FeedingHK Volunteer Night @ Pizza Express Wanchai – 28 August, 2017

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Feeding HK held their fifth Volunteer Night at Pizza Express with Liam Collette General Manager of Pizza Express commenting “We are conscious of those less fortunate, and we have worked with Feeding Hong Kong to devise a programme where our leftover fresh dough is baked daily into flatbreads, frozen and redistributed to people in need.  However, this couldn’t be accomplished without the wonderful volunteers that also support this food bank, so we’re delighted to be able to share some tasty treats and a celebratory atmosphere tonight for this well deserving group.”
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Pizza Express Cook Off 2

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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.

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Vegetarian Cook Off @ Pizza Express Empire Centre – 6 June, 2017

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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 Christine Cheng and PE’s Product Development Manager Sophia Cheung using vegetarian ‘fake’ meat.
Click on any photo for the full gallery of images

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2017/Pizza-Express-Cook-Off-2-Empire-Centre-6-June-2017/i-hmsMX7d

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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.

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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

Cook Off @ Miramar Pizza Express – 23 March, 2017

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Pizza Express staged the first of it’s Cook Off Challenges at it’s Mirimar branch on the 23 March when Sushi Kuu‘s Mukogawa Satoru took on PE’s Dan Segall. The resulting pizza’s Yamaimo & Chicken’ and ‘Yuzukosho and Clam’ respectively were sampled and voted on by an appreciative audience and will be available for a limited time.
Click on any photo for the full gallery.

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