IFC patio garden, Central, Hong Kong

Foggy, windy, sunny, dry are all mixed up in March and April, making this city of glass and metal smoky or shiny.

1. A dim sunset reflected on ICC, West Kowloon.

2. The once so-called collective memory - Star Ferry/Queen's Pier. How come now no more "collective" or would it be remembered collectively when it will be moved again, 50 or 60 years later?

3. A cool resting place on the IFC's mall patio.

4. Something very independent. 5. Exchange square and Jardine Building (Connaught Building).

6. IFC (II) reaching out the foggy sky. 7. Garden on IFC mall.

8. New highway linking Central to Wanchai north.

9. Airport Express Station.

10. patio view to Four Seasons Hotel.

11. evening view to the pier.

12. Red Bar and lounge by Pure Fitness.

Ho Choy Restaurant 好彩海鮮酒家, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

So after several frustrations from eating at Serenade and Jade Garden, I went to Sheung Wan and chose this established Hoi Choy Restaurant. Note Hoi Choy in different locations would have different menu and certainly different cuisine and quality. Why Sheung Wan? It's the gathering places of those well established dried seafood/ginseng/herbal shops. Some well established restaurants like Phoenix City 鳳城, West Villa西苑, North Garden 北園 and this Hoi Choy are there at the tramway turnabout at the Sheung Wan Market. So that area is something!

1. Lovely five spices soaked peanut! Grand mom. often suggested taking this kind of soaked peanuts as it's less "hot air". I think I haven't seen this kind of soaked peanuts for many years. BTW, I did see a lot of people who look like they are in the dried seafood/ginseng business. See the gentleman in red knit. The waiters and waitresses look like they have been with this restaurant for many years. This is even something cooler than those "fake" smiling people with those shiny XXX rating cert. or XXX award in the shop. 2. I like this card too and the handwriting.

3. Kai Lan stems in aromatic salty fish sauce. This hot pot was served sizzling and so lively. As you can see, the kai lan stems were cut and trimmed out the hard chewy parts. The salty fish sauce is perfect and this is what we called aromatic salty fish sauce. Some restaurants often put "bean paste with some chili" as "aromatic salty fish sauce, esp. with the eggplants. The classic aromatic fish sauce is the soft wet/aromatic salty fish 梅香咸魚 with crushed and chopped ginger and browned together first in the wok to make these 2 main ingredients blast for that aromatic flavour. So glad to find this dish done right! 4. Wow... another lost and found! Rough veggie in "south" bean paste casserole 南乳粗齌煲. When it was served, the strong aroma of south bean paste caught my attention that someone did it right! Lately at a very popular cooking class show (though I still enjoy watching it as a hilarious show), it was shown that the south bean paste was mixed with water to stir in for shimmering. The classic way of making dishes with south bean paste should be to slightly burn it in the wok and then put the soaking fluid in that "south bean" paste jar to make it taste more aromatic. Besides, the main ingredients should be with the deep fried tofu sheet. Also I found the "big bean" bean sprouts 大荳芽菜! So nice to go with more steamed rice!

5. Steamed scallop on tofu. The tofu is very smooth and the steamed at a right timing. 6. Spare ribs burnt with preserved veggie. At my first bite, the rock sugar flavour caught my attention rather than the preserved veggie. The Chef is very clever to balance out the salty taste of preserved veggie with rock sugar and yet the rock sugar made the spare ribs tender after being deep fried. I actually got surprised with this way of "burning" and yet it delivers the sweet taste first and then the salty preserved veggie flavour. That reminds me of the rock sugar salty plum sauce (冰梅醬). Must try!

7. Green bean sweet with seaweed and fragrant grass 海帶臭草綠豆沙. Never ending surprises - this green bean is so good to finish a tasty meal! The fragrant grass is awesome! My favourite! 8. the shop entrance.

Spring Review: Jade Garden, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Last year, I tried various Jade Garden but it turned out something not right and made my suggestions to the managers. It turned out those managers are just like the "me at 10 years old" who had a "wind" ear. :)

1. ok, check this order list and see what I got later. Amazing Jade Garden! 2. The table setting.

3. preserved turnip - quite nice. 4. Chilled romaine lettuce in peanut sauce. This one is still good and the sauce is very aromatic. Highly recommended.

5. All right. This is the one I complained about. Last time I brought up my concern about using baby cabbage (娃娃菜) instead of Bai Choy. Baby cabbage isn't right with this soup and in fact, baby cabbage is a bit too fake in the sweetness. Anyone having tried this soup should know it's with Bai Choy. So I called the captain and simply brought up my 2nd complaint about it and further told that "don't tell Bai Choy is not in the season, as last time you told me so when it was the fall Autumn time which is the season for Bai Choy. Now it's still also the season. Why still baby cabbage?....". If it's a new and trendy hip restaurant, I wouldn't bother to complain but it's a well established restaurant having had its roots in HK for over 3 decades. That really upset me. 6. Stir fried fish maw with bean sprouts and egg. This one is stir fried pretty dry but it should have been more aromatic if the fish maw could have been even more burnt. New Light in Siam Bangkok did a very nice job with this kind of classic stir-fried with shark's fins.

7. Another complaint! Check the order list. It should be "nine belly" fish with chili/salt. Of course, I also told the Captain what's wrong. This one is what my most-hated cooking way "shelter stir fried(避風塘)". It's very misleading to those who haven't tried the original and classic way of this dish. The funny thing is the captain just keeping her fake smile on her face without doing any remedy. So my final word to her "all right, forget it. Your food is very nice. Thank you.". 8. This dinner is quite extreme and my eating mood is like a roller coaster and I should be thankful that it's not easy to have a meal on a mental roller coaster. The deep fried chicken is awesome! You know what. I used the salt with this chicken to go with the fish. :)

9. Chicken soup in clay pot. 10. chopped dried oyster stir fried. Nice presentation.

11. Somehow this one is still half and half classic. The main was stir fried nicely and I like the way they didn't forget putting chopped water chestnut. So at least something to go with my steamed rice. 12. The other half disappointing is this steamed wrap. Supposed this one is with crispy lettuce as lettuce's sweetness goes well with the oysters and yet delivering a crispy texture.

Best Berry, Frozen Yoghurt, I-Square, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong

To be healthy, organic, low fat, low sugar, low sodium, low carbo....

1/2. a large size of frozen yoghurt with 3 toppings at HK$41. Very smooth texture but the yoghurt taste is not as good as Buddhi Belly (BKK) and this one is a bit too sweet. However, it's still a good alternative to ice cream.

3. Low fat on the napkin. 4. but fat-free on the board. Yet, the wording is a bit clumpsy.

5. ok, some mistake. The cleaning staff should be trained to use wet and dry clothes to clean. First wipe it with wet clothes and then with dry clothes so that the water stain spots wouldn't be left on the surface. 6. the shop outside.

Hakka Wrigley?

Are you interested?

The Serenade 映月樓, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Serenade 映月樓 - both the Chinese and English names of this restaurant next to the HK Cultural Center has been the most impressive and also the most visited places for me in the 90's. So much memory too. It's also one of the restaurants I recommended foreign visitors to try after taking the evening tour to see the night view of Victoria Harbour.

1. The entrance. 2. The restaurant has a spectacular view to Victoria Harbour. The restaurant dims the light a bit to let the view be more scenic.

3. the snack. 4. pork chop in haw and salty plum sauce 話梅山楂焗肉排 - HK$80. First the sauce is not that haw and salty plum taste. It's super sweet and some slight plum flavour. When it's claimed to be that interesting combination, they should surprise people with something blasting. If those who can't take the sour and intrigue flavour of haw and salty plum, they wouldn't order this dish. So I really don't know what's in the Chef's mind. Second it's not pork chop. It's ribs with fat. Yes, 95% fat! What's more, it's frozen ribs! I then told the waitress about that and simply threw back all those fat chops on the dish and she gave a nod without any gesture of taking any remedy. OK, for my prejudice to my fondness of Serenade, I took it as a one mistake of a million.

5. tofu fish patty in mixed mushroom casserole HK$98. This one saved my previous disappointment from the fat chops. The fish stock is excellent! The tofu fish patty is awesome! So tender and fresh. Finished it all. 6. Duck braised with preserved veggie (梅菜扣鴨) HK$128. First the duck is too young for this braised dish. Second the preserved veggie is not 梅乾菜. Though in many menus it doesn't specify 梅乾菜 but for braising it should be this one. The one we normally find in grocery is 梅菜 which is good for steaming and some shimmering with food...etc. The third is that this preserved veggie hasn't been marinated well with yellow wine and next to stir fried to give a better aroma to this one before braising. So the whole dish is not impressive at all.

7. Rich men fried rice 富貴炒飯 HK$128. This one and the duck are rated as the best dish in some culinary competition. I should actually stay away from this kind of award or xxx rating thing. Another showing of how the so-called "award winning" or xxx rating is. First the prawns were marinated with heavy soda! What a disgrace! Second some artificial abalone was used! I couldn't help it and called the captain. Told him that I paid $128 for this fried rice but given soda prawns! I also brought up the fat chops to let him be aware that something wrong with the kitchen. He then told that he would replace another one but I stopped him by telling him "nothing wrong with the rice and I didn't want to waste the rice. You can still charge me for this fried rice. I also wanna tell you that I have been to this place many times years ago and so I have an affection for this restaurant and so I need to tell you this to relay to the Chefs to make some correction. I ordered this fried rice because it's on the award winning recommendation. Please don't forget about that on how hard you guys got that!". So he then insisted on offering some dessert but I refused so by telling him "my comments is not to ask for some dessert in return. Your correction is the nice gift back to me, instead of some dessert.". Some may think I shouldn't bother to say too much. It's simply because I have an unspeakable affection with this restaurant.

My cooking - turnip cake, 蘿白糕

Haven't made it for almost 2 to 3 years. It used to be something I regularly made for the Chinese New Year, together with the "year" cake, taro cake...etc. So yesterday I passed by a grocery and saw some very nice dried scallop and therefore I bought more than that.

1. The right one is the half half dried sausage (half fat vs half lean). The left one is 70/30. Why 2 different sausage? It's because fat is the source of aroma and without it, this cake wouldn't taste good. So the 70/30 sausage is to bring the "meat" sweetness to the cake. 2. Dried scallop. Soak it with water just covering it. Remember to use room temperature water to soak it (same to all other dried stuff). This way it will not make it too chewy.

3. When soaking the dried mushroom, I would use something to press on it to sink the mushroom to soak in the water. 4. Rice Flour from Thailand. Don't know why it uses a Kangaroo as the brand. Should be Chang or Coconut... :)

5. Chinese yellow wine - I would use the 3 year old yellow wine as it is more aromatic. 6. I don't shred turnip. I prefer slice it as it would have some texture. Besides, slicing the turnip would train you on the cutting skill. So this time I bought 3 catties of turnip. BTW, choose turnip which is heavier and with less small "air" roots. Remember there wouldn't be any sprout growing on the head of the turnip.

7. Ok, dice the sausage as much as possible. So for health sake, I would take out some fat. Then you would ask why choose 50/50 sausage. It's because the fat aroma is already in the lean part of the sausage. Then put the scallop slices into it. Put some yellow wine and some soy sauce (1 table spoon) and 1 table spoon of sugar to marinate it. 8. Dice the soaked mushroom. Dicing all these ingredients to as tiny as possible. Then put 1 table spoon of sugar, some cornstarch to marinate. This way the mushroom wouldn't absorb the salty taste easily. It also makes the mushroom tender.

9. Pan fried the sausage/scallop first until it's slightly brown. Then put the mushroom to let all of them be medium brown. ... ooops.. I was too concentrating on the rice flour mixing part as it's a very important step. OK, to recap, I don't count how much flour and water I put. Just feel it to be a bit sticky on your hand but not too sticky. Anyway, I would put some cornstarch together with the rice flour. More cornstarch would bring a more "jello" texture to it but I don't use too much. Normally it would be 1/4 to 3/4(rice flour) or 1/3 to 2/3. Then stir fry the sliced turnip on a big wok. Don't use the non sticky wok. We need the stirring effect and the texture. Then pour water to cover the turnip and cover it to cook it until soft. Then put the sausage/scallop/mushroom and cover it for cooking for 3-5 minutes. OK, turn to low heat. Pour the rice flour water mix into it. Then stir stir and stir to make everything evenly spread. Then prepare a big round metallic container. Clean it well and dry it well too. Put some oil on it and spread it evenly on the inside. Then pour this soft cake mix onto it and spread it evenly. Put it on a wok to steam at high heat for over 1 hour. I steamed this one over 1 hour 20 minutes. 10. Done!

11. OK, let it cool off for a few hours. Don't cut it when it's hot and warm. I would recommend putting it to the fridge to cool it for overnight. Then cut it in slices for pan frying. Eat it with some Chinese chilli sauce (余均益 brand is the best). Alternatively Thai Siracha chilli sauce is also good. Yummy!

Video: Spinning Chilled salad, Lawry's Prime Rib, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

OK, here is the video of how authentic of the spinning salad was served at Lawry's. The dressing is just a perfect touch. Not too heavy but every romaine lettuce has an evenly spread of the dressing. As you can see the bed of ice and the delicate metallic bowl, it was very chilled. Excellent!