I've been in Hong Kong for more than 6 years, and spoiled by the HongKong-Japanese style hot pot for quite a long time, however, as a hot pot trend in mainland China, people has switched to the heavy but super yummy old Chongqing style hot pot - butter spicy pot! (if you have chance to have a visit in Sichuan or Chongqing city, it gonna be brain blowing experience!!! and you will be like me - ending up with bags of hot pot soup paste as souvenir)

I actually discovered this hot pot place quite long time ago with my fellow spicy-lover girlfriend (obviously we are tired with "fake" spicy pot in Hong Kong and looking for something extreme and more authentic), here we are! The Causewaybay one was my first experience, and it is a fairly tiny place comparing to the other stores, but probably it is the most crowded and beloved one too. That day, I've visited Causeway bay store again, for the 3rd? or maybe 4th time. The traditional X famous X signature "pond" shape spicy pot is a must. I've tried the original Xiao Yu hot pot in Chongqing actually, comparing to that, the Hong Kong version has been obviously adjusted with less butter and less spice, however, it doesn't lose its authentic flavor and fragrance, which draw my mouth-water easily.

We ordered a lot, but among all other familiar foods like fish/beef balls, raw beef slices and crispy tofu skin, I would recommend the real Chongqing people's must-have food for hot pot - the raw beef stomach. Someone might not accept it as it's organ part, but if you can conquer, you have to try and enjoy the complicated texture in your mouth and special flavor it has. My second favorite is the sticky rice with brown syrup, it's just that yummy for a sweet lover. But surprisingly, it's my first time to try their jelly dessert and it turned out to be impressively good! The perfect after-hot-pot dessert to clear the mouth and the heavy feeling on your tongue!

Indeed, it's just another hot pot (even it's named by the famous Chinese culinary documentary), however, what I'm looking for is just a simple good place to enjoy the food and where I can come back and visit again and again without doubting the quality.

Good job.

I was talking about Petite House with my boyfriend when the opening news is out few months ago, then discovered it's still under construction; and I was talking about t again last weekend when I passed by their Time Square shop with my girl fiend, and now finally! I have it 😱I visited their new branch at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong, a bit far for me but worth my travel. I talked with the shop staff about their gelato, and I was told that they found an Italian chef to prepare all the original gelato liquid in their factory in Hong Kong and every morning, the fresh-made liquid will arrive at the stop. They invested this first-ever gelato machine to make fresh gelato right under your eyes!!! All the machines are installed under the gelato counter, and every morning, the staff will turn on the machine to make the magic by turning gelato liquid to real one!

I tried the HongKong inspired flavor, taro, with eggtart and wrapped cream. It tasted so fresh and nice but never make me sick by the over-creaminess!

I've also tried their ice tea, which has lychee, black tea, Rose and pink color pudding. Love this creative tea with such a strong touch of tea and rose flavor, but to me, it's just a bit too sweet... maybe because I'm cutting my sugar consumption. Haha

Anyways, I'll definitely go back for their yummy gelato and probably next time I'll try their pancakes as well.

Cheers! To the sweet-teeth!

We've got a great but short night in this place. It's another Japanese delight in Hong Kong while you might feel bored about different types of ramen. Here it's their effort to create the crowds and the queue! And it's why, I mentioned "short" night coz we feel too guilty to stay a bit longer while there is still a long queue outside the shop.We ordered two to share and both of them are the seasonal taste. One is the sea urchin (from Canada and Japan) special together with salmon egg. I love it a lot because of its natural taste of the creamy and thick soup, mild sweetness from sea urchin and not over flavoring.

talking about the second seasonal type, it's even giving me a more greedy feeling. They have beef and foie gras as the double topping presenting a mini mountain in the bowl, and then black truffle soup or tomato cream/cheese soup as your wish for the noodle. Emmmm... I worried about the performance of each premium ingredient since they've been grouped together in one bowl, but in the end, it was good without mixing up too much. Overall, it even tasted lighter than the urchin one, I guess it's because I prefer the unique sweetness sea urchin bowl has.

Price-wise, both of them are a good deal with a price around 130-140hkd!

The crystal clear blue and white, the beautiful coast line… Santorini is always one of the hit travel destinations in the world. Living in Hong Kong, to enjoy the benefits of an easy access to worldwide cuisines, we’ve much limited choices to the authentic Greek restaurants. If you are walking around the corners in the famous gourmet zone (SoHo), you probably have an impressive of that slice of blue and white at the corner, where most of the restaurants are printed in sharp colors or in the dark metal shadows. That is Santorini, and I am happy to see it’s expanded to Wanchai, to my door. 

We’ve got a very relaxing afternoon there, where most of the lunch clients are gone. The restaurant follows its original color tone and together with the beautiful paintings of Santorini or Mediterranean views, we were able to have a small bite on Santorini’s "imagination cake”. Seafood, olives, cheeses, eggplants, are the main ingredients I found in Santorini’s cuisine. Even Mediterranean’s weather is so different from HongKong’s, while the fresh enjoyment of seafood salad (Salad Octopus) is always welcomed, especially you will be spoiled by a lot of chewy octopus. I love that cheese topped with the fried crust (Mezedakia Saganaki Cheese), which I called it “Golden Brick”. It’s absolutely an eye-bomb that you just cannot get rid of it after witnessing the cheese slices stretched out from that brick. Trying Greek cuisine, you mustn’t miss those wonderful dips. Santorini offers a tasting platter of 4 dips (Dip Sampler). The four shades of Greek dips, covers different styles from light to heavy, and if you are a spicy-flavoured olive oil lover, you will love one of them. Personally, I like Taramosalata the most, for it’s the lightest and the freshest flavour to me. Taramosalata is made from 100% cod eggs, potato puree and lemon. 

Thinking we’ve done with all the cheese, fried or baked eggplants? Emmm, actually we were just ready for desserts! No surprise, desserts placed some shadow of Eastern sweets, which I’m not keen to. However, the authentic Greek yogurt based dessert was absolutely a must-try! It’s super simply like what you could imagine to make in your kitchen, but it might be better you buy the yogurt from Santorini first, because that’s the key! To close the entire lunch, I’ve been introduced the creamy Greek coffee and I drank it in a traditional way (with a little sugar). I really like the extra creamy taste this special “espresso” has and I’ve even more impressed when they told us the traditional Greek coffee was cooked directly with all the leftover powder at the cup bottom. Be caution NO.1, don’t take it as a shot and try to "touch the base”; NO.2, a little sugar equals to a lot.

Morning! Wait, it should be lunch time here, so good noon! 
I’ve spent a lovely brunch Sunday with my girls in a Venetian-cuisine restaurant, Sepa, above the Soho gourmet zone in Hong Kong. Yes, Venetian, so it’s Italian cuisine basically, but something just different, like if you know the Venetian style of Spritz (they use Aperol). Anyways, I was not that keen to tell the great difference about Venetian food, but I was impressed and beloved by the lagoon-like vibe including those cute strip tees on their staff!!! How cute and “serious” they could be! 
We’ve been there for the a-la-carte brunch menu (check menu here) which extends from eggs to pastas. Since I’ve been introduced to their very special and delicious carbonara with 63 degree Japanese egg, pork cheek and 12 month aged parmesan through my boyfriend, I’m literally dreaming and claiming I will go back and order it again. Strongly influenced by the authentic Italian standards from Italian mama and countryside kitchens, I’ve been able to recommend it to everyone who’s wanting carbonara recently and looking for an authentic version with just eggs, cheese and pepper. I suggest to order mezzo maniche (pasta) as so many Italians tell me “Short is the best” (Please if you are an Italian and you don’t agree with that, do shout out and let me know in the comment!!!) The brunch comes with free-flow drinks, opinion on you, but I did like their fresh-made orange juice (I really appreciate the juice squeezed from real oranges), and very impressively, I’ve got a cup of very good cappuccino when we moved to their “secret” backyard garden after the brunch. 
What a lovely day! I hope you’ve also planned good time in the coming weekend with family and friends, see you soon. 
xx

It was lovely to visit this neighborhood cafe recently. Spacious restaurant and almost find-dining setting and warm staff, I've confused by this and thought I was not in a traditional local cafe (of course, it's not that traditional). Looking into their menu, it's full of fusion and invention. The items spread from Lobster Bisque & Shrimp Dumplings, Risotto & Fujian sauce, to the very "weird" Pop Rocks (candy) Milkshake. It's been enough to "induce" me to come back few times and try out those weird inventions.
Ok, let's talk about the taste. Generally, it's not bad, and even some items impressed me, for example, the Lobster Bisque dumpling. I've surprised by the very elegant design of the dish (similar memories from some luxury hotel restaurant), and the bisque was a pass indeed without getting me too heavy feeling. The Fujian inspired Risotto was another surprise, that actually the chef is pretty smart to combine those two Oriental and Western ingredients. Normally the Fujian fried rice is quite sticky given by the sauce and cooking style, while risotto is just a right candidate to follow the style meanwhile offer something different by its chewy texture in the middle of the rice.

As a neighbourhood cafe, it's obviously targeting people who's looking for something different. If I've too much local flavors, I will know there's always another local twist.

Morning, summer in Hong Kong grows back and forth and our passion about food and health will never be affected by that! I was so “obsessed” to those beautiful Instagram photos about smoothie bowls recently and I always complain smoothie bowl’s low exposure in Hong Kong, until I spotted a wonderful picture posted in Sassy Hong Kong, and the picture brought me here, Genie Juicery. (Admit!!! I’m exactly the kind of people who will be fished by eye-catching images!) 

It was so horrible to navigate myself to the shop in Sai Ying Pun for the first reason that I’m not familiar to this neighbourhood (don’t argue with me about how small Hong Kong is, but believe me, the buildings and neighbourhoods here are so condensed that you will definitely be lost many many time!), and reason No.2 that I was so distracted by the heat and humidity in this late summer season! (I will share the address and my personal tips in the end, no worries) They’ve 3 basic smoothie topped up with 3-4 toppings out of 14, 20%-30% coverage shouldn’t be big pain for you to make decision. I really like the name “Green Scream” which recalls my memory of Jim Carrey’s The Mask. However, I’m a chocolate-fan, and the name “Chocolate for Breakfast” is just too matched to the timing, plus it’s almost half calories than the other one, how can?! Berries are my morning routine when eating at home (maybe because of being an Asian, berries are kind of luxury in my childhood…) and it’s been so long time I haven’t grab granola (even gluten free!). N’ oh, don’t worry, that white stuff is coconut chips. It’s really chilled to your heart and as sweet as my lovely morning mood, but if I gonna do myself, definitely pour dozens of cacao! One thing I learnt from the guy in shop was to freeze your banana (which is the most key ingredient for a smoothie bowl) over night. I tried for this morning’s breakfast at home and it really gives me a ice bowl like those one from the shop! The only doubt I still have is, I’m not sure to freeze or froze my bananas… (I gonna try again tonight, to cut bananas in pieces and froze them) 

Guys, if you are interested to try your own smoothie bowl, or to grab a bowl from Genie Juicery, check here. Smoothie bowl is only available in shop Sai Ying Pun, and to get there, walk on the slope (Centre St) until you get the small turn to Yu Lok Ln (you will never find the entrance on Third St.

It's a wonderful girls' afternoon with bubbles and parfume!
Sky lounge in Sheraton launched special afternoon tea with bvlgari. A little 5ml sample of Bvlgari's new series scent and a lovely glass of Billecart-salmon!The teaset used the same big-wheel standie as last summer while we found some deep-fried Chinese style savories. A shape of parfume bottle chocolate was cute.

Facing to the tst busy harbour, we relaxed for almost the whole lazy afternoon, isn't it a good deal to have Champaign within this one-person tea-set with a spent less than 300?

It was great time to be in chop house's new shop in tst. The same rough style perfect matches to the cuisine in this big house. Terrace is huge and full of botanical elements, a space for ideal after-work drinks.
In the house, what to eat?!
Meat
From pork, beaf to soft-shell crab!!! The huge sandwich selection was juicy and rich in taste, also the size reminds me the lovely Australian island!
If it's called 'chop', for sure, we want something chopped in big piece! Here we are, the Asian-twisted run with a scent of Cantonese BBQ in the tender meat.Talk about others; the seafood salad, the golden fried rice, even the cocktail, are fairly good!Desserts were in the normal range. I like the lemon tart but maybe it's a bit too sour for normal tongue. The panne cota was impressive with a middle-intense taste.

It was amazing to have a visit in this modern style Japanese restaurant! Which surprised me a lot by its value money dishes !!!first was an amazing presentation of sake. It's like a performance of different sake cups!the two cold salad was so yummy! I like the refreshing and specify pork salad with tofu, and also the soft raw salmon with a little slow-cooked smooth texture in its fishmeat!sashimi and sushi is amazing! Especially the 7 items sashimi for 2 pricing less than 300!!! But 2 out of 7 is in air-package arriving in the morning!!! We had the freshest experience!the seafood soup in the tea pot!the amazing grilled tuna !!! It was sooooooo amazing that we could not stop eating! I did not expected the deep cooked tuna fish could be so juicy and soft inside while with all the attractive grilling smell locked in the meat! Also since it's big piece next to the bone, the meat was so chewy and even meaty! Perfect for meat lover as well. To have this, pre-booking 2 days in advanced is required!very nice cold noodle with the perfect chewy texture.