Festive Lunch at the Historic Pawn

The Pawn (Wan Chai)

As this is my 3000th review, I might as well write something special for it.

This review also coincides with my recommendation to spend Christmas at The Pawn on 「細味」which costs $2 at your local 7-11.

Since many people have requested some Chinese on my 3000th review, I might as well copy and paste the edited sentences from「細味」, please see below!~.

I have always been curious about The Pawn because the building is Historic.
Many expats go there for British food, the British magazine Time Out held their opening party there and Richard Ng 吳耀漢 who has lived in the UK was interviewed there too for some local TV Chit Chat.

Before this tasting, I was lucky to be invited to the The Pawn Roof Top market which had food stalls from The Pawn, The Principal, The News Room, SML and Classified.
It was a great day with the sun shining and beautiful views of Wan Chai city from the roof top.

For the festive lunch, it was on the second floor which is served from now till Christmas and there is Festive dinner too which can be found on their website/Fb.

You can choose to sit inside or outside on the balcony.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
The festive lunch menu includes Starters, Mains and dessert.

+++++++
Starters:
Chestnut and butternut squash soup with toasted pumpkin seeds
-or-
Potted blue swimmer crab with pickled fennel and wheatbread toast
-or-
Roasted beetroot and goat's cheese salad
Wild leaves, cherry tomatoes, french beans, sweet potatoes and pomegranite
+++++++
Mains:
Roast turkey, pigs in a blanket, cranberries, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes and sage turkey gravy
-or-
roasted pumpkin risotto with crispy sage, baby asparagus, feta cheese and arugula
-or-
Salmon Wellington with mussels and white wine cream
+++++++
Desserts:
Traditional Christmas pudding with brandy vanilla custard
-or-
Warm valrhona chocolate mousse poached wild berries and toasted almonds
-or-
white chocolate and brioche butter pudding
cranberry sorbet
+++++++
Here's what I had:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bread:

I loved this crispy soft yeasty bread which was delicious after putting butter on it and the salt provided.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Potted blue swimmer crab with pickled fennel and wheatbread toast:

There was quite a generous amount of crab on the toast which seemed to be mixed with butter, but the pickled fennel on the side was really acidic and balanced the heavyness of that.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roast turkey, pigs in a blanket, cranberries, brussel sprouts, roast potatoes and sage turkey gravy:

Now to my favourite part of the meal!!
The turkey was tender and juicy complemented by the sweet and sour cranberries.
Although it does not state there is stuffing on the menu, I found a huge piece of stuffing which was heavily soaked in wine.
The Stuffing is the best part of roast turkey because it is really tasty with lots of herbs.
Eating the stuffing, turkey and cranberry together was delicious.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Traditional Christmas pudding with brandy vanilla custard:

Last but not least, the strong Christmas pudding was paired perfectly with brandy vanilla sauce which lightens the taste of peel.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Here is the brief Chinese version for this review quoted from 細味...

在這個重要的節日下,每個國家都會以不同美食慶祝聖誕,而火雞/烤雞餐就是英國人的傳統.
所以希望推介歷史悠久的建築物內的The Pawn,來一個英式風味聖誕餐.
跟朋友分享.火雞伴燒汁薯菜和酸甜小紅莓醬加上傳統Christmas pudding,這就是最快樂的時光


Even though its my 3000th review I will keep posting my dining experiences.

People will probably think that I express my views to get tastings, but I have been expressing my views way before tastings became popular these two years.
If I did intend to get tastings I would have disclosed my contact information right from the beginning in 2006.

Tastings have only become popular these two years because restaurants have found it more effective in terms of showcasing their dishes because everyone uses social media such as FB/instagram/OpenRice/blogs etc.

Personally for tastings, I liked to feature more on the taste, photos and less on the price because it would be quite promotional and others at the tastings with me would have written the price so readers will be able to find it easily.

However with photos you can judge on the size and quality of the food, but in some cases portion sizes will vary because they just made it bigger so that everyone could try some.
In some cases, it would be an appetizer or mains shared between a few people during tastings but the readers don't see that because they are not present!

Some people choose to spend their time hiking, shopping, exercising while I spend some of my time expressing my views on food because I am quite passionate about eating and I love to eat!

To be honest, if I was hoping for this 3000th review to be recommended by OpenRice I would have written it on a non tasting review because Tastings do not get recommended on OpenRice as it is just a showcase of dishes from the restaurant.

Hopefully I have not been too straight and offended anyone here!

Christmas 2013 at The Canny Man

The Canny Man (Wan Chai)

I love Christmas and this year so many places are doing Roast Turkey so I intend to try every restaurant that does it whether I pay for it myself or I am invited to tasting.

The Canny Man which is a Scottish bar has Roast Turkey every year and this year is my fourth year of it.
I liked it so much that I chose this place for my food interview with the Hong Kong Economic Times Newspaper earlier this year.

I only wrote about the Canny Man Christmas lunch in 2010 because 2011 and 2012 were pretty much the same.

The menu for this year was slightly different and they have a vegetarian option too.

Here was what I had:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salad with feta cheese:

A lovely healthy salad with just the right dressing and scrumptious cubes of cheese!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
pumpkin soup:

A light soup to start you appetite going.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Roast Turkey with Yuletide stuffing:

I loved the generous slice of Stuffing which is my favourite item and the stuffing here contains lots of oatmeal because it is Scottish!
The turkey was juicy and tender paired with appetizing cranberry sauce which had whole pieces of cranberries.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Christmas vegetable terrine:

I was glad they had a vegetarian option, it was jellied grilled vegetables in a terrine form complemented by deliciously sweet pomodoro sauce.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Yorkshire pudding with blueberries and custard:

I thought I was seeing things when I saw Yorkshire pudding for dessert but it really was Yorkshire pudding filled with fresh blueberries and custard.
It was actually quite nice because it went well with the tart blueberries and sweet custard.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Millionaire's shortbread:

This was the best dessert and tastes the same as the ones at infant school.
You can see the clear layers of shortbread, caramel, and chocolate on top. It tasted similar to TWIX but a thousand times better because the shortbread was really buttery and the caramel was lovely and chewy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Minced pie:

The minced pie was different to the ones a few years ago.
This one was HUGE and tasted better because the pastry was freshly made.
Each person who has the Christmas lunch will have this MEGA mince pie so prepare yourself for it!!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Looking forward to it next year again!

Rooftop market at The Pawn

Thanks to NK and Catch On for inviting me to this rooftop market to try a galore of wonderful food.

The event was a success and I hope they will do it again because there were so many expats there and it gave me an opportunity to try the restaurants in that group which were: The Pawn, The Principal, The News Room, SML and Classified.

All food and beverage was paid for using tokens which were available for purchase at the reception.

As a summary, the fish and chips were the best and it was a bargain for $50 with two huge succulent chunks of fish.

The weather was a bit too hot and sunny that day but once I started eating the food it was so delicious that the hot weather did not bother me.

Here was what we tried:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
The Pawn:
Fish and Chips $50

Two generous pieces of fish, which were succulent and tender.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Classified:
Montgomery panini (toastie) $40

The toast was simply melted cheese in the middle which was delicious and the toast was crispy and soft on the inside.
As it was hot that day, we had numerous drinks to hydrate ourselves: Sparkling water, Mulled wine (served warm), and Cranberry juice.

Cauliflower with Raclette cheese:
The raclette cheese was lovely and gooey, great with cauliflower.

Their jams looked good, so bought the Strawberry and champagne jam and the Chunky orange marmalade.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

News Room:
Popcorn chicken

You could smell the lovely cajun and spices, but the texture of the chicken was a little dry.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Principal:
Rice Pudding Espuma x 2

This was gorgeous so I had two!!
It was deliciously cool foamy rice pudding with fresh orange bits and crunchy caramelized pistachios on top.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Fish and Meat opening party

Thanks to HKE for inviting me to this event!
I was looking forward to it but HKE did not turn up !
Anyway I had a GREAT time there.

When I arrived I could already see the party and people mingling on the balcony.

There were so many celebrities there that night including Carl NG!

There were many welcoming flower baskets and a huge celebration signature board.



Inside, there were so many guests and lots of gourmet snacks.
It was hard to take pictures because it was crowded so I only managed to photograph the octopus which tasted delicious.
It was grilled to perfection and it was slightly crispy.

Each female guest was given a pretty flower crown to wear which you can see on the next picture and the goodies given to guests when they left!!


There was also a jar of herbs too which smelt gorgeous!!

Creative food jamming with Jam

let's Jam (Sai Kung)

Previously tried to dine here but the owner was ill so it was closed that day.

Came here a few weeks later when the weather was lovely and cool.

As expected, the place stood out because the decor was nice.
It was sort of vintage English but also American.

Something that you would expect in a little town.

++++++++++++++++
Lovely rustic picnic hamper

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Stylish sink and mirror

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Cute pastel straws that are made of paper and not plastic

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The name let's Jam reminded me of the recent trend of art jamming and music jamming but they are actually called that because they produce many homemade jams.

For every dish, it is paired with a choice of jam, even their beef burgers have jam in it to balance the beefy taste.

Here was what I ordered:
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Double cheese omelette:

The omelette was surprisingly fluffy with delicious cheese inside, there were two different cheeses inside, I think one was mozzarella and the other was cheddar.
Also on the plate were some delicious earthy mushrooms and some bacon, but the bacon was different to the ones I usually have because it was harder and had a smokier taste.
The thickness of the toast was thick!!!
It was great with the jam which I had last because it was sweet.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Apple and rose jam:

I wanted to try apple and cinnamon jam but it was sold out so tried the apple and rose. Luckily the rose was not that strong so it was quite nice and not too sweet with a tangy apple flavour.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pear in red wine jam:

The pear jam was sweeter than the apple.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
cheesecake with blueberry jam:

Had the cheesecake as well because the jam made me hungrier.
It was a Japanese style soft and moist cheesecake with a light texture.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
apple and rose soda:

The soda was really nice and it was nice having a cold drink on a cold day.
Again, the rose flavouring was not that prominent which was great because I don't like rose.
It was great drinking from the vintage paper straw.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Overall, the food here is affordable but it takes a while for the food to come.
Their plates are really cute because they have cute fancy cut outs.

Maxim's Shandong Chestnut Cake

Maxim's Cake Shop (Central)

It was someones birthday and they happened to get one of the cakes from Maxim's new Chestnut series.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Shandong Chestnut Cake:


Thanks to Maxim's I have already tried the other three chestnut cakes in that series and this was the only one I have not tried.
This is the biggest cake in the Chestnut series with a chestnut puree lattice on the top.
The taste of this one was surprisingly better than the Chestnut and Almond cake because it was mainly soft cake and chestnut puree with the right sweetness.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Dehydrated bun from It's a Tuck Shop

It's a Tuck Shop (Wan Chai)

Came here again for the burgers.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mini burgers:

I was a bit disappointed this time because the bun was dehydrated and hard.
There was too much relish in the burger as well which made it too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★