Saturday= eating eating eating~

食得是福.. This has really become my mantra especially during the weekends hahaha.. During the week, I try to eat as healthily as possible, more vegetables, less meat, my dad’s 愛心湯 hehe and little or no sweet things aside from fruit and the occasional indulgence of 70% dark chocolate. But come the weekends, I normally go a bit crazy…

So on Saturday after my combat class which is something I attend every second week (typical HK long and short week =.=), I met up with a friend for dim sum at the recently very hotly reviewed chinese restaurant inside Hotel Icon in TST East, Above & Beyond. I had never been to this hotel before as a person that doesn’t drive, I would prefer not to stray too far from the MTR line, so it was a first for me. Hotel Icon, is actually built by the Polytechnic University of HK and I really admire the idea that they allow their students/graduates to do internships inside the hotel to gain experience. It is also very modern, and exudes a casual chic which is portrayed by how the hotel is decorated.

It is aptly named, as it has quite a glorious view overlooking the harbour from the 28th floor and we were lucky enough to be seated at one of the tables directly facing the window. Even though we were a party of two, we decided to order a number of dishes so we could try more things.

The roast duck pineapple buns came with the ‘snowy’ top rather than the yellow mushroom top I was expecting. From the couple of bites I took, the bread was a little thick for my liking, but the filling was moist and sweet. Tasted very similar to a normal baked BBQ bun.

The scallop dumpling was quite nice, the dumpling skin was thin and translucent with a chewy texture. The scallops were fresh and the birds nest on top was nicely marinated.

Siu mai looked plump and juicy, and it was, however I did find bits of prawn shell inside which was a little disappointing.

Har gao was good, the prawn wrapped inside the chewy translucent skin was very fresh and retained a slight crunchy texture.

The assorted mushroom dumplings looked quite boring when they were served with the skin looking a little too thick for my liking. However as the saying goes, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, once I bit into it, the skin wasn’t thick at all and was just as chewy as the previous dumplings.The mushrooms filling inside was also nicely seasoned.

The goon tong gao was quite average, typical dumpling filled with crab meat. The broth was strongly flavoured, but a little too salty for my liking.

We also tried their baked crab shell, which is a signature dish. This was actually very good. A baked cheese crust hiding a slightly curry flavoured creamy, mix of crab meat and onions. Recommended~

For dessert we had their double boiled nashi pear with osmanthus. I am not a fan of nashi pear in its raw form, and in it’s cooked state I wasn’t that impressed either. The pear was very bland since all it’s juices were boiled away, and the sweetened soup with the osmanthus flowers was overpoweringly sweet. I regret to say that I wasn’t able to eat more than a couple of mouthfuls.

I was quite surprised that even after having so many dumplings, I wasn’t overly full, it was more like I had reached a comfortable state… comfortable enough to have high tea hahaha..

So the next destination was The Peninsula Lobby for a spot of scones and tea~ We arrived at around 4pm and in normal circumstances we would have had to wait in their very slow moving line for a table. But due to some ‘special’ circumstances we were able to be seated within 10 mins hehe..

I haven’t had The Peninsula Lobby tea in years, so my main aim was to revisit their scones and see whether they deserve people devoting more than an hour of their time to wait in line. Since we were still relatively sated by our dim sum lunch, we ordered their tea set for one to share, I had a decaf skim cappuccino and my friend ordered the strawberry milkshake.

I have to admit I was a little envious when I saw my friend’s milkshake. It came in a tall glass and the milkshake looked gloriously thick. I had a spoonful (yes it was thick enough for me to scoop with a spoon) and it was as creamy and luscious as I thought it would be. The taste wasn’t as sweet as I expected and I could taste hints of yoghurt mixed with the strawberry and ice-cream. I would have preferred it to be colder, so those that are worried about experiencing brain freeze, this is the milkshake for you.

The coffee served at The Peninsula is better than most hotels, so my decaf cappuccino was quite good, albeit a little bit bitter. This maybe because I am used to drinking lattes and prefer the more milk to coffee ratio.

Onto the tea set~ The afternoon tea served here was not as impressive as ones I’ve had in other hotels. The food selection and presentation was probably more ‘traditional’ than most. It consisted of the usual 3 tiered stand, sweets at the top, savouries in the middle and scones at the bottom together with strawberry jam and clotted cream. My focus was definitely on the scones, and they looked quite attractive too, baked to a golden brown and studded with plump raisins.

I tend to smell my scones once I break into it so I can appreciate the aroma of what I’m about to eat. With this one, there wasn’t much of a buttery aroma and the texture seemed to be more bread-like. This was confirmed once I took my first bite of jammy covered scone, the exterior wasn’t baked to a hard crust and the inside was soft and spongy. It wasn’t bad, but not the kind of scone I choose.

I skipped the sandwiches, so I still had room to sample the cakes. I really love lemon and poppy seed cakes so that was the first item I tried. It was technically a slice of butter pound cake, the slight lemon flavour was pleasant although it was quite sweet. I couldn’t resist the cute looking tart which was a passion fruit curd tart with a chocolate tart base, topped with a marshmallow. The tart base was crisp, and the passion fruit curd was pleasantly tangy enough to offset the overwhelmingly sweetness of the marshmallow. This was my favourite. I also had some of the rhubarb crumble. The flavour was decent, but the soggy texture was somewhat off-putting.

Needing a stopgap before dinner, we went to watch The Chef at The Grand. Even though the movie was spoken in French, it was soooooooo funny! An absolute must for all the foodies out there. It really depicts all the eccentricities of a person who is so so passionate about his job, that he will defy anyone, even his renowned mentor in order to perfect his art which in this case is cooking. It also brings up an interesting issue regarding people’s desire of food in molecular form or food in its normal state. To me, yes molecular food is certainly intriguing, but whether I would want to eat a meal where the duck is served in a cubed jelly form, or the soup is served as a vapour would be no. Yes it may seem boring to those that are fans of food in unnatural form, but I am a traditional foodie at heart and I would prefer my meal to look like what I am eating and also in an adequate portion so that I actually feel satisfied.

So after the movie, it was time for dinner.. at Nobu ~ I was actually super excited to go there as it would be my first time and I have heard some wonderful things about their food! We didn’t make a reservation, but were still able to get a table. Despite being seated at the entrance, my friend actually said it was a good thing since it would be very noisy further inside the restaurant. Since it wasn’t my friends first time dining there, he was able to suggest a number of dishes for me to try and we ended up ordering a LOT of food~~

We were served appetisers of fried crispy baby whitebait and marinated baby green peppers. The whitebait tasted like crisps and were quite addicting, while the green peppers marinated in a sour dressing were very effective in whetting the appetite.

We ordered three types of carpaccio: the hamachi with jalapenos, white fish and octopus. The hamachi was smooth and oily in it’s natural state and coupled with the flavour of the sour soy sauce dressing and jalapeno, it really woke the tastebuds. The white fish was lighter in flavour, with a hint of citrus in the dressing. The texture of the meat was chewier than the hamachi, but there was no fishy smell which both my friend and I dislike. He preferred the white fish while I was more keen on the hamachi. The octopus was quite good too, tender yet slightly chewy with the flavour coming from the dried miso sprinkled on top.

Hamachi with jalapenos

Octopus Carpaccio

White fish carpaccio

The kobe beef tataki was amazing~. Silkily tender, the thinly cut pieces of kobe beef showing generous ribbons of fat were tossed in a forest of mixed greens. The sharp tang of the dressing was an excellent foil in cutting the heaviness of the succulent beef. Absolute love~

The eel and fois gras was pretty show stopping as well. Three generous pieces of roasted eel alternated with slices of pan-fried fois gras. This was all basted in the thick sweet soy sauce used to marinate the eel and topped with thin sticks of fresh apple. Who knew the combination of eel and fois gras could go so well! I love foods that are soft and mushy and every bite I took of the soft eel and melt-in-mouth fois gras was just eye-closingly good.

Next to arrive was their signature dish, the Black Cod Saikyo Yaki. It really did live up to the hype. The buttery cod, flaked off delicately with a soft prod of the chopsticks and the slightly firm and waxy texture of the fish melded perfectly with the sweetness of the miso.What surprised me was how good the cod tasted both warm and cold, so it gave you time to savour the dish.

The Kobe beef was our last main of the night. After the tataki setting such a high standard, I was looking forward to a spectacular encore. It didn’t disappoint. We had two different cuts of beef, sirloin (L) and tenderloin (R). Both were seared to a beautiful medium rare, blushing pink in the middle. The sirloin had evident ribbons of marbling which made it very juicy as well as tender, while the tenderloin was more meaty in texture and had more beef flavour. This was served with three different types of sauces, wasabi, chilli and sesame. I wasn’t a fan of the wasabi, with my preference leaning towards the chilli and sesame. The chilli helped lessen the heaviness of the beef, while the very fragrant sesame sauce gave the beef a more creamy and heady flavour.

And of course we had dessert. We ordered a few different ones to share, and what I loved about Nobu’s desserts was the fact that they weren’t too sweet. So even after such a heavy meal, I was still able to indugle my sweet tooth 😀

The chocolate fondant was very generous in size, a soft cakey outside with a slightly molten centre. The chocolate flavour was quite bold and the chocolate covered pop rocks scattered on top proved to be an interesting fizzing sensation.

The soy mixed berry panacotta was extremely enjoyable and delightfully light. The panacotta was perfectly set so it wasn’t too runny or firm and the sweet vinegar used to dress the panacotta helped bring out the subtle nuttiness of the soy flavour as well as toning down the tartness of the berries.

We also had their signature item the Suntory Whisky Iced Cappuccino. This was quite interesting, a small coffee cup with four separate layers which consisted of coffee cream, cocoa crumble, milk gelato and whisky foam. The whisky added depth to the intense flavour of the coffee, but although I liked the taste, I found the texture of the crumble to be a little too sandy.

(L-R) Whisky Iced cappuccino, apple sorbet, raspberry sorbet and ice-cream mochi

We were also served two scoops of sorbet, fuji apple and raspberry. I found the apple sorbet to be a little grainy and it wasn’t cold enough, but the flavour was pleasant. The raspberry was quite normal, a little too icy, but was refreshing on the palate.

By the time we got to the ice-cream mochi, it was already semi-melted. I suspect we had the walnut flavour and it was quite different, but in a good way. The skin was a little thicker and denser than the normal ice-cream mochi skins you find in supermarkets, but it provided a nice chewy texture.

I must say it was an epic dinner. I enjoyed every bit of it and would definitely return. Highly recommended~!

And after dinner, it was home timeeee~ I couldn’t believe how much I ate on Saturday, but I thoroughly enjoyed indulging me inner piggy ^__^