Thursday, January 23, 2014

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), Tai Kwok Sui, Kowloon

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), Tai Kwok Sui, Kowloon

It took us a while to find this little eatery (92 Ivy Street, Tai Kwok Tsui, Kowloon, tel : +852 2180 9655) but it was worth the effort. The seating capacity of the shop was rather small. However, the options on menu were anything but.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), century egg

One of the recommended orders from the shop were their century eggs. I know they're available everywhere but we were told that these here were suppose to be pretty good. The yolk had an amazing consistency that bridged the two sliced halves of the egg. We noticed that they were also consistently presented that way for every order that was served. What I liked about it was their option to have them with vinegar and sugar, rather than the usual pickled ginger which I never eat.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), goose foie gras noodles

Yes, that's a slab of goose liver foie gras on noodles. Rather large slice, keeping in mind that the portions of the noodles were huge. This was very very gobble-ly good. The springy egg noodles were tossed in a light oyster sauce and foie gras oil concoction, accented with just chopped spring onions. And the delicious foie.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), pork dumplings shrimp roe

Some sweetish pork dumplings with shrimp roe. It's a signature dumpling from Bon Bon Cafe. This wasn't mediocre per se. Honestly. It was just totally overshadowed by what arrived earlier.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), mixed braise

Here's a mixed bowl of braised stuff. By stuff, I meant radish, chicken mid wings, rolls of tau kee stuff, pig intestines, cheese tofu, cocktail sausages and chopped beef briskets in a sweet and savoury soup. Everything was either soft, chewy or soaked up the broth well. Very awesome winter dish.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), mixed braise

So good that we followed up with another bowl of little bag shaped tau kee stuff, sliced meat from pig's head and hidden below, pig blood cubes.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), beef balls

I'm had difficulty trying to put the emotions that their beef balls put me through into words. These beef balls were gristly, bouncy, filled with chopped bits of tendon; was seriously beefy tasting and reminded me of *cues a Vinnie Paul drum roll* .................... the first times I had a hamburger at McDonalds as a kid. Seriously, I shit you not. There was so much nostalgia in this innocuous looking beef balls that welled from flavour alone. I hear from the proprietress they are bought and not made in house, so somewhere in Hong Kong must sell these.

The Beef House has got nothing on these.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), luo han guo tea

Very delicious and comforting luo han guo tea. Even better than any of the bottled stuff that you generally find in Chinese medical shops. There's enough of the dried crushed fruit in there to top up another glass of hot water with little dilution to the tea.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), Tai Kwok Sui, Kowloon

Monday, January 13, 2014

Imperial Treasure at TripleOne Somerset

Imperial Treasure, century egg congee

We've been to Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong (#01-K1/24/25, TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road, tel : +65 6732 8798) maybe twice in the past, but had never given them much though. I guessed that in those previous visits, nothing much registered. This visit however, left some impressions.

For one, the century egg congee with shredded pork was actually not bad. It wasn't quite up there. Radish cake felt the same. Decent, but not quite there as well. While this char chan teng themed joint is not representative of what Imperial Treasure can do, it accomplished the job for a fuss free quick lunch.

Imperial Treasure, roast duck pork

Their duck was much better done compared to the shop at ION. Roasted pork belly was nice with a crispy crackling. 

Imperial Treasure, corned beef egg sandwich

Sandwiches are generally not a forte (in this country). We cannot even get a Hong Kong styled corned beef sandwich right. There was far too much mayo whipped in the chopped egg which drowned out whatever corned beefiness that might have been present. The bread though, was steamed. Soft and warm.

Imperial Treasure, steamed rice pork ribs chicken claw

This was steamed rice with garlic pork ribs & black bean and braised chicken claws. It's actually ordered off the dim sum menu from the steamboat restaurant by Imperial Treasure just next to this place and one can have them delivered here. This stuff was pretty good. Flavoured with little else but the toppings and soy sauce. We gobbled this up in short order.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Indobox, ION Orchard


I was initially a little skeptical since this place (#B3-24 ION Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn, tel : +65 6509 8600) was simply just another themed food restaurant managed by a group that was operating a couple of chained theme restaurant that I didn't care about. But I actually liked this.

The cumi bakar was smokey and full of bite. The flavors reminded me more than a little of bak kwa. I only wished that there was more char from the grill to accompany them. Their lemak laden curries and lime-y chilli were pretty good in a dangerous way that made me want to get seconds for rice. Ditto for the nasi kuning betutu set featuring meaty thighs from the chicken and accompanying tasty sauce from the cooking spices.

cumi bakar

kari ayam

nasi kuning betutu

Sunday, January 05, 2014

meat packing district, Waterloo Street

meat packing district

I remember reading about meat packing district (Blk 261 Waterloo Street, Food Summons Coffee Shop) some time ago when they had just opened up. I never got the chance to visit since they were opened for business only in the weekdays and the old location isn't exactly convenient for anyone that didn't work in their vicinity. This current shop down in the coffeeshop in Waterloo Street was so much more accessible.

To the burger then. Their Fat Elvis was the only one we tried. The medium done patty was decent if not exactly exciting. But then again, what they had charged wasn't high as well and they were already ahead of Fatboy's and their progeny in town. In fact, the only thing that this place might improve on was the quality of the brioche. The generous slather of peanut butter was soft and creamy; bacon's "wasn't so crisp but I'm not complaining" decent and the thing that had me worried the most, the banana tempura slices, were actually very nice. Goreng pisang nice with a batter that wasn't overly thick.

You know what? I'm not opposed to giving this place another go.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Tai Wah Pork Noodle, Hong Lim Food Centre

Tai Wah Pork Noodle, Hong Lim Food Centre

Let me see if I got this right. This Tai Wah stall (#02-17, Hong Lim Complex, 531A Upper Cross Street) which is also known as the High Street one, is run by both the brother and nephew of the owner from the Tai Hwa at Crawford. There used to be another stall at the Bestway building that was operated by the said brother, but has closed and consolidated into this stall with his son at Hong Lim. And this would be my first visit.

How did this fare? The noodles (specifically mee pok) were softer than I had been expecting and the flavours of the sauces were unexpectedly quite subdued. The salty parts weren't as salty, the chilli didn't seem to have so much heat and the vinegar was just noticeably weaker in comparison with Tai Hwa. A literal pale comparison if you would. On a positive note, ingredients were generous and the varied cuts from the pork and dried crispy sole provided texture. The wantons were filled with dried sole and delicious and the soup was pretty okay. I'd eat this over Ah Kow any time, but it's going to be difficult to convince myself over the trouble of coming back. 

Tai Wah Pork Noodle, Hong Lim Food Centre