just one word to me "lazy!". So this restaurant can be totally taken out of my list on my business and personal eating agenda. Farewell Man Ho!

Pacific Place HK

Fashionable under-construction partition display at Pacific Place HK.

Diving into macro food

Time to go check a world we may overlook in our daily life. A mini-world in macro with vivid color and details. All the below photos were taken at F2.8 at ISO 100. Luckily the restaurant has a pretty strong light on the table (at Peking Garden, basement of Pacific Place Admiralty). *In general, the food below is at average but just Thai Basil (opposite to Peking Garden) was so full house that I had to switch to this place.

1. cucumber, veggie chicken and peanuts as appetizer.

2. Drunken chicken (with dried rose petals on top), HK$88.

3. Jelly fish (head part) in sesame scallion oil, HK$78.

4. Tan Tan noodle, HK$38.

5/6. Sesame pastry with mixed seafood, HK$128.

7. Turnip/cabbage rolls with fish meat bits, HK$88. (*please click the photos for a larger view.).

1

Abalone as supper 鮑魚當宵夜 - Supper buffet, The Lounge, JW Marriott HK

JW Marriott knows how to keep its clients by giving them more flexibility. Their tea buffet from 1-6pm is very popular. Now they have launched a supper buffet starting from 8-11pm. As most people find supper buffet at many hotels, starting from at the earliest 9:45pm. Marriott is very thoughtful and generous to have it be started from 8pm. What's more, it's a full buffet at HK$280 (15% for AE or HSBC platinum cards for 2-4 persons, 20% for over 5 persons. Why not pay a little more for more flexibility and yet:

1. Nice and fresh sashimi. Took some parma ham and melon, plus artichoke and grape.

2. I like buffet with more cooking stations for noodle, congee and BBQ. I took one congee with prawn, fish filet, chicken and minced beef. Freshly made is already 50% better.

3. Bah Ku Teh - Spare rib soup. The soup isn't that herbal but still pretty good as it does have strong spare rib flavour.

4. The steamed abalone caught everyone's eye. I got some stir fried noodle in soy sauce.

5. Some dim sum too.

6. steamed rice with Chinese preserved sausage - pretty nice.

7. More abalone and beef filet.

8. Someone served at the Hagen Daz ice cream station. Good that it's more hygienic this way.

9. Lemon grass jello and fruits.

10. Peppermint tea to calm my stomach.

11. Another station for making this sticky rice dumpling in sesame powder. Actually quite a no. of service station for various food. There are some I didn't have room to try.

12. Jaja, mixed beans with taro sweet.

13. the Lounge.

14. the entrance of JW Marriott HK.

Thai Basil, Admiralty, HK

So today some very close business friends asked where I should go for lunch and dinner. I chose Crystal Jade for lunch and Thai Basil for dinner. They asked further if I should try something more authentic. These 2 restaurants may not be the best on my list but they are my regular visits and provide consistent food quality.

1/2. Got a table at the entrance corner. The restaurant is always very busy. This is the only few ones I don't mind lining up.

3. OK, something new and I decided to order more spicy food tonight. This one is called Chiang Mai platter. Quite unexpected that among all these the prawn cracker is the best. Frying prawn cracker is of a very high technique from the oil quality to oil temperature control. Thai Basil made it perfect. Evenly fried and very dried out, and extra light and crispy. Of course, very aromatic. 4. At first I thought it's a Tom Yam soup, but it's not. It reminded me of a nice Thai restaurant called Methavali Sorndaeng TC brought me to 1.5 years ago. TC ordered a Kiang Lieung. This one is 90% of that one I tried. Some shallot, and galangal and mushroom and some longer green (I forgot the name) were used. This one is very hot and spicy. I felt like I was back to Bangkok.

5. The hot didn't stop. This one is green curry prawn fried risotto. I really like the way the Chef first steamed the risotto and quick stir fried it like Thai fried rice. The original way of cooking risotto would have a sticky texture due to frequent stirring to cause the friction of the rosotto. So this one is less sticky and yet very aromatic from the powerful quick stir fried. This is the way about stir frying. Gotta stir fry the ingredients to be done quickly to seal the juice of the ingredients. The green curry is very nice and I was quite surprised some kafir leaves were put in it to even bring out the green curry aroma. One more remark - the lime was lightly grilled. Very clever as this way the lime's dry taste would be taken away. Remember in Brazilian BBQ, pineapple is also grilled. You wouldn't get the dry taste of pineapple. 6. Stir fried veggie in shrimp paste. Unexpectedly hot too but very good stir frying.

7. Grilled chicken. Nicely grilled and pretty juicy inside. 8. Banana pudding with ginger comb ice cream on top. Still so good. Check the brown tiny bits. They are caramelised brown sugar. Very aromatic and crunchy.

9. my favourite ice cream. From left, ginger, raspberry and rum raisin. Thai Basil made it very nice. Not sweet but very melty and chilled. Ginger is very ginger and rum raisin is rum! This is the nice thing about Thai Basil.