Premier USA duck breast from Maple Leaf Farm

Went to the Restaurant and Bar Hong Kong 2014 last week to visit friends representing Maple Leaf Farm from the USA. I like trade shows for some reasons, the best thing is I get to talk to product ambassadors (not promoters), it's amazing to learn from these experts, and not to mention the interesting products you get to see, it's always inspiring and eye-opening.

Let's talk about the duck. I am impressed by the efforts the duck company put in producing their poultry products. The proclaimed 'premier product' is more than just a marketing  cliché for charging a premium. The White Peking Ducks at Maple Leaf Farm are scientifically raised strictly following a best practice farming guideline that was developed by animal science experts, just to ensure the well-being of the ducks and, of course, the meat quality.

Live well, eat well, be happy ducks

The ducks are raised in quiet, spacious barns where they have room to roam about and have constant access to fresh water and feed. The barns protect the birds from extreme weather conditions, predators and disease, but allow the fresh air needed to keep the ducks healthy.

The farm owns and operates their own feed mills using natural feeds to ensure nutrition for the ducks. They even have a poultry nutritionist on staff who formulates a balanced diet for the ducks from corn, soy, wheat and other essential nutrients. 

The taste and recipe

The duck breast of Maple Leaf Farm tastes clean and mild without the irony flavor in duck meat sometimes. At the expo, there was a chef's demonstration showing the 'slow cooked duck breast with pomelo sauce', by Chef Andy Yeung of the private kitchen 一膳軒. Simple recipe, you can do it yourself at home~

Ingredients  

1pc Maple Leaf duck breast 

1/2  Pomelo 

3tbl sp   Sugar

A little   Corn flour

A little   Rice vinegar

The duck breast

1. Seal the duck breast in ziplock bag

2. Slowly heat up water bath to 80°C, put the duck breast in at 40°C, cook for 35 minutes with temperature not exceeding 80°C

3. Take out the duck breast, slice up for serving 

The dressing

1. Peel a few slices of pomelo skin, finely chop up 

2. Juice half of the pomelo and take out the pulp, bring to cook the chopped skin, together with 250g water, and about 3tbl spoon of sugar 

3. Add corn flour to thicken the sauce, and a bit white rice vinegar

4. Drizzle the dressing on top of duck breast sliced and it's ready to serve

There was another event onsite - the Disciples Escoffier Young Talent Trophy where the duck breasts were sponsored as the major ingredient for the contestants to illustrate the traditional Escoffier recipe - Braisé magre de canard à l'orange (braised duck breast with orange). 

Escoffier chefs at the judging table (most of them are Michelin star chefs)

Here are some finished dishes by Asian young chefs:

R&B Research & Bakery - Great food concept but.......

R&B Research & Bakery has almost everything you can ask for from a good eatery - a convenient location, a creative menu that spurs anticipation, chic decor and even a beautiful banyan tree right outside the window. 

But what's missing, and most fundamentally important for a restaurant, is the cooking...no matter how well the food is being plated afterwards. On the up side, R&B has great potentials, and it's mainly the chefs to be counted on to make things right as they are supposed to be. Let's just hope, it doesn't hurt to stay positive right? 

Really love this natural light and tree view idea... :)

Here comes the food...let me start with the best - Elote - grilled corn cob with chili, butter and LOTS OF CHEESE! It doesn't look like a lot but in fact every kernel I had went with an abundance of cheese - amazing. The corn tasted really sweet and crunchy. The tricky part of this elote is you've got to cut out the sweet corn kernels from the cob, which is a bit large to handle, collaborative effort is recommended if you don't wish to make a mess. 

Here's another one worth trying - 

Ice cube coffee/ chocolate

Lovely concept about freezing the coffee/ chocolate into ice, and serving it with warm milk to melt it down. The end product is cool, not cold not warm. And the coffee I had was on the bitter side...it means quite bitter as I drink black coffee on a daily basis...anyway it was fun haha! The chocolate comes with mint leaves and orange peels, a thoughtful touch :)

Alright, you can stop reading from here as I have finished the 'recommendation' part. The rest of the food we tried only looked good. So if you have the leisure, read on~

Uni gnocchi

How exciting to see these two word being put together on the menu~ sea urchin and gnocchi...but when you have taken a bite and felt the sogginess of the overcooked gnocchi, you will be immediately turned off...putting the not-so-uni tasting sauce aside, I am more concerned about why the kitchen did not even prepare a simple pasta properly...

Chicken nuggets

I like the idea of it not using the processed McNuggets but chicken meat (with skin) marinated with lemon juice then deep fried. It comes also with fried garlic and a tartare-tasting mayonnaise. It's nice in general only the chicken was over fried, i.e. very dry...

Buttermilk fried chicken Benedict

There was an incidence with the Hollandaise sauce of our Fried chicken Benedict...didn't eat it and cancelled the order in the end...no comment

Chocolate blackout cake

It's huge!!! 4 layers of fudge and (very firm) choco pudding can feed 4 people after a normal to big portion lunch. The cake wasn't bad, very chocolaty. I could taste marzipan(?!) in the pudding in the rim part..okay

My friend and I literally blacked out after eating...haha! Will give it another try...have faith!

R&B Research and Bakery

Address: 3/F, Pacific Mansion, 172-174 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Tel: 2191 5445

M&C Duck 美中鴨子 - Chic Peking Duck

Partly curious about the food and partly appealed by its fame, 美中鴨子 M&C Duck at Harbour City turned out to be a nice choice for a girls dinner.

Forgive my superficialness for being easily impressed by nice looking food :P The sliced pork in garlic and chili sauce (蒜泥白肉) was one of them~ and the taste was stimulating too. Every slice was a perfect combination of thin sliced pork and cucumber, crispy garlic and subtle spiciness. I like the efforts they put in the presentation~ it's already appetizing by the look :)

Their famous Peking duck was okay, with light-flavored and lean duck meat, which was good. Probably a bit more seasoning of the skin would be better.

 <-- comes with a duck bone broth

Duck slice with osmanthus pudding (桂花糕凍伴鴨件) was a fun dish~ can't say the two ingredients match very well but not bad to experiment. Let me further explain the anatomy for better judgement - duck skin + mayo + cucumber + osmanthus pudding + Pringles chip --- like it or not it's totally subjective :P

Chicken thick soup with vegetable（翡翠雞茸羹）- delicious soup with flavorful chicken broth, don't remember tasting any vegetable, probably it refers to the splash of green soup on top? 

Also had xiao long bao and minced beef cake~ not bad

“M&C Duck” is Maxim's Chinese Cuisines’ latest brand created under a youthful and minimalistic concept. It offers young customers an innovative experience of the Barbecued Peking Duck and a chic, relaxing go-to in town.

美中鴨子 M&C Duck
Tel: 2347 6898
Address: Shop 3319, level 3, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Pizza from New York via Italy - Motorino Pizza

Motorino positions itself as a neighborhood pizzeria, it is indeed very conveniently located right by the SoHo escalators. The decor, the food and the staff are friendly too. My hospitality industry background makes me pay attention to trivial details in restaurants, Motorino's staff takes pride in their Neapolitan food and serving style and would ask you to go to the back of the restaurant to see their special wood fire oven - That impresses me and it's what I am talking about living the company culture and proper training. Anyway, let's go back to the food.

Their pizza dough are fermented longer than the others (24hrs long I heard), and there are 2 types of sauce base available - tomato or cheese. We ordered the famous Brussel Sprout this day and it came with a whole lot of Brussel sprouts on the pizza, beautifully distributed. Apparently they were added not long before the pizza finished baking. The top part was charred but the slices of sprouts were still crunchy and not dry out yet. The combination with the shredded Pancetta (a type of Italian bacon that is salt-cured but not smoked, so it tastes more like dried ham), and light Fior di Latte mozzarella cheese was phenomenal. It's like a nice salad with a warm crust you actually feel healthy eat it.

Brussel Sprout pizza - Fior di Latte / Garlic / Pecorino / Smoked Pancetta / Extra virgin olive oil

Motorino uses a special wood fire oven to bake pizzas, which gives their thick and chewy (the kind of spongy chewy you don't find it unpleasant at all) pizza crusts charred patches. Don't freak out on the black marks because they don't taste burnt, in fact, this oven baking style is traditional Neapolitan. 

One special note is they way wines are served at Motorino - in tumbler glass! The wine list is encouraging as well with comprehensive descriptions. The white I had this time was Cortese Gavi Di Gavi, it has a distinctive apple note to the nose that I felt like sipping apple juice at one moment, but the apple note didn't last once I started eating pizza - this wine is good as an aperitif maybe~ Next time I will try the 'Perfect Pizza Wine' - Gregnano, Cantine Federiciane, Campania, 2011 DOC. It's a semi-sparkling red wine, really curious how it is! It actually reminds me of the other Italian sparkling red wine I used to have at restaurant La Tour, Le Bouveret Switzerland...:p

Dessert- Tiramisu! It has a nice creamy mascarpone layer, well soaked lady fingers but the coffee could taste stronger (good for my friend sharing this with me who doesn't drink coffee..haha). There are only 2 desserts on the menu, Tiramisu and chocolate cake (Torta al cioccolato). Sometimes it's better to specialize than be a Jack of all trades :p

Motorino Pizzeria (food menu ; drink menu)
SoHo, Central- G/F, 14 Shelley Street
Tel: 2801 6881

Wanchai- G/F, 15 Ship Street
Tel: 2520 0690

老點點心竹筒飯 - A local Chinese dim sum place with extraordinary creativity

I was casually looking for a lunch place in MK and this dim sum resto caught my attention.  老點點心竹筒飯 has a funny name as "老點" in HK layman slang means "misguiding", the owner must be either very confident or very humorous to have named the restaurant this way :P

I did get to try some creative dim sums at 老點, no misguidance if you follow their recommendations haha! The food was okay not bad but you should expect more fun than delicious if you plan to eat in there~

Here are some dim sums I tried -

炸蝦小漢堡- the deep fried shrimp mini burgers are interesting with wasabi mayonnaise, the buns are pretty good too

海蝦肉餅竹筒飯- It tastes just like any other 盅飯...but it has red rice mixed in which adds a 'plus' to a 'B'

黑松露上素水晶球- could barely taste the truffle, not bad but just didn't meet with expectation

脆皮麥心小煎堆(麥提莎煎堆)- to be honest it's quite impressive to have the whole piece of Maltesers enclosed in a nicely done 煎堆, tho the taste of Maltesers doesn't go too well with its crust. It would be lovely if it's with custard stuffing :)

鮮上肉響鈴腸- forgive me I am a fan of 響鈴 so I'd say it's undoubtedly better than 炸兩~

老點點心竹筒飯
Address: Shop A, G/F, Lisa House, 12-14A Yim Po Fong Street, Mongkok
Tel: 2398 9992

Fiat Caffe - By an Italian car brand truly deserves to be liked

The Fiat brand philosophy is to produce cars with attractive styling and exciting engines, cars that are accessible and improve the quality of everyday life...blah blah blah...but Fiat seems to be one of the few car brands that walks the talk, and bothers to extend its brand experience to even non-drivers, ingeniously, by running a restaurant, Fiat Caffe, in its showroom.

What's more intriguing is that, Fiat might have foreseen "showrooming" as a new fashion in consumer behavior since years back, and decided to make the brand name and their cars "sticky" to people who visit them in the showroom. Putting a chic-looking Fiat 500 by GUCCI in the middle of the restaurant is a cool enough idea for diners to take a good look while enjoying a meal or drinking coffee next to it. (reminds me of attending the Geneva Auto Show some years ago...good old times)

There is a sales office in the back of the restaurant. If you appreciate up-selling with a touch of Italian humor, here I recommend you take the "Most Expensive Coffee in the World" - coming with an Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari (HK$799,888).

I wasn't exactly craving for a car so it's a regular cappuccino I had with illy espresso in it :P

The food was classic Italian and tasty, here are some I recommend:

Ricotta and Fig Salad - The subtle sweetness of figs compote and honey complement well the light fresh arugula and ricotta cheese. Interesting texture mix of creamy fluffy ricotta with crispy salad leaves.

Baked Potato Skins - Baked half potatoes with the core part removed and stuffed with minced beef, topped with cheese. Crispy and substantial~ it makes perfect food for HH :D

Wild Mushroon Truffle with Trofie - Thick mushroom cream sauce with overflowing mushroom aroma... I can't tell if the sauce was too thick with heavy cream or the truffle fragrance was too strong, the sauce was a bit heavy for the palate, but it's very tasty overall. Trofies were lovely and chewy too ;)

Very decent quality food and ingredients (esp. the salad, really fresh for all components). Two of us paid about $200 each for those above including coffee, nice price for this quality!


Fiat Caffe
Address: Shop G5-G6, Leighton Centre, 77 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2808 4777

Macau Soul - A Portuguese wine paradise

Nice Portuguese wine lounge near the Ruins of St. Paul's (大三巴)!! 

We opened a bottle of Quinta do Crasto Douro 2008 Reserva, I am no expert in wines but what I can only tell is this is a blend red wine with 35 grape varieties, which is produced by one of the very best wineries in Portugal. You could tell from first sip it's a wine to enjoy but not to drink. It is full bodied, intense, complex and fruity in taste, and very smooth to the palate.

The owner David told us Macau Soul is the only place in Macau that sells this wine. It only costed us MOP350, which it's normally sold at over HKD2,000 in restaurants in HK!! Such a great value of money for this quality! The prices for other wines (only Portuguese) are friendly too. You could get a good wine at under MOP200 and spend an evening there. But I'm sure you will not limit yourselves to only tasting wines coz. they have delicious home made food, and generous portion of cheese plates too! 

This is David decanting the wine (he and his wife, Jacky, are enthusiasts in travelling and photography, and of course in wines too!).

We managed to ask for a Pecan and dried fruit cake served with double scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream and a splash of Jack Daniel...omg...speechless!

One last tip, call in advance to visiting to make sure they are open and make reservation. David and Jacky run the lounge themselves but this lovely old couple travels a lot!

Macau Soul 澳感廊

Address : 大三巴街31A

Tel : (853) 2836 5182,(853) 6686 2205

URL: www.macausoul.com