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

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

Spoil Cafe - spoil yourself with no guilt feelings

Star Street Precinct in Wan Chai is famed for restaurants and gourmet. Going further into the neighborhood, you could find even friendlier eateries - Spoil Cafe is one of them. Situated at a little lovely corner on Sun Street, diners could have themselves spoiled by some seriously tasty food.

The ambiance
Spoil is a small restaurant with no more than 20 seats. Despite the small seating area, the high ceiling and full height glass walls create space and make the room look and feel relaxing.

Tiger prawn pasta with Thai style cream sauce
I highly recommend this personally, the sauce resembles the texture of carbonara but with an overwhelming taste of shrimp instead of bacon..absolutely delicious!

 Grilled spring chicken with orange citrus seasoning
The spring chicken was juicy and scrumptious, marinated with an appetizing citrus mix with lemon peel and orange juice.

Their bread loafs were homemade too! Like ciabatta bread but more moist and cake-like, not bad!

Desserts!! Spoil is famous for its crunch cake, but it's so popular that advance reservation is a MUST in order to get a piece...obviously my friend and I didn't due to our impromptu visit >< anyway, the desserts we ordered were delicious too :)

Signature rich chocolate cake & New York cheese cake
New York cheese cake was good, not disappointing, we know it's easier to make tasty NY cheese cakes than awful ones ;) In contrast, the 75% chocolate cake was extraordinary - very rich (didn't get to ask which chocolate they used, Valrhona?), not too sweet and has a lovely texture.

Spoil Cafe, like some of its counterparts in the Star Street Precinct, is good for diners with a quest for good taste, and for those who'd appreciate a relatively quiet neighborhood to take a stroll after dinner.

Spoil Cafe
Address: Shop A, G/F, Shun Ho Building, 1 Sun Street
Tel: 3589 5678

Cafe Loisl - A Viennese Corner in Sheung Wan

When the sun comes out after all these damp and rainy days, what's better than spending an afternoon alfresco enjoying a cup of coffee and a piece of delicious cake? The experience would even be greater if the location is quiet without people buzzing around and stressing you to finish your coffee. Cafe Loisl is one of the kind, you only have to walk up a bit for it.

This artisan Vienna style coffee house is located on the stair landing up Po Hing Fong, Sheung Wan. People who have visited would describe it as an oasis, or a corner of Vienna in Hong Kong. Yes, these are all correct descriptions for Cafe Loisl. The place is furnished with a Viennese touch, from the chandelier, marble coffee tables, floor tiles, wall decors to tableware, all the details suggest the owner's passion to bring the Viennese coffee shop culture to Hong Kong.

 

For those who have been to Austria, or wish to go there, you'll be happy to find some of the very best of this beautiful country. Number one on my list is definitely the Sacher Torte, this devilish chocolate cake traditionally consists of two layers of dense chocolate sponge cake with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle, coated in dark chocolate icing on the top and sides, and served with whipped cream. The version at Cafe Loisl is more like a chocolate truffle cake, with alternate layers of chocolate sponge cake and rich ganache, coated with smooth chocolate icings. A Viennese coffee is a must to go with this sumptuous cake. Apfelstrudel, or apple strudel, is also a traditional Viennese dessert available in the menu. I didn't get to try it this time but it looked like a nice treat for people who loves the combination of apples cooked with cinnamon in puff pastry. 

The mille feuilles was a bit on the heavy side with custard.It would have been awesome if there were more layers of puff pastry (and must be fresh and crispy). The taste was great though, just too heavy.

 

Apart from desserts, classics like bratwurst, omelette and currywurst were also available. I was just a happy girl at Cafe Loisl having the food I miss from Europe :)

Cafe Loisl
G/F, 8A Tai On Terrace - Pound Lane, Sheung Wan
9179 0209

Bricklane - The Egg Benedict Place

After an exciting night watching the Cheung Chau Bun Scrambling Competition, you shall be waking up at brunch time and it's just perfect time to see this post :) Bricklane is an eatery with reminiscence of its namesake in London East End. Located in a relatively quiet corner of Tsim Sha Tsui, it's a nice place to sit back and chit chat for an afternoon if you go for a late-brunch (at least after 2:30pm), so you could have better chance to avoid being kicked out after your meal.

They serve a phenomenal egg benedict with Parma ham (yes! they do have this unique offer), with a perfectly poached egg with flowy yolk and delicious buttery Hollandaise. I especially like its 'English muffin' which seems to be a piece of burger bun instead toasted with savory butter. It is not as chewy as English muffin but still lets the sauce and ham hang on it perfectly well. One precaution is that you can't let the bun soak in the sauce for too long or it'd become soggy pretty soon. So yummy I'll go back only for this!

They have a supersize beef burger in the menu, with a patty of 10oz beef. It looked good but too heavy for me so I ordered fish and chips. The presentation was fun with chips building a jenga tower and a piece of crispy fish fillet laying on top. However, both the fish and chips were a bit too oily...it disappointed me when I was only craving for french fries at that time.

Out of curiosity I also ordered a red velvet cake for the sake of comparing with the one I made. I think my cupcakes could also be priced at $65...on the menu it recommends to order some time in advance for the cream cheese filling to soften at room temperature. I asked to verify, and the server said no need coz. he could take it out from the fridge in the restaurant across the street (?!) Anyway, the cake was a bit too hard, but the taste was fine, just like the red velvet cakes I had in Southern US. It would really be better if the cake was allowed to soften for maybe half an hour, guess the servers was only trying to be helpful though.

Overall it was a pleasant and relaxing afternoon sitting by the windows of Bricklane. Its location and egg benedict were major contributing factors to this :)

Bricklane [Menu]
G/F, 2 Blenheim Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui
2736 8893

Coffee Alley - A Sought-After Taiwanese Coffee Shop Is In Hong Kong

Coffee culture has grown enormous in Taiwan in recent years, visiting a cafe for an ice drip coffee has become part of the itinerary. What would happen if a popular Taiwanese cafe opens in HK? The answer is a two-hour wait in order to get in for its delish menu and be served by its good-looking, friendly and mandarin speaking waiters.

Coffee Alley (咖啡弄),  a sought-after chain coffee shop in Taipei, has just brought a replica to Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It has all the traits of a good Taiwanese cafe, which would incorporate international food and localize to suit the local taste, pay great attention to details and give an effort to impress customers.

A group size of 4-5 is perfect if you want to taste the most out of Coffee Alley's overwhelming menu. These are what comprised a delightful lunch for 5 girls today:

Baguette with curry beef - A fun 'East meets West' dish, the curry was more peppery than the usual Indian curry, quite appetizing

 

Club sandwich - A fulfilling dish with a nice egg salad and Doritos chips on the side, the marinated chicken in the sandwich was sweet and smoky, which turned up to be a nice surprise

 

Pizza with roast chicken - It's not exactly a pizza but a thin crispy baguette with tasty toppings, it's better named a toast for a more accurate expectation though

 

Waffles with black sesame ice-cream, chestnut paste and sunflower seeds - These phenomenal waffles popped out fresh with beautiful dark brown and light brown colors on both sides, the whipped cream was firm and rich, while the scoop of lightly sweet chestnut paste and sunflower seeds helped add more texture to the waffles. The ideas of black sesame ice-cream and black sesame sauce were nice too, though the sauce could be more intense in sesame flavor, very satisfying overall!

 

Strawberry mille feuilles - it's such an eye-candy already, the crunchy buttery puff pastry, heavenly custard and fresh strawberries with the right ripeness came altogether in harmony, fantastic!

 

Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream - It's good but not for those expecting an avalanche of chocolate sensation, 'cause this brownie has more walnut and black currants than chocolate cake. The good thing is the refreshing berries actually lighten up this massive looking dessert, so you could still manage it after a big meal, quite clever ;)

Other not to be missed are the variety of hand drip coffees from around the world and some unique and devilish ice coffees and lattes (I enjoyed my sea salt caramel latte with hazelnuts and almonds scattered around the whipped cream on the side, very thoughtful). 

It's also perfectly fine if you are not a coffee person because the fresh fruit teas are also to die for. The iced fresh fruit tea with passion fruit seeds, lime, orange, apple..and Lipton breakfast tea is a genius creation, the colorful mocktail comes in a carafe to pour over to a slice of frozen lemon embedded in an ice cube in a glass.

The menu portions are big, I guess it's because Coffee Alley insists to put so much details in each plate to wow its guests with sky-high expectations. Great job! The long wait surely worth it! (Recommended not to go during weekends)

Coffee Alley
Address: Room B1-B3, 1/F, Dragon Rise, 9-11 Pennington Street, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2493 3033

Coffees in Taipei

During my recent trip to Taipei I had the leisure to take time trying a number of different coffees. How could one possibly resist coffee in a city abundant of quality cafes?! Among Ethiopia Harrar mocha, Hawaiian kona, Jamaican Blue Mountain, and the house blend ice drip coffee of the renowned Fongda Coffee, which would you choose? For me, I chose to have them all :)

Coffee tasting and its basics by the Pro (Part II) - Ninety Plus Coffee

Here comes the little known knowledge for most regular Starbucks drinkers - the Tasting.

In the coffee world, coffee tasting is regarded as "coffee cupping". By definition, coffee cupping is a professional practice of observing and evaluating the tastes and aromas of coffee. The coffee taster attempts to measure aspects of the coffee's taste, specifically the body (the texture or mouthfeel, such as oiliness), sweetness (the perceived sweetness at the sides of the tongue), acidity (a sharp and tangy feeling at the tip of the tongue, like when biting into an orange), flavour (the characters in the cup), and aftertaste. (See INeedCoffee for a detailed textbook cupping procedure)

In practice, it's better to ask Joseph for more insights from his coffee cupping experience by organizing countless cupping sessions for clients...

During coffee cupping, what should be identified?

The fragrance nuances of the dry grounds immediately after grinding; the aroma nuances of the brew after adding water; and the nuances as the coffee cools under the following categories: acidity, mouthfeel, taste, and aftertaste.
Well-produced coffees exhibit a range of flavor and aroma that is likely much broader than the world of wine. Citric, floral, and spicy coffees occur at a great range of textures. Coffee at this level can be bafflingly complex.

Adding water to the dry coffee ground

A line-up of different coffees waiting to be slurped up and rated by coffee tasters

 

Joseph focusing in smelling the aromas of the brew

(There are thousands of flavors in coffee that could be identified. In real practice, even for the same coffee, differentiated flavors might be noted subjectively by different tasters. Joseph has therefore established a unique "taste profile" system to help customers choose Ninety Plus' coffees.)

The Taste Profile

Coffees of Ninety Plus are categorized into W2, H2, N2, SK representing different levels of fruitiness (from low to high). Logos of the Ninety Plus Taste Profiles include Nekisse N2, Hachira N2, Tchembe N2, Kemgin W2, Perci N2, Lycello W2, Juliette H2, Lotus SK and Sillvia SK, which of those are guarantees of specific taste quality and also of adherence to NP's own protocol for producing and processing coffee.

Now let's look at the taste profiles of 2 NP coffees to understand how this system relates the coffee logo with its taste (click to enlarge). Very smart way of branding and labeling the coffees!

Joseph, in your opinion, what do you consider as perfect coffee?

There is no perfect coffee any more than there is a perfect food or a perfect wine. There are foods better suited for some than others, and most desirable at certain times versus others.
The perfect coffee for me is a coffee that further illustrates what is possible in coffee flavor. At Ninety Plus this is our work and journey.

What are the upcoming coffee trends we should note as a consumer or coffee-lover?

We call it the evolution of the Comparative Coffee Culture. Responding to our own excitement and vision of coffee's potential, many industry professionals have been changing things over the past decade or so, creating solutions for producing, roasting, and retailing coffees that open up this this exploration of flavor to the end user.

Coffee lovers should expect very high quality coffees to be more available by the cup from better educated local retailers who themselves will continue to push the industry forward with coffee brewing innovation.

Is there any labeling indicating specific coffee processing methods consumers could find in the market?

There are no such labelings as of yet as this science and equipment is in a very early phase. The equipment actually must be developed which processes coffee for flavor rather than for commodity and consistency.

We are developing equipment at Ninety Plus Gesha Estates in Panama, including a solar profile dryer called Solkiln™.

That's very forward-looking Joseph! And we can't wait to taste more new NP product by your innovative processing methods. 

Coffee and the environment

Last but not least, one question that concerns me as of coffee planting is its ecological impact to the environment. Luckily Joseph gave me a very relieving answer...:)

"The way we produce coffee is non-intensive. The best coffee flavor actually results from coffee which matures slowly, under the shade of forest. Yields are much lower, but quality and higher market price can drive conservation and improvements in the environment where Ninety Plus coffees are grown. At our farm in Panama, we are replanting and stewarding forest with our coffee."

Ninety Plus Gesha Estate

Thank you very much, Joseph Brodsky of Ninety Plus Coffee, for sharing valuable producer's insights to us end customers. We now have much more understanding to coffee other than just the presentation as in Cappuccino or Espresso, but the whole universe of flavors and processing methods to come to the coffee at the end.

Learn more and engage with Ninety Plus Coffee here.

Ninety Plus Coffee in Hong Kong

If you are interested in having a cup of NP's coffee in Hong Kong, I recommend you to visit this modest yet surprising cafe in Mongkok. You could also buy home-roasted or green coffee there:

Knockbox coffee company
G/F, 21 Hak Po Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon