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: Cannery

Mmmm.. how I love the aroma of the Lobster Oil at the Cannery.
The drive into the restaurant builds up anticipation as you drive through the cargoes, you feel like you are in the middle of an action film, you have to pass on a secret code to an intercom at the entrance, driving through hundreds, if not thousands of cargoes.

As you arrive at the restaurant, you find yourself in what appears to be the inside of a fishing boat, with nets and anchors at the entrance. You have a gorgeous view of the water and a relaxing atmosphere that makes it very comforting while you dine.

As you are seated, a basket of bread is placed in front of you, the server comes along and pours out a orange oil, take a deep breath, is that lobster? Yes. Their renowned lobster oil. I cannot get enough of it. I usually stuff myself up before my appetizer comes.

We went for the Dine-Out Vancouver promotion a few years ago. Good timing for me to introduce them now as they are now taking reservations for Dine-Out this year. (I know, I am missing out!)

We started with the Roasted Parsnip and Fennel Soup with smoked Queen Charlotte sable fish. The soup was creamy, a little on the rich side, surprisingly the cream soup didn't overpower the fresh flavors from the sable fish.

The other entree we ordered was the Ahi-Tuna Carpaccio seasoned with wild paprika, lemon gelee, chili oil and avocado salad. Very fresh and the tuna was grilled ever-so-lightly, keeping the juices and freshness. Mmm.. sooo good.. The chili oil was an excellent choice.

The main courses just stole the show.

1.) Grilled Swordfish Filet brushed with arugula and almond pesto, chipotle pepper sauce.
- Meaty texture accented well with the sauce, I love how the flavours aren't too strong, hey, it's healthy too!

2.) Slow-cooked Pork Shank glazed with tandoori demi, served with tiger prawns, sesame seeds and cilantro.
- Sooooo tender and the tandoori sauce was such an excellent choice instead of the usual boring sauces.

3.) Grilled BC Salmon over oyster mushrooms and baby shrimp in a scallion basil cream sauce.
- The salmon steak was a medium rare. Didn't ask for my preference but that is what I always prefer. I loved it. The sauce wasn't that good to be honest, I didn't think the cream sauce was that special, something you could get anywhere, however, I did love the mushrooms.

Desserts...

Orange Cheesecake over coffee crust, semi-sweet chocolate sauce. The cheesecake was far too heavy, and not very orangey. I prefer my crust crispy, unfortunately theirs was not.

Velvet Chocolate Tower filled with brandied cherries and raspberry coulis. The name and description left me with high expectations of an actual "tower", turns out to be a regular-sized dessert. Chocolate mousse on the outside, was not exactly "filled with brandied cherries", but chocolate was rich. Can't go wrong with chocolate.

Their prices are reasonable relative to other restaurants in the same category. Overall, the Cannery is one of the best in Vancouver in terms of everything... it is unfortunate that this place is relocating in 2010, I've got to return before then.

VANCOUVER: Brunch @ Feenies

How I miss my regular brunches at Feenies... or my hair appointments at Marcus J (located right beside Feenies). Sometimes would go for the unhealthy choice of Feenies Weenie or the Burger... but for breakfast food, I really like their Salmon Blini.
The yolk is raw on the inside but with a well-done egg-white, so that the egg yolk doesn't break easily. The English muffin is warm and has a crispy crust and I love how the shower the blini with salmon roe. Adds a very interesting texture to the dish. The smoked salmon is fresh, going exquisitely with the Hollandaise sauce. Yumm... my mouth is getting watery just from looking at the picture.

The Roast Beef Rye Sandwich is also one of my favorites for brunch. Toasted rye bread with avocado, tomatoes and lettuce with a side salad greens. Healthy and fresh for a Sunday (hangover) morning. It helps that the Rye bread is so moist.

HONG KONG: Brunch at Amber

Brunch at Amber at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental has never disappointed me. With their free flow of Veuve Clicquot, and their unlimited dessert buffet with their very own chocolate sommelier(Max) fixing up your dose of sweets for the day. Something surely not to be missed. The managers and servers there are very knowledgeable, providing excellent service, maintaining a smile and professionalism at all times.
Brunch Hours: Sat and Sun 11:00-3:00pm.

Parma Ham Taster

Although I'm not a huge fan, they had a pretty good selection and boy, does the presentation impress?

Tomato Confit

This on the other hand was a tasty and appetizing gazpacho. Refreshing and sweet. The serving wasn't too generous though, it was gone in two small sips.

Pan-fried foie gras with poached rhubarb and hibiscus and black pepper coulis

There are some dishes that I would probably prefer in a smaller scale restaurant, such as their foie gras, not one of the best but of course, still above average. The seasoning was near perfect, it was rather the texture where I had my doubts. The outside was not crispy enough, while the inside was amazing, melting in your mouth as you would expect.

Tasmanian Salmon

Tasmanian salmon - confit smoked and served warm. The generous hunk of salmon had a thin crispy skin, while the texture of uncooked smoked salmon, but it was warm, soft and tender.

Wagyu Beef

All I've got to say is that this was one of the best I've ever tried. Ordered it twice (Hence the two different platings)

Black Cod

Black Cod melted in your mouth, although it's not too flavorful, the texture made up for it. The garlic foam made a nice addition to the fish.

Dessert Selection included chocolate cake, creme brulee & macarons, opera, lemon tart, blue berry cheese cake, chocolate fondue(dark, milk, white), bread pudding and specialty chocolate milk, made by the chocolate sommelier.

Max

His station

Desserts: