bc magazine

New Spring Dishes at Pizza Express

PizzaExpress has added some new dishes to it’s Spring/Summer menu that feature ‘superfoods’ such as kale, quinoa and plant-based meat alternatives such as Beyond Chicken.

The new dishes include: Quinoa & Kale salad, Bresaola e Asparagi, Kale Pesto Beyond Rigatoni, Pollo Verde (Pizza dressed with béchamel sauce, basil pesto and topped with chicken, wild mushroom, rocket and parmesan), Spaghetti alle Vongole and Bresaola di Lombardia.

There’s also a couple of new desserts, a Summer Meringue and Torta al Limone. While the Giardiniera (top photo) has a very tasty new recipe that includes asparagus, roasted pumpkin, mushroom, roasted pepper, cherry tomato, olive, garlic, basil pesto.

Pizza Express are looking to reduce waste so plastic straws and individual wet wipes are now only available on request.

From now until 13 May 2018 take a photo of any of the new dishes and post to Instagram with the hashtag #PizzaExpressHK and receive a 15% discount coupon for any vegetarian items on your next visit.

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

Mr Greek Moves to Soho

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Mr-Greek-27-June-2017/i-zNQTmPj

Originally it opened in Mongkok, but Mr Greek has upped sticks and moved to Graham Street in Soho where the first Asian restaurant (operated as a franchise) of the this popular Canadian chain offers a wide range of Greek and Canadian dishes.

Simple sides and snacks include souvlaki, spanakopita, grilled vegetables, roasted potatoes and pita with delicious fresh dips.

The mains are generously sized and include several variations on the classic Canadian poutine ($50/$55). It might not look attractive to those searching for beautiful dishes for facebook/instagram but the enjoyment of poutine is in the eating. A piled high plate of chips, of the big fat variety-cooked fluffy in the middle, covered in delicious home-made gravy, and melted mozzarella.

It’s a lovely filling plate of carb to enjoy alone or with a friend and perfect washed down with a cold beer (byo). If we have a slight complaint it’s that there wasn’t enough gravy and it would be better served in bowl.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Mr-Greek-27-June-2017/i-zqc5tRm

The moussaka is minced lamb with layers of potatoes and aubergines topped with melted cheese and makes a nice change from similar Italian dishes.

There’s a selection of stuffed pita known in Greece as gyros, which are pita bread stuffed full of meat, salad, dressing and at Mr Greek chips. It’s a big fresh mouthful!

For seafood lovers there’s octopus, calamari offered as mains or taster sizes. And for salad aficionados there are a range of crisp flavourful salads to enjoy.

All the ingredients are freshly prepared on the premises or imported from Greece and portions are large enough that you really can share with your friends. There’s a selection of attractive looking desserts but we didn’t try any.

It’s not fancy and the poorly designed Chinglish menu does the restaurant no favours. But the food is tasty, filling with good sized portions at reasonable prices for Soho, so what’s not to like!

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Mr-Greek-27-June-2017/i-vjgwRpL

Mr Greek: 51A, Graham Street, Central. Tel: 2352 3336
Opening Hours: noon-midnight everyday
www.facebook.com/Mr-Greek-Asia

Pizza Express Cook Off 2

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-7k76tdC

Pizza Express have opened a new outlet at Empire Centre in TST East. The ground floor restaurant is also one the five participating in Pizza Express Cook Off 2. A vegetarian palate buster between Wan Veggie Mom’s Christine Cheng and PE’s Product Development Manager Sophia Cheung using vegetarian ‘fake’ meat.

Christine’s creation Beyond Burger Beef & Fig Pizza ($138) is a beautiful looking vibrant purple as she used beetroot sauce instead of the traditional tomato. Topped with buffalo mozzarella, ricotta cheese and crumbled marinated Beyond burger beef. The beetroot sauce was a little too salty but the combination of fig, beetroot and cheese on a thin crust was good. The fake burger meat added little beyond texture and the pizza would have been just as nice without it.

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Sophia chose a rectangular shape for her Beyond Chicken & Kale Pesto Pizza ($138) which was loaded with fake chicken, ricotta cheese, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, kale chips with a pesto sauce. There was little to no ‘chicken’ taste from the fake meat, but the pizza was full of texture and flavour.

Both chef’s have created interesting visually attractive and tasty pizzas that offer something new and different from Pizza Express’ regular menu. The vegetarian ‘meat’ did little for either pizza, and personally I would love to taste both with real meat. You can try the ladies Cook Off pizzas, and vote for your favourite, from 13 June at these Pizza Express outlets: Empire Centre, Wing Fung Street, Wellington Street, Mira Place and Airport.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-W9ttTM4

Megabites Food News – 3 May, 2017

It might be Le French GourMay this month, but there’s lots of good and not so good Italian flavoured news in this week’s megabites.

Sadly at IFC Isola is to relocate and lose it’s gorgeous terrace and view across the harbour. Rumour has it that even after demanding that the restaurant renovate their interior a couple of years ago landlord IFC have decided they can make more money by taking the large space and splitting it into smaller shops, so there will three new restaurants opening soon… More details on those as we get them.

Isola will close in it’s current location (Shop 3071-75, Level 3, ifc mall) on the 31 May and reopen almost directly downstairs on the second floor on the 12 June with a little more upmarket feel and basically the same menu with some new dishes to reflect the slight change in the feel due to the new location. The reservation telephone number and website address will remain unchanged.

A recent Italian food tasting at Isola saw several local vendors showcasing their Italian sourced products. Among those offering sample tastes were Abrate whose imported Tratuf Langhe truffle and pesto crisps are big thick and delicious. There’s a technique to cooking pasta well and it exposes the taste and texture difference between the cheaper brands and the more artisan pasta. Budget is always a factor when shopping, but when you want to impress then choose a quality pasta or all your effort in creating a mind bending sauce will be for naught. As well as pastas Abrate’s web shop also features a good selection of truffle, mushrooms, spices, dried fruits, desserts and other Italian delights.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Depack-cocktails-Bonhams-March2017/i-rsqPrWL

Vigne Vecchie produce a wide range of Italian products including pates, sauces, pickled vegetable, oils, and a bc favourite delicious cherry tomatoes stuffed with tuna. Many are available locally through an online store and regular pop-up events give them an email to find out about their upcoming events [email protected]

Pizza Express has launched a new menu for summer with many of the new dishes featuring seafood and seasonal fruits. We’ve yet to taste the new offerings but some of the more interesting sounding are: Crab Flatbread; Hawaiian ‘PizzaExpress – which features pineapple chutney and parma ham instead of the more traditional pineapple chunks and the new Lava pizza which has burrata mozzarella and basil torn over a baked pizza topped with olives and cherry tomatoes. All the new dishes are available at all 19 Pizza Express outlets across Hong Kong.

To celebrate the grand opening of their Citywalk store Emack & Bolio will be giving away 500 free scoops/cones on the 13 May from 2pm. The new store is located at Shop UG19, Citywalk, 1 Yeung Uk Road, Tsuen Mun

The Pond @ Elements Civic Square

It’s difficult to know what to make of The Pond, Maxim Group‘s new outlet at Element‘s Civic Square. It’s marketed as a Chinese Gastro Bar, which is an interesting concept – but the result is a venue yet to find its identity.

The decor at the two floor outlet is sparse. A large downstairs area is the drinking/ dining area and features a bar, an open kitchen – which you can’t really look into because of a service counter positioned infront of the window – and a large outdoor seating area for when the weather is accommodating. The smaller upstairs is more dining centric, with large floor to ceiling windows offering a semi-green view.

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The menu features a broad range of nicely presented Chinese dishes served for want of a better description ‘western style’. There’s a lack of oil, salt, msg but also sadly a lack of flavour. The dishes are nice, but there’s sadly nothing here that you must come back for or recommend to your friends to go eat. Portion sizes are not particularly large for the price.

Among the signature dishes is Sichuan Translucent Beef Slices ($98), the beef served on ‘lighted’ plate is sliced so thin as to be translucent and it becomes nicely crispy served this way, The mixed dumplings are meaty but somewhat bland. The Sichuan Spicy Crispy Chicken ($88) is good, but the dish is more chilli than chicken. There’s also fresh seafood, with daily catch options.

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The drinks menu is extensive and features a wide range of beers and wines with a few crafted cocktails served in amusing glasses and interesting ingredients including wolf berries, snow white fungus and fenugreek.

The Pond looks to bring a bit of ‘gastro’ style to a range of regular Chinese cuisines and it’s done ok. The food is nice, the venue is nice, although the location a little out of the way unless you live or work in Elements… It’s nice, but just lacks that bit extra that has you smacking your lips to return.

The Pond
Shop R002-003, Rooftop Garden, Civic Square, Elements, 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 2258 2278
Opening Hours: 11:30am-10:30pm (Weekends 11:30pm)

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/The-Pond-Elements-21-February-2017/i-pj9pDxp

Japanese Pop-up Food Fair at Sogo

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Japan-Local-Speciality-Fair-Sogo-15-February-2017/i-xBkvDNz

If you fancy a taste of Japan head over to Basement 2 of Sogo in Causeway Bay where a Japanese Local Speciality Fair (Actually Sogo are calling it a ‘speialty’ fair). There a range of Japanese food products you can’t often find locally including Hokkaido cream puffs ($38), Japanese cheesecake, assorted sweet rice desserts. A broad range of seaweed and savoury delights as well and a 5019 Premium Factory pop-up burger stand.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Japan-Local-Speciality-Fair-Sogo-15-February-2017/i-p4DV4hT

The 5019 Premium Factory is a well known burger outlet in Kochi and will be opening a branch at 46 Graham Street in April. Before then you can sample their wagyu burgers including the signature Ryoma ($98) which is a stacked burger made from a 90g wagyu beef patty, demi-glace sauce, cheese, eggplant, tuna, grilled tomato, lettuce and a variety of sauces. The pop-up store is also offering a wagyu egg burger ($68) and a wagyu avocado burger ($78).

The fair runs until the 21 February.

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Japan-Local-Speciality-Fair-Sogo-15-February-2017/i-3TtQtQx

Chocolate Lovers High Tea Delight

Attention chocolate lovers, Three on Canton‘s latest offering looks to sate your desires. The ‘Divine French Chocolate High Tea Set’ features an array of chocolate-themed savoury and sweet treats. What’s immediately obvious when the three-tiered high tea arrives is the amount of food. Too often tea-sets feature micro-bites, here each is at least two bites and you’ll certainly not leave hungry.

The tea set features 11 beautifully presented offerings, 4 savoury and 7 sweet, and you can enjoy your food with a cocktail, mocktail, tea or coffee. The savoury chocolate bites are a chicken nugget in a delicious dark chocolate dip – what a fine combination – and a mango and prawn brioche with white chocolate yoghurt sauce, it sounds delicious and is. These are served with two popular favourites Toast with fig, blue cheese and Parma ham and Smoked salmon asparagus rolls.

The sweet bites cover a broad range of flavours and textures and include: Chocolate and pear panna cotta, Dark chocolate mousse with mixed berries pie, Double chocolate cream puff, Milk chocolate mousse with vanilla apple filling, White chocolate mousse with apricot cake, Dark chocolate brownie, Coconut and chocolate chip butter scone with real clotted cream and jam. All are tasty and while none stand out, there are also none you’ll want to ignore.

The ‘Divine French Chocolate High Tea Set’ ($488/2 people, 3-5pm daily) offers a fine way to spend a relaxing afternoon, sitting inside or out. The portions size are good and although there’s a lot of chocolate the chefs have cleverly balanced it with other flavours and textures to ensure that it doesn’t overwhelm your taste buds.

Three on Canton / Be on Canton: Level 3, Gateway Hotel, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui. Tel: 2113 7828