Returning to one of the few reasons why we started DT, I’ll be talking about Jade Garden, one of the better-known and traditional dim sum joints. I visited on saturday, and as I walked through the restaurant, it hit me how awesomely old fashioned the interior looked, with dark brooding colours that you’d see in a chinese restaurant of the 90s. Not that I was complaining. Something that chinese restaurants cant seem to excel on nowadays is the interior design, well… that’s unless you are Yauatcha with an endless dispensible budget!

The dimsum list was extensive, and with a whole table of people, we were able to order over two dozen dim sum dishes which ranged from Scallop Siu Mai, to Prawn Dumplings in Spicy Soup as well as Turnip Croquettes. Each dish arrived freshly deep fried, or steaming in their wooden “long” container. And you can taste the difference: the dim sum has actually been made fresh. (Being Chinese, you develop an ability to taste whether dim sum, such as the cheung fun with fried dough are made fresh). We ordered so many that the little towers of dim sum started to surround each of our personal spaces! All the more convenient to just pick out all the food you want though, I say…

At reasonable prices starting at £1.90 and slightly more expensive for the steamed rice dishes with pork ribs and chicken feet, it came to about £7.50 for each of us. Not bad I’d say since we’re used to paying almost £10 for a similar meal… though I put that down to guys eating so much more and making it incredibly unfair for us!

I used to eat regularly at Lido, with cheap prices without compromising on quality of dim sum, however I sincerely recommend a visit for some traditional dim sum at Jade Garden though. Probably a destination I’ll be taking my parents to show them not all hope is lost on Chinese restaurants in the recession! I have heard the prices can rocket up for dinner, as it is, after all, a seafood restaurant. And we all know what “seasonal prices” mean…

London Jade Garden Chinese Restaurant
翠園魚翅海鮮酒家
15 Wardor St., London W1V 3HD
Tel: 020-74375065
http://www.londonjadegarden.co.uk/

For those who commute, and think about food first thing in the morning (like me)… you’ll have noticed an article in the food section of Metro today on Viet Baguette, a joint on Goodge Street serving the Vietnamese special.

To be honest, I was quite surprised that there was a place serving banh mi in London. In the current crunch, a place that opens for only 4 hours and only MONDAY-FRIDAY? It’s like saying “I’m doing so well, I have weekends off!”. How awesome is that?!

Foie Gras Banh Mi @ Ho Chi Minh City

Anyway, I reminisced about having banh mi in Ho Chi Minh on my holiday there during the summer. Filled with foie gras, pork meat, and the brilliant Vietnamese basil and herbs/salad; you’ll have to excuse how different yet how gorgeous these little bites can be. I take that back, they’re not bites. They are your equivalent to Pret A Manger baguettes, and although I proclaim myself to be the Number #1 fan of Pret, nothing can be quite as exciting as having baguettes that are not french/english/Subway.

I’ll be heading over to Goodge Street sometime. Hope you do too. According to Metro, the lemongrass meatballs and pork floss banh mi is quite the steal. At 5pounds each, I’ll have to see… And let’s argue if it’s authentic or not.

Viet Baguette
14 Charlotte Place,
London W1T 1SW.

Open: Monday to Friday
12noon-4pm

S has been hard working at this blog.
B has been not hard working with this blog.

And now I am back on blogging! Spent the whole summer in Hong Kong, with two weeks in foodie Taiwan, and it was amazing to be in the heat and constantly with food around me. Seriously Hong Kong is no doubt a gastronomical city!! My plan is to slowly post about my holiday foodie events slowly overtime.

But hello!

… is a dangerous sport. You tend to want with extreme longingness, when you see food that you can’t touch (nor taste). Usually the case whtn flickr opens you to the big worldwide web, and you’re probably looking at food from across the world. Take this for example:

Eggs on toast by SeetYing

Jelly by SeetYing

And then you reminisce of food you’ve had before, such as the Steamed Shanghai dumplings (Xiao Long Bao), but where people have obviously taken much better photos than you have, and captured just how tasty these little things were when you ate them four months ago. Much envy.

“xiao long bao” 小笼包 by SeetYing

How can Flickr be so cruel, yet so good…

Katie continues her chocolate adventures for us…

Next stop: Koko Black.  Slightly more elegant surroundings, more sophisticated looking menu, more expensive price tag.  Was it worth the extra money?  The chocolate counter was a feast for the eyes only, as I was not going to fork out $1.85 for EACH chocolate!  I wanted to try the diamond cut shaped ‘Dulce de Leche’, ‘Mango & Vanilla’, ‘Chai Tea’ and the ‘Aurelia’ champagne truffle (and many more)!

We ordered the Belgian set for two: chocolate cake, a scoop of chocolate ice cream, a cup of chocolate mousse, a shortbread biscuit, two chocolates (we dropped one on the floor – about $2 gone there) and two drinks (hot/cold chocolate).  This cost the same as a proper meal, if not more, but I think you have to try everything at least once in life.

The cake was tiny, about 4cm diameter, but there was nothing else to complain about it.  The mousse was good, so rich and the portion was actually just right.  Too much would have made me ill.  At first we thought everything was tiny (at that price), but we were very full at the end, almost getting a headache from all the sugar.  The ‘Java’ chocolate is still sitting on my table, waiting for me to devour it.  I chose the cold chocolate drink, since I’d had the hot one before.  It came in a large glass, with one scoop of chocolate ice cream and one scoop of vanilla.  People say Koko Black does the best chocolate drink, and I think I agree, it’s not as sweet as the other ones, no fancy shaped mugs, just simply presented and of course very chocolatey.

Conclusion:  Koko Black hot chocolate is the best so far for serious chocolate-lovers, but in the opinion of a student, the desserts are too small for such a high price.

Koko Black
http://www.kokoblack.com/
167 Lygon St
Carlton
Victoria 3053
Australia

Katie’s a friend of ours, and ever since she went to Melbourne in July, she keeps uploading these amazing photos of food in the Australian counties. Much jealousy. So she’s kind enough to write and make us even more envious

Being an avid fan of the tofufa blog, I admired Dana and Vivi’s continuous adventures of food exploration.  I’m not much of a writer so was surprised when asked to guest blog, to write something about my Melbourne food travels, having been here as an exchange student since July.  Put aside all the new and exciting things and people I’ve met at university here, I want to get straight to the good food part.

There lies in Melbourne a strong café and coffee culture.  With the recent opening of the Lindt Chocolate Café on Collins St (there are branches in Sydney too), chocolate has been all the hype here.  There are several other strong competitors:  Max Brenner, Koko Black, Chocolateria San Churro, Brunetti…  Most of these are franchises, but don’t be mistaken, franchise does not by any means lower the standards.  These cafes have an extensive beverage menu (hot and cold, almost all involving chocolate) and if you’re hungry there are plenty of mouth-watering chocolate desserts to choose from…

We decided to try out ‘Chocolate by the Bald Man’ Max Brenner at Melbourne Central.  I chose the chocolate soufflé, which was amazingly rich and moist.  Initially I thought soufflé = light and airy?  But this was more of a molten cake but I was not complaining: dense chocolate cake with a warm dark and white chocolate sauce oozing out from the centre as I ate spoonful after spoonful of it.  It was good.

Hot chocolate drinks come served in a Hug Mug.  Yes, a Hug Mug (such a cute name!).  The idea is that the mug is ergonomically shaped so that you cup both your hands around the mug, lift it up and drink up, feeling the warmth inside you and through the palms of your hands on a cold winter’s evening.  For almost everything you ordered, you had the option of white, milk or dark chocolate.  One friend had a dark hot chocolate, which was everything you’d want in a hot chocolate.  Not too milky, not burning-tongue-hot and just the right level of chocolatiness.  Another friend had the white hot chocolate, which was a bit too sweet towards the end (as expected with white chocolate I guess).

It was so nice just to sit and chat with friends, whilst clutching onto a warm hot chocolate, the time just flew by.  This was just one of the many chocolate cafés out there.   I intend on visiting all of them during my stay in Melbourne for the next eleven months!

Max Brenner
http://www.maxbrenner.com.au/
Shop OE5, Menzies Alley
Melbourne Central Shopping Centre
300 La Trobe Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Continuing on from All things Vietnamese, and this being a long overdue review post, it’s time for me to tell you how Hong Kong make Vietnamese food.

After being told by our initial Vietnamese restaurant that we’d have to turn over our table within an hour, we decided on Rice Paper, it’s neighbouring Vietnamese instead – which was still in the Harbour City vicinity. Shown to a table just a few feet from the entrance, at first, I was precarious. But it turned out to be a great night.

from telepathicgeorge on flickr

We ordered Vietnamese pancake (you know, crispy outer layer, filled with seafood – that one). Ours was not quite like the one in the photo, but a little fancier with prawns and beansprouts tucked inside the pancake. For ourselves – each man to his own – we ordered a main each which ranged between Beef Pho or assorted Mung noodles. Much originality there. I ordered Lemongrass grilled porkchop Mung, and the waiter kindly pointed out we would be served a whole tray of the ingredients – and asked whether we would prefer if he mixed it up for us before it was served to the table. Hell no, I wanted to do it myself!

It took a while for our food to be served, and for a small square table designed to sit four, it was a bit of hassle fitting two trays of the mung, as both my friend and I had ordered similar stuff. The porkchop pieces were quite oily in fact, however they tasted fragrant in lemongrass and seemed authentic enough (though, saying that, this was before I went to Vietnam). Having the pots of Vietnamese basil (my love), the juilienne carrot, chilli in fish sauce etcetera – made me a very happy diner. The fish sauce was a bit vinegary for my usual taste, but I was too happy chomping on my green leaves to give a hoot about that.

Being students and living in recession, it is quite expected that we disappear once we hear “Would you like to see the dessert menu?”, however my company told of how delicious the dessert was on his previous visit. Tempted by the menu of a yard-long of choices, we chose a dessert. Each. (Kerching… if only I knew!) I opted for the Selection of Souffle and I can’t even begin  to tell you how gorgeously light and refreshing it was! This was made up of 3 different flavoured pots: a standard vanilla one, an exciting passionfruit and a somewhat odd tasting blueberry souffle. I preferred the vanilla and passionfruit, as the blueberry tasted of children’s medication.

A meal of essentially 3 non-alcoholic drinks, 4 mains, 3 desserts plus 12.5% service charge came up to HK$250 each. A bit on the expensive side if you consider dining in a nation renowned for cheap street and restaurant food, but for this price, I got an awesome 3 hours of dining and chatting with friends, with no hassle from the staff except some brilliant service and extremely well-presented tasty food, albeit a bit fancy. A definite recommendation from me, but given the choice, I’d rather be eating Pho with locals on the sides of busy streets in Ho Chi Minh City for a tiny fraction of the price. Who wouldn’t?!

Rice Paper
Zone GW 3319
Harbour City,
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
Hong Kong

Telephone: (+852) 31517801
Opening hours: 11:30 – 23:00
http://www.harbourcity.com.hk/dining.php?id=1835

Central Perk… in London.

F R I E N D S ~ 15th anniversary.

A pop-up cafe serving you free Lattae, Cappuccino, Cafe Au Lait etc. to celebrate the occasion, just off of Carnaby Street, on Broadwick Street. Directions are on the website. You’ll be forgoing a brief, but wonderful chance to see some awesome memorabilia from the sitcom. Anyone want some Mockalate???

I’ll be seeing you there… well, until 7th October.

This small restaurant in Camden is quite a haunt for Japanese people, as well as those trying to have some authentic Japanese food. I’ve heard mostly good words about this place, bad words being: don’t get caught in the basement! (Apparently if you don’t reserve a table early, this is where you’ll get stuck.)

Well I arrived five minutes before business started, and the moment they turned the OPEN CLOSE sign, I went in to reserve a table for 30 minutes later. The guy at the bar had to look long and hard at his reservations book, before allowing me a sigh of relief when he said there was a free table, until 8. You are wondering, what’s the big deal? The deal is, if you don’t book your table ahead, you’ll probably be turned away. Asakusa only opens from 6-11pm Monday to Saturdays. You can see why it’s hot property.

I don’t have many photos from the night, so let’s go on words only. The menu was quite extensive, but I’d heard that a set dinner and some appetizers would quite suffice for a meal. The list of appetizers is 2 pages back-to-back, and included dishes like soft shelled crab, Nasu Dengaku (deep fried eggplant with miso sauce) to the standard Gyoza.

What pleased me most was my beautiful Tonkatsu! I’m sure you’ve heard that some people like to assess a chef’s ability by whether they can cook a simple dish well. Sorry, that’s not me. I just love Tonkatsu Don. It had just been deep fried, and was served with the sauce in a separate jug, as well as the rice, miso soup and salad. At reasonable prices, and with a lot of choice, the set dinners are definitely a good place to start when ordering. Recommended.

Asakusa
265 Eversholt Street,
Camden, London.
NW1 1BA

It’s National Cupcake Week (14-19th September 2009) and I wouldn’t let this go by silently, especially having just baked a fresh batch of cupcakes – my third in the past month. And if you’re wondering – it’s in preparation for my birthday cupcakes I will be baking in a few weeks. Just like the saying goes: practice makes perfect!

So if I’ve noticed the new trend in cupcakes, you must have too. With budding bakers catching on on the cupcake fashion, it’s no wonder that Vogue X Selfridges ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ had Primrose Bakery make exclusive Vogue cupcakes!

So just a little basic recipe for you to try baking your own:

12 CUPCAKES

125g (4oz) unsalted butter (softened)
125g (4oz) caster sugar
125g (4oz) self-raising flour
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Gas Mark 6

First blend the butter and sugar together, then add eggs and flour and mix well. Add the vanilla and milk and that is all! Put an even amount of mixture in each cupcake case, and bake away for 15-20 minutes!

Like I said, I’ve been experimenting quite a bit. I put cream cheese frosting on top of mine, but it’s up to you how to decorate. I’ve tried using red food colouring, mixed it a tiny bit, and then put it into the cases to get this awesome marble effect.

And this is my pretty bowl of coloured sugar. Easier to make than I’d imagined! Take some sugar, add food colouring – but don’t add too much. Add a drop first, mix thoroughly. If you do add in excess though, don’t fret, just add sugar to it until it is the right colour and not too wet (and yes, the sugar WILL dissolve if you add too much!).

Much fun to be had with decorating. I mean, just look at Crumbs and Doilies. If a cupcake could be a fantasy, C&D would be the answer to all fantasies under the sun.