Beef & Liberty

So I've been in and out of "hermiting" for some time now, broke last week's cycle and went to Beef & Liberty for dinner last night. This was my second visit, actually. If you want to check out their menu, here is the link - Beef & Liberty Menu

I decided to just have water to drink but my friend loooveees milkshakes so he ordered a chocolate one for himself. It was lusciously thick, creamy and rich. Depending on your personal preference on consistency, you'd either love it or hate it, I think. I enjoyed it.

We shared a portion of their Scotch Eggs which came with dijon mustard. I'm a bit obsessed with runny yolks and as you can see these little quail eggs were perfectly soft boiled. So crunchy on the outside and then that moist inner circle of pork and egg, my mouth is already salivating typing about this.

I love the fact that Beef & Liberty are so generous with their portions. This is their Chicken Burger which my friend had ordered, you can see they don't have one but TWO pieces of fried breaded chicken. I was told it was crispy, moist and tender :) Unfortunately, I didn't steal a bite so I'm not sure how the flavor profile worked with the cajun aioli and cabbage slaw in the burger, but he did say it tasted "really good". On the side are their "Liberty Fries" aka thick cut fries, they weren't crispy but they weren't soggy either, kind of a fluffy texture actually.

When I looked at the menu I really wanted to try their Black Peppercorn Burger. Peppers, onion jam and cheese sounded like an amazing combo. I guess it's called a black peppercorn burger for a reason, that pepper be crazy! I have a pretty high spice tolerance but the back of my throat had this really uncomfortable pepper burning sensation through out the meal (I did finish my burger, fyi). I thought the onion jam would be sweet and would cut through the pepper, but I guess not? If you really are a pepper fanatic you'll love this, but it's not for me. The meat on the other hand was cooked really well (I had asked for medium), still moist and juicy.

I'm kind of annoyed at myself, I was so fussed about taking a picture of the burger that I completely forgot about the SWEET POTATO FRIES I had ordered!! Gah! Crispy, crunchy, sweet goodness! If you go, this should be on your "to order list". By the way, you can get what ever sauce you want with your fries, we went with cajun aioli and house BBQ.

To finish off, we had Apple Pie from their specials board. I love me some warm apple pie! Pastry was crisp and flaky, apple was soft and sweet with a lovely aroma (and flavor) of cinnamon, everything you'd want in a good apple pie. They say it is served with cream - that the server pours on the table - which is more like custard/creme anglaise and it goes so brilliantly well with apple pie.

I'm sure I will be back again, their food is generous and prepared well, I'll just make sure to steer away from anything with pepper. The overall bill was HKD 477.00 for 2 people which wasn't so bad considering I left the restaurant with a 2 month food baby.

Beef & Liberty
Star St. Precinct,
2/F, 23 Wing Fung St.,
Wan Chai

www.beef-liberty.com/hk/

Secret Ingredient - Home Cooking Made Easy-Peasy!

Helllloooooooo!! Sorry for being M.I.A for quite some time now, work life has been crazy manic and I've finally found some time to peacefully blog away from this madness.

I've known about Secret Ingredient for quite some time now and decided to finally order from them. I don't know how popular Secret Ingredient (SI) is in Hong Kong but the whole concept is pretty ingenious. To those who don't know what SI are about, think chef-like home cooking without the complicated recipes and running crazy errands trying to find the right ingredients. SI's website has a list of dishes (they change on a bi-weekly basis) that they have created, you simply pick what you want, how many people you want it for and order! All these ingredients WITH easy to follow cooking instructions come delievered to your door. All you need are the cooking utensils.  Their website is really informative, all details like cooking time, ingredients, utensils needed, etc are mentioned. This is really perfect for the Hong Kong person that has no time to shop for dinner and would like a home cooked meal.

So, I ordered this meal on the 21 of March during my lunch hour. If your delivery is to Hong Kong Island you just have to order before 5pm and all ingredients will be delivered to your door on the same day. They deliever almost all around Hong Kong but check their website (link at the end of post) on delivery details if you are in Kowloon/NT area. Our "secret ingridients" got delivered at 7pm and you can see the goodies below! I had ordered their "Signature Flank Steak on a Cherry Tomato, Red Onion and Blue Cheese Salad with Home Made Mustard Sauce" (2 portions), it sounded like the tastiest option that was up at the time. Cost me HKD 225 in total. The actual cost was HKD 250 but I had a HKD 50 discount offer which randomly popped up on my facebook feed. This was actually why I ordered, beacause I saw the discount! Yes yes, I know, I'm cheap like that... If you like their page I reckon you will see it in your news feed too. HKD 25 was for delivering to Hong Kong Island, if you order over a certain amount the delivery is free of charge.

You can see that each ingredient comes labeled, the meat (which was in package A) came in an air-tight sealed package (already seasoned) with an ice pack over it to make sure the meat didn't go bad. They say ingredients stay fresh for up to 4 hours out of the fridge. Everything was perfectly portioned, they even gave the right amount of oil!

Very easy to follow step by step menu below. Everything was pre-prepped all I needed to do was cut the cherry tomatoes, mix all the salad ingredients in one bowl and cook the steak. They gave very detailed instructions on how to cook it and I got an almost perfect medium-rare! WHOOT WHOOT! Was super excited because I suck at cooking meat. This took me a total of 20 minutes to prepare. The only down side was that one steak was thinner than the other. When I cooked them together they both weren't on the same temperature (the other was more medium-well done).

And TA-DA, I cooked a pretty awesome plate of food  (FYI, there were two plates). The mustard sauce is pre-made in SI's kitchen and packaged up too so I didn't have to bother making that. We didn't use all the blue cheese in the salad so we made some creamy potatoes of our own with the left over blue cheese. This was just my plate though, there was A LOT more salad, if you see in the corner of the picture below there is a bowl and that bowl had a mountain of salad to share from.

Since then and now, I already ordered from Secret Ingredient again because I loved it so much the first time around. The meal  above was really more than enough for me and my partner, kept me pretty full. Like I said, what SI has done is ingenious, dinner requires minimal work from my end, everything is delivered and prepped before hand and they provide quality ingredients. not bad for HKD 225 for two eh?

Secret Ingredient

www.secretingredient.com.hk

Tel: 2108 4000

Life of a Broke Foodie #1: 3.6.9. Shanghai Restaurant

So there are months where I completely obliterated my bank account, this month is one of them. Considering how often this happens I reckon there will be many more broke foodie posts to come. I've passed by 3.6.9. Shanghai Restaurant several times in Wan Chai but never really bothered to look at what they had to offer. A taxi driver recommended this place to me, told me it was his "canteen", so I thought I'd check it out. I went there a week ago, I think it was March 12th. It's a small restaurant and the interior has a local Hong Kong cafe/dai pai dong-ish feel to it, but for some reason they have all their round tables covered in bright red table cloth, I found that a bit funny.

My companion and I came in for dinner and luckily they had an English menu, phew. Super long menu though, it looked like they had over 200 dishes to choose from and took me quite some time to get through it all. Finally, I set my eyes on something that was called Chicken in Sour Chilli Garlic Sauce and I ordered it with a bowl of rice. They served us some hot tea while we were waiting but when I asked for some ice lemon tea they said they don't do it (slight bummer, I need my daily dosage of ILT!). Anyhow, the food took about ten to fifteen minutes to get to our table and this is what it looked like. 

The sticky sweet spicy sauce (very little sourness) coated the moist tender pieces of chicken and it tasted amazing! To my surprise the chicken came with bamboo shoots which were cooked just right and added texture and crunch to the overall dish. The pictures doesn't show the whole plate but the portion is large enough to share between two bowls of rice. 

Chicken dish was HKD 68 and one bowl of rice is HKD 12, not bad at all when you are sharing it with someone! I left the restaurant with a very full and happy belly AND my wallet didn't suffer from much damage, SCORE! I have a feeling I will be visiting this place very often. Next on my list to eat here is their Xiao Long Baos! Almost everyone was ordering it at the restaurant.

30-32 O'Brien Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Man Mo Café

I'd read a few articles and had a few foodie friends talk about Man Mo Café. When I checked out their concept I was immediately drawn to the idea, Fusion Dim Sum. I mean, if you were told of a place that served Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao and Truffle Brie Dumplings I'm sure it would spark your interest too. The whole "oh, it isn't want it seems" about food is just really exciting to me. I was super pumped when I got there and I wasn't let down. If you are wondering why it is called Man Mo Cafe, it's because the chef and owner decided to name it after the Man Mo Temple near by (apparently its a tourist attraction, I've never been to it though..). Quick side note though, if you are planning to go to Man Mo Café and you aren't familar with Shueng Wan, be sure to google map the address and remember the road names! It's not the easiest place to find. 

My partner and I got there about 7:00-7:15pm Tuesday night. The café is this mix between a restaurant and an art gallery, bright white walls with a clean sharp design. If you look up at the ceiling they have a wooden carving on of a crane and eagle, I thought that was a cool addition. When we sat down at our table this was the menu.

We ordered A LOT, first of the dishes to come to our table were their much anticipated burgerbuns! I'd heard/read so much about it I had to order it. As the waiter said it, it's regular burger ingredients in a bao, I didn't find it "regular" though. The bao was hot and crispy and hidden inside was a decent amount of moist minced beef (well seasoned) mixed with cheese and pickle. For those of you who aren't fans of pickle, not to worry, it is mixed in the beef mince so you don't really get that pickle texture (my partner was worried about that one). It comes with a little squeezy bottle of their homemade tomato mayonnaise, I thought that was a fun addition where your food is more interactive and fun to eat. I was so busy gobbling away I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like inside! I hope the description above gave ya'll a good idea of what was in it and what it tasted like.

Next up we had their King Spring Roll. Served hot, this had traditional spring roll ingredients (carrots, spring onion, etc) with the addition of a whole well cooked prawn. These long cigar shaped rolls was super crunchy and crispy as the wonton wrapper wasn't wrapped around too many times. The regular fried spring rolls  I've had at yum cha's are crunchy, but not as crisp as this one. I assume it's because the wonton has been wrapped and folded a few times so it looses that light crispness. It comes with a side of homemade mayo too, I personally thought it was good without it. 

Our first veggie dumpling was their Tomato Mozzarella, surprisingly this was one of my fav choices of the night. When you bite into it you get a burst of creamy mozzarella and sweet tomato, it's kind of like having a pocket of creamy tomato pasta burst into my mouth and surprisingly light too. Though this seems simple I think it was very well executed, skin of the dumpling was uber thin as well. 

Then was their Foie Gras Xiao Long Bao, instead of the hot soupy liquid in a regular Xiao Long Bao this had oil (not too much though). I'm sure you don't need me to tell you to break the skin of the dumpling to let it cool before eating. The waiter said it was best to put some salt on top to enhance the flavor even more, and he was right! Very creamy and rich, the taste lingers on your palette for a while, I'd put this as a definite must eat if you go there.

Sorry this is so out of focus (my iPhone can only do so much..) but I just want to show how much of the dumpling was actually filled, rather good amount I think. 

Our second veggie dumpling was their Truffle Brie, another must have on their menu. This dumpling had a crispy bottom and each bite was rich creamy brie and just the right amount truffle, it didn't overwhelm the dumpling. I think this was steamed and then put on a pan to crisp the bottom up, or may be baked? I'm not too sure but damn that was good. Made me think of a super posh version of a fried cheese stick. Brie = good, truffle = good, brie + truffle = oh my god, I'm in heaven. Even the lettuce has truffle on it, I happily ate it all up. 

Beef Cheek Bun was next, as you can tell this was a steamed bao, the beef cheek was braised well and was tender and moist. I personally, didn't like the flavor as it is more on the rich-beefy side, but I know some people would have enjoyed this, it's just not my kind of thing. 

Again, just want to show you that Man Mo Café aren't shy when it comes to stuffing their buns. 

Kebabun was the last of our buns, and yes you guessed it right its a Kebab Bun. Although this ticked all the boxes for a lamb kebab (flavor wise), it was the least of my favourite because I thought more could have been done in terms of how the bun was made. Didn't seem that creative or innovative and that Man Mo's selling point.

Last of our savories was their Duck Risotto, my partner enjoyed this more than I did, he pretty much ate most of it up. The risotto was again cooked well and tasted like good fried rice but with fluffier "rice", again I didn't find this really innovative. The portion looks extremely tiny from the angle I took the picture, it actually is enough for two.

We ordered two desserts, HK Egg Lemon Tart and Nutella Ball. I regret not ordering the the Bun Tatin though, I was told the fruit was caramelized apple. Wonder they converted an apple tart tatin into a bun, hmm.. The egg lemon tart was topped with meringue and the custard part of tart fell more on the egg side, there was only a tiny hint of lemon flavor. The crust was extremely crumbly and melted in my mouth. I think if this was more lemony it would have been better. 

The Nutella balls are their spin off traditional black sesame ball (Jin Deui). This is served warm and nutella lovers will definitely get a kick out of this! One mouthful is more than enough though, there is quite a bit of nutella in the ball.

Over all, a good experience, something very different and they deliver when it comes to quality and taste. Nice big check mark on the service too, the waiters know what is on the menu and what to recommend, depending on your preference. The food is on the heavier side though, so make sure you have space if you plan to order as much as I did! Really clever concept and apparently this is the first restaurant in Hong Kong to specialize  in Fusion Dim Sum (I don't know why no body has ever thought about it before). Our bill for two came to about HKD 600 + 10%, its more on the expensive side but its something special so I don't mind paying that much. Man Mo Café's chef, Nicolas Elalouf,  found a way to combine western and chinese cuisine and bring a whole new experience to "dim sum dining" that's fun and exciting. I'd recommend coming here sooner rather than later, I have a feeling there will be long lines outside of their doors. 

40 Upper Lascar Row, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

www.facebook.com/manmocafe‎

Madam Sixty Ate

This restaurant has been on top of my list since they opened their doors. I finally had a chance to come here with a my friends for Restaurant Week and I couldn't contain my excitement! It kind of felt like Christmas (yes, I get that excited about food) and I honestly couldn't wait till Friday night. After our dinner I'd contemplated for quite a while whether or not to post about this experience, it is a bit gut wrenching for me to write this but here goes.

Since it was Restaurant Week Madam Sixty Ate had a set menu.

We were served some warm homemade bread and butter before our appetizers. The crust was really crumbly and we were munching on our slices the whole night. In hindsight, this would have been the only thing the four of us enjoyed.  

Two of my friends ordered the Kingfish and they weren't impressed with what they got. When they served it the dish really didn't look appetizing, even to me. I was told that that fish did not taste fresh and the kaffir lime and bergamot mouse couldn't save the dish.

My other friend and I ordered the Pork Belly, the portion size looked good but when we dug in it was a let down. I'll give it to them, the soft egg was perfectly cooked and the crisp pork skin was great but the dish on a whole didn't work for me. The pork belly was not as tender and moist as I thought it would be, it was more on the tough side. The crackling on the pork was really hard, my knife was having a hard time cutting it and when I bit into it I thought I was going to break a teeth. If you see under the fried skin there is some black sauce which was the black garlic, I don't know if this was meant to taste burnt but that is what I got. The mushrooms added an earthy-ness to the dish but I just didn't get it, no ingredient complimented the other. When I asked my friend what she thought, her reply was "it's okay". 

Our mains came in after twenty minutes or so, three of my friends ordered the Sea Bass and I ordered the Wagyu Rump. All three sea bass portions were of different sizes, the one that was the smallest in size was overcooked. If premium prices are being set for these dishes they should be consistent. I did try a bit and the skin was crispy, which was good. Comments from my friends were that the gnocchi (two pieces of it) was dense and not soft and pillow like and again "okay". 

My Wagyu rump was well cooked but the over all flavor of the dish was lacking. The short rib was too gamey for my taste (this could be my own personal preference) and creamed foie gras was okay but I didn't like it combined with my rump. 

We all went for the panna cotta for our dessert, and it was too solid. That sexy wobble that you get from the panna cotta was just not there and that was the star of the dish. The other components of the dish were great, the chocolate mouse, the crisp chocolate wafer on top of the panna cotta and the sharp raspberry sorbet (I'm assuming thats what it was since it wasn't mentioned on the menu) all were great but the panna cotta was just far too solid and the texture wasn't as creamy. 

The service at Madam Sixty Ate was great, everybody was friendly and chatty but if the food is not good the service can only add so much to your dinning experience. I left the restaurant really disappointed, I had very high hopes and I had heard such great things. The fact that we all paid HKD 585 each for this meal (including our drinks and water) was  really upsetting, what did I pay for, great service? Yes, there were a few things that were cooked well, but there were a lot that wasn't. The inconsistent plating just isn't acceptable. I guess the day I went wasn't a good day in the kitchen. It makes me really sad I wanted this experience and the food to be exceptional and it was the opposite. This could have been a one off, but I probably will not come here any time soon to test that theory. 

1/F, The Podium, J Senses, 60 Johnston Road (Entrance on Ship Street), Wan Chai

www.madamsixtyate.com.hk

Harbour Artisanal Food Market (Feb 2014)

I had an absolutely lovely afternoon yesterday at the Harbour Artisanal Food Market. Two of my friends and I ventured into Fire Dragon Path (no jokes, that was the name of the place where it was held) to indulge our food cravings for the weekend. The food market was from 12PM-6PM and we came at 1:30PM to find tons of people already lining up at booths. I wanted test out food/drinks from every single booth, but alas, my tummy could only take so much. I'll have a little blurb below at the end of my post of all the vendors I missed out in case you want want to check them out. I'd like to thank my friend Yi Wei for letting me steal a few of her pictures (I was too busy stuffing my face).

Credits to Yi Wei Lim for picture on the far left

SUGO, sushi-to-go
This was our first pit-stop and I was excited to try their sushi rolls because some of their combinations aren't quite "traditional" and I liked how they gave a cute spin on their names.

Photo Credit to Yi Wei Lim 

We decided to go with four of their rolls, from left to right.
SPY-DA (Spicy soft shell crab), everybody I know loves soft shell crab sushi! This roll had a crispy soft shell crab with spicy kewpie and some veg to add crunch. It also had of their signature spice blend. Great combo!
No Way Jose (Spicy Beef with Mexican Sauce and Cheese), unfortunately our cheese was at the bottom of the box when I took this picture.The flavors are quite strong in this roll, not for the faint hearted I would say. If you like your food with a bit of a kick, No Way Jose should be your pick.
Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ beef with Burdock Root), this one was my favourite. It had that distinct Japanese BBQ beef flavor which is a little bit sweet and the burdock root, peppers and lettuce added for texture and crunch.
Ebi Ebi Prawn (Tempura Prawn with Wasabi Mayo),  this roll needs no explanation, can't really go wrong with that combo.

If you want to have a go and try one of these rolls their address and website is below, you can buy a few to take away. I'm pretty sure I'll be running there for some of my lunch breaks. I had a look at their menu and they have a lot more rolls to offer!

G/F, Hop Hing Building, 30 Gilmans Bazaar, Central, Hong Kong
www.sugosushi.com.hk


The Dutch, Cheese and More

Credit to Yi Wei Lim for picture on the left.

We made a quick stop at The Dutch and they had three flavours of cheese out for tasting. I am no expert when it comes to cheese, but hey, who doesn't love cheese! The far left was their Special Pesto cheese and wow, it really felt like you were eating creamy pesto, I've never had anything like it. The one in the middle was their Special Goat cheese, this was softer in texture and quite creamy. The orange cheese on the right was their Gouda Aged cheese, this had a stronger flavor but still creamy in texture. I liked them all so much I bought their little sample box with all three cheeses (and I finished the whole box yesterday).

If you check out their website they have a large selection of cheese to offer and so many under their "Specials", like their chilli cheese and red pesto! If you are a cheese lover they sell Dutch Pancake's every Saturday in Sai Kung (check out their website for more details). I will have to make a trip there one of these weekends to try them out. 

232 Queens Road Central, Hong Kong

www.thedutch.hk

MANA! Fast Slow Food

I am sure there are a few of you who already know about MANA! This was not my first time eating their food, I've had their flats quite a few times and I've never been disappointed. For those who haven't heard of MANA! they focus on a  healthy organic vegetarian, (mostly) vegan and raw food desserts. Please, please do not categorize them to just another "healthy food" joint where you have to sacrifice tasty food for health. You'll really be surprised when you eat their because their food bursts with flavor.

We decided to go with the combo which was a flat of our choice, lemonade and raw chocolate truffle. 

Our Flat had, hummus, roast veggies, baby spinach and pickled peppers. They were testing out a new sauce they had just created, chipotle-ayonise, and we had that on our flat as well. Quite a tasty wrap, creamy from the hummus, nice spicy kick from the chipotle sauce and pickled peppers and the roast veggies were a good addition for texture and crunch. (Yay us for choosing a good 4 combo!) 

Their Lemonade is no ordinary lemonade, yes it is full of sharp lemony goodness but it has a bit of spicyness to it too! They have cayenne pepper in it and it surprisingly tastes good (who knew lemonade and spice went well). I was told by the MANA staff that cayenne pepper helps clear up arteries. A small side note, their cups are all biodegradable!  

The Raw Chocolate Truffle had a nice hard crunchy exterior and a soft creamy interior. Raw chocolate or cacao (not to be mistaken with the processed version of cocoa) is chocolate in it's rawest form which hasn't been processed. You can feel a little less guilty when indulging yourself in one of these. You can google the nutritional facts about raw cacao, there are tons. 

92 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

www.mana.hk

Kussen 85

It's hard not to love all things sweet, so we had to stop by Kussen 85 to try out some of their handmade chocolates. They were handing out small species of their flower/fruit infused chocolates (picture on the left below). Really some interesting combinations of chocolate with jasmine, chocolate with orange and chocolate with violet. Each had a very distinct strong flavor, I think they would be great to gift to someone. I also want to point out that the macaroons (picture on the right below) were significantly larger than the standard macaroons we get in patisseries in Hong Kong. 

Credit to Yi Wei Lim for above to two pictures

I ended up buying their their heart shaped raspberry macaroon with raspberry buttercream filling (couldn't resist, it looked so cute!). Had a very sharp raspberry flavor to it and was crispy on the outside and chewy marshmallow like on the inside. 

They do cupcakes too I don't think I could have eaten all four in the box. If you want to try something new or just want to gift someone something sweet check out Kussen 85.

They have four shops located all over Hong Kong, you can find their addresses in their website below. 

www.kussen85.wix.com

Flying Brats

Till now Flying Brats have only been serving their "brats" at food booths at events here and there but will be opening their store in April later this year. Their sausages are made out of pork, chicken and a blend of herbs and spices. I had my first taste at the Harbour Artisanal Market and their sausages are meaty juicy goodness. They don't server your standard ketchup with your hot dog but a german curried ketchup which is sweet with a hint of spice, very interesting. I enjoyed it, good sausage, crispy hot bun can't think of how I could complain?

www.flyingbrats.hk

Saffron Bakery
Walking down the lane we saw a booth with all these novelty bottled drinks and candy and decided to linger for a few minutes. Apparently these drinks were served back in they day in England and US. One of my friends got a Moxie and we all got old school american smarties (I am munching on them as week speak)! I tried Moxie and it was kinda like Dr. Pepper on crack, but if that's what you like now you know where to go! Saffron sells all kinds of baked goods at their stores and cafes, and do gluten free breads and cakes too.

They five locations all over Hong Kong, you can find their addresses at their website below.
www.saffronbakery.com

Fresh Gourmet 
Last but not least we had about some good quality Iberico Ham at Fresh Gourmet's booth. Their store in Causeway Bay sells wine, cheese, ham, oysters and other gourmet food. Our Iberico ham had thick marbles of fat and had it's distinct nutty flavor.

Credit to Yi Wei Lim for picture on the left

G/F, 28 Sheperd Street, Tai Hang, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
www.facebook.com/freshgourmet.sales

PAPABUBBLE
My friend decided to pick up a a little packet of candy from this booth. The two on top and the two at the bottom were sweet but minty at the same time, personally not my kind of thing. The middle one (white with the heart in the middle) was nice and sweet I think the flavor was strawberry.

Photo credit to Yi Wei Lim

34 Tung Lo Wan Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
www.papabubble.com.hk

Food Booth's I couldn't make it to because I was suffering from food coma
There was one booth that I was extremely upset about, The Butcher's Club. Their food were sold out at 2:30PM! Their beef sandwiches were selling like hot cakes and I didn't go soon enough, sigh.. They do not have a restaurant but do private dining, cooking master classes and even bring dining straight to your home. I guess I will have to resort to one of these options to try out the quality of their beef.
www.butchersclub.com.hk

KC Coffee
www.facebook.com/pages/KC-Coffee/165144560167257

Yisheng Organic
www.yishengorganic.com

House of Wines
www.hofws.com

Genie
www.thegenieconcept.com

La Rotisserie
www.larotisserie.com.hk

Stone's
www.facebook.com/stonestaihang

Hop Leaf
www.hopleaf.hk

Moving Coffee
www.movingcoffee.com

Jones Artisanal 
www.facebook.com/JonesHongKong

Spicebox Organics
www.spiceboxorganics.com

The Bellbrook, bistro oz by Laris (Lunch)

Hello fellow foodies! Thought I'd share my lunch experience at Bellbrook which I went to on Thursday. It had an open kitchen (if you've read any previous posts you'd know I love open kitchens!) and the restaurant had a very rustic relaxed dining vibe. If you have been to Australia you will know it is very rich and diverse in culture; you have Italians, Greeks, Malaysian, Indonesians, Chinese, Vietnamese and all sorts of ethnicities that have been living there for generations. Food from all these wonderful places have become embedded in Australian culture. To me, that is what Bellbrook represents.

I had a reserved a table for two for 12:30pm, was going to have a nice lunch date with a good friend. I found Bellbrook to have very reasonable lunch sets. They are available during weekdays and this is what they currently have up. My friend and I decided to share our lunch sets, we went for the Haninan Chicken Salad and Grilled Pear for our starters, for our mains we ordered Blackened Salmon  and Beef Terderlion. We also ordered their Black Pork Scotch Eggs on their a la carte menu. I really wanted to have dessert after but I was just so stuffed after eating our mains, I had to pass.

 

Before our starters came in they served us some hot steaming bread with what seemed to be a tiny bucket of dirt (or so we thought) with a sprout. In my head I thought, "oh...kay, they surely can't have served dirt just for presentation..". I took my fork and picked up a few specks and it definitely looked like dirt. I wanted to try it to see if it was edible but then again, I didn't want the take the risk of eating dirt. I took the safe route and asked the waiter what it was and he was happy to explain it to us. This little pot/bucket had their edible soil which was made of black olives, mushrooms and pine nuts! Underneath it was some soft butter. Slather some of that on to your bread with the butter underneath and oh boy it tasted amazing! It had crunchy texture and you taste each component of the "soil". Food like this gets me so excited! Creations like this add a whole new level to your dining experience. It is not just the quality of food, service and atmosphere, it is much than that. I would say this added a tiny bit of excitement and theatricality :) 

Our starters followed fairly quickly and they both looked lovely. I really enjoyed the Hainan Chicken Salad, there was a generous amount of chicken on it, which was great. Very fresh salad packed with flavor and lots of contrasting textures. The meat was moist and I loved the addition of spring onion and sesame seeds on it, the peanuts added great crunch and hoisin dressing just made it all come together.

The Grilled Pear was my friends favorite dish of the afternoon. The pear was soft but still had a bit of bite to it (there was more than one piece, it's just not in the picture). The balsamic cream on it went really well with the sweet pear and added a bit of tang and it almost candied the pecans which was really tasty. Very light salad with great flavor composition, salty, sweet and tart.What else can you want?

Next came their famous Black Pork Scotch Eggs. Before we came, my friend was the one who said we better try this out. I read a bit online about it being really good, but I've had scotch eggs before and never thought they were anything special. Boy, was I wrong about these! The scotch egg was hands-down my favourite dish of the afternoon, I just couldn't believe how good this was! The exterior of the scotch egg was so crunchy and crispy it reminded me of crackling, the pork in the middle was super moist and that soft boiled egg just melted in my mouth. It came with a horse radish creme fraiche (you need to have each bite with it), very tart and a great compliment to the egg. I would like to make a side note here about their service. The waiter had placed the scotch egg on the table (we were still in the middle of eating our salads), after a few minutes he came to us mentioning that it would be best to eat the scotch egg first because it tastes better while it's hot. I thought that showed great attentiveness, kudos to the staff! 

Our mains took a little longer to get to our table than expected, but not too long. The salmon was cooked all the way through (my personal preference is to have it to be a bit underdone in the middle though). Over all flavors were nice, you could taste cumin on top of the salmon. I'm assuming that's why it is called blackened salmon? Not sure. The potatoes were soft with a crispy exterior, it had this sweet/smoky bacon flavor, I could have eaten a bowl of it on my own.

Their Beef Tenderloin was amazing! When I cut it, the knife went through like it was butter. It was cooked to a medium-rare, which is how I like it. The mash was creamy, super smooth and not too overpoweringly garlic. That sweet red wine honey sauce was just divine! It was thick and syrupy and coated the beef which left a nice sweet aftertaste in your mouth. It's one of those dishes that you just have to go back again for. Loooooveeeeed it! I think this one is probably a crowd pleaser, hits all the right spots. 

 I really really wish I had space for dessert, sadly my tummy could not take anymore :( I shall be back again some time, not sure if the lunch menu will remain the same but it definitely is bang for your buck. The quality of the food was great and staff were friendly and attentive. If you are going to Bellbrook, DON'T FORGET TO ORDER THE SCOTH EGG! I'm excited for my next visit when I come for dinner and try their a la carte menu!

The Bellbrook, bistro oz by Laris
2/F, 77 Wyndham Street,
Central, Hong Kong

Tel: 2530 1600

http://www.diningconcepts.com/bellbrook/