SANYA: Hainan Attack at China Harvest

Yea Yea.. I know, it couldn't have been the best English name they came up with, but China Harvest it is. To introduce Sanya, it is known as a tropical destination for lovers, golfers and those in Asia that need a cheap getaway.  It's located at the Southernmost part of China, providing ample fresh seafood to the city daily.  This restaurant however, was a change from the days of seafood we had previously. Located in the Hilton Hotel, China Harvest being their only Chinese restaurant, serving an abundance of 8 different Chinese cuisines, namely Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Canton, Hunan, Fujian and Anhui.  This restaurant was recommended by 3 friends when they were told I was going to Sanya, so I saved this for my last day there.

As we entered the restaurant, we had to pass through a little courtyard and a fountain with a big water buffalo statue. The area was a nice little addition to the restaurant, a transition from a 5 star hotel ambiance to an entirely different setting.  The setting was modern yet very traditional at the same time, with a bamboo garden in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by glass, square chandeliers hang from the ceilings covered with sheer rose gold cloth and blood red drapings hemming the whole restaurant. The table settings were exquisitely set up with gold and red with a cute pot of dried red peppers as the centre piece.

To cover their variety of different Chinese cuisines, we apt for dim sum, a main dish and fried rice; for two, that's already quite a feast for lunch!

We ordered two dim sum, one is the barbeque bun and the other is a fried dumpling with veggies and pork. They were both made very well, especially the fried dumpling. The crispyness broke off as you chewed it, not leaving any space for it to be soggy, and the filling was flavourful, veggies were still crunchy. But other than that, it was JUST dim sum, didn't exactly tickle my fancy.

For the main, we ordered Wenchang chicken, which is authentic Hainan cuisine. (By the way, did you know Hainan chicken rice originated from Thailand, and using "Hainan" was just the name?) Wenchang chicken is the authentic Hainan chicken and it's nothing like the Thai kind, with the green onion sauce.

Anyways. the Wenchang chicken is the breed of chicken, it's quite fleshy(chubby chickie) and considerably smaller, fed with coconut and peanut bran, giving the chicken quite a nice fragrance and more plump but not too greasy.

Our Wenchang Chicken was boiled and served with Ginger sauce and cold. I don't know whether it was just made really well or the chicken was just really tasty. The white meat was juicy but not greasy, delicious! I was a little worried that I hyped up the restaurant a little too much, but I wasn't disappointed!

Now the next one I must say is "ZE BEST"! It was fried rice covered with a thick sauce. I am having troubles deciding on how/where to start. The sauce had pork pieces, Gailan vegetables, Chinese mushrooms and shrimp. The shrimp was fresh (Seafood city), and the veggies gave it the right amount of texture to the soupy rice.  I am starting to drool, just thinking about it.

China Harvest, 1/Fl, Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, Yalong Bay, Sanya

Opened 11:30-10pm daily
Average cost for lunch: RMB$100-$150/person

HONG KONG: High Tea at Mandarin Oriental Clipper Lounge

After a long weekend of eating, eating and more eating.. how I can't NOT share?

Now we went to this restaurant quite some while ago, but the comments still linger quite clearly in my head.
For one of our friends birthday, we decided to take her to Mandarin Oriental for their afternoon tea.  We chose Mandarin Oriental because it's somewhere we all haven't been for High tea and that it's a 5-star hotel, renowned as one of the best in Hong Kong, we couldn't go wrong with that! So we arrived at Clipper Lounge precisely at 3:15 as we purposely skipped lunch for this. Instead of the Chocolate tea buffet, we decided that we'd be more elegant and have the food served to us thus we ordered a tea set for 2 to share amongst the three of us. 

Our server was friendly, exactly what you would expect from a 5-star hotel restaurant. Our tea and orange juice were served promptly. After a while, our tea set was served with raisin and plain scones. It looked pretty amazing with three-layers of cakes and pastries. How can any girl not go wide-eyed looking at that? The first layer was colorful, with orange, peach, yellow and green of sandwiches; the second layer was what appeared to be pies, tarts, mainly savoury snacks and the bottom layer were cakes! (Yum!)

We dove right into the first layer, each taking up one of the many colorful pieces; I started with the green (cucumber) one... i spat it out in a second. Who wraps sponge cake with cucumbers, and I thought they were sandwiches!? "Spat" and "spat", I heard and looked up. My fellow friends both spat out theirs as well. And with the same reaction: "Who wraps SALMON/PARMA HAM around sponge cake?" Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Clipper Lounge has succeeded in being innovative: wrapping salmon, Parma ham, cucumber and scrambled egg around creamy sponge cake. It was just a natural reaction to spit it out. We left the other ones untouched.

We washed our palettes with scones and strawberry jam. I must say that, the scones were excellent. It was fluffy, frothy almost, it pretty much dissolved the moment I started chewing. The jam was amazing, it must have been homemade. It was sweet but not artificially, the rose petal jam prominently fresh. I am not a big fan of butter cream, but according to last bit of butter cream left by the time we were done, I'd say it must have been pretty good.

Already disappointed with the tea set, we had to give it another try, thus we moved on to the second layer. This layer consists of pies and tarts. It was considerably better than the first layer but we were all still not impressed with the quality of the food. There was a prawn tart, whereby it was the best thing in the tea set so far. The prawn was fresh and the spices were just right; pastry was acceptable, although a bit soggy.

Eventually after laughing, chatting and catching up, we decided to move on to the bottom layer: desserts! The Blueberry Cheesecake was quite creamy but nothing really that special, the blueberries were quite sweet but not over powering. The granola/carrot cake did not look enticing at all, thus we all decided to skip that one. The chocolate cake, in my opinion is the best. I guess you can't really go wrong with chocolate though, especially when they are doing a chocolate tea buffet. The chocolate ganache was not too sweet, made with the right amount of alcohol, enough to get a hint of the flavour, the chocolate was extremely silky with a dallop of cream on top.

I probably wouldn't recommend this tea set, however the scones and chocolate cake are worth a try.

Clipper Lounge Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 1/Fl, 5 Connaught Road, Central. 2825 4007

Open Daily 3-6pm for Afternoon Tea

VANCOUVER: Diva At the Met (Metropolitan Hotel)

Diva At the Met (Metropolitan Hotel):

Would never have thought of coming this restaurant if not for Dine Out Vancouver. Ever since the first time going to this restaurant, basically, there wasn't a year that I attended this event leaving this restaurant out. Their $35 courses are always worth it, the service always spectacular and the food always fresh and never a disappointment.

Appetizer: Spiced Butternut Squash Velout and confit pork belly, golden raisins & toasted almonds --- Butternut squash is always delicious, the soup was extremely creamy, the confit pork tasted just like bacon bits, however the almonds

Fraser Valley Duck Terrine pickled vegetable salad black pepper gastrique --- The presentation (seen above) was very nicely put together, the salad on the side was blah, the sauce was good but the greens were just blah. The duck terrine was flavorful but a bit on the heavy side, would be nice if it came with bread or crackers.

Leek and Potato Soup with Nutmeg Mousse --- Leek was a bit on the strong side, nonetheless, it went nicely with the nutmeg, mellowing it down just a tad and same with their other soups, creamy!

Entree: Moroccan Spiced, Seared Rare, Ahi Tuna creamy orzo provencal, olive tapenade carrot emulsion --- The Ahi Tuna was seared perfectly, crust was just done and the inside was warm. The carrot emulsion is not a common sauce for Ahi Tuna however it did go very nice with the entree.

Aromatic Braised and Glazed Veal Cheek warm, creamy onion tart thyme-scented jus --- The creamy onion tart thyme was excellent, sauces were great and the veal cheek was not as tender as expected. The greens on the side were a bit on the bland/boring side, plain boiled peas, a little bit of a disappointment. Presentation on the onion tart could be improved, taste was good.

[No picture avail for this one]

Aromatic Braised Short Ribs with sherry vinegar lentils, thyme jus --- Extremely full of flavour and so tender that it could be pulled apart without a knife. *thumbs up*

Wild Forest Mushroom Risotto with parmesan flakes and truffle oil --- The first word that came out of my mouth were "Wow!" A vegetarian dish like this, with flavours so heavily infused, the risotto were cooked just so precisely, tricking your mind into thinking that the whole kitchen just opened up for you. Intense flavour with so much heart put into perfecting this simple yet sumptuous dish.

Dessert: Upside Down Chocolate Souffle topped with Housemade pistachio ice cream --- We were already exorbitantly full by the time we got to this point in the evening and swore to only have bite of the dessert. Boy were we ever wrong. This lava cake was the best I've had, and NO, I'm not a bit exaggerating. I'm not the only one who felt that way about this cake. My company is not a big fan of desserts yet he we were fighting over the last bite of dessert.

Stilton Cheesecake rhubarb compote, port wine glaze --- The port wine glaze was excellent. Cheesecake was not "cheesy" enough.

VANCOUVER: Fleuri @ Sutton Place

I must say... the customer service at this hotel was absolutely phenominal. Our server and the host was very helpful and extremely friendly. They were able to make us feel special. It's a nice restuarant and the layout was quite impressive in itself.

This was the menu. The sweet pea soup was best part of the whole meal. Very rich and smooth all at the same time! The Croque-Monsieur was delicious!

Appetizer: Sweet Pea Soup with Croque-Monsieur provided a dual sensation of smooth yet crispy at the same time!

Entree: Lemon and Oregano Glazed Cornish Hen with Oyster Mushroom Risotto in a Nicoise Olive Jus

Smoked Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin with a Gratin of Sweet Corn and Gorgonzola au Jus

Dessert: Grand Marnier Creme Brulee and Dark Chocolate Marquise with Raspberry Mint Syrup - Now with a duet like this, can't really go wrong. The dark chocolate was rich, paired exquisitely with raspberry mint. Creme Brulee was perfectly made with a very thin layer of caramelized sugar and cold creme brulee, indeed proves to be my favorite dessert.