Nibbles - Hooray Bar and Restaurant

A friend took me to lunch at Hooray Bar & Restaurant, on the 5th floor patio at World Trade Center, Causeway Bay. It was a nice day today, so we had lunch outside. It also has a nice view of the harbor, like most of the restaurants at WTC.


Hooray has a lunch set menu, and you can choose the number of courses. I went for Set Menu A, which was a choice of starter or pasta or main course, with dessert and coffee or tea for $108 + 10%. There were three choices for starters (soup, salad, choice from the salad bar), two choices for pasta, and four choices for main course (tuna tataki, roast of the day, BBQ spare ribs, sunny side up egg with vegetables and mushrooms). If you get a set with all the courses it's $198+10%.

Tuna Tataki, Avocado, Red Onion, Tomatoes and Ginger Soy Lime Vinaigrette

I was pleasantly surprised by the salad - the tuna is nicely seared, marinated in a teriyaki sauce, and the salad was light and fresh. Didn't spot any tomatoes in my salad though. The guacamole was a bit disappointing. I love guacamole, and this one wasn't good. They made it with a waxy variety of avocado, so the chunky bits of avocado were raw and firm.


Dessert was a selection from the buffet, but the buffet selection was limited in choices and not maintained well. The woman in front of me in the buffet line just kept picking the blueberries and raspberries out of the mixed fruit salad; so rude!


Finished off the meal with a nice cup of peppermint tea. The toothpicks they put down had a red 'H' on them, which reminded both me and my friend of Harlan's. I just googled it and turns out Hooray is part of the same group as Harlan's.


It was a nice place to chat and eat while the weather isn't too warm, and the set menu is decently priced. The service could have been managed better (they didn't operate the large patio space well, and broke a lot of dishes today). 

Worth a try, but if you're getting the set menu, I wouldn't get the BBQ spare ribs - saw them at another table and they looked like they were on the dry side.


Hooray Bar and Restaurant 
P502, World Trade Center, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 2895-0885
http://www.jcgroup.hk/restaurant.php?name=Hooray

Okinawa Dining Bridges

Okinawa Dining Bridges opened recently in the new Cubus building on Hoi Ping Road in Causeway Bay. Also part of the En Group, Bridges brings in Okinawan fine dining to Hong Kong (the other En restaurants are more on the casual side or are izakayas). They also have a small store specializing in Okinawan products just at the entrance of the restaurant - this is a collaboration with the Okinawan government and the Antenna Group in Okinawa.

Bridges has set lunches ranging from $150 - $280. Set lunches such as Goya Champuru (Stir-fried Pork and Bitter Gourd) and Okinawa Soba Noodles are at the $150 mark, whereas a sashimi rice bowl set lunch and a sashimi set lunch are priced at $260 and $280 respectively. The other sets feature tempura, pork cutlet, sushi, beef, grilled cod, etc, and are priced in between. They also have a Shokado Bento (Lunch Box set) at $280 (limited to 15 sets a day) and a Grilled Fish set for $180 (limited to 5 sets a day). I ordered the Shokado set. 

After a light salad with sesame dressing, they brought the lunch box out.

Clockwise from top left: Sea Grapes and Mozuku (a type of seaweed native to Okinawa) in Vinegar Sauce, Stewed Okinawa Aged Pork, Grilled Okinawa Motobu Wagyu Beef with Miso and Goya Champuru, Deep-fried Prawn and Shallots (Tempura).

Just a few more close-ups

If I had to pick a favorite amongst the four dishes, it would have to be the Motobu wagyu beef. It was so tender and delicious, and sweet with the miso. In reality, this is actually 5 dishes, since there's some champuru underneath the beef. I really liked the vinegared mozuku seaweed too - it's clean and refreshing, and the half scallop was fresh and sweet. The tempura was light and crunchy. Aside from the shrimp, there was also tempura yam, bitter gourd, squid, and shallots. The piece of tofu next to the pork was surprisingly good too! It had a clumpy texture, like rough tofu, and the soy bean taste was there (which you don't find in the mass produced stuff). The pork itself was okay.

Clockwise from top left: Steamed Egg, Sashimi, Clear Soup, Okinawa Rice (Takikomi Gohan, steamed rice with mushrooms, vegetables and meat), pickles in the middle

And a few more close-ups.

The sashimi was super fresh! There was a piece of salmon, a piece of octopus, and two pieces of snapper. It was great that instead of plain white rice they served the takikomi steamed rice. The egg was like silk in your mouth, with bits of chicken, mushroom, and a ginko on the bottom.

The set comes with tea/coffee and dessert. 

Today's dessert was a yuzu sorbet and a frozen orange jelly.

Even though this was described as a bento (or lunch box) on the menu, this was more like a tasting menu with samplings of Okinawan cuisine. I love how this one set lunch puts forward all the food highlights I had in Okinawa (the seaweed, the champuru, the pork and the beef). Presentation was beautiful and delicate, following the Japanese tradition.

If you plan to eat this whole bento, come hungry! Like a tasting menu, the fullness creeps up on you.

Okinawa Dining Bridges
6/F Cubus, 1 Hoi Ping Road, Causeway Bay, 3428-2131

Teppanyaki at Wa San Mai

I love teppanyaki - it's the display of fresh ingredients in its simplest form possible and a demonstration of honed culinary skill rolled into one dining experience.

Wa San Mai is great - the food is fresh, service is good, and it's in the heart of Causeway Bay. It offers both teppanyaki dining and Japanese 'Wa Shoku 和食' dining. Reservations for the teppanyaki dining are definitely recommended.

Teppanyaki is like a tasting menu in the sense that the portions may be small, but that the end you'll have your hands on your stomach wondering how all those small bites managed to fill you up. We had five people, but we ordered a dinner set for three people and an abalone and beef set for one person and it came out to be just right.

  
In the dinner set for three, there was an appetizer, Australian abalone, Hokkaido scallop or king prawn, boiled clams in sake, fois gras, seasonal vegetables, sliced beef and steak. It's $2080 for the US beef, $2500 for Australian Kobe beef, or $2980 for Japanese Saga A4 beef. In the abalone and beef set, there was an appetizer, South African abalone, cod, king prawn, beef (thin or steak) and vegetables (US Beef steak $510). All sets include a salad, fried rice, pickles, fried vegetables, miso soup, ice cream, and coffee or tea.



An appetizer of a fried dumpling and pomelo salad, as well as a house salad with sesame dressing.

The fois gras - quickly seared on the teppan and served on toast.

The Australian abalone - it was huge, still alive when it was put on the teppan, carved out of its shell and sliced. The chef seasoned it with salt, pepper, and made a sauce from butter, white wine and lemon juice.

 

The scallops, cod, and king prawn 

being prepared by the chef.

The boiled clams in sake - the chef takes out a 'bowl' made by pleated sturdy foil, pours some sake into it, and then lights it up once it comes to a boil to remove the harsh alcohol. He adds the clams and some aromatics like garlic and spring onion.

Steak - the chef will ask for your preference. It's served with some fried garlic slices, which turn out like chips. The other form of beef you can choose is the thin beef, where the chef will roll up some finely diced onion and carrot with a thin slice of beef.

The fried rice and vegetables - the rice has beef, egg, onion, carrot and spring onion in it.

Wa San Mai is a nice treat. Set lunches are a bit cheaper (about $250-$300 a set) if you want to try it out. With 5 people splitting 4 dinner sets, it came about to be about $500 per head.

Wa San Mai
22/F East Point Center, 555 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay, 2831-8989

Seoul Food

Had a good dose of Korean food while in Seoul for a quick trip just after celebrating the start of 2011. Here are some of the places I ate at:

이문설렁탕 (Lee Mun Seol Leong Tang)

Seol Leong Tang is a soup made by simmering beef bones, brisket, and some other cuts for a long period of time until you get the milky white color. This is eaten with rice (which the shop has already put into the soup). They've put some noodles into it too. It comes unseasoned, so you add salt, spring onion, white pepper powder and red pepper powder as you like. You help yourself to the containers of napa cabbage kimchi and radish kimchi on the table.

This shop has had more than 100 years of history, and they only serve beef soup! This bowl of seol leong tang cost KRW6500 (about HK$45).

이문설렁탕, 서울시 종로구 공평동45번지, 02-733-6526

Get off at Jonggak Station (Line 1) Exit 3. It's right behind Jongno Tower.

이춘복 참치 (Lee Chun Bok Tuna)

Of all the types of fish in sushi/sashimi, I love tuna the most. This restaurant offers an all you can eat tuna buffet (different grades of tuna, different prices). We went during lunch, so we got to see their set menu. We went for the tuna set lunch, which was KRW18,000 (about HK$125).

The chef gets to cutting our tuna while we start with some small dishes.














The star of the show - the tuna. There were various cuts as well as some white tuna. Served with soy sauce, or if you want to eat it Korean style, with sesame oil and salt. They also provided some Korean roasted seaweed.










Some tuna sushi, a stone bowl rice, and a spicy fish soup was also served.

명동교자 (Myeongdong Gyoja)

A restaurant chain with two branches in the popular shopping district of Myeong Dong, this place has been operating for 46 years and only serves four things on its menu - dumplings (만두), hot soup noodles (칼국수), cold soymilk noodles (콩국수), and spicy mixed noodles (비빔국수). Each is priced at KRW 8000 (about HK$56).














The dumplings - not bad. Anything hot and steamy was good on a cold day in Seoul. The filling is pork and vegetables. While the dumpling skin is nice and thin, the filling was a bit rough in the mouth. Personally, I like Shanghai dumplings better.














I liked the noodles better - it also had dumplings (boiled instead of steamed, same filling), and the noodles were thick and chewy.

You can also have as much kimchi as you'd like, but this is not the nicely marinated type. I thought it was napa cabbage bathed in pepper sauce.

The ladies will take your order and have you pay once you finish ordering. It does save a lot of time for both the tourists (so they can continue spending more money in Myeongdong) and for the restaurant to have a higher turnover rate. Good for a quick stop, but not spectacular.

명동교자, 서울시 종구 명동 2가 25-2, 02-776-5348
Get off at Myeongdong Station (Line 4), Exit 8, turn left and walk down the street for about 2 minutes. Right across from M Plaza.

명동함흥면옥 (Myeongdong Ham Heung Noodle House)














Cold buckwheat noodles (냉면, naeng myun) KRW 8000 (HK$56). Yes, even though it's -10 degrees outside, I still have to eat the cold version. Chewy noodles in a clear beef broth mixed with the juice of water kimchi (dongchimi), with a few slices of beef brisket, julienned cucumber, matchsticks of Korean pear, and half a boiled egg. You can season it with a bit of mustard (Koreans use it to counter the 'chill') and a bit of vinegar if you like it more tart.














If you can't stand the cold, then there's always the hot beef broth version, also KRW 8000 (HK$56). The soup base is like the seol leong tang from above. They also serve the beef broth instead of tea, to warm the stomachs of those who ate the cold noodles. They serve dumplings like those in Myeongdong Gyoja, and it's KRW 8000 (HK$56) as well.

명동함흥면옥, 서울시 종구 명동 2가 26-1, 02-776-8430
Get off at Myeongdong Station (Line 4), Exit 8, turn left and walk down the street for about 2 minutes. It's on the small street right behind Myeongdong Gyoja.

경복궁 (Kyeong Bok Koong)














Kyeong Bok Koong, which is also the name of one of the Korean palaces, is just off of the main Myeongdong shopping area. Of course, I can't leave Seoul without having some Korean BBQ. Recommended in most of the Hong Kong published Seoul travel guides, we ventured over to this restaurant. I love the fact that it uses wood and not gas stoves!


















We ordered a mixed beef platter for 2 (KRW 65,000, HK$455). It came with different types of kimchi and some small side dishes. The ladies helped us do all the cooking; all we had to do was eat!














We were taught to wrap the beef with a bit of Korean miso paste, roasted garlic, marinated onions, and spicy marinated green onions. Yumm. We also ordered a cold noodle to wash it all down (KRW 5,000, HK$35).

경복궁, 서울시 종구 자둥 2가 88-5, 02-2266-2004