8 Happiness 八喜小廚, Wanchai, Hong Kong

This restaurant is a Maxim's outlet claimed to be specilised in Shanghai/Beijing/Sichuan cuisine.

1. chicken in clay pot. Quite salty and not aromatic enough. What for to put it in the clay pot. Supposed the clay pot should have the burnt part on the chicken to make it more aromatic. 2. Siu Lon Bao. This one is pretty good and the final step of the top end is pretty good.

3. spare ribs in Mo Sek style 無鍚肉骨頭. Supposed the sauce should be thickened by itself witht the final step of the cane sugar bar with the collagen braised from the spare ribs after the vinegar being put in the last 10 minutes. This one is not. It's thickened with cornstarch. Besides, they didn't use the vinegar from Chun Zhang 鎮江. Very disappointing. For those who haven't tried the genuine one, this one may have misled them. 4. Spring shrimp rolls. This one is quite nice.

5. fish head casserole. Much too oily to me. Bedies, the fish head is coated with heavy flour and deep fried. A bit too much and it just the whole soup too oily. Yes, the fish head should be fried first with flour, but light coating and semi-pan fried so as to take out the smell. Kind of waste of such a nice big fish head. 6. "organic" veggie casserole. Organic means double the price but how do you know it's organic? I somehow didn't see any worm eaten part on the veggie and some marks on the mushrooms. I really don't know what kind of organic it is. So for those who just read "organic" may also be misled. Besides, supposed this one is a healthy one but heavy ketchup was used. Yes, the soup base is kepchup. Heavy sodium and sugar. I don't mind about it but if it's referred to be something healthy, why so much of ketchup? Besides, the food price is ranged from $78 to 108. A big question mark from me.

7. oyster omelette in clay pot. Another misleading dish to use "clay pot" tell it's nostalgic. Sorry it's another disappointment. The egg was not battered fresh. 8. Sticky rice rolls. This may be the most expensive but awful rice rolls. HK$26 for one but it's just a 3 inch in length. It's much too oily inside but the sticky rice is very mashy.

9. sakura dried shrimp fried rice. This one is pretty nice as compared to all the other dishes. 10. the shop inside. quite crowded. I would feel some people prefer the environment to the food quality.
11. this building has some other restaurants too.

A day of eating eating and eating, Bangkok, Thailand

Have you ever thought of a breakfast taking a grilled chicken and stir fired bitter gourd leaves and a strawberry shortcake as a pre-lunch snack? So on 19th Feb., I made an upside down journey for keeping on eating eating and eating.... Note not all the food would be posted below.

1/2. first stop is Thung Kruen for a grilled chicken, steamed roll and a stir fried veggie.

3/4/5. taking cakes at 12noon at Mousses and Merringues plus an iced coffee.

6/7. stopped by Cake Walk on soi 13, Thonglor.

8. this table used to be a preferred seat of our Angel. 9. Earl Grey Choco. cake at 12:40noon

10. the decoration. 11. a refreshing iced tea. *warning.... the iced coffee was too sweet for me to finish. So I didn't drink that iced coffee at Mousses and Merringues. Taking coffee with condensed milk and lemon iced tea would upset your stomach.

12. late lunch at Another Hound at 1:40pm. Took a somtam (with bacon and guava and green apple). This recipe is really innovative and I love it. Never thought guava, green apple can go so well with green papaya. Bacon is also good with dried shrimp. 13. a Strawberry shake.

14. chicken wings. a must. 15. banana shake.

16. before taking a tea snack at triple O's, I took a frozen yoghurt at Buddhi Belly. OK, a mushroom burger at 5pm. 17. some chips too.

18. dinner at Tung Lai Shun soi 41. sea weed. not recommended as it's a bit smelly. 19. preserved egg with tofu. Quite average.

20. cucumber. Also average. 21. Dry fried string beans. Should have been fried a bit longer until more burnt.

22. dumpling. also at average. 23. Lion head meat ball on veggie. Personally I don't like baby cabbage 娃娃菜 and some restaurant often cook this veggie to replace the original big cabbage (津白). I really don't like some people often mix those up by not telling the customers in the first place. These 2 veggies are so much different in flavour. The former one is just some shallow sweet without the fragrance of veggie. The latter one is so good for being braised to release its original aroma.

24. pan fried dumpling. Also at average. 25. smoked chicken. First it's not that smoked aromatic. Second it doesn't have any chicken flavour.

Knutsford Terrace, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Knutsford Terrace is just on the side street of Kimberly Road and has been with some Middle Eastern or European restaurants, making the night very vivid.