HK: Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong (公和荳品廠）

Tofu pudding ( 豆腐花) is one of my favourite Chinese desserts made of very soft tofu which can be served hot or cold. While in Hong Kong this time, i had a mission to find an awesome place that served tofu pudding. After some 'research', i was directed to Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong in Sham Sui Po. This little tofu place still retains the essence of the old style Hong Kong eateries with folding tables, round wooden stools and large fans all around. It even has a large ceramic dragon-embossed pot where the tofu pudding is made and subsequently scooped out into smaller bowls.

Kong Wo sells all things made of soy beans such as soy milk, tofu pudding fried tofu and stuffed beancurd. Since it was hot, i ordered a bowl of cold tofu pudding (HKD7) and a cup of soy milk (HKD4). The soy milk was delicious and not overly sweet - perfect for the hot weather; the tofu pudding had a nice silky texture (hot version is even silkier) and was slightly sweetened. You can always add the 'yellow sugar' that is readily available if you prefer the tofu pudding to be sweeter. 

Overall, i enjoyed my dessert time at Kong Wo and will certainly be coming back. Delicious soy milk and silken tofu pudding definitely made my day! Apart from being a healthy and inexpensive dessert (both items added up to HKD11 which is only around AUD1.5!), i got to 'experience' an old style Hong Kong eatery!

Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong
G/F, 118 Pei Ho Street, Sham Sui Po
Kowloon, Hong Kong
tel: (852) 2386 6871

HK: Ovenhouse Deluxe

Sorry for the lack of updates but now that i am back in the capital, there will be more blog posts. I've been away for close to 5 weeks in the land of awesome shopping and eating, Hong Kong (especially now that Australian dollar is so strong!)! It's good to be back and enjoy the not-so-hectic pace that Canberra has to offer but not so keen on the freezing weather though =P

Anyways, here is my first Hong Kong blog post for 2011.
 ***

We found Ovenhouse Deluxe purely by accident as we were walking around Tsim Sha Tsui. It mainly does cakes, breads and cookies for take-away because it doesn't have many seats in it (8 seats max., i think). It also has quite a vast collection of wines from what i saw. Ovenhouse has a simple and classy decor which gives it a bit of a high-end feel. The cakes are placed neatly behind the cake counters and the cookies are nicely packed in bags. There is a small section at the end of the counter where you can sample their cookies. On this visit, we tried the two cakes that looked the most appealing to us: Lady Peach and Charcoal.

Lady Peach is a sponge cake filled with white peach mousse and white peach champagne coulis in between. The name definitely suits the cake's pretty appearance and it was the 'looks' that sold it for me. Taste-wise it was a bit weak on the peach flavour and the mousse felt a bit 'hard' (probably had a bit too much gelatine).

Bicicletta

*UPDATE: Bicicletta is back in business!

Sorry for the lack of post, but i am currently overseas and not having much time to update my blog. Sorry guys! Here is a quick post of one of the cafes that i visited before i departed to Hong Kong. 

Bicicletta (Unit 1/15 Edingburgh Ave, Acton (02) 6262 8683) is one of the latest additions to the chic and modern NewActon precinct. I was there for an early Saturday breakfast and had good feelings about it after checking their website and knowing where they were located. Bicicletta is a nicely decorated Italian cafe with both indoor or outdoor options. We sat outdoors so that we could enjoy a nice view of the precinct while having our breakfast.

We ordered Big Bicicletta Breakfast which had a choice of fried or scrambled eggs (we chose the latter) served with Italian sausage, bacon, mushrooms, sauteed spinach, roast tomato and asparagus; we also ordered Salmone which had smoked salmon served with fresh goats’ cheese, avocado puree and homemade pan brioche. Ohn, and we got an affogato too!

The service was alright and we were served the affogato not long after we have ordered. I am no expert in coffee but i didn't really like the so-called Bicicletta blend. It tasted bitter and sour at the same time - not exactly what i was expecting.

The breakfast dishes, however, took a while to come to our table. Both dishes tasted alright but wasn't impressed by the fact that most elements were already cold by the time we got them - especially the eggs and sausages. Big bicicletta breakfast was alright (apart from being cold-ish) and the asparagus and the spinach were my favorites.

 

I liked the Salmone more than the big breakfast and it was alright to have it cold. Most elements blended quite well together; the subtle sweetness from the brioche with the saltiness from the smoked salmon and the sourness from the capers. For me, a hint of goat's cheese was enough to complement the other elements.

In general, Bicicletta is a nice and relaxing place to go for breakfast. The waiter had a cool (perhaps) Italian accent and he was quite friendly too. The only negatives for me were the taste of the affogato and the issue with the big breakfast being served cold. Apart from that, not a bad cafe.

Baby Elsie's Dedication Cake

A few weeks ago, J and I decided to make a baby dedication cake for one of our friend who had just had a baby girl recently. We started throwing some ideas around and we finally decided to make a chocolate mud cake covered with pink and white fondant topped with a few baby-related decorations. I was originally planning to make a fondant bear but since this year is the year of rabbit, i ended up making a pink rabbit.

Having had experience making a 21st fondant cake last year, we knew that this one would be a lot easier because we were just going to make a one-tier cake - so no spending countless hours ganaching gazillion of cupcakes and covering them one by one (don't get me wrong, it was fun but just time consuming).

J made the mud cake in the morning so that by the time I finished work we could ganache and decorate it. I made the pink rabbit the night before just to make sure it had enough time to dry and harden. The most fun part was making the decorations and putting them together on the cake. Believe it or not, the pacifier was the trickiest decoration to make despite it being the smallest of them all =P

We were quite satisfied with the final product (although there are plenty of areas to improve in) and glad that the parents liked it too. Enjoy the photos =)

Pelagic Bar & Dining

Decided to have lunch at Pelagic Bar & Dining (Shop 2, 131 London Circuit, Civic (02) 6162 0752) and try their special lunch menu for $15 which has options of pasta, risotto and fish. We both decided to get fish as seafood is their specialty and they get it fresh everyday. Pelagic Bar & Dining has a simple and contemporary ambience with a cool feature wall fully decorated with fish. The staff was friendly and very knowledgeable which is always nice when you can't decide on what to order. 

I can't recall each dish's exact names but this is what we ordered: Crispy Snapper with salsa vinaigrette and Char-grilled salmon, asparagus and salsa verde. Both fish were cooked quite nicely but i particularly liked the crispy snapper as the salmon was a bit salty for my liking. Fortunately the salsa verde helped to neutralize the saltiness from the salmon and the arparagus were superb! Our mains were accompanied by Mixed leaves salad with balsamic dressing which was ordinary.

Crispy Snapper with Salsa Vinaigrette

Char-grilled salmon, asparagus and salsa verde

Mixed leaves with balsamic dressing

After having our mains we ordered a Strawberry Festival to share. It's a dessert that presents strawberries in seven different ways; the dish contained strawberry bavarois, strawberry sorbet, strawberry granita, fresh strawberries, dried strawberries, strawberry chips and a strawberry dust to finish off the presentation. Although it was all strawberries, there was a nice balance of sweetness and sourness in the dish. It not only looked pretty (in shades of pink and red) but it tasted delicious too, definitely the highlight of our lunch! *recommended

Lunch was satisfying and the lunch specials were quite good. The highlight was definitely the Strawberry Festival dessert which i don't mind going back for. Their a la carte menu looks nice too, so i might give it a go sometime!