Healthy Food on a Fever Day | Gaba Concept

I called in sick one day and after visiting the doctor in CWB, I decided to grab some healthy food from Gaba on the way. To be honest, the location was a little awkward. Seated on the first floor of an old building on Lockhart Road, I had to beep the old-style intercom at the door on the ground floor for them to unlock the gate for me to go up the building, reminding me just exactly how many many years I haven’t gone up to these private venues for late-night drinking, which was THE thing 6.5 years ago when I came back to HK.

The cafe was quiet, not a surprise though on a weekday afternoon, but it was a cozy venue.   They even had my fav pink lily on each table, e-props.

I ordered the pasta du jour which was whole wheat pasta with pan-seared scallop. Scrumptious al dente spaghetti mixed with ginger, garlic and spring onion (like the dipping sauce for Chinese white cut chicken), the scallop was skillfully seared such that the inside remained raw.

I was already warned but how can a fever day go without sweets? So, I went ahead and ordered the Puffle – chocolate puff x waffle. It was a big portion and the fact that the ice-cream was home-made and sugar-free made me feel that much better. There’s always a trade-of course. The waffle was not orgasmic, probably because butter and cream and all those sorts of unhealthy ingredients were opted out of the recipe. I love the chocolate puffs and vanilla sauce though. They were very crunchy, and the dark chocolate sauce poured on top did not make the puffs too sweet.

    

Sank into Adele’s singing in the background the entire time, it was a relaxing and healthy experience at Gaba. Will definitely be back next time to try out their unique coffee selection and dessert. See the turntables? Hopefully can catch DJ in the house next time too! ;)

 

Gaba Concept, 1/F Diamond Mansion, 462-468 Lockhart Road, CWB, +852 3679 0348

Overall Rating:  4 / 5

Cost:  $200 ph - Lunch

*REPOSTED on OpenRice

I Will Be Back | Soft Creme

I've first read about Soft Creme from people's photo tag on instagram, and this ice-cream shop was so new that it wasn't even posted on OpenRice back then so I googled on it to get the address.  One day Missy Mo and I decided to go chill at Tai Hang, and Soft Creme immediately came into my mind.  We grabbed a quick bite then came here to check it out.  Probably because it was still new and not alot of people knew about it yet, there wasn't too long of a line-up.

Ice-cream numbers 1-4 were made from Hokkaido milk (uh oh, I sense radiation) and A-D used cereal milk, not really sure what that was though.  I really wanted to try the special of the month which was the Moet champagne flavor but annoying Missy Mo rejected my craving and ordered the Flamed Bacon. sad

We were watching the food experts preparing the cups behind the counter and thought that we gotta try the Australian honeycomb next time.  Meanwhile, I also kept glimpsing at the cute cashier guy while waiting for our ice-cream... ;P

They put dry ice at the bottom of the cup underneath the ice-cream to prevent it from melting too quickly since it's "soft" ice-cream and not the usual ones you take out from the Park n shop freezer.  I tried to take picture of the smokey effect (oooo, spooky) but was a tad bit late.  Anyway you get the point, I think the dry ice was just another gimmick but in terms of taste, the ice-cream was indeed very soft and was surprisingly good with the bacon bits.

I went to Tai Hang again the following weekend but this time there was a long line-up outside the shop, and I'm never a fan of queues PLUS the cute cashier wasn't there this time...I will be back.


Soft Creme, G/F 6-7 Shepherd Street, Tai Hang, +852 2370 3205
District:  Tai Hang
Overall Rating:  4 / 5
Cost:  $42 per cup

Casual Italian Dining | Jamie's Italian

I just realized how important it is to have friends who don't need to work in situations like this when you wanna be one of the first batch to try out THE new restaurant in town which virtually needs months in advance booking and walk-in waits take around 1.5 hour on average. Jamie's opens at 12pm for lunch, and my dear buddies arrived at 1145am to get a table first. I was told that there was already a queue formed on the ground floor at that time. Knowing that I won't make it there until 20 past at the earliest, I told them to go ahead to order and surprise me. When I arrived at 1220pm, there was a HUGE crowd of people lining up, and I felt that I must've had alot of hate stares for skipping the queue and heading straight to the escalator.
"Hey", *muah muah*, sat down, "how's your trip", yadiyadiyada, ordered my drink, first dish arrived. The polenta chips arrived pretty - and tasted pretty too - served hot and crunchy on the outside with a little bit of chewiness. Topped with rosemary leaves, the dish served well as a prelude to our little weekday girlies catch-up lunch session.

The cauliflower and cheese fritters were crunchy and cheesy and tasty, and the orange fennel and bocconcini salad was pretty refreshing and fruity.

Next came four cans of canned juice. For one sec I thought why I was rushing for 20 min to come and have canned food, and just right before I was about to raise my voice and complain, the waiter quickly explained that those were not for us to eat. Oh, ok. They were actually for holding up the fish and cured meat planks. The taste of the nibbles, however, were not as impressive as they were displayed.

So, what's up with the malnourished midget mussel?

After clearing the nibbles we still had two orders of small pasta which we had been waiting over an hour and a half for. I had to followup with the waiter twice before they arrived at 140pm, 20 to gotta-be-back-at-desk. I quickly had a quickie on the tagliatelle bolognese and squid-ink speghetti before hopping out of the couch to leave. The squid-ink spaghetti was done al-dente and the scallop tasted fresh except it was a little bit too salty. The tagliatelle bolognese looked pretty cute (or no?) - like some curled up pig / cow intestines you get from local Chinese joint. Now, this was slightly overcooked and got a little soggy.

Complimentary service charge was not included in the bill, and the total came to $660 for 3 people. I would say this is pretty reasonably priced but quite overrated as usual especially with the huge, crazy line-up's. To be fair I wasn't having very high expectations though having tried a few Jamie restaurants in London. It's just his usual style - simple, casual dining at reasonable price. Not worth the wait though, come back in a few months' time.

Venue:  Jamie's Italian

District:  Causeway Bay

Must-try:  Polenta chips

Overall Rating:  4 / 5

Cost:  $220 ph - Lunch

Address:  2/F, Soundview Plaza 2 - Midtown, 1 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay

Link:  http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/hongkong

*REPOSTED on OpenRice and FoodnSpot

A Meal With a View | Penthouse by Harlan Goldstein

We were actually heading straight to Jamie's Italian for lunch but having stood in line for 40 min we started to leave and went to Penthouse instead. We didn't make any booking and luckily someone had a no-show so we got a table for 2 pax immediately. I gave the view-facing seat for my friend, and I realized having sat for 5 min, nobody came to even gave us some water until I called someone over. Anyway, the lunch set is an open salad bar with optional main course. Since we were already short on time (it IS a weekday afterall) we passed on the main and only went for the salad bar. I was having quite high expectations for this place cuz look, even the guy from Jamie's Italian next door came to have lunch here HAHA.

Eating on a sunny day with a view over Victoria Harbor really made my day. At first I thought the servers were quite rude in making faces at me when I made order but I think it's actually because of the bright sun shining behind me...they were actually pretty friendly.

The salad bar was stacked with parmasan cheese and cold cuts - parma ham and two kinds of saucisson. There's also focaccia with pesto on the side, assorted salad vegetable, beans, peas and pine nuts to summarize. I did go a little crazy on the peas though!



My friend innocently made the comment that the restaurant was so considerate in serving the desert in bite-size portions. Well...yes? The plates were actually pretty small so I did see a majority of the people having to go back and forth for a few more rounds of food.



A comment on the side which I'd like to make is the bathroom - very thoughtful indeed. Before starting each meal I'd make sure my sanitized, washed hands do not come in contact with anything such as the bathroom door before I return to my seat. The bathrooms here were built with swinging bar doors which I found so amazing not having to push the door open with my paper towel wrapped fingers. You have no idea how much that means to a hygenic freak.

I would most likely give this place a second try but will definitely come in the weekend where slow eating wouldn't have been a sin. Gotta try their main next time too cuz with that cost on top, might as well just go all-in. I ended the meal with a view with a sinful iced chocolate while my friend had a latte. The barista was really trying, I guess.

Well, he did try.

Venue:  Penthouse by Harlan Goldstein

District:  CWB

Overall Rating:  4 / 5

Cost:  $260 ph - Lunch (salad bar only)
Address:  30/F Midtown, 1 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay

Link:  www.penthouse-dining.com/

*REPOSTED on OpenRice

不用等位的銅鑼灣街鋪甜品店 | LeJoy Cafe (樂在甜品)

星期一跟朋友仔吃完飯後路經這間甜品小店，看到裏面不用等位便立刻衝入去。其實除了我們之外就只有一張枱有人，心想。。。在銅鑼灣街鋪可以有那麽小人的嗎？看看餐牌這裡就只有冷的甜品，沒有糖水（其實我也很傳統的）。那最後也只好點個綠茶布丁雪糕，因爲只有這個有我喜歡的mochi湯圓波波。

其實這個綠茶甜品也不錯，因爲不是太甜，只是覺得布丁好像是實了一點。Mochi口感也可以，也滿QQ的。

綠茶雪糕布丁 - 不會太甜

朋友仔就叫了一個芒果棉棉冰和一個超多朱古力的東西。看起來呢個朱古力東東都挺吸引噢嘻嘻。。。

芒果綿綿冰

朱古力東東

在銅鑼灣找不到很多甜品鋪可以叫一個$50甜品便慢慢很chilled的坐一個鐘，最重要是這裡不會太多人，也不會太吵，說人壞話時也不用怕有人會偷聽嘛哈哈。在沒有那麽多人知道這間鋪前可以再多來幾次！

Venue:  樂在甜品 LeJoy Cafe

District: CWB

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5
Cost: $50 ph
Address:  銅鑼灣駱克道464號地下

*REPOSTED on OpenRice