Vancouver Gastropost Mission 62 : Asian Noodle Smackdown

November 11th, 2014
Posted by: Team Gastropost

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From Gastroposter Rosita Lam, via Instagram:

Empress Cafe : Japanese mentaiko spaghetti www.facebook.com/thepearlorange

 

Tags: foodblogger japanesenoodle foodie foodporn food hkfood foodphotography foodstagram mentaiko foodblog pasta hkig hkiger japanesecuisine fishroe gastropost foodgasm cafe spaghetti foodcoma hkfoodie wanchaifood igfood empresscafe asiannoodlesmackdown foodguide nom pearlorange yum

*Reposted from Gastropost Vancouver

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