Cafe Moccato, Novotel Citygate, Tung Chung HK

 This hotel name often made me hesitant to try their new branches, from the 90% disappointments of a number of Novotel, especially the Novotel in Wanchai.  However, I got told that this Novotel Citygate offers some pretty nice buffet.  So as I passed by its cafe, I tried some mocha and a cake.  It's beyond my expectation.  What's more, the prices aren't that expensive.  Mocha and coffee are around HK$28-32 and the cakes at around HK$22-28.

Silver Wave 銀波, Chinese restaurant, Chatrium riverside BKK

Gentle advice: choose the siu ma only from the a-la-carte and enjoy the panoramic view of Chaophyra river on this 36th floor, the top floor of Chatrium riverside. The other dim sum are not worth trying, not even mention their dim sum lunch buffet at THB695 net. The waitress asked for my comments on their food quality and insisted on why I said "average". I simply replied it's way below the Cantonese dim sum standard and in considering this price, it's not worth it. Interesting that she didn't say a word; so what an unnecessary question for an answer they don't wanna hear.

Xin Tian Di 新天地 Crowne Plaza Bangkok

Finally we could try this restaurant. The must-try dish is their Peking duck. It's roasted so nice and aromatic and yet it's thinly sliced without a thick layer of fat. Somehow in Bangkok the Beijing scallion 京蔥 can't be found. Otherwise, it would be much better to my personal favourite. Another highlight is their tofu dishes (photo 6) and this one reminds me of the one 老皮嫩肉 made by Kiki 老媽 in Taiwan - deep fried tofu first and then soaked in a sweet soy sauce, but this one is with some seaweed to absorb the sauce. Overall, it's good to have a nice Chinese restaurant in Silom area.

Smoking lunch at Ah Yat Abalone restaurant (Forum restaurant), Ramada Menam riverside BKK

Most of the dim sums served here are very native Cantonese style. Among all, I like the beef ball the most - filled with a nice chopped parsley aroma and waternut sweetness. The har guo (pork shrimp dumpling on photo 9) is good too. However, the fish maw chicken roll (雞扎) isn't too good. The fish maw wasn't done right. Apparently it lacks soaking in the ginger scallion stock first to take out the smell. This time we got curious to try their bargain deal - 8 head abalone with mushroom duck feet at THB550. In HK, an average restaurant can charge a 16 head abalone at HK$380. After our last order the fried rice in lotus leaf with abalone sauce was served, the whole dining room was smoking. It was around 2:30pm. Such a real turn off from such a nice meal. There was a Chinese jostle stick burning ceremony. Checked even the waitress came to the window to get some fresh air. I don't know why we didn't get informed first so that we can get prepared from not ordering the rice. Besides, I noticed there are about 8 big pieces of pork (about 8 x 10kg each, total 80kg), tons of fruits and steamed cakes and many other food were placed in the entrance hall (filled up). As a respect, I didn't take a photo of it. I then made a comment to the restaurant's manager "wow, your ceremony food is 100 times than those restaurants in HK. They only have one piece of pork and several fruits.". That simply gave me the answer to why they hurried to have the ceremony.