Additional Pics from HK Football Club Annual Christmas Dinner

Annual Christmas Dinner at the HK Football Club

Sorry for the holiday hiatus! Hope you all had a fun and restful holidays. This post is dedicated to Christmas and the love and happiness that comes from food and meals that virtually bind families and friends together.
These pictures illustrate the annual Christmas Party luncheon for Grant Thornton International’s Corporate Finance + Restructuring Insolvency division in Hong Kong. Basically, a Christmas luncheon for about 30 of us in the Causway Bay division not related to either Tax, Assurance (Audit) or BRS.
We start off with venue: Hong Kong Football Club
Location: Happy Valley
Description: A type of country club/sports club esque venue to see and be seen by the city’s most influential power socialites and corporate heads. A good place for networking and job searches really.
Dining: They offer a wide variety of dining possibilities, ranging from a casual sports bar, to high class dining.

As the 30 of us all arrived, we were escorted into the restaurant dining area, which led into another half sized room that was lined with a buffet of delicacies and desserts.
The meal of the day was as followed:

- All you can eat starters(sushi rolls, (tuna, salmon, other sashimi choices), oysters, conch, and crab legs, cocktail shrimp, salad, various deli meats, parma ham+ honeydew, and various pasta salads.
- An entrée of your choosing
- All you can eat dessert buffet ( bread pudding, various forms of fruit, cheesecake, fruit cake, and chocolate mousses)
- A choice of Coffee, or Tea


In this meal, I grew obsessed with the savory and sweet texture and taste of parma hams + honeydews. The crab legs encompassed the perfect amount of sweetness as well as seafood taste without being overly one compared to the other. My entrée of choice was a filet mignon with giant prawn… absolutely mouth-watering juicy piece of medium rare steak with perfectly broiled piece of shrimp, which resembled the texture, and sweetness of a baby lobster. Enjoy the pictures!

Cheers! And happy eating!

Craving for Mexican Food!

After three months of residing in Asia and being forced to stay put aka: having a job, i found something i actually craved-food wise; mexican food. I suppose you can say i was a late bloomer for Mexican food; Taco Bell was not my idea of a good meal and i never lived near a Chipotle or Q'doba as there were none on the East Coast. It was not until college where my friends urged me to try my very first dose of mexican food my freshman year. I have never looked back since.Specifically... i can pinpoint exactly what i miss most about mexican food... the sizzling aroma of strip steak, chicken, a combination of fresh greens(onions, red & green peppers) and my favorite; shrimp all wrapped in a wonderful soft tortilla with a wonderful heap of mexican rice. Sound familiar? thats because for all those who know me; its the ONE thing i order at Dos Reales; the acapulco! Nothing has replaced the acapulco yet in my heart.. perhaps one day.

Thus, after locating a few friends who also had a similar craving for mexican, i went venturing' for something that would satisfy my craving and came across some food blogs and friends who recommended Caramba! Caramba is located in the heart of the SoHo district of Central where many small foreign restaurants and bars are situated, just beyond the mid-level excalators.

Here below were are the dishes for the night.
- Caramba Nachos( Nachos in a two cheese combo, salsa, black beans, and cheese)
- Chorizo quesadillas( Chorizo(a sort of spicy sausage) w. cheese)
- Steak Fajita( Sizzled strips of steak w. red and green peppers and grilled onions)

We ended up ordering two orders of fajitas between the five of us... so i can say it was decent mexican food for Asia.I have not decided if i was
a) easy on the rating because i would never expect to find good Mexican in Hong Kong
b) my lack of Mexican food in my diet was warping my taste buds to think even Taco Bell was yummy or
c) The food actually was pretty decent.

Next Time; Coyote in Wanchai! Similar food but supposedly the helpings are even larger....FAMILY STYLE! I will be sure to wear sweats that day :)

Cheers!And happy eating!

Hokkaido Dairy Farm: Breakfast For Lunch?

So occasionally when I'm extremely lazy, tired, the weather sucks or am feeling socially inept- i run out to buy lunch to eat at my desk. There are usually only one of two places i go- the first being a place i have already reviewed.. the local noodle shop (Nam Ke) and the second being Hokkaido Dairy Farm. Usually these two places continually persist in my weekly lunch excursions.

Tucked behind a corner, across from the Ferrari dealership and the 28 mini bus to Central Soho, lies this small Asian looking coffee shop/diner. But amass the line of businessmen waiting for a seat, lies simplicity in food hardly seen elsewhere in Causway bay.

My first experience here was actually my first day of work.. not a mere three months ago but feels like forever. Most people order 1 thing and 1 thing only on the menu.. the Lunch Special.

This lunch special consists of things you can easily find at home.. but would never piece together and create a lunch set. My sheer amazement at the "lunch special" soon faded as i became a regular there.

1) Scrambled Eggs
2) 2 slices of Ham
3) 2 perfectly cut triangular slices of White "Asian style" Toast
4) BBQ Beef+ Macaroni in a Light Chicken Broth.
5) Iced Lemon Tea (My new favorite beverage)

All in all- while not the best lunch meal i had experienced, definitely one that offers the comfort and satisfaction that one needs as a corporate clone in the HK work world.

Cheers! And happy eating!

Cafe le Must

So excuse the funky name of the restaurant. Chinese people should really learn to edit restaurant names to make sense but you know...as long as they are good i suppose. So since.. my lunches usually take place in CWB.. here is another frequented lunch spot for my co-workers and i.

Its called Cafe le Must and without reservations.. you will be waiting there for 20-30 minutes easily. Luckily, i work with people who love to eat.. so reservations are always made. Because CWB has lots of office buildings and tons of people in the surrounding areas, there is the tradition for restaurants to have lunch sets for the typical corporate office worker.

So here below is a 3 course meal with vegetable soup, garlic bread, bbq porkchops with spaghetti , ramekin of tiramisu, and iced lemon tea all for a total of HK41( USD $5). i shall let the pictures do the narration for this post :)

Cheers! And happy eating!

Happy Hour at its Best!

Working in Asia is definitely a challenging and a learning experience for anyone that has the opportunity to experience it. Working becomes life and there is little time for anything else unless sleep is sacrificed. Since i am still young,there is definitely an inverse relationship between my social life and how much sleep i receive.

Anywho! I realize i cannot connect with locals on any level and since most of my friends and acquaintances are foreigners in some way shape or form; alcohol has become a significant part of their lives at one point or another. This past Thursday i experienced what i believe in my opinion is my favorite little hidden bar/lounge...at least on a Thursday night.

Its called Drop...or BackDrop for its entire name. Its actually rated on "world's best bars" and on weekends has been described as being Hong Kong's chic'est and most posh after-club bar and i can definitely understand why.

The drinks are absolutely fantastic. As most of you know, i am not a heavy drinker but i do love good cocktails. Also, me and my girl friend seemed to draw the attention of the bartenders and had 3 rounds of free drinks.Nobody can say no to free right?

I started with a Green Apple Mojito and it was by far one of the best mojitos i have ever tasted. Usually, my complaints with mojitos have something to do with the sugar content. There is usually far too much syrup and off balances the rum as well as the soda water. This particular green apple Mojito was delicious.. just the right amount of green apple and lime flavor to offset the rum and soda water. A perfect concoction and before i knew it.. my glass was empty.


I've also enclosed pictures of some friends' drinks which included [fruit of the forest] and a cosmopolitan. Towards the end of our time here, we were offered two passion fruit graygoose martinis. I usually hate martinis because for me, the alcohol ratio to mixers are unbalanced and thus makes strong.

This drink by far topped any of the previous drinks for it tasted like a fruit smoothie. To top it all off, there were two raspberries infused with the liquor and was a delectable tart addition to the fruity blend.

Enjoy the pics... and if you have the chance.. check out DROP in SoHO..by the mid-level escalators on THUR for some 1/2 drink specials before 11 pm. For 3 rounds of drinks... i think i spent a total of HK40( $5USD).

Cheers! And happy eating....or Drinking!

Little taiwanese restaurant in Beverly Plaza

Sorry for the delayed posts.. i hate being a lazy blogger but work has actually taken a toll on me this week. i was eating, sleeping, and thinking in excel cells. Now that the project is over and done with, Lets move our attention to more pressing matters; food. Each workday my co-workers oogle and look forward to 12:45, for that is the standard lunch hour at GT. This particular lunch, sometime last week, I believe it was Wednesday, the restaurant of choice was a small taiwanese restaurant located directly across from SOGO(one of hk's most prestigious and well-known department stores). I actually got lost at SOGO when I was Four and scared the bajesus out of my parents... but that's a story for another time.

This particular picture below illustrates a spicy coconut based broth with rice noodles with lightly pan friend fish fillets with bean sprouts. Its actually quite a funky combination and only recommended if you are a heavy coconut milk lover. its thick consistency is definitely not recommended for all. The fish fillets were perfectly pan fried and had a light crunchy consistency with soft fish meat... seemed like a mixture between cod or some form of a flounder.

The particular lunch set was accompanied with a drink; my drink of choice was hot bubble tea. There is nothing better to accompany a hot bowl of noodles on a cold dreary day in Asia than with warm bubble tea besides hot chocolate that is. Since i have adapted significantly to the "hk eating lifestyle"...I quite miss my favorite winter drink.. hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.

Cheers! And happy eating!