Recipe: Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes for Sunday breakfast

I enjoy the luxury of waking up late on Sundays, and pampering myself and family with a hearty brunch. Sometimes when I feel too lazy to get dressed and go out for yum-cha / brunch, easy breakfast food comes up my mind and playing with the variations of eggs, pancakes and yogurt parfaits are always such morning bliss :)

Some days ago, I got to buy some nice-looking blueberries which inspired me to make these yummy blueberry yogurt pancakes from the superfruit, share with you here my recipe and plentiful of antioxidants for your super-morning on Sunday!

Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

Pancakes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 lemon (optional)

Garnishing (measures depend on use- totally up to you!)

• Blueberries
• Blueberry yogurt
• Plain yogurt (optional)
• Maple syrup / honey
• Icing sugar

Method:

• Preheat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat
• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well in the center
• In a separate bowl, beat together egg, milk and oil
• Pour milk mixture into flour mixture. Beat until smooth 
• Add in lemon zest and juice for extra flavor (optional)
• Pour the batter slowly onto the hot griddle, size as desired
• Brown on both sides and serve hot 

• Garnish your pancakes free-style with yogurt, blueberries, syrup and icing sugar, enjoy!

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Let this pancake dish charge you up to cheer for your team in the London 2012 Olympic games!

London 2012 Olympic games Live broadcast schedule on 5/8/2012:
4:30pm - 7:30pm (TVB Pearl)
Volleyball - Women's Preliminary Group B China Vs Korea
Table Tennis - Men's Team QF
Athletics - Women's Marathon
Badminton – Men’s Singles Bronze Medal Match

8:00pm - 11:00pm (aTV World)
Badminton- Men's Singles Gold
Badminton-Men's Doubles Gold
Gymnastic-Artistic-Men's Floor Exercise Final
Gymnastic-Artistic-Women's Vault Final
Gymnastic-Artistic-Men's Pommel Horse Final
Weightlifting-Women's +75kg Group A     
 
11:00pm - 2:00am (TVB Pearl)
Weightlifting - Women's +75kg Group A
Tennis - Men's Single Gold Medal Match
Cycling - Track-Men's Omnium 1km Time Trial Finals

2:00am - 5:00am (aTV World)
Diving-Women's 3m Springboard Final
Athletics-Women's Triple Jump Final
Athletics-Men's 100m Semifinals
Athletics-Men's 1500m Semifinals
Athletics-Men's Hammer Throw Final
Athletics-Men's 400m Semifinals
Athletics-Women's 400m Final
Athletics-Men's 3000m Steeplechase Final
Athletics-Men's 100m Finals        

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Craft Beers discovery continues...

Been writing about craft beers and so happened that hanging out at two beer bar & restaurants enlivened my weekend just nice~

Friday night-
The signature Beer Can Chicken and beer cocktails at "The Roundhouse" were sensational. This new restaurant was formerly the Manchester Bar Restaurant and anyhow, the successor has proven to be as gimmicky for Hong Kong people, well, foodies in particular. We were there in a group of 4 and were all fascinated by the creativity of their cocktails, especially their beer cocktails. The recipes are actually simple but the visual presentation could call out the inner child of an overworked girl on a Friday night >v<

(From left) English Tea Martini, Lovely Peach, Beergarita, My friend's fav blue and my fav 1664 blanc

Okay...for guys, there are also over 70 types of micro-brews (craft beers) to choose from, to satisfy the most curious type. I especially like the way they take their bar offerings serious by having an iPhone app to introduce every beer and cocktail on their menu, incl. the tasting notes - clap clap for it!

Roundhouse iPhone app

Food-wise, the selection is pretty friendly and decent, in terms of quality over price. Most items on the menu are of portions to share. The juicy and aromatic Beer Can Chicken comes in whole for $185 while a hearty California Cobb Salad costs $108. Together with a chicken wings platter (a dozen for $88), cheese fries and a Six-Cheese pizza (what a nice surprise for a cheese lover used to having 4-cheeses! $128), 4 of us walked out the door after a long night chat with full stomach without breaking the bank haha!

Anticipated enough, The Roundhouse has now taken a place in my list of the best craft beer bars in town~

The Roundhouse - No. 36 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

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Saturday night-

Got an invitation from the owner of Stone's to their craft beer event co-organized by the Hop Leaf HK (a craft beer importer) and GeoExpat. 

Tai Hang Block Party - Presented by Hop Leaf HK & GeoExpat @ Stone's

The rain didn't seem to wash away the passion for craft beers of many expats and locals in town. It was a full house coming into sight when I arrived, people each sipping on different bottles from Rogue (Oregon, USA) / North Coast (California, USA) / Baird (Numazu, Japan). 

With an entrance of $150, I got a bottle of craft beer of choice and a small buffet of appetizers provided by the host venue. Kevin (one of Stone's owners) recommended the Numazu Lager by Baird which has a light overall sweetness without being too hoppy or bitter (forgive my totally unprofessional tasting note, it works just fine for myself tho). The Hazelnut Brown Nectar by Rogue was also a tasty one, but for your info, don't expect the same from its name coz it has nothing to do with 'nectar' :P It has a nutty and malty palate, quite exceptional!

I had a good time with my good friend over good beers and good food :) Nice one! Hop Leaf and Stone's!

Stone's - G/F, China Tower, 1-9 Lin Fa Kung West St., Tai Hang, Causeway Bay

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Recipe: Homemade Yuzu-Orange Sorbet - Coooool

Just went thru a whole series of laughter and tears watching a Korean drama - Rooftop Prince (屋塔房王世子), totally given my heart to this endearing and yet funny plot. While I was overwhelmed by this ancient and modern Korean romance flurry, apart from busy google-ing Park Yu-chun (朴有天), I was also well inspired to come up with this refreshing summer yuzu treat as a tribute - haha!

Yuzu Honey

Yuzu, 柚子, a small yellow grapefruit originated in East Asia. A famous product of it is Yuzu Honey, which is basically thinly sliced yuzu mixed with sugar and honey that is to make yuzu tea by adding water

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Here it is - a nice simple recipe to cool down your summer~

Yuzu-Orange Sorbet (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:
4 teaspoons yuzu honey (from supermarket, of course!)
3 oranges
2 cups water
1 cup sugar (I personally prefer less)
1/2 lemon
A pinch of basil (optional)

Yummy creamy Yuzu-Orange Sorbet :)

Method:
1. In a saucepan, stir together water and sugar. Bring to a  boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool. 

2. Stir in yuzu honey and basil while the sugar water is still warm

3. While cooling down the mixture, squeeze the juice out from 3 oranges, leave some orange pulp inside the juice for the texture

4. Filter the saucepan mixture, try to leave some yuzu slices to the filtered mixture

5. Mix the orange juice with the cooled mixture

6. Freeeeze!

7. Stab and crash the mixture when it becomes semi-solid (around 7 hours, as experimented), continue to freeze

8. When completely frozen, pour into blender to blend until creamy and smooth, then freeze again (as it would melt down a bit during blending)

9. Enjoy :)

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How nice would it be watching Rooftop Prince together with your loved one/ones, licking sorbet and laughing together :)

Rooftop Prince (屋塔房王世子)!! Highly recommended!

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Panorama bar near Nathan Road - Jewel in a Boutique

Surprises bubble up every now and then if you keep you eyes and mind open - this time I am talking about a cozy rooftop panorama bar housed in a new boutique hotel in Jordan, Madera (a.k.a.木的地酒店). If all you want is a little quiet place in the middle of the vibrant Kowloon, with astonishing view and a friendly bar-tender at your service, you may find the Panorama Lounge an oasis in the concrete surroundings.

The Panorama Lounge is located on the 29/F of the hotel building with a living room size lounge bar area with living room setting (couches and plasma TV...what else do you need? Yea, the bar of course!). Walk up the stairs to the rooftop, you will be wowed by the unique panorama view of the Kowloon peninsula plus HK Island just a stone's throw away from our usual viewpoint from TST. Like my friend would say, one can't usually see the Nathan Road that straight from close. Haha it makes no sense but when I looked at it, I couldn't agree more!

The bar-tender was nice and thoughtful but he was about to move on and work at another bar in TST by the time I visited - good luck! Anyway, this bar is kind of family style so whichever you name, as long as the ingredient is available, you'll get it.

So I got my Cosmopolitan with a luscious squeeze of the lit lemon skin (so as to release the lemon oil) - such a long-lasting savor! We also got some other cocktails out from creativity. The best thing was to watch the bar-tender's skills and chat along.

Litting up the lemon skin

After cocktails, it was close to the closing time at 11:30pm, Mr. bar-tender was itching to show his skills again~ and made us some dangerous shooters!! Olala!

Panorama Lounge at Madera is generally a great venue for private parties - which can comfortably accommodate approx. 20 pax at the 'living room' plus rooftop. Check its website for details. Cheers!

Madera - 1 Cheong Lok Street, Jordan, Kowloon+852 2121 9888

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Craft beers and top beer bars in Hong Kong

Something that catches my attention these days is the rising popularity of craft beers in Hong Kong. Craft beers are defined as beers produced by small, independent and traditional breweries (Brewers Association). They are made with traditional ingredients like malted barley, and often added with interesting and sometimes non-traditional ingredients - for their magical and distinctive kicks.

Jonathan So organized the first ever Beertopia! craft beer tasting event in Hong Kong this April featuring some major craft beer vendors locally and introduced over 90 craft beers from 10 countries. They are still organizing smaller events now and then, so stay tuned with Beertopia! Or if you wish to find your favorite bars for craft beers, keep on reading this post!

Beertopia! Hong Kong Western Market 2012

There has been extensive travel/city reviews covering great beer places in HK, like CNNGo's Best Hong Kong beer purveyors highlighting and reviewing a rising number of craft beers found in town, and TimeOut Hong Kong's Best bars for beer in Hong Kong's useful list of bars with descriptions down to the essence (but note it's been slightly outdated already).

PartyStuff's Beer Bar List is going to be a constant update with a condensed summary of beer bars reviews plus some of my personal recommendations. Hope it could help plan your beer bar crawl in Hong Kong with more fun - enjoy! ;)

Central 

The Globe - 45 Graham St., Central [menu]

Recommended: Hong Kong's largest selection of 12 beers on tap and over 100 bottled craft beers including the rich and chocolaty Fullers London Porter; the crisp, hoppy Thornbridge Jaipur IPA and Theakston Old Peculier, a bittersweet old ale with hints of dried fruit.

Cochrane’s - 46 Cochrane St., Central [menu]

Recommended: About 50 beer choices (one of the El Grande bars) and some special rum cocktails

Frites Central - 1/F Queen's Place, 74 Queen's Road Central (entrance on Pottinger St.)

Recommended: Frites has the widest selection of Belgian Beers (over 70) in HK including famous ones by Trappist monks - characterized by its robust flavor, full-body and high alcohol brews, and some rare brews like Artevelde and Montagnarde.

Hong Kong Brew House - 21 D’Aguilar St., Lan Kwai Fong, Central [menu]

Recommended: Fullers London Pride and Organic Honey Dew beers on tap (an El Grande bar)

The Keg - 52 D'Aguilar St., Lan Kwai Fong, Central [menu]

Recommended: Some special beers like the Canadian Tankhouse Ale, Australian Monteiths at this Canadian-themed bar resembling a large barrel

The Beer Bay (Beer stall with no seating) - Central Ferry Pier 3 

Recommended: Old Speckled Hen, a creamy, malty English pale ale; Durham St. Cuthbert, a hoppy, citrusy American-style IPA from England; Brew Dog, a bitter, edgy ale from a Scottish brewery and its many other bottled craft beers same as The Globe for half the price!

Wan Chai

Trafalgar - 5/F, 62 Lockhart Road, The Broadway, Wan Chai [menu]

Recommended: On tap- Marston’s Pedigree, an English Pale Ale, and the sweet, floral Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc on tap; Bottled- over 60 bottles of English beers, Castle Rock Elsie Mo, a hoppy, fruity summer beer, or Wells Bombardier, with malty biscuit notes are worth trying.

The Canny Man - Basement, Wharney Guang Dong Hotel, 57-73 Lockhart Road, Wan Chai [menu]

Recommended: Total Scottish experience - try its Caledonian Scottish ale 

Hop House - Shop 14, 1/F, Causeway Centre, 28 Harbour Road, Wanchai [menu]

Recommended: De Koninck and Vedett from Belgium are exclusively on tap (an El Grande bar)

Frites Wan Chai - Shop 6, 1/F, Causeway Centre, 28 Harbour Raod, Wan Chai   

Recommended: See Frites Central 

Slim’s - 1 Wing Fun St., Wan Chai [menu]

Again, another bar of El Grande's with over 40 micro-brew craft beers

 The Pawn - 62 Johnston Road, Wan Chai

Recommended: This heritage building has been turned into an epicures' dining room with some fine beers but obviously not their main trade

King Ludwig Beerhall - Shops 1 & 2 G/F, Hopewell Centre, 183 Queen's Road East, Wanchai

Recommended: Arcobrau Schloss Dunkel, a German dark beer positioned as a 'dark lager' with a lighter body than a stout like Guiness, but it's highly drinkable with a slight sweetness. 

Causeway Bay 

East End Brewery - Sunning Plaza, 10 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay [menu]

Recommended: A list of over 60 local and imported craft beers, in a peanut shells surroundings (an El Grande bar)

Inn Side Out - Sunning Plaza, 10 Hysan Avenue, Causeway Bay [menu]

Right next to East End Brewery under the El Grande group with similar menu 

Tai Hang

Stone's - G/F, China Tower, 1-9 Lin Fa Street West, Tai Hang

Recommended: Its unique choices of beers including an Irish cream ale, Kilkenny, in draught and some hand picked American micro-brews from Ballast Point, North Coast Brewing Co. and Rogue

Happy Valley

Happy Valley Bar and Grill - 38 Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley [menu]

Recommended: Another El Grande bar with the most extensive beer list (over 90) in the district

The Jockey - 33 Wong Nai Chung Road, Happy Valley

Recommended: Boutique Real Ales from the UK and unique Crafted Beers

Island East

Frites Quarry Bay - G/F, Oxford House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road

Recommended: See Frites Central

Tsim Sha Tsui 

The Roundhouse - No. 36 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Recommended: Over 70 craft beers and some beer cocktails that would definitely satisfy your curiosity

Fatt’s Place - 2 Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui [menu]

Recommended: A similar choice of over 70 micro-brews as other El Grande bars, good to go for its pizzas and other food as well

Tequila Jack's - 33-35 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui [menu]

Recommended: Mexican beers including Bohemia, with a clean malty aroma and a touch of sweetness and fruitiness.

Bahamas Mama - 4 Knutsford Terrrace, Tsim Sha Tsui 

Recommended: This Caribbean themed beach bar wins my heart with its decor and my favorite Edelweiss Weissbier. Otherwise, beer choices are quite standard.

King Ludwig Beerhall - Shop No. 32, KCR East Tsim Sha Tsui Station

Recommended: See King Ludwig Beerhall, Wan Chai

Yuen Long

Biere von Irene - Shop 17B, 7-25 Yau San St., Yuen Long

Recommended: An unusual and unique beer place exclusively (in HK) with Rogue on tap; and Sanmichlaus, a doppelbock with 14% alcohol from the thousand-year-old Austrian brewer - Eggenberg. Totally worth the traveling to this district!

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Updated on 24/6/2012

Recipe: Lobster mango layer salad - summer love!

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To cook for Mother's Day, I ordered a "Mother's Day package" from an online seafood/meat store Ocean Three. It came with a dozen of Australian Coffin Bay oysters, 2 US sirloins, 2 US ribeyes, and 2 cooked lobsters. Beef steak is a standard business so all I concerned were the cooked lobsters. So, I came up with a delicious Lobster Mango Salad and here it was my recipe:

Lobster Mango Salad (serves 4)

Ingredients:

2 lobsters (cooked in whole and chilled)
4 mangoes (diced)
1 cucumber (diced)
1 red bell pepper (diced)
1/2 potato (as round bodied as possible- cooked and chilled)
1/4 red onion (optional - diced)
Approx.45g Camembert cheese (optional)
A handful of parsley (chopped)
A shake of dried basil (optional) 
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
Approx. 35ml olive oil
2 lemons (juice)
2 limes (juice)
Salt & pepper for seasoning

Special equipments:

Food processor (blender)

Food shaper (for plating - could DIY)

Method:

1. Cook the whole lobsters and potato, set aside for cooling, then refrigerate for later use

2. Dice and chop the indicated ingredients above (put them in separate bowls, refrigerate when done with cutting)
3. Take out around 1 mango's dices, put in the food processor, then add in olive oil, 1/2 lemon's juice, lemon zest, 1 lime's juice, some chopped parsley, basil, salt & pepper --> blend till smooth!

4. Take out the meat from the lobsters - tear off head first, pull out claws, use scissors to cut along the tummy part to help pull off the body&tail's meat, crack the claws and carefully take out the beautiful claw shaped meat. Cut the body into smaller pieces, leave the claws in whole
5. Season the diced ingredients with lemon & lime juice, salt& pepper; mix in some chopped parsley into the cucumber dices



6. Plating time! Lay out your plates in line, put a shaper on each plate - we will do 4 plates in the same time
7. Peel the skin off your potato, slice out 4 50mm-thick pieces from the fattest part. Place one slice in each plate as a bottom center-piece
8. Layer the dices one on top of another (the sequence is up to you - just avoid using mango at the bottom as they are too slippery to slide off by the weight on top)
9. Give a gentle press after each layer to fit into shape
10. Drop a tablespoon of smooth mango coulee (the blended mixture) on top after layering



11. Place a few pieces of lobster meat on the mango coulee
12. Cut a piece of Camembert on, then top with lobster claw meat
13. Remove the food shaper
Voila!

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Things to note:

* Your plating efficiency depends on how many shapers and table space you have - the more the faster

* The dices have to be small so that they could fit tighter together inside the shaper

* There are so many variations with this dish - try to replace lobster by shrimp, or add a little red onion to spice up the red bell pepper

* To DIY food shaper, make a cardboard ring of your desired diameter of about 2.5 inches thick, covered smoothly with aluminum foil/ plastic wrap

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Party idea:

Lobster mango salad is a lovely treat for summer - for the eyes and the taste buds. It's pretty manageable to make this delicious and healthy salad for your group of friends as an afternoon treat!

Bon appetit!

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Happy Mother's Day!

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Happy Mother's Day to every awesome mom in the world! 

M-O-T-H-E-R

"M" is for the million things she gave me,

"O" means only that she's growing old,

"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,

"H" is for her heart of purest gold;

"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,

"R" means right, and right she'll always be,

Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"

A word that means the world to me.

- By Howard Johnson

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Restaurant Review: Zone D Ristorante

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Zone D Ristorante

 - 4/F 16 Matheson Street,Causeway Bay, Hong Kong - 

Tel: 98025504 / 92110897

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ZONE-D/96318747610

My uni friends and I booked a table of 6 at Zone D and had a nice gathering last night :) Zone D (in Chinese: 兄弟私房菜, fair enough ;D) is an Italian private kitchen conveniently located in a tong lau building nearby Times Square, CWB. Filled with anticipation, one still needs to endure a climb of 4-storeys up the stairs to reach this gourmet wonderland. 

We made our menu choice by email during reservation beforehand, so all we did was to sit back and enjoy our time through this 5-course meal.

1st course-Appetizer: Beef Carpaccio

This beef carpaccio was thicker sliced than my cognitive knowledge of the paper-thin beef carpaccio. Surprisingly, the taste was superb as it was a very nice flavored beef well cured by the crusting seasonings. With shredded Parmesan cheese topping and my favorite rockets, it was heaven.

2nd course-Soup: Mushroom soup

A nice blended mushroom soup with a little spoonful of truffle to stir in. I love the texture of the soup as there are tiny bits of chewy mushroom in it which was perfect. The taste was a bit on the flat side even though truffles were added (the truffle was not of the strongest perfume neither). The architecture of the dish scored high by the distinctive culinary skills of the chef, my highest respect for the little details.

3rd course-Pasta: Prawn Linguine with Tomato Sauce

Every ingredient in this dish blend in well with each other which was exceptional. The linguine was of perfect cooking time, prawns were good, the sauce and seasonings were awesome.

4th course-Main: Grilled Cod Fish with Fresh Tomato Salsa

This was a better main course choice than the other two (Grilled spring chicken & grilled short rib steak) in my opinion. The fish fillet was perfectly cooked which was still juicy and tender. The tomato salsa crust was magical as the cherry tomato were kept juicy and aromatic while the tomato flavored crunchy bread crumbs stayed dry surrounding the whole juicy baby. Highly recommend!

5th course-Dessert: Creme Brulee

A little bit disappointing I would say, as I always have high expectation on creme brulees from restaurants.The caramel crust which is supposed to give a contrasting texture to the creamy base while keeping unity of the whole thing was too thick... The custard part was on the sturdy side as well...It would also have been better with more vanilla taste and a creamier base :)

Overall, it was a very satisfying dinner with a good price (HK$350 for 5-courses incl. service+free corkage for the 1st bottle). We had a wonderful time in the cozy Zone-D. We will definitely come back :)

Additional Information:

For Private Party booking: Minimum spending HK$7,000, menu is negotiable to customize choices

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Mother's Day gift ideas - Hot Picks 2012

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As a continued episode for Mother's Day 2012 ideas -- I have hand-picked some gift choices around town that I wished I had unlimited budget to buy them all for my mom to make her the luckiest mom in the world~ Before I am able to do that, let's stay down to earth to choose the best heart-warming Mother's Day gift from below.

So, here are some ideas for different unique moms - Drum-rolls please-

For the sassy moms...

- Pandora bracelet - HK$2,500 up (Refer to the design below)

Something to make someone think of you all the time - something wearable! Your mom would undoubtedly have you in heart every minute and second. This mother & daughter bond will surely grow stronger when you sit together with your mom designing a bracelet together on Pandora's interactive website. The more charms it has, the pricier it goes.
There are also Mother's Day special charms available (middle of the photo below- Mother & daughter heart charms separable into two bracelets!)

Designed by Tracy Wong - Click here to build your own - Fun!

Here's a screen cap demo on using the designer program :)

Available at: 

Island: Queen's Road Central Flagship Store | IFC Mall | Fashion Walk Causeway Bay | Harvey Nichols Pacific Place  

Kowloon: Elements | Langham Place | Grand Century Plaza | Festival Walk | APM

New Territories: Shatin New Town Plaza

Pandora website

 *****

 - MAC LOOK bracelet - A less costly option - HK$300-1,500

 If you don't want to opt for deluxe Murano glass and k-gold charms, a friendlier option for 'Build-your-own' bracelet goes to MAC LOOK. A local brand providing a selection of 4 lines of jewellery for different styles. 
You could go to one of its various sales outlets with a budget and design your own unique bracelet/ring/necklace. One point to note, every design of charm has a limited offer so you may not expect to find everything you want at one store.

Available at:

Island: Sogo Causeway Bay | City Super Times Square

Kowloon: Langham Place | APM | Sogo TST | City Super Harbour City | Log On Festival Walk 

New Territories: City Super Shatin New Town Plaza

MAC LOOK website

*****

 - Swarovski Alana Heart Pendant - Mother's sweetheart - HK$1,320

Swarovski is ladies' all-time favorite. This soft and glittery rhodium-plated pendant with pink shades will melt your mother's heart instantly.

Available at:

Island: Central Building | IFC Mall | Fashion Walk Causeway Bay

Kowloon: Grand Century Plaza | APM | Harbour City | Canton Road | Festival Walk 

New Territories: Airport | Airport Wesr

Swarovski website

*****

For the beauty moms...

- Dior Addict Extreme Lipstick - HK$260

The new collection of Dior's is a non-resistible fashion item in a woman's handbag. It's available in 12 radiant shades of colors, with a perfect hold wet-look texture. Make your mom shine with Dior's light at work, at ladies nights and family gatherings.

 Extreme by Dior website

Available at:

Island: Apita Taikoo Shing | Harvey Nichols Pacific Place | Sogo Causeway Bay | Wing On Main Store Sheung Wan | Harvey Nichols The Landmark | Lane Crawford Times Square

Kowloon: Harvey Nichols The One | Festival Walk | Elements | Sogo TST | Telford Plaza | Seibu Langham Place | Wing On Plus Nathan Road | Lane Crawford Canton Road

New Territories: Citistorre Tsuen Wan | Popcorn Tseung Kwan O | New Town Plaza

*****

 - Urban Rituelle Botanical Body Scrub - HK$360 (400gm)

This Australian based body care brand is all about simplicity, quality and indulgence. Its Flourish Organic series comes with two major scents - Lemongrass and Vanilla - each with a collection of hand lotion, lip balm, body cream and body scrub. All are made of a blend of organic ingredients that bring you to the highest skin and sensual indulgence with a natural touch. Mother's Day hampers are also offered at special price.

Urban Rituelle website

Available at:

Walk On Water - 2/F, 14 Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay

WOW Facebook page

Editorial note: Walk On Water (a.k.a WOW) is a nice-to-stroll-by upstairs fashion boutique offering mostly European brand and an increasing portion of HK local fashion. Let's have a peek at its stylish shop decors

*****

 For the cooking moms...
 

- Alessi 3-tier cake stand - HK$2,800

This sleek and high-end Italian kitchen gadget will accomplish your mom chef's cooking fantasies. Three tiers of stainless steel cake stand has limitless possibilities whether to accommodate an afternoon high tea set, a sandwich collection, a cupcake feast, a chocolate and truffle display, fruit & yogurt dips...

Available at:

ALESSI Stores 

Shop 247, 2/F Prince's Building, Central

Shop 3230a, Gateway Arcade, Kowloon

Shop 103, Grand Central Plaza, Shatin 

Selected Dealer

7/F, SOGO Causeway Bay

ALESSI Website

*****

- Pantry Magic - A Kitchenware Paradise


It's a comprehensive kitchenware store located in Sheung Wan, a few steps down from the famous Upper Lascar Row for Chinese antiques. Once you enter, you will be overwhelmed by the colorful world of kitchen tools, platters, cake molds, cheese clothes, aprons, pots and pans etc. Apart from its complete color spectrum inside the store, it also has a pretty complete collection of cake tools and bake wares (well I say 'pretty complete' just because I, as an unprofessional kitchen user, am better to stay on the conservative side - correct me if you please).
Prices are fair, I was actually quite surprised that things are not overly priced in a fancy store like this - even comparable to those in Shanghai Street! (Check out my previous post - I love to play with food - if you want to know more about kitchen supply stores in HK) Go have a walk in the historic Western district and have a look at this cute store :)

Pantry Magic - G/F, 25 Lok Ku Rd, Central

Pantry Magic website 

*****

Want more gift ideas? Check out my Pinterest - Blog Images PartyStuff Hong Kong pin board where I have pinned some more gifts from some more stores! 

Enjoy shopping for your mom!

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Buy Meat Online! - cook a special meal on Mother's day

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Mother's Day is an inner struggle for working children in Hong Kong - you want to give your beloved mom an incredible special surprise, however, your long working hours won't allow effective shopping by the stores' closing times. It's a blessing that there are e-catalogs and e-commerce for most of the things we need (altho the choices are not as comprehensive in HK as compared to the US) - at least it saves us that few hours walk after work spread out in 5 days in search for a perfect gift :P

To celebrate Mother's Day, nothing is better than cooking a special meal for your special her. If a 'heart-shaped' beef steak could win the heart of your romantic valentine, a 'Sesame and Pepper seared Tenderloin' would definitely win the heart of your food-savvy mother.

Sesame and Pepper seared Tenderloin (Serving 4)

Photo & recipe provided by Pacific Gourmet Hong Kong

Ingredients:

4 Fillet Steaks by Donald Russell – 200 grams each
20g Sesame Seeds
5g Black Pepper (crushed)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
10g Butter

For the Leek and Cream Sauce:

400g Leek (white part only- cut into thin slices)
100ml Double Cream
100ml Moredough Chicken Stock
50mls White Wine
10g Millel Parmesan (grated)

Method:
1. Begin by making the leek and cream sauce. Place the leek, cream, stock and wine into a pan and bring to the boil.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes, then add the parmesan and season to taste with salt. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Allow the meat to come to room temperature and pat dry with kitchen paper.
4. Heat the oil and butter together in a large frying pan..
5. Combine the sesame seeds and pepper and press the mixture onto each side of the tenderloins, covering to your liking.
6. For medium rare; cook each tenderloin over a high heat for 3 minutes on the first side and 2 minutes on the second side. Rest for 4 minutes in a warm place before serving.
7. Arrange the rested medallions on preheated plates with the leek and cream sauce.
8. Serve with steamed rice or boiled new potatoes.

(Recipe by Pacific Gourmet)

Buying Meat Online - Meat supplier recommendations

There is rising number of online butchers in recent years. Here are a few which provide one-stop service from choosing the meat, the cut, the condiments, the recipes, to finally the delivery straight to your home or office address. 

Meatmarket.hk 

- $$$ - 

• Same day delivery from Mon-Fri;
• Clear website layout of cuts and styles; 
• You choose the dishes you want to cook instead of pieces of meat; 
• Safe vacuum packaging, available to deliver even to your office 

Categories: Meat, Game, Seafood, Bakery, Pasta, Sausages, Cheese, Fresh Produce - Source mostly from Australia 

Pacific Gourmet Online 

- $$ - 

• Wide choice of meat cuts and other products;
• Decent quality with reasonable price

Categories: Meat, Seafood, Bakery, Cheese, Seasonings, Wine, Party Food - Source mostly from Australia

Hing Lung Food Place Limited
- $ - 

• Lower minimum order to get free delivery; 
• Provides food marinade service;
• Good price for party level quality if not looking for top-tier quality

Categories: Meat, Seafood, Hotpot & BBQ food - International source

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