Smiths Fish and Chips, Balmoral Plaza

This was one of a few succeeding outlet (271 Bukit Timah Road, #01-02 Balmoral Plaza, tel : +65 6737 9313) of Smith's Fish and Chips. They've done quite well for themselves that it seemed they have been opening themselves a new shop almost once a year since then.

I found out today that one can get fish without chips so it was a cod with beef & Guinness pie. The pie had a pretty soft and buttery crust. The crisp on the crust was so light it almost wasn't there. But the fillings were quite tasty. The cod was a decent fried fish as I remembered it.

These could be my first fried Mars bar. It was actually pretty good. The flavours got more pronounced because the insides melted in the heat from the fryer while the batter provided crunch on top of the gooey innards.

Chicken cutlet from No. 1 Western Food at Tanglin Halt

No. 1 Western Food (Blk 1A Commonwealth Drive, #01-13 Tanglin Halt Food Centre) is one of of two institutional Hainanese western food stalls at the Tanglin Halt Food Centre. British influenced Hainanese styled western food which we affectionately term as local western food here. A necessity borne from a bygone era that has endured with a legacy till this day. 

I've eaten on occasions over the years at the other stall. I'm not sure if I have ever at this. Their old school chicken cutlet that they do was actually rather tasty. The meat was tender and the golden brown breading was dry and crispy without retaining excessive grease. Ubiquitous canned baked beans and frozen crinkle cut fries to complete the works for that nostalgia. Don't think much of that sauce that they ladled over though.

Vacherin Mont d'Or at Le Bistrot du Sommelier

The Mont d'Or cheese season is back and it can be had at Le Bistrot du Sommelier! We missed the last season so we came early for this one.

Since we had interest in some of the cheese items from the menu, we avoided being too ambitious with the orders. While waiting for the Mont d'Or to be prepared, it was a salad of chicory with blue cheese on figs. This was pretty good.

And of course, the Mont D'Or. Light tasting, creamy and rich at the same time served with small potatoes and bread to dip. These waxy little potatoes were nice. The skins were smooth...almost human. A single order of this feeds 2-3. 

Pizza Express at HKIA

We've seen a number of outlets of Pizza Express over town and have never paid them much attention. This time round, we just needed to get a quick meal before boarding and since the rest of the restaurants in the departure area were pretty much filled to the brim, it was a good opportunity to check them out.

This was something with burrata, olives, cherry tomatoes and basil. While this might not have used the better quality burrata around, we thought this was noticeably much more enjoyable than Motorino.

Motorino Pizza, Shelley Street, Central

I had forgotten that Motorino (G/F, 14 Shelley Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2801 6881) had opened up in Hong Kong until we were walking past Ship Street on the way to Landale Street and stumbled upon their Wan Chai branch. But since we weren't headed to Wan Chai and Central has another outlet, it was here.

I got tempted by the Gragnano, which was a cold sparkling red made from Campanian grape varieties that the pizzeria had claimed was their "pizza wine". It was so good and easy going in the summer heat that I was halfway through my second before the food arrived. This stuff can seriously be addictive.

Their cockle clam crostino was pretty delicious. The clams were fat and fresh while the salty wine broth was great with the garlic bread.

Unfortunately, I didn't think much of the pizza at all. This was their Brussels sprouts pizza. 

There were too much burnt elements on the pie (both the Brussels sprouts and the crust) that left a bitter after taste. The crust was soggy in the middle with texture was akin to appam. The rest of it was kinda like naan. While I'm not an expert on New York styled pizza, I'm pretty sure this didn't quite represent it well. We didn't get any fruitiness from the EVOO neither. Even with pancetta and Pecorino cheese, the salt in the pie was a little too little. Something was just not right with the ingredients.

Not impressed in the slightest.

For Kee Restaurant (科記咖啡餐室), Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan

For Kee (Shop J-K., 200 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, tel : +852 2546 8947) has been memorable for me for various reasons. It's not so much of the fact that it's the go to place for many locals. It's partially because it's in a less touristy corner down at the Central/Sheung Wan region I remember being in. Mostly, it is likely due to the fact that we stumbled upon it purely by chance when we were staying at the Mid Levels some years back and hadn't a single clue what this shop was to the place. We just wanted to get food.

Speaking of which, it was my first meal then as an adult in Hong Kong a few years back. My first milk tea here too. Any time before that time, was way far too far back for me to remember as a child. So this memory of recent years stay. And that their pork chops are really good. Crisp on the outside, respectable chew texture for the meat, savoury from the soy and the sweet from the sugar. I may not be local or a frequent enough visitor to eat with any regularity, but it still resonates a familiar hum of comfort. Especially with rice and molten yolk-ed fried egg. My words don't have to be taken as sole value for that. Just observe the crowd when you're there and watch what the locals order.

This now would be my first iced lemon tea in HK. Another first for me in this place. It's usually been milk tea but the weather was sweltering and I needed the citrus and ice. 

This was an order mistake. Probably mine and I blame in on poor pronunciation on my part. Where the word 饭 inflected in a different tone (in this case 粉) could mean the difference between rice, or rice noodles. I wanted the former but got the latter. The pork chops tasted pretty much the same as the one with the rice except that these were cut to smaller bits. The rice noodles were however too greasy, tasteless and pretty damn lousy. I'm kinda sorry to have to say that for a place I liked.