Hua Hin Market Village

A quick meal at the Hua Hin Market Village Mall.  The meal cost us US10 and even though it would have been cheaper to eat in the market area we were happy to be sitting in the air-con.  And as a bonus the food was pretty tasty too.

My Tom Yam.  When asked if I wanted noodles with it I thought sure what the heck.  I actually loved the combination!

Some stir-fried pork dish we picked from the photo-menu.  Simple but nice.

Mixed veggies.  I am never keen on mixed veg as they tend to be frozen or tin veg and it's always cooked to death and pappy.  In this case it wasn't that bad and at least the veg was crunchy.

Green curry fried rice.  Totally enjoyable.

Pad Thai in egg omelette.  I hardly got to eat any as my husband wolfed it down very quickly, which I take must have been really good.

breakfasts, Alila Cha-Am

I could get used to breakfasts at Alila.  The selection was not big but it was very sufficient.  Everything was very nicely cooked too and we got to eat outdoor most days when it wasn't too hot.  Most importantly it was nice and quiet and it was indeed a very refreshing alternative to your usual resort buffet breakfasts.

I was determined to try something different each day since we were there for a week.  On day 4 I discovered the fried rice with crab meat and I never looked back.  It was the nicest fried rice I ever had!  The freshly picked crab meat was the best and it's just out of this world.  At first it was a little hard to bring myself to have rice first thing in the morning but I sure got used to it.  Too bad this dish is not on the lunch or dinner menu or I'd be having it all day.

room service, Alila Cha-Am

We were staving by the time we got to Hua Hin.  With the Little One in bed we decided to binge-order from the room service menu.  I thought we had over ordered but then we realised the portions were not very big at all. 

Satays.  To be honest I don't remember what they tasted like, which probably means they were nothing special.  The presentation was very different though.

Prawn cakes.  Again the presentation was impressive and there were actually little chunks of prawns in the prawn cakes as supposed to the usual bouncy and slightly rubbery texture.

Potatoes wedges.  My husband might have had a few already when the picture was taken, but there weren't many to begin with.

Beef burger with fries.  It looked pretty good but the meat was actually very gristly and not very nice at all.  I am guessing the hotel is trying to do gourmet food so why use nasty beef?

Grilled salmon with pesto.  The pesto was overpowering , although the fish was grilled to perfection.  All in all we were happy with the meal and even though it's expensive by Thailand standard it was rather reasonable compared to other room service menus we came across.
Alila Cha-Am

Cha Am, Thailand.

Thai Airways

Now I thought I remember Thai Airways advertising their business class being "smooth as silk".  Well the truth can't be more disappointed.  Perhaps it was the old aircraft and therefore seats were pretty small and cramped.  Service was not particularly impressive, and the food was actually pretty nasty.  We felt like we paid extra so we could get on and off the plane first and that's about it. 

When I saw that horrible aloe yogurt my heart sank.  Why is this yogurt following me around?  It's on all the Dragon Air flights too and I never saw anybody eating the stuff.  When will they learn to have a look at what's left on the tray?  Or better yet how about tasting the stuff before serving it to passengers?

Lunch option #1 beef with rice.  While it didn't look too bad my husband said it was way too salty and chewy.  As hungry as he was he didn't touch the rest of it after a little taste.

Lunch option #2 noodles with mystery meat.  Again it was very salty and to add insult to injury the noodles were nuked to death.  They were so soggy perhaps they had been cooked 5 times over somehow.   
Luckily I brought biscuits with us.  I can't tell you how many times we had to resort to biscuits when we fly these days.  Are airlines really that tight in budget?

Element Fresh

There's a new menu at Element Fresh!  On top of the our regular favourite sandwiches and salads there are now a number of rather ambitious items.  We were actually excited to try them out.

Beef pho (RMB54).  It came in a pretty big bowl steaming hot and it looked promising.  We were wrong.  The broth had no taste at all and the beef was really fatty despite being thinly sliced.  By the time my husband removed all that fat there was not much left.  There was also pieces of what looked like tendon swimming in the tasteless broth.  I understand that in a pho broth beef tendon is often presented along with tripe.  The thing is the tendon in question here was not even properly prepared: we could see veins!!! It was rather gross.

Toppings which came with the pho.  Instead of sprouts we had cabbage instead?  Very odd.

Steamed mussels with chorizo (RMB68), another new addition to the menu.  The description of the dish sounded so nice:  mussels sauteed with diced chorizo, white wine, shallots, red chillies, and fresh herbs.  Garnished with lemon-aioli.  My heart sank when it arrived.  The wine sauce seemed so thin and there were not a lot of chopped shallots or chillies or herbs.  One taste confirmed my suspicion: it was as bland as drinking water.  Actually more like fishy water.  Yuck.  When the dish is cooked properly with fresh mussels it's very simple and beautiful.  I guess it's difficult to get fresh mussels here?  They can at least clean them properly nonetheless.  The mussels all had beards on them and there's no excuse for that.  

Macaroni and cheese with added grilled breast (RMB58 for macaroni, RMB28 for chicken breast).  While the chicken breast was seasoned and cooked perfectly I can't say the same about the macaroni.  How hard is it to make macaroni and cheese?  Actually the question should be how could they possibly manage to make mac and cheese so bland?  For the first time in years I reached for the bottle of salt.

Perhaps it was us being too adventurous in ordering all the funky stuff but the meal was truly disappointing.  We won't be running back in a hurry.

Element Fresh

4/F KWah House, 1028 Huai Hai Rd. (nr. Donghu Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 5403-8865

Dragon Air

From Hong Kong to Shanghai.  I didn't touch the salad actually as I'm always a bit wary of seafood on planes.  

Some kind of signature chicken dish from the Chinese restaurant at Marriott.  Has anybody from the restaurant actually tasted this dish?  I can't imagine they serve anything close to this salty and chewy chicken coated with glop.  Actually the chicken was so tough I would have guessed it was cardboard if I hadn't seen the description on the menu. 

Bistro La Fourchette

It was almost 2:30 when we sat down at La Fourchette's "al fresco" table - over looking the mall.  I suspect we had just missed the lunch crowd as lunch can get so crowded in Pacific Place and I thought they say the economy is bad?

To be honest I wasn't really expecting much.  I knew the food would probably be OK as the place had always been churning out reliable dishes but hey isn't it what a bistro is all about.  

We both picked from the set-lunch menu.  My dad's onion soup seemed (and smelled) nice.

My beef consomme was very flavourful.  It's something that I would not even dream of making at home as there's so much work involved!

Burger with fries.  My dad totally OD'ed on white pepper here but he said the burger was fine.  I stole some of his fries and they were the usual frozen variety and nothing special.

Spaghetti with meat sauce.  Again very average but then I don't know what they could have possibly done for a dish as simple as this to make it nicer.  It's just meat sauce after all.
La Fourchette

L/G Pacicfic Place, Admiralty. Hong Kong. Tel: 2522-8830

Grappa's

Penne puttanesca (HK$100).  A simple but very delicious pasta dish with anchovies, olives, capers, and sun-dried tomatoes.  Surprisingly I was not thirsty after the meal.  A bit pricey but acceptable when White Spot in the same mall wants over HK$60 for a burger combo.  

Grappa's Ristorante

Shop 132 Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong.  Tel: 2868-0086

Dragon Air

Dragon Air's food has deteriorated so much over the last 3 years I don't expect much at all these days.  I pretty much just count on filling my tummy with Haagan Dazs  - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the ice cream stays.

Our very uninspiring starter.  We got fruits because it was supposed to be breakfast, even though it was noon by the time we got food.  Why?  It was just one of those delays, which happens 8 out of 10 flights.  Oh no, I'm not bitter.

The heavily nuked pastries.  We almost got second-degree burns by handling them.  The croissant was easily the greasiest piece of pastry in the world.

Breakfast choices were some very plastic-looking eggs or dim sum.  I went for the dim sum and it was a mistake.   The piece of turnip cake was floury with virtually no turnip and I didn't near go near the siu mai looking thing with spinach on top.  The filling in the green dumpling tasted the same as the white one, and I couldn't tell what it was.  Whatever it was it's very persistent as it repeated on me over and over all day.  Yikes.

Nova

I read so much about Nova when the girls suggested it as our lunch venue I was more than happy to give it a try. 

The regular menu has all the usual suspects you would expect in a French restaurant in Asia: think mushroom soup, foie gras, escorgots, and lots of steaks for some reason.  There is also a lunch menu: with 3 choices for each course.  For RMB88 you get 2 courses and RMB108 for 3.  We thought it's too good of a deal to pass and so we all ordered from the lunch menu.

The health-conscious ladies naturally went for starters instead of desserts.  Here's the salad with bacon slices with mustard vinaigrette sauce.  It looked pretty well prepared and nothing negative was said about it.

Pan-fried sirloin steak, green beans and mushroom.  This is where things began to go downhill.  While I am not into fancy plate decorations this is just taking the pi$$.  Everything was just thrown together and I have to say it looked pretty sad.  And what they called sirloin would probably be better described as minute steak.  Considering how thin the slice of meat was, it's pretty talented to have it as chewy as it was.  At least my friend J was being nice about it:  It's chewy but it's just like what you get in France, she said.  

Ocean perch fillet with black olive sauce, vegetable tagliatelle with sesame.  My first thought was where's the back olive sauce?  Then I thought OK it shouldn't matter if the ingredients were fresh as the sauce could be overpowering.  Unfortunately the last time my ocean perch saw the ocean was probably years ago.  It didn't taste of anything at all I thought to myself I might as well be eating a piece of cardboard.  And while the idea of vegetables tagliatelle is enticing they were disappointing to say the least.  The carrot strips were cooked to death and again didn't have any taste.  Same story with the beans.  As hungry as I was I couldn't make myself to finish it and I don't usually leave food on my plate.  

Caramel creme with coconut and raisins.  By that point I wasn't expecting much but surprisingly J said it wasn't bad.

Apple tart with vanilla ice cream.  It was slightly dry but it wasn't bad.  The apples were tart and not too sweet and I liked the pie crust.

I am not sure if they are sacrificing quality to make their lunch menu prices a bit more attractive, as prices on the regular menu are quite a bit more, with starters starting at RMB60 and mains at RMB150 on average.  Either way I will think twice about coming to this joint again.

Nova French Bar and Restaurant

418 Dagu Rd.(nr. Shimen Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6340-1889

  

Bellagio

My visit to the always reliable Bellagio was long overdue. It had been at least 8 months!


Our black pepper beef on hot plate had so much more beef this time (see previous meal here). Coated with a rich and thick black pepper sauce, the beef was juicy and tender as usual.

Braised beef noodles. The soup base was very robust and beefy to begin with the slices of beef were just incidental. It made noodles so much more interesting!

Crispy chicken. The skin looked and sounded crispy but we didn't try it. The meat was succulent like a spring chicken. Loved it!

Stir-fried beans with lotus bulbs and rice cruellers. We liked the combination of texture with the cruellers being crispy and the lotus bulbs almost spongy.


Sichuan beef in chili oil. It was pleasantly more numbing than spicy.
The bill came to just over RMB300. Somehow they must have sneaked their prices up like most places in Shanghai!


Bellagio
68 Tai Cang Rd. (nr. Hubin Rd.), Shanghai. Tel: 6386-5701

Azul

Having tried the brunch menu at Azul, which is a lot more interesting than its regular lunch, I decided that I will never need to go back  during the week.  Why eat hamburger when you can have steak?

To start off our meal we were given some muffins and scones.  While the muffins were more like sponge cakes the scones were rich and firm with that nice buttery smell.  Hmmm.

Azul's version of bruschetta.  The twists were tapenade, parma ham and the Parmesan.  It was lovely!  I am not usually a big fan of bruschetta as I find chopped onions and garlic way too strong and it leaves an after taste in my mouth for a long time.  With this version I guess my palate was pleasantly distracted and I didn't mind it so much as a result.  An excellent start indeed!

Smoked salmon crepes.  I was taken by surprised when I bit into one as there were chopped eggs inside.  A very nice touch!

My husband's steak and eggs.  He didn't have any problem polishing it off the plate.  

Risotto with duck.  Creamy and delicious.
The 2-course brunch with a drink was under a RMB100 per person.  I forgot how much it was exactly but it's excellent in value for sure.   I'd love to go back again.

There's one disturbing question though: is it me or does the place smell of urinal fresh?  Perhaps I've mistaken the scent but the place always smells like bathroom air freshener to me.

Azul

18 Dong Ping Rd. (nr. Heng Shan Rd.), Shanghai.  Tel: 6433-1172

Coffee Tree

This was our first time ever eating at Coffee Tree.   The variety of dishes on offer was a lot more than I expected and prices were reasonable.  

My pasta with meat sauce(~RMB40).  It was not too bad at all!  The pasta was a little over-cooked but the sauce was zingy with chucks of vegetables.  Most importantly it was not sweet and it was better than I expected.

Chicken panini (~RMB35).  My husband thought the portion was too small.  Its taste didn't leave an impression neither.

Coffee Tree - many locations in town.