Häagen-Dazs xmas delights and new mint icecream

I was really glad to be invited to the Christmas Haagen Daaz tasting session, which was really special this time, because they had the chocolate fondue and the new mint leaves and chocolate icecream.

For Christmas they have come up with so many enchanting and fairytale like desserts especially the Christmas mushroom house.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
New Christmas cake series:

Little Santa Claus/Christmas Carol

 

Christmas Mushroom House

 

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Snowy Banana Split:

Snowy Banana Split

 

This was really nice and there was a scoop of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry icecream as you would normally get in a traditional banana split dessert.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Happy Christmas Tree:

 

There is a take away version of this too!
It was really fun how the scoops of icecream were sandwiched in between two thin pieces of christmas tree shaped chocolates with round holes for the scoops of icecream to protude and it reminds me of a real christmas tree with huge baubles of different colours!
If they had candy strings or something similar to resemble the tinsel then it would look even more like a Christmas tree.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Winter Snowman:

Winter Snowman

 

This is the first time I have tried their Creme brulee because usually ice cream is the first thing I come for.
The creme brulee was surprisingly delicious, smooth and velvety too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fondue (X'mas Version):
The usual fondue version is the plain 72% melted chocolate but for Christmas they have a piece of snowflake shaped white chocolate on top.

 

 

 

 

The chocolate that was dipped goes hard imediately and I love the way it makes a crunch when you eat it.
It was nice trying practically most of the popular flavours dipped in chocolate, my favourite was the green tea and chocolate.
The fondue was a really fun experience, so enjoy the ice-cream before it melts or it will slip from your fondue forks when you are dipping it in the chocolate.

 

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Mint leaves chocolate ice cream:

 

When I first tried it at the LKF branch I did not know there were real mint leaves in the icecream, but after expert introduction of this icecream at this tasting session I had a proper look and I could see real mint leaves in it as shown on the photo.

 

So far this is my favourite flavour out of the Haagen Daaz range in Hong Kong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Une nouveau marche de pasta - Pasta marche

Before this place was opened, it was boarded up with the Pasta Marche name. Anyway thought it was French because of MARCHE but when it opened it was another Italian inspired Japanese restaurant.

Since I had dinner already I went in for desserts, which was not displayed, on the menu outside and it was lucky that I asked.

It was their soft opening so only half the restaurant was occupied by diners.

I had to wait for three tables before I was seated.

While I was browsing the menu, the pasta and carpaccios were priced quite reasonably, just costing slightly more than Watami casual japanese restaurant.

After I was seated, I was given some bread, however there was no side dish for the olive oil so I had to balance a spoon on the basket and put the olive oil there.

There was olive oil and chili oil in the frosted containers.

Anyway I ordered the chiffon cakes (thinking was it really chiffon or a translation blip) but it turned out they really were chiffon cakes.

They also had watermelon or kiwi terrine, which sounds interesting!

I also wanted to order the veggie leaves tea but they were not available yet.

Overall I felt that the menu was not that consistent because the Chinese and English had some differences because one language would be more detailed.

Eg the in English the cake was chiffon but in Chinese there was no chiffon.

The veggie leaves tea was fruit and vegetable in Chinese.

Both cakes came with a dollop of whipped cream and I had the carrot cake first because I assumed the chocolate would have a stronger taste.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Carrot Chiffon cake

The carrot chiffon cake was surrounded by berries and you could see the chiffon cake patterns. It was quite nice having a carrot cake chiffon style because carrot cake is dense and heavy.

However the carrot taste was really faint. The cake seemed boring but with the tart blueberries and cream the cake came alive.

There were also caramelized nuts too which gave it some crunch and the berries and cream with the cake reminded me of a berry flavoured Victoria sandwich.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Chocolate ginger chiffon cake

I thought the chocolate cake would have a strong chocolate taste but it was faint, and the ginger too, but you could find ginger fibres in it.

Again the cake came alive with the cream, crispy nuts, pieces of chocolates and chocolate sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

I was really impressed with the cakes as they were not too sweet or heavy.

The décor of this restaurant was quite relaxing and natural with high ceilings, and I liked the front where they had vegetables and fruit on display just like a real Market (Marche) in Europe.

I will definately be back to try their pastas.

Disgusting Indonesian Fried Rice

I was quite shocked when I got this! There was disgusting raisins in it and pieces of squid which are not supposed to be there and it was topped with pork floss!