bc magazine

Third Hong Kong Whisky Festival

The third Hong Kong Whisky Festival, organized by InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong and Tiffany’s New York Bar, takes place from 12:30-5pm on the 14 April 2018.

This year’s festival features a wide range of brands and there will be over 500 different whisky expressions to sample including:
Highland Park The Light
Highland Park The Dark
Highland Park Full Volume
Glenmorangie Spios
The Macallan Exceptional Single Cask
Gordon & MacPhail – Longmorn 1967
Gordon & MacPhail – Glen Grand 1954
Gordon & MacPhail – Strathisla 1949

Alongside an array of master classes (from $200-$2,000) hosted by diverse brand ambassadors including:
Mr. Charlie Maclean – Independent Whisky Expert
Dr. Ian Chang – Kavalan
Mr. Jim McEwan – Ardnahoe Distillery
Mr. Brendan McCarron – Glenmorangie
Mr. Martin Markvardsen – Highland Park
Mr. Richard Urquhart – Gordon & MacPhail & Benromach
Ms. Lucie Stroesser – Isle of Arran
Ms. Chloe Wood – Bruichladdich
Mr. Mathieu Jeannin – Hine Cognac
Mr. Justine Ames – Heaven Hill Distillers

Mr. Madhu Kanna – Paul John
Mr. Ewan Henderson – Lost Distillery
Mr. Adam Knox – The Dalmore
Mr. David Ding – The Balvenie & Glenfiddich
Mr. Craig Johnstone – The GlenDronach, The BenRiach & Glenglassaugh
Mr. Michael Hsieh – The Whisky Agency

Hong Kong Whisky Festival
Date: 12:30pm, 14 April, 2018
Venue: InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong
Tickets: $320

Frites Loves February

Belgian Beerhouse Frites has a variety of promotions to warm the heart, stomach and wallet this chilly February: Wagyu Wednesday, Valentines Day and a discount at the refurbished Quarry Bay outlet.

Wagyu Wednesday, after 5pm all four Frites outlets will be serving a wagyu burger with hand cut frites and truffle mayo for $100. The burger features a tasty 100g Australian wagyu beef patty, cheese, bacon, fresh tomato and leafy greens on a soft bun.

February is the month of love, Frites has a three course dinner ($495/person) on Valentines Day which starts with a glass of prosecco. There’s a choice of two entrees: mussels in a rich marinara sauce or Vitello Tonnato, braised veal served with creamy tuna mayonnaise. For your main course choose between grilled red snapper served with prawn bisque risotto, confit tomatoes and seared scallops or bbq 1855 Black Angus rib eye steak with a side of oxtail macaroni cheese. Dessert is a seductive chocolate fondant.

Located at Taikoo Place the chains Quarry Bay outlet has reopened after a month long refurbishment and to thank it’s customers there’s a $50 discount available until the end of February. Simply mention promotion code “FRTIESQB” to get $50 off any bill over $150.

FRITES Central: 1/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Central. Bookings: 2217 6671
FRITES Wanchai: Shop 6, 1/F Causeway Centre, 28 Harbor Road, Wanchai. Bookings: 2877 2422
FRITES Causeway Bay: Shop 1, G/F, Park Haven, 38 Haven Street, Causeway Bay. Bookings: 2142 5233
FRITES Quarry Bay: G/F, Oxford House, Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road, Island East. Bookings: 2250 5188
Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday, 12pm – late

Toasties, Fruities and Flamingos

Flamingos have become a regular sight around Central and TST, the pink inflatable birds adding a highly visible flourish to Flamingo Bloom’s floral and fruity tea drinks.

The two outlet chain has expanded it’s range of drinks this month adding “Naked Zero” beverages ($43) that have no added sugar, use antioxidant and vitamin packed fruits such as mulberries, strawberries, mangoes paired with almond milk for lactose intolerant customers.

bc sampled ‘v!olet’ the mulberry and grape mix, which looks a lot like a fruit smoothie but lacks a smoothie’s dense consistency and texture. Taken as a drink it’s pretty good. The almond milk giving the drink very little consistency and from it’s appearance my brain was expecting something more smoothie like.

FB are also offering a number of toasties – grilled sandwiches – including smashed tomatoes served with soft cooked egg, grilled cheese corn-beef, and smashed avocado with tomatoes sprinkle with herbs. The sandwiches cost $43 ($33 if purchased with any drink).

All the toasties use a big slices of bread, maybe 5 inches square and medium thick cut slices. The cheese and corn beef has a nice melted cheese taste and texture although some of the edges were a little lacking in cheese and there wasn’t much flavour from the corn beef. But it’s pretty good toasted cheese sandwich. The avocado is an open top style sandwich with (according to the staff) a full avocado smashed across it.

Unlike some sandwich places where the filling is all in the section facing you both the samples we tried had plenty of ingredients and will make solid options if you’re in the area and looking for sandwich.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2018/Naked-Zero-Flamingo-Bloom-12-January-2018/i-Dq9Pg4t

Food at the Fair

The fairground midway is all about fun and excitement, sometimes though it’s nice to take a break, grab a bite and a drink and soak up the merriment.

The food offerings at last year’s Great European Carnival were pretty gross all told. This year several restaurants are running the show including Maverick’s, Cafe Siam and f&b company Color Chacha. There are also two candy floss and popcorn stands for all ages to enjoy. Beer is $50 for a cup. There are no water fountains on the midway

Color Chacha’s stuffed waffle Imagawayaki ($20) are available in double cheese, Hokkaido creamy custard, matcha and banana and chocolate and are very tasty. They are also offering a range of colourful fruit and sweet drinks.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Great-European-Carnival-Central-Harbourfront-21-December/i-jxTgh7z

Scorhios naan bread pizza is tasty but pretty pricey at $110 for a pizza that is less than 12 inches. Individual 1/4 pizza slices are $30. Flavours include Peps and Roni’s, The Fun Guys and Marge & Ritas.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Great-European-Carnival-Central-Harbourfront-21-December/i-9cmxHp7

Mavericks from Pui o Beach are offering a range of sandwiches including Double Cheeseburger ($70), pulled pork ($60), smoked brisket ($70).

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Great-European-Carnival-Central-Harbourfront-21-December/i-hghmRXs

While the baked potatoes ($50) are good, but again once you start adding toppings at $10 each the price shoots up.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Great-European-Carnival-Central-Harbourfront-21-December/i-FxJ9nLf

New Year’s Eve Mussel Party at Frites

Frites Belgian Beerhouse are looking to make your countdown a memorable one with a ‘Mussel Pot Party’ on New Year’s Eve. Starting from 6pm Frites’ four outlets in Central, Wanchai, Causeway Bay, and Quarry Bay will be serving unlimited amounts of their six signature mussel pots: Frites House Mussels, Hoegaarden Mussels, Provencale Mussels, Mariniere Mussels, Laksa Mussels and Mediterranean Mussels.

All the pots are served with frites and mayo. There’s also an unlimited drinks option ($245) and children under 10 can get a free kids meal from the menu with each adult. The “all you can eat mussels” promotion costs $245 per person and will start from 6pm on 31 December, 2017, terms and conditions apply.

Christmas Pizza Anyone?

Looking for something different this festive season? Perhaps Pizza Express’ Christmas menu which includes two festive pizzas and a range of themed dishes might interest you.

The seasonal a la carte menu features a baked cheese melt starter ($65), a turkey Caesar salad ($128), Farfalle con Tacchino ($133, turkey pasta with a white cream sauce) and Pumpkin Cannelloni ($138) – this is ok, the pureed pumpkin, spinach and cheese filling is tasty but it perhaps could have been delicious if the pumpkin had been in chunks to give the filling some texture and substance.

There are two festive pizza: Tacchinao Rosmarino ($153) – a thin crust pizza topped with turkey, cranberry and sweet peppadew sauce, pancetta, mozzarella, tomato sauce, a sprinkle of rosemary and pine nuts. The Cicciolo e Fontina ($153) features pork, pork shin, fontina, mozzarella, Parmesan with caramelized onions, garlic oil, béchamel sauce and thyme served on a thin crust pizza.

Strange sounding combinations they may seem, but they’re both not bad. The turkey one, perhaps a little sweet to eat a full pizza yourself. But Pizza Express allows mixing and matching so we sampled a half/half combination which was delicious.

Dessert options are Apple Tortino ($88, a baked apple, cinnamon and puff pasty combination topped with vanilla gelato) and a Snowy Date Pudding ($88) which is rather nice. The warm pudding in a sauce of honey yoghurt and raspberry coulis topped with vanilla gelato.

The festive menu is available at all Pizza Express outlets until 1 January, 2018

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Christmas-Menu-Tasting-Pizza-Express-Wanchai-9-December-2017/i-cx5Ntpc

Anniversary Specials: Pizza Express, UberEATS

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Everyone loves a birthday or anniversary and restaurants are no exception. Here are two local outlets that have tempting offers this month.

Pizza Express

PizzaExpress is celebrating its anniversary this month and looking to share it with everyone via two special offers. From now until 30 November 2017 arrive after 8pm from Monday to Friday and spend over $250 to get a 30% discount (except Hong Kong International Airport, Times Square, New Town Plaza and Ocean Terminal outlets).

Customers with a birthday in October or November can get a plate of baked dough balls for free by simply saying “Happy Birthday” to the reception staff and showing their Hong Kong Identity card.

There are also several new menu items featuring a variety of “Superfoods” including Cook Off 2 winner Sophia Cheng’s vegetarian Beyond Chicken and Kale Pesto Pizza – which if you ask, can usually be made with real chicken as well.

UberEATS

Food delivery company UberEATS celebrates it’s first anniversary locally with a couple of discount codes on it’s app/website. www.ubereats.com/hong_kong/

From 23-27 October, log on between 12-2pm and if you find the flash promo code in the top banner get $50 off your next order.

Until 29 October enjoy free delivery from selected outlets by entering the promo code HKONEYEAR before checkout.

Savoury Roast Beef Rib at Lawry’s

Lawry’s The Prime Rib is California’s interpretation of an olde English restaurant. With starched waiters uniforms, deep plush red velvet chairs, restrained elegance and quality US roast beef rib carved from a service cart at the table… It’s survived and thrived over the last 80 years because it offers a refined dining experience, so much so that such vapid ‘celebrities’ as the Kardashian’s have dined there.

Locally Lawry’s The Prime Rib is celebrating 11 years in the SAR with a “Round the World Savoury Journey” menu ($688) which offers six different sauces from various Lawry’s around the world – Beef au Jus (US); black pepper sauce (Hong Kong): wasabi soy sauce (Japan); Korean red chilli sauce; Singapore curry sauce: Taiwanese sesame soy sauce – to enjoy with your delicious slab of 10oz roasted prime rib.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Lawrys-Prime-Rib-Hutchison-House-17-October-2017/i-Sh4jpXH

The savoury (because Lawry’s is American they spell it savory on the menu) starts with a trifecta of seafood: oyster with salmon roe and lemon vodka foam; scallop with black truffle salt and a shrimp with a tasty mango salsa. The 10oz wet aged roasted prime beef rib is served with mashed potatoes and gravy and a massive Yorkshire pudding.

Available side dishes include creamed spinach or corn ($55 each) and a sizzling skillet of mixed mushrooms ($85). If you have room for dessert there blueberry hotcake with maple syrup. To enhance your world journey experience there are six cocktails paired to the sauces.

The Round the World Anniversary menu, $688 for two courses, $738 for three courses, is available in addition to the regular and weekend brunch menus until the end of November, there’s 10% service charge.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Lawrys-Prime-Rib-Hutchison-House-17-October-2017/i-9FHNWN2

Lawry’s The Prime Rib
2/F, Hutchison House, 10 Harcourt Road, Central. Tel: 2907 2218
www.lawrys.com.hk