The Food in Qing Dao

A lot of friends told me that the sea food is very good in Qing Dao...Well, I had put it in a low expectation as I had been to Qing Dao in 1980 and 1982 whilst I was working for China's merchant vessel serving between China, Japan and North Korea. The way Shan Dong people cook is very much different with the Southern Chinese. As a Typical choosy Shu De snob, we are poor as we spent lot of money on food.
I had been a few restrurant, I was totally disappointed as their food is salty, oily, and had not pre-treatment on the meat that we used for getting away for the natural smell of the meat or sea shell...As for certain pork, we use to drop it in hot water for a while before we stew it... We used a lot of ginger and Chinese onion for sea food like crab and shrimp, as for Muton and beef, I heard that there is  away to get away on their smell.
I mean  like mutton, I can not get used to that kind of smell, it is pungent, it it even classisied inedible..
According to Wikipea explanation.
Lamb — a young sheep under 12 months of age which does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear.
Hogget — a young male sheep or maiden ewe having no more than two permanent incisors in wear.
Mutton — a female (ewe) or castrated male (wether) sheep having more than two permanent incisors in wear.
I went to this so called "Hong Kong Chef" East Ocean Restaurant that is a 4 stories, 8 beautiful young women with four at each side of the entrance to welcome your visit. A big pool for various types of live fishes, lobster and prawns, and some rare sea species in the main hall,
We had two bottle of Qing Dao beer and we started ordering as from the captain's recommendations;
Roasted Duck in Hong Kong Style
Beaf steak (Japanese Beef)
Tao Foo (Bean curb) in Chiu Chow sauce
Fat Till Cheung ( Buddha jumps from the wall)
Fried Lotus Trunk cut out
From the attached pictures, if you are Hong Kong People, you will be able to tell how BAD the food is cooked, I am sure that the Chef is not from Hong Kong, as we do not put starch on the Fat Tilll Cheung as that will give you a sticky tougne and would cover you taste bud for soup. They had these ingredient normally in the soup: Fish stomach, dried gallop, Shark fin, sea cucumber, Abalone, and some old chicken, but in this restaurant, they do not put the old chicken, instead they used a big portion of octopus...I know the chef;s intention, he want to make the soup tasted "sweet" but he should use Chicken instead of Octopus as I think I will not eat Octopus as for it high cholesterol content. And if he wants to make teh soup more appealingm he can used dried squid as one of the soup base... but I still think the old Chicken is best...

So at the end of the dinner, I did not eat at all any of the roasted duck as it could not pass the nose Test!
The Tao Foo is soaked in 4mm thick oil that Shocked me... I did no take it
The Beef is Ok as they are real good Japanese Beef, but I hate the way they put the pepper which took away all the natural favour of the juicy meat!
The Lotus trunk was a disaster... as the sauce was sweet and too much sesame oil.
at last I had to order a plate of Fried Rice to keep my empty stomach a bit feeling of "Food taken"
The bill showed me RMB$847.00!
I do nto think that is a good course, and even the captain did not ask us why so many left behind..So this is the reaosn this restaurant is not sucessful as they do not CARE customer's feedback.

In Short, QingDao has all kinds of sea food, material for cooking, but they do not have the chef, they do not have the demanding customers, they do not know What Good Food is...
Of course, that is my last time to go... sorry...no more.... I had a feeling that I was ripped off....

HK Snob

Shan Dong Cursine

China has eight types of cursine and Shan Dong is one of them. Shan Dong food to me is not appealing at all.
What I can see is that they are oily, not as bad as Shanghai, a lot of meat especillay mutton.
I really do not appreciate it. When I got to the Jin Ning Airport for going QingDao, they open only after 1:55 p.m. So we had to look for food, we went back to one small restaurant which seemed was the biggest and organized one there.
The customer went to the kitchen to order food, I saw a basin of animal heads which almost caused me vomit!
There later I found out that was Sheep heads, as I thought they were dogs... for the whole 30 minutes I was still thinking of that terrible sheep heads....I lost my appetite at all though I was very hungry.

They made some dishes and I think they are quite OK to be taken... especial te plate of Chicken that was stewed with a lot of Chili. It was cold like 5 degrees and was a bit windy, if you are hungry and cold,,, That worked!

Another dish was made with some river shrimps of roughly 10 mm  in length, the put some Chinese union and stir fry with egg... We took some hand made thin white bread made with flour... and wrap up with the shrimp.. quite chewy and yummy, agian It was cold and hungry... but when I thought about the basin full of sheep heads...

I did not pay for it so I really do not know how much we paid for that lunch, I guess that it about RMB$140.00 including two bottles of Tsing Tao beer!

HK Snob

Oceanna Italian Cuisine & Oyster bar

Oceanna is situated the Same Building as of The Cantonese Restaurant, G26, G/Floor, K11, 18 Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon,  Tel 25061323.

It is a small, simple decoration embedded Italian Restaurant, very easy to assess, just 1 minute from the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Exit to Hanoi Road.

The Food is not expensive but rather decent, spacious, good service, with smile from the people around you.

They serve Buffet light lunch for those ladies who does not want to stuff up their stomach and a selection of Oyster for the people who like to go for it like I. It is a place for a lunch before your next shopping trip starts at Tsim Sha Tsui.


HK Snob

One of the Delious Dish

Crab is used to be one of my favourite dish, though you may not like eating it it as it seems a bit troublesome to take it..
Hairy Crab and Yellow Crab serves you in different seasons. The Yellow crab may be the best in taste and is likely the most expensive. It was used to sell at HKD$700 a piece with 12 taels  in 2008. Now it is cheaper about HKD$400.00 for a crab of the similarr size.

Meat crab can be steamed with a lot of Chinese Yellow wine and egg. Room 401 of Ocean Centre, the House Of Jasmine has this great dish. I had tried a few times, still I found that they can maintain consistent good quality. The Yellow Gravy is best served with plain Rice...a bit sticky, pleasant scent of the Chinese yellow wine, and the egg soaked with the crab favour!  How can you get slim...with such dish in the House Of Jasmine..?

HK Snob

One Dollar for a Chicken

To Heung Restaurant is offering you an unbelieveable Cheapo Chicken at price of One Hong Kong dollars.
If you are bold enough, you can order one whole chicken, a bowl of rice and one Chinese Tea, you can settle the meal at about less than 20 Dollars... and the chicken is yummy!

HK Snob

Teppanyaki steakhouse in Penang

There is not so many choice for Teppanyaki in Penang, Hanayoshi is one of the best. Running by Lynn in Krystal Point, The Master chef Danny has been doing Teppanyaki in Australia and Malaysia for over 20 years. A place for your friends, customer and even yourself alone! Call Johnny Chuan for reservation 016-4564778. Address : Krystal Point, Jalan Suitan Azian Shah, Bayan Baru, Penang Tel 04-6468650 Open 1130-1430, 1800-2000 daily

HK Snob

An experience in Morton Restaurant

I had a chance to go dinner at Sheraton hotel 4/fl Morton restaurant with 5 Russian and one German,

The View was OK as we can see the Laser Show right at the window. We had some beer and two magnum of Italian Red Wine. I took an appetitizer of 6 Oysters. well the Oysters were exceptionally Fresh and they all tasted very Oyster!

The Service was very good and they care about you in every details. They may not speak local Cantonese as they are not Hong Kong People. Well, May be they have other staff that can speak Hong Kong Cantonese.

The Beef was not as good as I could expected kind of quality. At least not as good as those I had tried in other Hong Kong Restaurant like Chris Roth's .


HK Snob

What are the Choice for food?

Morton of Sheraton

A friend of mine asked me where is the hip restaurant for his CEO in Hong Kong.

Here is the list from my mine for sea view of Victoria Harbour

BLT- Harbour city
Morton Sharaton- top floor oyster bar
國金軒- IFC shopping mall 3/F
Harlan’s- IFC shopping mall 2/F
Isola- IFC shopping mall 3/F (Highlight: very good pizza)
Felix- Peninsular Hotel
Aqua- Beijing road 1 top floor

Michelin's Recommendation:
Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel (Cantonese Food)
http://www.fourseasons.com/zh/hongkong/dining/lung_king_heen.html
Amber of Mandarin Oriental Hotel〈多國菜〉
http://www.mandarinoriental.com/landmark/dining/amber/
Intercontinental Nobu
http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/intercontinental/en/gb/locations/hotel-features/dining/restaurants/hongkong

HK Snob Favourite
Dynasty, prince and House Of Jasmine

HK Snob

Buffet at ENO Penang

Eastern and Oriental Hotel was established in 1885.

We used to go for their Buffet, I found that the Chau Kwai Tiu is the best that you should try, there is big Chinese Chef  and sometimes an Indian Chef who is preparing the Penang Style White flat noodle for the waiting line of people... They cook only one serving each time and it take them about 3-4 minutes to make one. So you may have to wait before you can taste it... I think we can not have suhc kind oif Kwai Tiu in Hong Kong, spicy, hot and fresh, they put some Prawn, dried onion, I used to take too. The One Chinese chef has a better aroma, the differencce I noticed was that The Chinese Chef put the dried green onion earlier. That may be the reason I prefer his noodles.
The rest of the buffet is nothing special at all!
ENO hotel
Rating: 5 Star Hotel
Address: Eastern & Oriental Hotel 10, Lebuh Farquhar, Penang, 10200 Malaysia.
Tel: (604) 222 2000
Fax: (604) 222 2000
Website: www.e-o-hotel.com
E-Mail: reservations@e-o-hotel.com
HK Snob

House of Jasmine

Running by Maxim Group a new fusion Cantonese Food restaurant.

Situated at Ocean Centre Room 401.

House of Jasmine has an indoor air con restaurant and a huge open air patio that can have an open view to the ocean terminal; there is another Italian Restaurant opposite the House of Jasmine...

I have been there since the grand opening in 2007, the famous dish to me is roasted goose,

Tan Tan Noodles, Beef and white carrot in clear soup, and probably a piece of steam fish.

See the patio, you can look up and see the magnificent view of the Ocean Centre…

Call Tel for reservation : 29920232.

HK Snob