I'm BACK!

so, i'm officially back in hong kong for good. WOOHOO!

goodbye shanghai, it was an "interesting" 3.5 years. i will not miss your heavily censored web, slow and incompetent internet, crazily hectic and barbaric rush hour subway scene, phone-stealing cab drivers, non-existent traffic control, and inefficiency. though, i will miss the cheap and good foot/body massages, cheap accessories, cheap clothes/knockoffs, 5 kuai good qual dvds, cheap subway and cabs, my nice house, my super nice driver, and cheap dance classes. i may write a survival guide for shanghai in the future, not today tho.

just came back from 3 hours of dance classes and thai food :) i've missed this city and lifestyle. the double decker buses, mini buses, tram, MTR, cwb, central, ifc, etc. glad to be back for good. will be resuming my food blogs once I move into new apt! as well as posting about old foodie adventures hehe. toodles for now!

xo

back from boston and nyc :(

i'm back from my short trip to boston and nyc. it was definitely too short, but too bad, i can't take more time off of work. it is so depressing coming back to shanghai, to work. i wish i lived in nyc so i can see my friends all the time, and try out all the food gems in the city :( but i guess i would also go broke very quickly living in the city, unless i had a decent job. i had a wonderful time on my trip tho, albeit short. thanks to my sweet bf and great friends who took their time out to see me despite having finals/other commitments. i love you all :)

hm i guess i always sound like a mainland hater, but how can i not complain when i come back to this country where censorship still persists (i.e. blocking youtube and blogspot?????, and numerous other harmless sites for no reason) and citizens are plagued by moral and integrity issues (phone-stealing cab drivers who wouldn't think twice before "claiming" a passenger's lost phone and perhaps selling it on the streets instead of honking at me when he looked behind the backseat and saw my phone just lying there, and lying about not seeing it after i tracked him down and called him). yes maybe instead of beating myself up for being careless i am just blaming the cab driver to make myself feel better about losing my phone, but seriously, mainlanders are very rarely good Samaritans. wtf is up with that? have you people no conscience? many people defend them saying they've already changed for the better, and that it's the deeply rooted Chinese culture that they were raised in that shaped them this way. well i'm sorry, but it is time to change. as one of the leading economies in the world right now, China will probably be the first country to walk out of this recession. stop the corruption, immorality, and censorship so we can proudly call ourselves Chinese, not because our country has the largest reserves and the fasting growing economy, but because our citizens make us proud.

ok sorry, this somehow turned into a rant. i guess i just can't wait to get out of here and move back to hong kong with my family, which is happening in less than 2 months. boy am i excited. i just wish the states wasn't so far away, so i can fly there and visit friends every weekend. anyhow, i was going to start blogging about my foodie adventures in boston and nyc when i came back to shanghai, but since i now have to use a proxy server to access blogspot, i can't really upload pictures here, so food blogging may be too wordy without pics to show. so sorry guys, i'm gonna put off my food post until i'm in hong kong for my next visit or sth, or when they decide to unblock blogspot. anyhow, time to go study for some chinese test. wish me luck!

<3 Ike

Random, Boston/NYC trip planning

Reminder to self: update last blogs with pictures!


OK so lately, I've been doing my restaurant research for my upcoming trip to Boston and NYC, which is so much fun but also torturous to look at all the wonderful food pictures and captions while I am sitting 8000 miles away. To make sure I don't end up blowing something crazy like a grand on food on my barely 2-week trip to the States, I have decided to only splurge in NYC, where the food appears to be much more worthy of the bucks than Boston restaurants. My tummy will still be content with the company of my beloved CPK Waldorf Salad, Subway Italian BMT, 88, Anna's Taqueria, Pho, and other cheap eats in Beantown. My foodie agenda in NYC so far :)

Chelsea Grill for their Calamari, Mango & Avocado Salad
JEAN GEORGES :) lunch yum
Perry St for their $24 3-course lunch/brunch
Peter Luger for their famous Porterhouse!
Alta for tapas
Gramercy Tavern lunch
The Little Owl for famous sliders
Crif Dogs for hotdog and chili cheese tater tots!
Shopsins for brunch
Piola for pizza
Pegu for cocktails
Dessert Truck
TAFU to buy ItzyBitzy Macarons!

I'm so friggin excited for this! Tho my savings account is not ;|
Anyhow, 5 more weeks!

Welcoming more recommendations!

Update on Zzip: Second Visit!

This time, I actually went to Zzip for a legit dinner, instead of just devouring oysters ;p

I decided to have several appetizers instead of ordering the conventional appetizer+main, since their appetizers all looked so good and I couldn't just narrow them down to one. So, in the end, I picked the pan seared foie gras, buffalo mozzarella with tomato, and deep fried soft shell crab with grapefruit mayo. And got my usual favorite oysters, Kumamoto, Blue Point and Saldanha Bay. Janet also ordered a scallop and snow peas parpadelle.

I've recently become a foie gras convert, and zzip's foie gras was LOVELY! The two hearty pieces were crisp on the outside, and buttery smooth on the inside. It came with an arugula salad and glazed pear, and boy, do these three elements come together so ever wonderfully :) Tasted even better than I last remember it.

You can't really go wrong with buffalo mozzarella and tomato. It was what I had expected, yum :) But the deep fried soft shell crab was a bit of a disappoinment. It didn't turn out as crispy as I had expected, and the grapefruit mayo wasn't that flavorful and was a bit watery. Will skip this next time!

My oysters were fresh, creamy and chewy as usual. Gotta hand it to the Saldanha Bays tho, so creamy and sweet, but still comes in a decent size unlike the tiny Kumamotos. They were so good I had to order seconds and thirds hehe.

Last course before dessert was the parpadelle. The pasta itself is handmade and it was cooked just right. Though the scallops were fresh and the peas were sweet, I thought overall the dish was a bit on the bland side with no real sauce. But then again, I was never a big fan of pasta except for lasagnas.

Saved the best for last! I normally don't order dessert at dinners because I'm usually too full to chow down another course, but when I saw the ginger caramel creme brulee on the menu I HAD to try it. Plus I had been craving creme brulee for the past 6 months haha, which may be why the dessert tasted EXTRA delicious. I have never had creme brulee that is so smooth and silky, and the flavors complemented each other so well. The ginger gave it just the right amount of touch, and the caramel was not too sweet. I was on such a high after I ate this, so amazing. I could eat this silky creme brulee every day and not get sick of it.

Pictures to come. Though most of them I snapped AFTER I took some bites out of the plate, hehe sorry. They were too tempting ;)

Hong Kong - Food Heaven ; )

Some of my favorite places to eat in HK

The Splurges *

Mandarin Bar & Grill

• My favorite go-to place for good steak
• Great dish presentations and serving
• Changes menus regularly, but you are bound to find something tasty on the menu
• Though their sashimi are fresh and of high quality, I didn't think it was worth the $$$. Spend it on the oysters instead if you want to eat something raw
  

Recommendations: Any beef dish, but the Beef Wellington was amazing; Lobster Bisque; Alaskan King Crab with avocado and tobiko (might not be on the current menu anymore)

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

• Great Set lunches (HK$390 for 3 course lunch with coffee/tea and mini appetizer); haven't tried dinner because it looks way pricey $$$$$$. But I highly recommend lunch.
• Menus are also changed regularly, but for each course there are always 4 choices.
  
• When I went, the pre-appetizer was a foie gras mousse. I had the Alaskan king crab rice paper roll for appetizer, beef tenderloin cubes with crimini mushrooms and garlic for main, and grapefruit jelly with sorbet for dessert. All very tasty and well-portioned. May want to eat a small breakfast that day before visiting though!

LIAN (IFC)

• I would go there just for their Beef Pho! The soup base is so tasty, remind them to give you some fresh chili, a little kick of spices go a long way! The beef is from the states and is of very consistent good quality ; )
• Soft shell crab rice paper roll is always a delight. The sauces may taste funny at first try, but I think it's an acquired taste. You may love it or hate it.
• Thai spring rolls: spring roll itself is pretty standard stuff. But they give you fresh lettuce to wrap the spring rolls, gives it an extra crunch and freshness. I like ; )
• Haven't tried anything else but I'd say the above dishes are very safe bets, esp the pho!
  
• They also have these wine tasting promotions, where you can sample 13 different kinds of wine (red, white, rose and sparkling; usually from a specific country) in a 2-hour span for around $230. Might try this next time!
  

Zuma

• Felt kinda like a tapas place because their menu is so extensive. Many Japanese/Asian inspired dishes. Pretty romantic atmosphere with dim yellow lights, would be nice for dates ; )
• Grilled miso black cod on hoba leaf. So soft and buttery! On the pricey side for around $200 a piece tho.
• Also had the Boston Roll, which had lobster, avocado and mentaiko. Was pretty delish! There were at least 15 types of rolls on the menu to choose from.
• Salad greens was the only salad they had on the menu so wasn't really expecting much, but, it tasted surprisingly good! Loved the deep fried tofu in it. I think I liked the sauce too.
• Deep fried calamari - very standard. Not amazing but wasn't bad either, but will prob skip this and try something else next time.
  
• There were so many things I wanted to try on their menu! I'm gonna have to go back a few times to try all of them ;p
• Drinks: were expensive. $98 for martinis/cocktails, but offered a great creative selection. Worth trying! Wine was rather overpriced, I'd skip it.
  

For OYSTER lovers

• After trying a bunch of oyster bars/restaurants over winter break in HK, I have made a list of the good and bad ones we've tried
• The good: Mandarin Grill - fresh, overall good quality oysters. Offered around 12 kinds. To give you an idea of prices, half a dozen of Kumamotos would set you back $368. Pretty overpriced, but they were presented very beautifully.
• The good: Zzip at the Loop (Wellington Street) - large selection of oysters, around 20+ kinds to choose from; offer a happy hour special everyday from 5-8, $98 for 3 oysters (selected by restaurant) and a glass of house wine. Regularly, Kumamotos are around $35 each. Prices of the oysters range from $30-40ish.
  
• The good: Oyster Express (Yiu Wah Street in Cwb) - the menu lists around 30 kinds of oysters, but depending on what time of the day you go, they may not have all of them in stock. Kumamotos are $34 each, and the most expensive being Belon 4'0' for $128 each.
• The bad: Sheraton Oyster Bar - tried their oyster box and some French oysters, rather disappointing because Sheraton had a good rep for their oysters, but the ones we had were very mediocre. They also didn't offer very much selection, but could be because we went there during happy hour.

To be continued...

bonjour! and happy 2009!

a new blog to document and celebrate my foodie adventures*

may 2009 be a great year. hope things get better after i recover from this damn stomach flu!