Torchon French Creperie

It's been so long since I last posted anything here. Apologies. The last time I blogged was a difficult task as I was so tempted to eat everything within my sight after. After a recent trip to KL and meeting with a fellow blogger, I was encouraged to keep blogging and here I am!

One of the drafts that was sitting for a while is from my first visit to Torchon Creperie at The Stables , one of the city's favorite creperie.



It was only 11.30a.m, we ordered a Mediteranee gazette with ratatouille and egg and a nutella and almond crepe. The gazette was pleasing with a well flavored ratatouille wrapped inside topped with a semi cooked egg. I enjoyed the salty batter that it was made of, subtly flavorful and not too dry.



Next was the nutella& almond crepe. The size was good as I was not looking forward to a crepe that is a meal on its own. It's not too big to eat. The crepe was crispy on the edge, light and thin.
There was a generous amount of nutella oozing from inside and the nice almond flakes added the nice bite to the soft crepe. My only complain is not asking for an extra scoop of ice-cream, but that's not very typical french style i assume.



Our experience at Torchon is simply divine and this will be one of our favorite for a very long time to come

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Yum Cha @ Star Cafe, Howick

S&I have been eating at home a lot these days due to a new eating plan that my nutritionist has recommended us to follow. We're in good health, we are doing this just for fun because our friend went and came back with a lot of good eating advices. We are eating at 6 meals a day now; under the eating plan which is a little hard work given that we are so busy at work sometimes to accomplish that. The main goal is to get our eating habits checked by a professional and also because we spend so much time at the gym, we want to eat right to be fit. It's very difficult to have your cake and eat it too since I love cooking and eating so much. But at least the good news is that the nutritionist agreed that we have a healthy habit (albeit the weekly char kuey teows and nasi lemaks).

We survived our first week and already seeing results. So we are going to bite the bullet and hang in there until we achieve our goals. Therefore, I am going to take this opportunity to post about some food outings that wasn't posted before.


We went to Star Cafe in Howick for yum cha some time back. Food is mediocre, really. This came as a surprise because Star Cafe is very popular chain of Chinese restaurants.

The prawn dumplings were a little disappointing.

Pan-fried radish cake

Our yum cha didn't get any better when a bad dish was followed by another. The radish cake was oily and soggy...yuck!!

Egg tarts

Cold not crispy roasted pork

The roasted pork was stone cold!! This is so unacceptable when it's obvious that they are serving leftovers. This is by far the worst roasted pork I have eaten in a long time.

Sesame filled glutinous balls....at least this was ok although not great

Fried yam filled with bbq pork

Spicy salted fried tofu

This is the worst....really bad siu mai. It smells funny too.

We usually enjoy our dishes when we go to Star Cafe in Epsom but the one in Howick is really disappointing....we are not going back.

Although I complain that the food here is bad, looking at the pictures make my stomach growl. Well,any food is good when you're on a diet.

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Nepalese food at Himalaya Restaurant

Our wishes were granted when we learned from a friend that Himalaya has reopened after a sudden disappearance from Auckland's dining scene. We were so amazed the first we went but was really sad when they moved from Parnell.

Himalaya; like its name serves Nepalese food. It's a shame that a cuisine so palatable has not gained its equivalence in popularity as other cuisines. How would I sum it up Nepalese food in my opinion? It's rich in flavours like Northern Indian food minus the bloatiness and greasiness.

So that night, we braved the cold winter weather and went to Himalaya, now in its new location in Ponsonby.


Entree was Chana Chat Pat, a chick pea salad....it was really refreshing with chick peas, red onions,tomatoes, seasoned with green chillies, lime and coriander. A little spicy but was the perfect dish to give us a healthy appetite for the night.


Next came our TIbetan bread;baked wholemeal bread that looks like a face..it's very very delicious with a dry crispy skin but very moist and fragrant inside.



S ordered Sekuwa, lamb pieces marinated with Nepali spiced char-grilled to perfection, without losing the meat's tenderness. It was served with Nepali potato cake, rice puffs and salad.


I chose Momo, this is a dish with spiced lamm dumpling similar to the chinese dumplings served with tahini and chutney. According to the menu, this is the most popular food in Nepal. I enjoyed it so much. The skin is really nice compared to chinese dumplings. The portion is very generous too, which I couldn't finish after eating the the entrees.

We had a small chat with the owner of Himalaya and was told that he's from Kathmandu, which is a good sign on the food's authenticity.

It was a great night of great food and was also a relief after having to track the whereabouts of this restaurant since a year now. We are definitely coming back soon!! Can't wait!!

Himalaya
283 Ponsonby Road (3 Lamps Plaza)
09 376 4414

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Hong Kong, The rest of the trip

I realise that it took me a while to finally finish with my HK trip posting; having been really busy and swamped with work and other activities. So here is the posting on the rest of my trip.

We went to Goldfish Market in Mong Kok and every store has an amusing display of live fish in plastic bags filled with water and oxygen. S was amused because he's never seen live fish packaged like fast food before.

Gam Yue Lou( Goldfish uncles)??

We were walking up and down Bute Street in Mong Kok looking for a Char Chan Teng popular for their Boh Loh Yau ( Pineapple Buns with Butter). After searching every corner, we asked a local peddler and was told that it was partially burnt down the night before and even showed me the newspaper. Talk about luck!! I have been dying to try out the Boh Loh Bau there after reading all the rave reviews of the locals. So, we had no choice but to just find another place to go to for tea time.

We ended up in maybe one of the worst corners of Mong Kok and in a crummy Char Chan Teng. I am usually not that fuzzy with the exterior of an eatery but this one was grotesque!


We ordered a french toast set with salad, hot tea, lemon honey and another afternoon tea set but the outrageously rude waitress forgot about the teaset I've ordered. It was fine by me because after having a few bites of the french toast and navigating its surrounding, I couldn't be happier to be out of that place faster than the speed of light.


After that horrific teatime, we paid and dashed out to Sneaker Street; our 3rd round on this trip!
We bought a couple more things and then headed back over to Hong Kong island to Causeway Bay to meet up with an old friend from Uni.



A snack store in the viccinity of Sneaker Street.....so packed that I was intimidated to stay for more than 2 photos.

The ever busy Mong Kok

Our friend took us to Tsui Wah Restaurant. This place is like a tourist magnate besides Yung Kee and Jumbo, therefore we made no plans on going there in the first place. I have to say, we were pleasantly surprised. The food is not to die for but it was fairly good. Authentic Hong Kong food?? I am not sure, since they have a signature dish called 'Swiss Chicken Wings' which doesn't sound very local.



I didn't have a chance to take photos of the Swiss Chicken Wings cos my friend already attacked them before I got the chance.


Stewed pork cartilage with instant noodles...the soft cartilage and flavourful sauce makes this dish better than the way it looked.

S ordered a hot plate prawn yee meen. It was very yummy.

This is an ordinary looking bowl of noodles but don't be deceived. It's very very tasty. It's a Hunnan Vermicelli with Shark Bone Broth.

I took this photo on the morning before going to the airport. That's the view from our hotel room.
Scary to see how close these apartments are next to each other.



My last meal in Hong Kong at the airport and I chose Fairwood, one of Hong Kong's fast-food chain simply because I can park my trolley close by. To be fair, Fairwood is a rather pleasant place to have a quick bite by HK standard because it's far more spacious and has a decent toilet.

So, that's the end of another great trip to Hong Kong. I aim to be able to visit every 2 years, at most.

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Hong Kong Day 2

As we did not go for dim sum on the first day, we made it a compulsory agenda on the second day; simply because the variety and quality is so good in Hong Kong. We are pretty fortunate as there are so many restaurants in the vicinity of our hotel. Although I was planning on going to Lin Heung Lau in Central, we decided on a restaurant closest to us because our stomachs are growling furiously. So, we walked a few minutes on North Point Road until we saw a decent looking restaurant and decided to try it out.

We were so jealous that we did not get a booth seat like some other customers. But figured out that these people must be regulars as they took all the time in the world to read newspaper and sipping tea.

The staff here are mostly middle-aged women and they are mostly unfriendly and untouchables.
Maybe because these are not locals and they have a difficulty conversing with the customers. Whatever it is, it's the food that I care about.

Our first dish was a basket of very juicy prawn dumplings. I have this self-thought theory that if the prawn dumplings in a particular restaurant are not good, it means that you shouldn't have too high hopes for the other dishes. So far, my theory has been proven.

Shanghai Won-Tons....totally amazing!! I have to fend off some grubby fingers at the counter to get a plate of these. Totally worth it!

Stuffed eggplants

Chives dumplings.

Ma Lai Kou......was mediocre.

This is the mango&prawn filled fritters....creamy sweet mango flesh with prawns fried in a light flaky pastry.......really delicious.

Char Siu Sou.....was very very crispy .

Yeung Zhi Gum Lou......this is a dessert with a combination of pomelo pulps, mango slices, sago and coconut cream....it's heavenly.


Fried Man Tou.....is good but pale in comparison with all the other gorgeous food we had.

All those food for 2 person....and we finished most of it! What an achievement.

After a very *burp* fulfilling brunch, we were fueled to begin our second day in Hong Kong. And the next destination?? Non other than the fascinating Sneaker Street for some retail therapy. Ka-ching!!

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