Lunch at Petrus, Island Shangri-la Hong Kong

We had lunch at Petrus, the French restaurant at Island Shangri-la hotel in Hong Kong. I always enjoy eating there. It’s not the best French restaurant in Hong Kong but you can count on consistently good food and service all the time.

The spectacular view of Hong Kong’s magnificent skyline and harbour from our table.

 

unsalted and salted butters

 


assortment of salt from around the world

 


my favorite lavash crisp bread

The set menu came with a glass of wine. This is what I had.


set lunch menu
(click to enlarge)


special autumn menu

 

My set meal started with a generous serving of goose liver confit. It was superb.

goose liver confit in quince jelly

 

The others in our group had the risotto or the soup.

mushroom risotto, chicken jus w/ garlic & parsely

 


chestnut & fennel buillon,
Shanghainese prawn dumpling

I had the lamb chops for my main course. It was tender and juicy and the portion was generous. Unlike the skinny lamb chops I’ve had in Manila.

roast lamb rack, potato gnocchi

 

My friend had the artisanal pasta from Tuscany w/ truffle ham and porcini marmalade. It cost an additional HK$110 to order this. I tried it and I wasn’t blown away. It definitely didn’t taste worth $110 more. Maybe my palette wasn’t that sophisticated.

Tuscany pasta w/ autumn truffle ham &
porcini marmalade

 


roast north atlantic cod, eggplant caviar &
black pudding w/ apple

 

Doesn’t the roast beef look cut the wrong way? I know you’re supposed to cut against the grain of the meat.

roast beef


dessert menu

 


crispy gavottes filled w/ mango, sago jelly

 

As expected I chose the chocolate dessert. As usual it was exquisite. The chocolate was bitter and smooth.

bitter guanaja chocolate papet w/ caramel shard

 


free petit fours


cheese selection

Petrus
Level 56 Island Shangri-la Hotel
Pacific Place
Supreme Court Road
Central, Hong Kong
telephone: (852) 2820 8590

 
Hours:

Breakfast: 7am – 10.am
Lunch: Noon – 3pm
Dinner: 6.30pm – 11pm

two courses HK$368
three courses HK$428
includes a glass of wine and coffee or tea

Chocolate Sticky Donut from Little Mermaid Bakery

There are lots of Japanese bakeries in Hong Kong and I love them all. My favorites are Panash and Little Mermaid Bakery. During my last trip I didn’t buy anything from Panash because of my diet. I tried to avoid Little Memaid too but for the sake of this blog I bought my favorite chocolate sticky donut so I could show you what it is.

From citysuper’s site:
Little Mermaid Bakery has more than 420 outlets in Japan and now several outlets in Hong Kong (IFC, Times Square, New Town Plaza and Harbour City stores). In fact, the very first Little Mermaid Bakery in the city was opened in city’super in IFC in 2003.

Famous for its products freshly baked on the premises, Little Mermaid’s most popular items include the authentic Parisian baguette, Milk Cream Snail, Camembert Cheese Bread and the range of Danish bakery goods such as the fresh fruit Danish pastries, Whole Wheat and Seven Grain breads and crusty Three Grain Rolls.

They have lots of tempting breads in the store but I only buy the chocolate sticky donut. These aren’t the traditional fried doughnuts that we are familiar with. These are really mochi or glutinous rice cakes made with chocolate dough and filled with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with cocoa powder.

 
Each piece costs HK$7. That’s a deal compared to the mochi at Mochi Cream, another Japanese store in Hong Kong, which sell for HK$13-17 each.
You must eat this as soon as you buy it. It’s soft, chewy and extremely chocolatey. Be careful of the ganache that will drip when you take a bite out of the donut. Trust me you’ve never eaten anything as good as this.
Little Mermaid Bakery 

Harbour City Level 3
3 – 27 Canton Road,
Tsim Sha Tsui,
Kowloon

IFC Mall Level 1
1 Harbour View Street
Hong Kong

1 Matheson Street
B1/F, City’s Super Times Square
Causeway Bay

18 Sha Tin Centre Street
City’Super 2nd Flr. New Town Plaza,
Phase 1 Sha Tin

Would you eat this?

Japan’s 646-Calorie-Per-Slice Pizza Hut Double Roll


Another gut buster! What’s in it? Little bacon wrapped sausages that acted as the crust, and mini hamburger patties on top of the mushrooms, soy beans, corn, paprika, garlic chips, green peppers, and pepperoni. It has 3 cheeses – Mozzarella, cheddar and parmesan. It also comes with ketchup and maple syrup for extra flavor.

update:
Pizza Hut in the Philippines just released this pizza and called it Star Pops pizza. Food laws in the Philippines do not require listing of calories in fast food establishments and restaurants. I doubt anyone in Manila knows that each slice of Star Pops they eat has 646 calories and I’m sure loads of fat! I wonder if KFC Philippines will also release the Double Down sandwich?

Pizza Hut’s Star Pops Pizza

KFC’s new “Double Down”

LATimes: The new KFC “Double Down”: two Original Recipe fillets, bacon, Swiss and pepper jack cheese and something called the Colonel’s sauce
They are testing this in Omaha and Providence, RI.

Lunch at BLT Steak – Bistro Laurent Tourondel

I’ve always wanted to eat at a “famous chef” restaurant. I’ve seen a show about BLT steak on the food channel. BLT is short for the chef’s name – Bistro Laurent Tourondel.

This is the exterior of the restaurant. It’s faces the Hong Kong harbour. There’s usually cruise ships berthed right outside but the day we went there were none.

BLT is located at ground floor of Ocean Terminal which is next to the star ferry and the Marco Polo Hong Kong hotel.

We went there for lunch since they have a special lunch buffet for HK$138. The buffet included appetizers, a wide variety of fresh salads and dessert. Burgers or steak can be added for a fee.

You can enjoy the view of the Hong Kong harbour from the restaurant.

Buffet spread

Menu on the wall

The buffet was made up of mostly raw veggies and a few cooked appetizers. It looked like a light lunch selection but after trying most of the food you’ll really get full. Both the beef and salmon were very good.

GR. Steak Asian style & Salmon Citrus Nage

Arancini are fried risotto balls. Left-over risotto are formed around a piece of mozarella cheese into balls then breaded and fried. These weren’t very good. The arancini I made before tasted much better.

Arancini

The dressing for the caesar salad was a bit too sour for my taste. I loved the parmesan crisps on the salad but the not the flat cheesy croutons which were very, very hard.

Caesar Salad


Field Greens w/ Mustard Dressing


Baby Spinach w/ Bacon Vinaigrette


Chopped Salad w/ Oregano Dressing


5 Spiced Chicken Salad


Fritata
I loved the popovers specially with cheese. Too bad they weren’t hot. It was still yummy though.

popovers


Assorted Cheese


Roasted Beets


Cauliflowers


Penne Salad

I really liked the iceberg wedges which were cold and crisp and perfect with the blue cheese dressing.

Iceberg Salad w/ Blue Cheese Dressing


Fresh Fruits


Coffee Cake


Peach Almond Tart


NY Cheesecake


Brownies
I didn’t eat any dessert except for these chocolate chip cookies. They’re the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. I ate 2 at the restaurant and took home 3 more. If they sell it I would definitely buy them. The cookies were chewy and loaded with good quality chocolate and walnuts.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I ordered a wagyu burger with my buffet. I had to add HK$62 for the burger. It was good but not as good as the mini wagyu burgers at Inagiku. If I have another chance to eat at BLT steak again I’d stick to the buffet only. It was more than enough for me. I ate only half the burger and it really pushed my belly to the edge. I skipped dinner that night.

Wagyu Burger


Angus Beef Chart


BLT Steak’s Lunch Menu

BLT Steak
Shop G62, Ground Floor
Ocean Terminal
Kowloon, Hong Kong
telephone: (852) 2730 3508

Hours: 
Lunch served
11:30AM-6PM

Dinner served
6PM-11:30PM 

Yoga vs. Drinking

I got this great email about yoga and drinking. What do you think?

Research confirms that drinking gives you the same benefits yoga does !!!

Savasana – Position of total relaxation.


Balasana – Position that brings the sensation of peace and calm.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – This position calms the brain and heals tired legs.
Marjayasana – Position stimulates the midriff area and the spinal column.

Halasana – Excelent for back pain and imsomnia.

Dolphin – Excelent for the shoulder area, thorax, legs, and arms.

Salambhasana – Great exercise to stimulate the lumbar area, legs, and arms.

Ananda Balasana – This position is great for masaging the hip area.

Malasana – This position, for ankles and back muscles.

So, lets start drinking …………..

Lunch at Azabu Sabo

We had lunch at a new Japanese restaurant in Hankow road. Azabu Sabo (HK site in Chinese and Singapore site in English) is a casual dining Japanese restaurant which specializes in dessert and ice cream as well as traditional snacks and quick meals.

Azabu Sabo’s history from the Singapore site

A wall of fake plastic food samples greets you at the top of the escalator. I think their entire menu was represented there.

The interiors were clean and simple and reflected the casual dining theme.

This was the view from our table. The restaurant was right across the giant Adidas store on Peking road. It’s easy to find Azabu Sabo. Just look for the plastic food display on the street.

grilled eel & scrambled egg on rice HK$ 59.80

The udon dish was covered with bonito flakes. I guess that was the seafood part of the dish. It was very good. My only complaint was there was more beef than noodles. Weird complaint huh? Anyway the beef was sukiyaki cut and very tender so I didn’t really mind.


Azabu pan-fried udon w/ seafood & beef
HK$79.80

I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the page in the menu where the next 3 dishes were on. So I don’t have their prices and I’m just guessing the names. They were all very good. I remember the prices ranged from HK$30-45 for these small dishes.

beef wrapped in asparagus


fried eel rolls


vegetable pumpkin balls

The dessert was mostly ice with syrup. It didn’t even taste like green tea. It’s not my kind of dessert. It was refreshing though but it’s not something I would order again. At least we got to try the dessert which made them famous.

green tea slush w/ red bean paste HK$ 39.80
I’m not a big fan of the types of desserts offered at Azabu Sabo. I would go back just for the food. The food was good and the prices were reasonable.

Azabu Sabo Hong Kong Menu
(the dessert came first in their menu)
sweet potato, kakigori, sundae,
tempura, don, ramen, udon, pinpin noodle,
set, syphon coffee, iced drinks, ice cream float,
healthy tomato series, autumn select set

Azabu Sabo

Shop No. 16, 1/F, Hong Kong Pacific Centre
28 Hankow Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
telephone: 2736 5006

G/F Knutsford Steps No.12,
Miramar Shopping Centre,
132 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
telephone: 2377 3780

Shop F3, 5 & 7 Fashion Walk
19 Great George St.
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
telephone: 2882 1582

Help for victims of typhoon Pepeng!

I received this bulletin from the Ayala Foundation USA. I know we’re all wrung out from helping out the victims of typhoon Ondoy but let us not forget the victims in Northern Luzon specially Pangasinan and Baguio.

Appeal for Help for the Victims of Typhoon Pepeng!

Even while Manila and the surrounding regions are still reeling from the effects of Typhoon Ondoy, another typhoon pummels the country. Typhoon Pepeng (international name: Parma) unleashed its fury on Northern Luzon just a week after Ondoy wrought havoc on the nation’s capital.

If the rains brought about by Ondoy triggered massive flooding, the heavy rains that accompanied Pepeng triggered massive landslides, consuming entire towns in a deadly cocktail of mud and rocks.  The worst of the overnight landslides appeared to be in remote Benguet province, where 120 people were confirmed killed in five towns, said provincial governor Nestor Fongwan. As of October 12, 2009, the death toll from Typhoon Pepeng has soared to 270 according to the Cordillera Regional Disaster Coordinating Council. About 45,000 families or 220,000 have been affected by the disaster. Thirty-eight (38) towns and 3 cities in Northern Luzon are still paralyzed by floods, rendering them nearly impassable.

The storms that have battered the Philippines one after another have left so many overwhelmed. The past three weeks have indeed been so difficult for the country, so once again we are appealing for help for our fellow Filipinos affected by the succession of tragedies. While we have already dug deep into our pockets for the victims of Ondoy, let us not forget those in Northern Luzon. Now that the need is greater than ever before, we ask you to please find it in your hearts to extend your generosity even further.

AF-USA is accepting donations!

Please send in your donations by clicking on this form. Look for “AF-USA Typhoon Relief Fund” in the box marked “Donation For.”

You may also send your checks to:

Ayala Foundation USA
255 Shoreline Drive, Suite 428
Redwood City, CA 94065

Please indicate “flood victims” on the memo portion of your check

Ayala Foundation, Inc is coordinating with the Social  Action Centers of several regions in Northern Luzon for its disaster relief efforts. Your donations will be used to provide relief goods for the families in areas such Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Benguet.
AF-USA has also decided to waive its 5% service fee for all Typhoon-related donations, starting October 2, 2009 until the end of October 2009. AF-USA is a 501c3 organization. As such, all donations coursed through AF-USA are tax deductible in the US.

Stay connected through Facebook!
For pictures and updates, please visit our official page on Facebook. Click on this link: 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ayala-Foundation USA/136319814988?ref=nf to view our page. If you have a Facebook account, please log in and sign up to be our fan so you may share our updates and appeals for help to your own friends.

Amazing music video from Japanese group “Sour”

I saw this video on facebook and wanted to share this with everyone. The editing and concept is fantastic. I like the song too.

This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam.

Director: Masashi Kawamura + Hal Kirkland + Magico Nakamura + Masayoshi Nakamura

SOUR official site: http://sour-web.com