Shake Shake! Shake 'Em All!!

Burgers' popularity has been rising in the past year in Hong Kong. When I was young, McDonald's was the only place you could find burgers. However, all these different burgers fast food place, restaurants or just burger stands are opened in many corners. I went to this one called Shake 'Em Buns (a very attractive name).



It is a self-service place, sort of like fast food but a little nicer. The interior design is quite simple, with some bumper stickers on the wall, it gives out a very foreign atmosphere. There are about 20 burger choices. The burgers there have some very creative names. My friend ordered "Magical Mushroom" Burger while I ordered "The Southern" Burger. It also has hot dogs, shakes, wings, just like a diner. A combo is $80, burger with fries and a soda. Not a good deal I must say, quite expensive in fact. Because of its price, I was expecting a very delicious burger. I must say, it wasn't as good as I expected. The burger itself is not very juicy. My burger is not as original, instead of ketchup, cheddar and mayonnaise, mine comes with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. It was a little too much of that "southern" taste. The burger itself isn't very juicy, it's not dry but when you bite into it, you can't exactly taste the beef. The burger is huge though, so if you eat a lot, it should fill you up in no time.

It's not a must try but it doesn't hurt if you don't mind spending $80 bucks on a burger!



Eat Up!
Michelle

agnès b, no longer just a clothing line

I am not a particular France fan; I don't know any French word except Bonjour and Jetaime, I don't favor goose liver so much and never tried those diets that made the French ladies all skinny. However, I do have some knowledge about the French clothing brand names. agnès b. is one of the more popular French clothing brand in Hong Kong. Apparently, this brand does not only make clothes, but also food. Le Pain Grillé was opened in the corner of Leighton Road in Causeway Bay a few years ago. I was surprised to see it standing there when it first opened up. I was wondering, "How could it possibly survive? Food should not be agnès b.'s expertise!" I was wrong, it still stands in the same corner with many people going in and out, praising it after eating.

I have decided to try it. My mom and I walked in and we were greeted very nicely by all the waiters and waitresses. The restaurant's decoration has this 70's Euro style. The floor tiles are beautiful, they are colored with red, yellow, white and green with a circular cross shape. It immediately transformed the whole atmosphere into a very old school cafe. On the right side, a dozen or more pastries sit in an opened glass fridge, waiting for people to enjoy them. They all look so delicious it makes you drool. They also have a mini bar, with many liquors on shelves and a few coffee machines sitting on the counter. The restaurant is not big, but the petite tables they use made it seem very spacious.

When we sat down, the waitress came to us and walked us through their lunch sets menu. They have appetizer with either a soup or salad, then main course with the choice of beef, chicken, fish or seafood and at last dessert with a cup of coffee or tea. The total price is around $200 HKD (excluding 10% charge and water charge if you drink water.) It is definitely an expensive restaurant comparing to the others since many lunch set costs at most $130 in the area. But we were still excited cause the menu was very attractive.



They served us bread before any food comes out. As you can see, the bread has agnès b.'s signature logo "b" on it. It's very creative and special. The bread smells fresh and was very warm. The butter melted right in the bread.





Both of us ordered salad because it sounded very tempting. It is green salad with chicken and herb patty. It uses vinegar as its dressing with balsamic sauce as a little flavor for the chicken and herb patty. It gives you this fresh and healthy after taste.






I had chicken. It comes with a very rich mushroom sauce. The chicken meat was very tender considered it was frozen chicken. There's potato and a little more green salad as side dishes.





My mom had the fish fillet. It was cooked with a buttery sauce, very smooth and creamy. The side dish mash potato was very good. It was cooked with other ingredients so that it wasn't too heavy with a potato taste.





Here is the hazelnut cake as one of the desserts. It was decorate very prettily with cherry sauce and chocolate sauce. The hazelnut taste is very distinct. There is little biscuit crusts around the cake, which takes a little of the strong hazelnut taste away.




This is milk chocolate moose with dark chocolate sauce. A very heavy chocolate tasting cake. The bottom of the cake is a crunchy biscuit, something to chew on. The cake was decorated nicely and it has a little card with the Eiffel Tower on it, representing Paris, France.


This restaurant is a place I definitely recommend. Although it may seem to be a little pricey, the food quality was worth it. I was not only impressed by the food but also very charmed by the restaurants' decorations and atmosphere. It felt like I was in Europe, somewhere in Paris. I think agnès b.'s goals of spreading the wearing and eating living styles of French have succeeded in Hong Kong. This restaurant's service was not bad as well, but I think it could be better. One thing I wasn't exactly fond of was that it charges us for water. I do not believe the place opens up almost 300 or 400 bottles of water everyday, it's probably just tab water refiled in the bottles. $50 HKD for a bottle of water is very expensive, almost a rip off. If you didn't want to spend that extra little money, you can wait for the coffee or tea after the meal. However, in general, I definitely recommend this place, especially for couples for just a little cute luncheon or a romantic dinner.

Eat Up!
Michelle

PS. Le Pain Grillé stands for "toasted bread." The Reason agnès b. named it Le Pain Grillé because bread is a daily food for every French!

Homemade Pizza!

Tonight was the night we decided to farewell our post-formal director from Sumemrbridge. Graham is leaving us!! We have decided to gather few of the staff and have some fun and by fun we meant MAKING PIZZA!

I couldn't exactly help prepare all the ingredients for the pizza making party cause I was there late. But when I got there, I saw pepper, mushroom, garlic, pepperoni, ham and pineapples all cut into dices or stripes. Joyce was working very hard on slicing the cheese! It was so colorful and it already looked so delicious! A pizza really wasn't that difficult to make. I guess the dough was the hardest to make since it has to somehow to be in some sort of softness but not too soft. I don't exactly know how to make it cause our big chef Eddie was done with it by the time I got to his house. So I didn't actually have to go through the most difficult stage of making a pizza!! It's a pity but I was glad at the same time; who knows how it would turn out if I was in charge of the dough. Haha.


Eddie squishing the dough when I was playing with mine. Haha. It's pretty hilarious playing with them.

Anyways, once the dough was ready, I've decided to be the guinea pig and dig in to create my first pizza. Here are the steps into making a pizza.
1) The dough - make sure to put flour on the dough while making it into a flat bread. The flour helps to make it less sticky. I guess it won't work if it was too sticky? Just put flour until the dough doesn't stick to your hand while pressing.
2) Put tomato sauce. I think it really depends on how much tomato sauce you would like. Mine was definitely not enough even though I put a decent thickness of tomato sauce layer on the dough. I think you'll need to put at least a layer until you don't see the dough.
3) Put cheese. This is the part a lot of people forget. You're supposed to put cheese before putting in the ingredients. I guess for the stickiness and the taste?
4) Ingredients! Put anything you would like in your pizza! Like I said, we had pepper, mushroom, tomato, ham, pineapple and lots more! I only put some ham, pepperoni and mushroom and I like!!
5) Another layer of cheese!! Make sure you put another layer of cheese, but this time, make sure it's put in the center of the pizza and don't let it spread too close to the edge. Becasue when it begins to melt in the oven, it really spreads out. My cheese totally cover my whole pizza's crust. Haha.
6) Put it in the oven for like 10-15 minutes. This is the time for the size of a pizza that's as big as your face. Normal pizza with maybe about 8 slices probably takes another 10 minutes or so. It really depends on the size! And I believe it was baked at the temperature of around 120 degree celcius! I didn't pay much attention. I'm sure you can google about it!!

One thing, before putting it into the oven, make sure you wrap the tray with some tinfoil and put a thin layer of oil on it before putting the pizza on the tinfoil!!!! This is crucial. Joyce and I were the first one to make and Eddie didn't warn us! So our pizza was stuck onto the tinfoil! :( It took us forever to peel it off!! and the whole pizza was destroyed because of that!


The two great chefs! :D

Eat Up!
Michelle

PS. This is a great activity for bonding time for a small group of friends. Remember, only small group! Cause it gets the kitchen very messy!! :) I'm definitely gonna try it when I get back to Syracuse!

Not so Authentic Curry Chicken Naan

I've had many Indian food in my life. I used to buy Naan in a farmers market when I was in High School all the time. And at Syracuse, there's an Indian restaurant where I go often for the lunch buffet. Of course, I can't tell you how the most authentic Indian food taste like (since I've never been to India.) But I can tell that the Indian restaurant I went with JCheng was definitely not that great. Mirch Masala, meaning chillies and spices.

The restaurant's environment was very nice, a lot nicer than I thought. I have always imagined Indian restaurants stink with curry smell, small and dirty. But this one has no smell, and the decoration was more like Chinesey, there are lanterns written in Chinese words. Also, even though the staff there are all Indian, they speak fluent Canto which kinda scares me. I was very intimidated by it. I guess the restaurant has the whole mindset of getting a business going. Since it's set foot in Hong Kong, it gotta attract the largest population here -- Chinese.

Anyways, so I wasn't very fond of the environment, but that's okay. Their menu was pretty attractive. The lunch menu was cheap, like.. legit CHEAP! It was $38 HKD (which is about $4.5 USD). The lunch set includes soup, appetizer, the main meal, rice, naan and a drink.

I ordered curry chicken. The curry taste doesn't give out the essence of the Indian culture. It doesn't taste like you're in India. I would say the naan was too hard and tasteless. The food looks real good but the quality of everything is just so-so. I enjoyed the cheap meal but if I could choose, I wouldn't come back again for the quality. This restaurant located in Causeway Bay, in the food building right next to Island Beverly Center, on the 7th floor.

One last thing, the staff there are not the nicest. Our friend Ricky didn't finish the food and one of the waitors came up to our table and asked, "How come you didn't finish the food? Is it not good? It's very good! Try it! Try it!" (Imagine in the whole Indian accent English.) He looked like he was going to use his hand and pick up the chicken and stuff it into Ricky's mouth. I was sitting there wordless. It was THE awkward moment. Those staff give you a headache and their sarcasm is in the air if you don't eat their food. But in general, I guess it's an okay restaurant. I wouldn't exactly recommend that place if you're looking for the quality. Go there for the cheap price and AC.

PS. Only go for lunch time! Cause they dont' have dinner set at night apparently! It'll be a rip off if you go for dinner!!

Eat Up!
Michelle