bc magazine

Last Minute Christmas

traditional-roast-turkey-dinner

It’s late December, where has the year gone? The seasonal music and decorations that have been up for months have inured you to Christmas, yet suddenly it’s here and you’ve got nothing prepared… bc’s here to help with it’s ‘instant’ traditional Roast Turkey Christmas meal – no cooking involved, although you will need to warm some dishes up to fully enjoy them.

Starter
Smoked salmon + Rainbow Salad
Smoked salmon: IKEA offers packs of frozen smoked salmon (Lax Kallrökt) $66 for 200g.
Rainbow Salad: black chickpeas, carrots, peas, corn, potatoes, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, parsley from Maya Takeaway, $88.

Main
Roast Turkey, roast potatoes, parsnips, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce.
Roast Turkey: Great Food Hall in Pacifc Place have around 12 cooked US Roast Turkey per day $120/kg (4-6kg). Buy at the cooked food counter including Christmas Day. They also offer cooked roast beef, lamb and gammon if you prefer something other than turkey.
Roast potatoes: Great – $18/100g (cooked); M&S – $45/300g (need cooking)
Parsnips: M&S – $50/300g (need cooking)
Brussels sprouts: Great – $18/100g
Red cabbage braised with Bramley apples: $45/300g Marks & Spencer
Turkey gravy: $69/540g Marks & Spencer
Cranberry sauce: $59/300g Marks & Spencer
Stuffing: sage and onion/ cranberry & orange stuffing from M&S
Bacon wrapped sausages: sadly we couldn’t find this staple side dish in a cooked version.

For vegetarians: mediterranean vegetable stew / chickpea patty simmered in tomato sauce both $88 from Maya.

Dessert
Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter
Christmas pudding: Great: several choices, M&S: $379/907g
Brandy Butter: $59/195g M&S or you can make it yourself it’s just butter beaten with sugar and brandy, or pick up a can of classic Bird’s custard and add a dash of brandy/ rum for a good alternative.

Cheese
Great’s cheese room is one of the unsung wonders of Hong Kong, the choice is varied, delicious and if you’re used to US and European cheese prices, expensive – but it’s Christmas so indulge.
A cheaper alternative is www.cheesebytom.com: cheddar 250g/$35, Brie 250g/$50 and other cheeses. Deliveries to Central and Lantau.

Christmas Cake + Mince Pies
Finding a good tasty Christmas cake is hard, especially one with marzipan and Royal icing
Christmas Cake: Great and M&S have several choices at different prices from $89 up – including the Hand Decorated Bauble Bar Cake (left) with marzipan and royal icing at $379. Most are more like fruit cakes than Christmas cake which is a shame as the two are subtly different in taste.
Mince Pies: Again Great and M&S have several choices, but none have a taste that leap out and say buy me!

Store Details + Contacts:
Great Basement Pacific Place, Admiralty Tel: 2918 9986 www.greatfoodhall.com
IKEA Causeway Bay, Shatin, Kowloon Bay www.ikea.com.hk
Marks & Spencer various stores www.marksandspencer.com
Maya Takeaway 173 Des Voeux Road, Central. Tel: 2111 4553 www.mayacafehk.com

Edit: 24 Dec – Added Christmas cake photo and updated text

Maya Cafe Grand Opening – 24 October, 2015

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The Grand Opening of Maya Cafe @ 173 Des Voeux Road took place on 21 October.
Click on any image for the full gallery

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Megabites: Portobello Burger

New on the Maya takeaway menu is the delicious Portobello burger – layers of either cashew truffle cheeze or spicy sunflower cheeze with lettuce and tomato sandwiched between two massive portobello mushrooms with some raw mash on the side ($88). And no I’m not one of those health food obsessed vegetarians, I’m a healthy meat loving hedonist, who isn’t put off by the raw, vegan, gluten free mumbo and just enjoys good tasty food, well prepared. That my body may benefit is pleasant a side-affect. Just as stress relief is happy side effect of a night drinking Jack Daniels with friends.

Maya Cafe
Shop G7, Nan Fung Tower, 173 des Voeux Road, Central. Tel: 2111 4553

Megabites – 31 July, 2015

Newly Open: Maya Cafe Takeaway
It’s all very good saying you want to eat healthy, but locally it can be a hassle to find a place offering fresh tasty food that you actually want to eat regularly; even more difficult to find takeaway! No longer. The team behind Maya Cafe (forcefully shutdown by a greedy landlord) have now opened a takeaway shop at 173 Des Voeux Road, midway between Central Sheung Wan.

The new outlet offers a broad menu of vegetarian, vegan and gluton-free meals, drinks, snacks and desserts. As much as possible the ingredients are organically sourced from local farms, with most dishes made fresh when you order them.

If you still harbour the illusion that vegetarian food means a dull plain lettuce, tomato, cucumber salad then wake up. Maya’s menu, as was the Wanchai Cafe’s, is full of tasty, textured and flavoured dishes that more than hold their own against the best restaurants in town. bc opted to try the quinoa salad, frittata with tomato sauce and the zoodles with alfredo truffle sauce

The baked eggless frittata in tomato sauce and herbed mashed potato is made locally sourced organic tofu that perfectly imitates the texture of a traditional frittata not too soft or too hard and with a lovely rich soya bean flavour the tomato sauce contrasted delightfully and mashed potatoes made fresh and blended with cashew cream and herbs set off the frittata and tomatoes sauce nicely.

Zoodles are noodles made from spiralised zucchini, an intriguing crisp fresh alternative to pasta – although you do need to eat them promptly as unlike many of the other dishes on the menu zoodles do not sit well in the fridge. The alfredo truffle sauce is cashew cream with a truffle twist and goes great with the crisp fresh zoodles for a light filling meal. A very flexible ingredient, even suitable for vegans, cashew cream is simply finely ground cashews which have a slight natural sweetness, allowing the creation of a wide range of sweet and savoury sauces.

Maya Cafe’s signature quinoa salad is lovely blend of textures, tastes and flavours, the crunchy slightly tart red cabbage, contrasting the green cabbage and cashew cream slaw. The carrots a slight sweetness and the quinoa a grainy healthy texture and flavour. An uber healthy salad that tastes delicious.

It’s not only takeaway, a delivery service will soon be up and running and they offer corporate and social catering – everything from a boardroom lunch to a junk trip.

Maya Café Takeaway
Shop G7, Nan Fung Tower, 173 Des Voeus Road, Tel: 2111 4553
Nan Fung Tower is a new building, the main entrance is actually on Wing Wo Street.

Closing
Delaney’s Wanchai has been shoved out the door by it’s landlord of 21 years and will be closing on the 13 August. Until then all standard drinks are at 1994 prices.