Bittersweet Visit to Hong Kong

An unfortunate event brought us back to HK end of March.  Since it’ll be a while before we visit again, we decided to pig out.  We just had to stuff our faces with the amazingly cheap and yummy food that HK offers.   We visited old favourites and found new loves. 

Polo Bun from Kam Wah Cafe - a new discovery from last year

 


Crispy BBQ pork buns from Tim Ho Wan

 



We didn`t plan on eating at Tim Ho Wan as on the day of our arrival to HK, Tomy`s brother had tried going to their Mong Kok location with no luck.  Since we would only be free to explore HK for two full days, we decided to pass on it.  However on our last day there, we walked by the Sham Shui Po location and surprisingly no lineups.  Since we were already full but didn`t want to pass on the chance to try something, we went for the popular crispy bbq pork bun.   We fell in love…however it`ll be awhile before we can have dim sum at the world`s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant.

I'm so jet-lagged right now...couldn't sleep all night.   It must be age, don't recall it being so hard to get over jetlag.

Macarons

When I was at La Bamboche, I picked up ½ dozen of macarons. This is only the 2nd time I tried macarons in Toronto and 3rd time ever. As I’m still an amateur in the world of macarons, I played it safe and got basic flavors. They had an assortment on Sat – with flavors such as red wine and Japanese sake. Shown here are blueberry, chocolate and lemon. I also got pistachio, sesame and green tea – I forgot to take a picture before we ate them. My favourite was pistachio – the pistachio flavored buttercream was so yummy. Second comes the chocolate – I guess you can’t go wrong with chocolate although from what I’ve read online, it’s the trickiest one to make. Lemon flavour was all right but I didn’t like the blueberry one. It was the prettiest one with the blue shell and purple buttercream but I didn’t like the taste.

I can’t wait to start recreating my own…I don’t know where to start though as I am surrounded by recipes – I guess I’ll just have to try each one.

Weekend down on West Queen West

I used to love heading down to Queen West and Spadina for shopping but over the last couple of years, many big box stores have taken up shop there. Now I have to head further west along Queen before there are some nice little boutiques. Besides nice boutiques, there are many restaurants and cafes I’ve wanted to try.


My sister and I decided to check out Drake hotel for Saturday brunch. Their menu was small for brunch so I settled on Eggs Benedict. I think it is the safest item on a brunch menu for me. I found it rather heavy, as they were generous with the amount of smoked pork loin. The meal came with bbq fries and one slice of grapefruit. The service was attentive but the food was only average in my opinion. We were too full for dessert right after brunch so we went shopping to burn off some calories. After shopping, we went up to La Bambouche for dessert.


On Sunday, Tomy and I went down to Golden Turtle on Ossington for Vietnamese. We have been craving for their Pho as it was good the first time we went. Of course, it was better the first time we had it. This time it was smaller and the broth was not as tasty. We walked by their rival restaurant which was busier than Golden Turtle. That is next on our list to try!