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

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

Islamic halal food in Xinjiang/Chinese style- this famous halal beef dumpling(清真牛肉餅) is prepared in batches fresh off the frying pan, it would keep you drooling long enough before taking a juicy bite :) yum!

Islam Food
Address: 1 Lung Kong Road, Kowloon City
Tel: 2382 2822