Slices Pizzeria

Was walking on Leighton Road in Causeway Bay and noticed a woman at the street crossing with a paper bag flat in her hand from "Slices Pizzeria". Around about then I was pretty hungry and was thinking of what to eat. Seeing that bag solved the problem!

Slices is just one shop down from Yogo (it seems both are owned by the same people). Luckily I got there and ordered my pizza just before the St. Paul's Convent student lunch crowd invaded the store.

They had four huge 22" pies in the heat box - 4 Cheese, Hawaiian, Sausage and Mushroom, and 4 Seasons. I wanted to try something different, and ordered the 4 Seasons (tomato, mozzarella, artichoke, mushroom, ham, olives). It had me at olives.

A huge slice of pizza at Slices

Yum...olives, artichokes, mushrooms, ham...

Once you pick the slice they reheat it for you in the oven (which does cause a bit of a line with too many students). You can actually add toppings for $5 each. A slice of 4 Seasons is $32. Their cheapest slice is a Margherita for $25.

Perhaps I've been back in Hong Kong for a while now and haven't had good New York pizza for a while, but Slices will take care of that from now on! The crust is thin, crispy but chewy, not overloaded with sauce or toppings, and did I mention that I love olives? It could, however, use a little more salt (maybe hard to control with olives and artichokes), and I did sprinkle it liberally with Italian seasoning after I took the photos of the slice. Much better :)

They also take create-your-own orders for whole pies, and there are 14" and 18" pies as well. The place was filled with students because they give student group discounts as well as a student lunch deal - $34 for a slice plus a drink. Not bad.

Slices Pizzeria

Shop 4 & 5, G/F, 128-132 Leighton Road, Causeway Bay, 2895-6633

Butao Ramen

Butao Storefront

Finally I've tasted Butao Ramen. A source told me that there are no lines at Butao if you go around 4 in the afternoon (Butao now opens till 6pm). So C, K and I went to eat at around 4:30pm. We didn't even have to wait and sat down immediately! This place has just only a few more than a dozen seats - it's no wonder the wait can be so long.

Order sheet to choose your preferences

Everyone gets their own order sheet to tick their preferences. Butao has four ramen soup types on its menu - yellow (the plain pork bone broth) for $75, black (soup + squid ink) for $88, red (soup + spicy base) for $88, and green (soup + pesto) for $90. I've heard that there's a curry soup base off the menu, but I didn't ask about it.

You can also choose the concentration of your soup base, the amount of oil and garlic, yes or no to roast pork and onion, how much spicy miso paste, and hardness of your noodle. You can tick for add-ins too. I wanted the half-cooked egg but it's currently unavailable.

Original Butao King (Yellow)

C and K both ordered the original. K described the soup as tasting like liquified cooked egg yolks. I agree!! The roasted pork was about normal.

Green Butao - with pesto and parmesan cheese

I thought this was pleasantly surprising. You can still taste the egg-yolky broth but the pesto works well with it! A Japanese and Italian fusion creation.

Noodles

Luckily I ordered the noodles hard, because these were thin noodles. C ordered his soft and said they were pretty soft. I think I actually might try extra hard noodles next time. Even though I'm a fast eater, the noodles in the last few bites were soft. I wouldn't mind a bit more firmness anyway.


I like Butao and I wouldn't mind going back to try the other soup varieties (I think I'll try the Red Butao next since I love spicy food). Having said that, C and I both think that this place is not worth a long wait while you starve yourself in line. 


Butao Ramen 豚王
G/F, Wo On Building, 8-13 On Lane Street, Central, 2530-0600

Nibbles - Macarons from Jean Paul Hévin

Was out in Central today and wanted to get some macarons while I was at IFC. The plan was to have them when I take a break from writing my paper this afternoon. I've had the macarons at Le Gouter Bernardaud and wanted to try the ones at Jean Paul Hévin. I ended up buying two - one raspberry and one bitter chocolate.

Frambois'in and Amer macarons

Couldn't help but take a bite!

Frambois'in:

Amer

I think the LGB macarons are a bit too sweet for me, but these JPH ones are good! It wasn't just sweet sweet sweet, like most macarons.

I love basically anything raspberry x chocolate, and the Frambois'in was well balanced. There was a good amount of tartness, the raspberry flavor came through, and the ganache was smooth. The dark chocolate one was yum too (after all, JPH is a chocolatier), and I do like how you can actually taste the nutty almond-ness of the cookie.

JPH has lunch and brunch too in the small seating area adjacent to the shop, but no reservations. Will try it some day, and their signature chocolate drinks!

Jean Paul Hévin Bar à Chocolat et Boutique

Shop 2045A, ifc mall, Central, Hong Kong, 2111-9770

http://www.jphevin.com.hk/

Hide-Chan Ramen

Last weekend I was in Central and wanted to see how ridiculous the queue was for Butao Ramen, the small ramen shop with less than two dozen seats on Wo On Lane in Lan Kwai Fong. I've long decided that I will wait until the hype is over to try it than waste a morning lining up. It was already 1pm and the line still looked like it was about 2hrs long. Butao closes after selling 200 bowls of ramen, so I was wondering if all those people at the end of the line actually thought they had a chance to eat a bowl of ramen that day.

Not to despair! Hide-Chan Ramen (serving Kyushu style ramen) just opened on Wellington Street and the line was only about 15 minutes. One of the servers came out every now and then to make sure the people in line had menus to look at and gave out an order form with clipboard and pencil so you can decide what you want to eat while in line.

Hide-Chan's menu

The order form - available in Chinese and English

A view from the noodle bar

While the noodles might be the heart of a bowl of ramen, the soup is definitely the soul. When it comes to the soup, my rule of thumb is to choose the most basic soup base. That way, you can taste the actual soup without interference from add-ins like miso or soy sauce. There were three choices of soup at Hide-Chan: White Hide (the basic pork bone soup), Black Hide (soup + special soy sauce), and Red Hide (soup + special spicy sauce). You also get to choose the texture of your noodles and whether you want your roast pork to be from the shoulder or belly. For additional $$, you can add extra anything to make a unique bowl of noodles. 

They also have tsukemen (mixed noodles, noodles and dipping sauce served separate) if you're not in the mood for something soupy, and gyoza with a choice of mayo (cheese, green onion, or tarako). The gyoza would probably be nice to share with a friend, but they run out of gyoza quick! The couple next to me wanted to order them but they were already sold out.


My choice: White Hide, medium textured noodles (al dente), roast pork shoulder, +$10 for a whole soft-boiled egg.

White Hide Ramen

The soup was thick, white and creamy, perhaps even a bit too thick, as if they reduced the soup a bit too much. I read somewhere that they simmer 120kg of pork bones for 400 bowls of soup for a whole day. If you're not one for intense flavors, this place is definitely not for you. The soup was borderline salty for me (probably because it's so concentrated). I'm glad I didn't choose the Black Hide because that would be even saltier!

The noodles were cooked just right. I think if you chose soft noodles they might be a bit mushy, since the noodles are on the thin side. Even though I ordered the roast pork shoulder (the less fatty option), the meat was still very delicate and not dry at all. You can also order a plate of roast pork, which they torch just before serving to give it a little bit of a char.

Soft boiled egg

I think the egg was a bit disappointing because for a soft boiled egg I was expecting the center to be slightly runny, like the eggs at Wakayama. I cut the egg open right after my first bite of noodles so I know it wasn't because I let the egg sit in the hot soup for too long.

Done!!

For about $80 a bowl of ramen and a shorter wait time, Hide-Chan is worth trying if you're in the Central area. Note that I waited about 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon at around 2pm, so the wait could potentially be much longer.

Like: customizable ramen, roast pork
Dislike: egg, soup base might have been too concentrated


Any other ramen places worth trying? I still have plans for Mist and Ippei-An - stay tuned!

Hide-Chan Ramen

Upper Ground Floor, The Loop, 33 Wellington Street, Central , 2522-5990  
http://www.hide-chan.hk/eng/index.html