Taiwan's 缘味古早味蛋糕 Grand Castella Cake in chocolate flavour

Seeing that there wasn't a queue in the earlier part of the day, I decided to get one of these chocolate flavoured cake from the Taiwanese brand shop at Raffles City. I'd admit that the smell did most of the part in convincing me though. 

On hindsight, I'm not a fan. I was hoping for the flavour to be more dark chocolate-y but I suppose that's just a mismatched expectation on my part. While I didn't think it was too bad fresh from the oven, that tastiness dropped a couple of notches after it has cooled down. Well, at least now I know...

Curry wanton mee from Cantonese Delights

Apparently curry wanton noodles can be a thing. It's not on the menu but I thought it made sense that these guys would be able to do it because it's ultimately made with the ingredients they prepared daily. A regular dry bowl of wanton mee with their curry ladled over. Pretty much the same as their curry fried chicken noodles. Don't forget to get the fried chicken cutlets.

Brasserie Gavroche 2018

This was an ad hoc decision over the last weekend to swing by to Brasserie Gavroche and it was quite the stroke of luck that we were able to snag seats without having to wait. We've been expectantly looking forward for their lamb sweetbread salad to make a come back to the menu but so far, we hadn't much luck.

This could be the first time I've had a poultry terrine. And from what I know, it was obvious that which particular poultry was being referred to. Now I'm not sure why that bird wasn't specifically referenced. Tasted like chicken. Not so much herby flavours from the herb jelly.

The heirloom beetroot was delicious. Sweet and earthy and refreshingly flavoured, bolstered by their dressing and some sugary walnuts.

Steak tartare was delicious too. This would fall under its own category of tasty since we've had numerous and quite a number of them were good in their own ways. 

Was torn between roasted quail and confit Pyrénées lamb shoulder confit. The lamb eventually won. This was so good. Tender fall apart meat laced with some fat for that lamb-y flavour and capped with a golden crisp crust. Salted and flavoured by the accompanying lamb jus. Kickass lamb jus if I might add.

Sautéed spinach with confit garlic on the side for that quota of greens in the meal.

Torimomo shichimi yaki teishoku from Suju

We have a thing for Suju. They aren't cheap but the food's always been good without resorting to being fancy.

That's their torimomo yaki with shichimi. Charcoal grilled deboned chicken thigh with some sea salt and pepper. Japanese pepper to be precise. Skin was crisp and meat was tender and so moist. This was some seriously amazing grilled chicken.

The tray of their refillable rice and miso soup. Topped up with a raw egg that was stirred into the steaming hot rice for good measure. 

Maxim's Jade Garden (美心翠園), Hong Kong International Airport

So this is the end. For this trip.

Knowing that there wouldn't be much to look forward to on the flight back we loaded up on some food before catching that flight. Jade Garden (8/F, Terminal 1, Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, tel : +852 2186 6068) from the Maxim Group looked like it was convenient. 

We tried their abalone siew mai. The abalone was delicious but the rest of the dumpling was kinda boring. Had many a better one back home even, not to mention that this was still Hong Kong. It's not bad per se. It had just a disappointing ball of minced meat packed into the skin which had no layers of flavours of good siew mai.

Char siew pau was passable. I could eat it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Not getting much of those flavours from the stuffings which were also pretty dry.

The menu mentioned that this was fish maw and chicken wrapped in bean curd skin. There was pork as well. Bean curd skin was chewy so it all unravelled as I tried to bite them.

Some obligatory har gow were ordered. It was edible.

So, pan fried radish cake again. These were okay too. If you hadn't been catching on, everything was just okay. For the prices they charged, above average quality would be the reasonable expectation.

We ordered their e-fu noodles because it sounded like it might be good. The portions turned out to be humongous. The noodles were all underneath the gravy if anyone was actually wondering. Gravy that was filled with bits of crab roe and crab meat. I was suckered into this as the dish was supposed to be flavoured with hua diao wine (花雕酒). 

Tasted none of that. I felt duped. The gravy was also surprisingly bland. The only thing that helped us finish this was pepper. The other condiments seemed to be chargeable. Can you believe that?

The Ichiban Mega Don from Yoshinoya is still around

We were still able to get this huge beef bowl at Yoshinoya. Seems like a permanent fixture on the menu then. Yum! What's interesting is that Yoshinoya here serves hot pots and those things seem to be pretty popular.