As a work lunch we recently went to the new Mr Huang Jin on the bottom of Rialto. Being the end of year celebration it was, the team went all out. Situated in a part of the city where there isn't many dumpling places and for the price point it was pitching we were all expecting good things
To start with, there was steamed pork and prawn dumplings, pan-fried beef dumplings and pork and prawn wontons with chilli sauce. All the dumpling and won-tons fillings were juicy and steaming hot with soupy base. Great start to a good meal.
Taiwanese beef wrap and the DIY Taiwanese pork bun was next. The beef wrap was perfectly done with the sweet sauce and soft wrap. The DIY bun came fully done, so that was disappointing as I was looking forward to the DIY part. The filling was quite nice though, especially the peanut dusting.
As a joke, we ordered the pungent tofu. For those of you who have been to Hong Kong would know to expect a smelly sock smelly. For those of you with a shock horror on your face, calm down! It was nothing like that, it was similar in the taste from the spices absorbed into the tofu and the sweet sauce that followed but the smell was quite absent. It was a nice surprise as I kept going back for seconds.
Almond crusted lobster balls, twice cooked spare ribs and TFC shortly followed. Almond lobster balls were nice but nothing special. The twice cooked spare ribs had people licking their fingers and the TFC caused a small fight on the table for where the plate should sit. Needless to say we ended up ordering 2 more plates. It's a good play and twist to the classic Taiwanese hawker food. A must try if you go.
Finally there was the prawn with pineapple and the lamb noodles. Both were nice but not outstanding. The prawns were served with mayo and pineapple, something you would expect to see at yum cha.
Overall it is great food. The dumplings were fantastic (to the point that one of my colleagues had a lot of evidence on his shirt after the meal). This is not your cheap and fast dumplings but for the price point, it is worth your dollar. 16/20
I recently
learnt that one of my old high school friends that I haven't seen for years has
moved into the business of cakes, macaroons, pastries and all things sweet and
yummy (that I should be avoiding while I'm dieting). Since I am blogging you can
probably guessed that I caved into temptation.
I had a
few birthdays in the past few weeks so I ordered 2 cakes from her on separate
occasions. The first one featured is the blue cake with a piggy on it, is
actually a red velvet cake with cream cheese. Normally when I have a novelty
cake I am not big on eating the whole piece as it can get quite heavy. I was
please to say it wasn't the case with this one. That pig is so adorable that my partner couldn't bare to eat it.
The second
cake featured is 'queen bee' cake. I asked her to get creative this time and I
got a white chocolate blackberry cake. This was one of the favourite novelty
cakes I've eaten. As novelty cakes require the actual cake to be quite dense to
hold up the decorations, a lot of the time they are very dry. I was quite
impressed that this cake still was quite moist, and the blackberry layer within
it gave it a nice balance of flavour. However the part that is worth mentioning
the most is the flower pot next to the cake. The attention to detail is
impressive (so impressive that my girlfriend decided to not eat the bees and keep the family of bees as a fridge guardians). Girls, if you are looking for a wedding cake, you should really
speak to Colette!
Other than
cakes, I learnt that Colette also sells macarons on a regular basis at a
number of markets. I was lucky enough to try some of these flavours. My
favourite would have to be her vanilla raspberry jelly, even after a day in the
fridge there was still a wonderful balance of chewy, softness and bite. The
raspberry centre was not overly sweet as you find with a lot of other jam like
centres. Other worth mentioning is the blood orange and earl grey tea flavour;
a different play on your traditional flavours. There was also a chocolate mint
in amongst the mist of macaroons I tried, this is not your typical mint flavour
as it tends to side on the stronger mint flavour. Not bad if you like strong
mint flavours but personally it was a tad too strong for my liking (but this is
coming from someone who isn't a big fan of mint).
If you ever pass Chocolette’s store this is one not to be missed.
Almond crusted lobster balls, twice cooked spare ribs and TFC shortly followed. Almond lobster balls were nice but nothing special. The twice cooked spare ribs had people licking their fingers and the TFC caused a small fight on the table for where the plate should sit. Needless to say we ended up ordering 2 more plates. It's a good play and twist to the classic Taiwanese hawker food. A must try if you go.
Finally there was the prawn with pineapple and the lamb noodles. Both were nice but not outstanding. The prawns were served with mayo and pineapple, something you would expect to see at yum cha.
