Cafe Deadend HK!

Hello! I'm now blogging from HK... This city is full of amazing eateries of all cuisines, ranging from cheap holes-in-the-wall to Michelin-star restaurants. I kid you not that I don't think I will be able to make it to every single restaurant here in my years of stay but I do eat out everyday, so I will do my very best to give you the best coverage of what this city has to offer!

The first place I am writing about is a hidden gem of a café called Cafe Deadend. As the name suggests, it is situated in a cul-de-sac of the road in the now very trendy area of Po Hing Fong in Sheung Wan. 

This cafe is special as it is connected to Po's Atelier, an awesome French retail bakery that supplies all the baked goods that go into the dishes that are served. 

The venue itself is not flashy... A small space indoors and a patch of outdoor grounds for those who like to get some sun while having a nice brunch/lunch with a good cup of coffee. That's right, I would recommend having the coffee there as a good cup of coffee in HK (as opposed to Australia!) is not that easy to find. The coffee was strong and the flavour was great! HKD40 for a cup of cappuccino is standard price in a cafe, so I cannot complain...

The menu itself had a decent range of selection, not very big but enough to keep you happy for a breakfast/brunch/lunch. It did say that their menu is based on seasonal produce so what I have had may not be the same as what you will see next. I, along with other patrons, tried looking for items on photos online but couldn't find some of them. 

Nonetheless, I found the B.E.L.T which is the Bacon, Egg, Lettuce, Tomato sandwich. The thing that first impressed me when the food arrived was a small side serve of yoghurt with blueberries and grapes... What an excellent touch that makes it all the more filling without making it the typical side of greasy fries! The sandwich itself was not a special recipe as it is what it is... a combination of fried bacon and sunnyside egg with a bun, however the execution was perfect combined with a high quality bun from the awesome bakery! This made the whole sandwich something that highly satisfies one's daytime hunger for something naughty, yet not too greasy and thus I didn't get a feeling of bloatedness after, so I could have room for dessert!

Now, how could I pass on dessert at a cafe that specialises in baked goods?! It didn't take long for me to decide that the Spiced Apple Tart was the beloved favourite of this joint and here it is...

A beautiful piece of art made of an apple that has been sliced into a spiral, cooked in cinnamon and other spices possibly (Remember Seinfeld once said "Cinnamon! Whenever someone tastes something good and asks what is inside... It is always cinnamon!" Hahaha)

The tart that sat below the spiced apple was, needless to say, divine... The homemade vanilla ice-cream had black dots on it which basically are the vanilla seeds (you don't see that in the cheaper vanilla icecreams that you find out of the supermarkets or McDonalds, the black seeds are not flavour-enhancing in itself but rather a sign that it is natural vanilla icecream rather than artificially flavoured, refer to this site if interested to learn more... http://m.livescience.com/32964-do-not-post-yet-what-are-the-black-specks-in-vanilla-ice-cream.html). I don't normally like vanilla icecream unless it is this kind of natural vanilla icecream, which I love! 

And the hazelnuts, caramel sauce and sprinkles of flowers makes the whole ensemble a delightful combination of hot and cold, sweet and savoury in your mouth!

Ratings

Food: 8.5/10 - great execution with awesome ingredients and bread

Value: 7/10 - good food comes with an expected price

Ambience: 6.5/10 - could have been better if I had not been there while the exterior was under construction

Service: 7.5/10 - attentive waitress that kept refilling my glass of water, although food was a bit slower than usual

Overall: 7.4/10 - I love the food, presentation and ingredients used! Will definitely go back for more. 

Deelicious!!!!

Address: 72 Po Hing Fong, Sheung Wan (behind Po's Atelier)

Opening Hours: 09:30 to 18:00 everyday except Mondays

Follow me on Instagram: dee_dream

Lebanese @ Almustafa

On a Saturday night, I was keen to take Daz to try this place at Glebe called Himalayan Char Grill because I had an entertainment book voucher and saw good reviews of the place. Silly me didn't book the place and when we got there, there was no room for us... So we walked around the area and after being turned down by a couple of other places, we got accepted at Almustafa, a Lebanese place

So on a Saturday night at 8pm and you can just walk in to a place right in the middle of busy Glebe... something must not be right I thought... but we were keen to try it anyway as the ratings were not too bad...

I am normally not a big fan of banquets as you obviously pay a premium with them, but that night we were keen to try as many things on the menu and didn't really know where to begin with ordering so we just went for the banquet for $50pp...

The meat dishes were delicious... beautifully spiced and herbed... garlic flavours were amazing... definitely beautifully done... the dips and salads were pretty standard of any Lebanese place

Mid way through dinner, there was a belly dancer that did a very short dance for us... I was thinking, if you have bothered to bring a dancer in, why not make her dance for a bit longer... but I guess too long of a performance may be too distracting for the diners

When it came to dessert, we had 2 tiny pieces of baklava and turkish delight for 2 people to share... they definitely could have been more generous and offer a piece for each person!

Ratings

Food: Very tasty, beautifully spiced and herbed


Ambience: With the belly dancer and decor, it was quite authentic
 
 
Value: A bit short changed with the banquet


Nutritional value: Fresh meat and vegetables cooked in herbs and spices


Overall: Quite dazzling and very deelicious!

Malaysian @ Malay Village

Being a Malaysian, having a feast at a Malaysian restaurant is always a delight, although I do get a bit more critical than usual. So for lunch one day, a friend and I went to Malay Village in Chinatown Sydney. This place is diagonally opposite to the crazily popular Mamak. It serves more variety than Mamak and yet is quite empty whilst Mamak has a continuous line outside the shop right opposite.

The reason was clear why this was so. The food is significantly more expensive and I am not sure if it is necessarily of better quality.

Otak-otak

For entree, we had Otak-otak ("brains"), which is a savoury cake made of fish and spices. It tasted good but the portion definitely could have been more generous.





Roti Canai









A Malaysian meal is not complete without roti!  Strangely, the roti was served in a ball haha... normally, roti is crispy, flaky and flat... the taste was not bad but it definitely didn't have the texture that I was looking for... can't recommend it unfortunately... the curry sauces were watery and they didn't serve dhal curry which is my favourite type of curry that goes best with roti

Penang Char Kuay Teow

One of the most popular and my favourites is Char Kuay Teow. This one tasted quite good especially considering that it didn't have any pork lard in it. The price for the noodles was a bit steep though. At $14.90, I reckon it should be 2 or 3 bucks less.

 

Nasi lemak

We tried another classic Malaysian dish, nasi lemak with beef rendang. This tasted quite good but again, I will be able to get this in another store for at least 3 bucks less. The piece of egg given was a tiny eighth of a full egg. Not very impressed I was.

For dessert, I tried the cendol, which is a green dessert originating from Southeast Asia. It is served with coconut milk, brown sugar and red bean sometimes. This dish was decently good. Not the best I have tasted but I can't complain.



My friend got the pandan sago. Pandan is a leaf that is fragrant and used as flavour for many Asian desserts and even used to cook nasi lemak. This dish again was very small, although because it is quite rich the size may be enough for most people. Still, it wouldn't hurt for the restaurant to be a bit more generous in its serving size.

Rating

Food: Tasty and authentic. As a Malaysian, I couldn't complain really.

Ambience:

Sitting outside in the fresh air on elevated grounds of Chinatown is a luxury that is not easily found in the area.

Value: Poor value for money, when comparing to other Malaysian restaurants

Nutritional value: The ingredients seemed reasonable in quality, but being Malaysian it is not particularly highly nutritious given the high carb and sugar content.

Overall: Not dazzling but quite deelicious...

Breakfast @ XXII

On a public holiday Monday noon, a girlfriend and I caught up in our local breakfast institution... XXII... been here a couple of times and must say that althought it serves decently good food, there is nothing to wow about... one of the pluses was that we were not charged a public holiday surcharge.

Coffee and tea were good with nothing to complain about... service on the other hand was a bit questionable in quality... the waitress who looked like she is Eastern European was not friendly and was speaking to us in tone that felt agressive (although it could just be the accent)... we asked to have 2 little plates to eat on as we were sharing our food but when the food came, she insisted that we removed those plates as the table would be too crowded... we didn't mind having a crowded table and she was probably right that it would be better without the plates but the way she told us what we should do made us feel like it was a bit rude... We were asked a couple of times if we were done with our food when clearly I was still eating

Big Breakfast - mushrooms missing

I had the big breakfast... It was definitely big but it promised mushrooms but didn't have any... the sourdough bread was cut too thick and so I could only chew off half of one slice... the sausage was not very tasty... the hash brown was delicious... overall, it was edible but nothing to write home about...

 





Breakfast stack - weirdly placed on side of plate

My girlfriend had the breakfast stack which had poached eggs, haloumi, avocado, tomatoes on sourdough bread... it tasted good... but was placed weirdly on one side of the plate, which showed the lack of care for the presentation... it wasn't even a busy day so there wasn't a good reason for this

Rating

Food: Good but nothing to write home about

         

Ambience: Situated in a nice old building in an open space

              

Value: Big breakfast for $16 and breakfast stack for $15.50... pretty good value

              

Nutritional value: Couldn't taste very fresh ingredients but meal was quite balanced nonetheless

              

Overall: Not dazzling but quite deelicious