Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - The Library Cafe (Ep. 6)

Address: G/F, Lane Crawford, 3 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

In a somewhat hard to locate location, The Library Cafe is an ambient and pleasant cafe in the heart of Harbour City shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. I walked around for about 20 minutes trying to find the cafe, asking multiple information desks how to get there, but of course, knowing me and my navigational struggles, it was still a challenge to find. Just to make things easier for any of you trying to find The Library Cafe, here is my attempt to give directions. Notice how the address (listed above) says Lane Crawford? Well Lane Crawford is a department store/clothing store located on Canton Road so just walk on that road (which is packed with high end, luxury brand stores) until you see the door opening to Lane Crawford. Walk in and go down the stairs/escalator and go past the shoes section and you'll see the cafe. If you're not really sure but you're inside Lane Crawford, just ask a sales associate and they'll direct you (as they did for me). Because Canton Road has all the nicer shopping malls in Hong Kong with all the expensive brands, most sales associates know pretty decent English so if you're a tourist, you should have no problem asking your way around.

The ambient lighting and decor of the cafe really adds to the pleasant feel of the entire cafe. It's quiet in a way Starbucks could never be and secluded enough to give you the privacy of a nice afternoon tea by yourself or with a friend. I love the little details that make this cafe so unique with the perfectly placed decorations on the shelf to the little kettles containing sugar packets and the classy stands holding the silverware on every table. The Library Cafe is a perfect place to go if you want a cup of tea or coffee as they have a wide range of flavors, but they also have a good number of choices when it comes to salads or sandwiches. They also have an afternoon tea set which is presented on a lovely stack of 3 plates containing mini sandwiches, pastries, and cakes along with coffee or tea - all of which you can choose from their menu.

I ended up trying the caramel latte which came with a small cookie shaped like a lady's high heel. I'm really not a coffee/latte/any caffeine drinker but this was definitely something I would come back for. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and the drizzle of caramel on top with the sprinkle of crushed pistachios really enhanced the caramel flavor. The cookie was a nice addition though it was really just a normal sugar cookie. My friend ordered the cake set which came with a cake of your choice and a coffee or latte of your choice. I think she got an Americano (can't remember for sure), but I love the feathered coffee art they added on her cup. She also chose the raspberry mousse cake which according to her, was really delicious.

Overall I would recommend The Library Cafe for tourists looking for a quiet place to relax or rest from a long shopping hall. The atmosphere of the cafe is perfect for those looking to get away from the bustling malls that surround it. If you guys have stopped by The Library Cafe, let me know what your thoughts of it were and what you ordered so I can try them out next time! I hope you enjoyed this mini review and have a wonderful day!

Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - Holly Brown Cafe and Gelato (Ep. 5)

Being an ice-cream addict, it's no surprise that one of the places I had to visit was Holly Brown. There are many locations in Hong Kong including, but not limited to, Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan, and many other places so if you're looking for one, trust me, it won't be too hard to find!

Address: G/F, 22 Stanley Street, Central
中環士丹利街22號地下
Website: http://www.hollybrowncoffee.com/en/

 

 

 

 

A friend of mine initially told me about Holly Brown saying that their ice cream was quite good and when I looked up reviews on OpenRice (the Asian version of Yelp), many American reviewers compared it to the American Coldstones. I absolutely love Coldstones' ice cream creations especially Founder's Favorite which is a mix of vanilla ice cream with brownies and nuts and other additions that makes a wonderful mouthful explosion. Tempted, I had high hopes for Holly Brown as I entered the shop (which happened to be one of their [many] locations in Central). Not all Holly Brown shops include a cafe, some only have an ice cream/gelato stand, but the one I went to had both the cafe and the ice cream bar so when I first walked in, I was greeted to both. The atmosphere and decor of the shop is quite nice with lots of comfortable sofas and chairs and tables (sort of like a Starbucks) and at least my experience with the servers was a pleasant one (I can't say for all locations of course). The cafe offers a pretty wide selection of breakfast, brunch, and lunch foods such as sandwiches, salads, pasta, coffees, honey toast, and waffles, but of course I only went there for the ice cream ;D

Being my typical indecisive self, I took about 10 minutes just staring at the ice cream menu trying to decide what to get but I finally settled with Eenie Meenie (and yes they have another creation titled Minie Mo and yes I did play that game in my head to decide between the two). I decided to get Eenie Meenie as its description said that it would include brownie bits and it seemed most similar to the Founder's Favorite that I usually get at Coldstones and I wanted to have some sort of comparison starting line. I do agree that Holly Brown is quite like Coldstones in the way they make ice cream mixtures/creations and they do it on the spot, out in the open, so you can watch them mix up your order, but the presentation was definitely not on par with Coldstones'. I mean, just look at my pictures and you can see.. it doesn't exactly look appetizing does it? Of course, maybe it was just my creation that is the uglier looking one because I've seen photos online on OpenRice and other people who ordered other creations - well theirs looks much nicer with decorations placed nicely on top. Nevertheless, despite the slightly disappointing first impression, my gelato tasted quite delicious and yummy. It's quite a hearty portion, and even though I shouldn't have, I finished the entire thing and the waffle. One complaint I have though is that all the creations come with the waffle and you can't just get your ice cream in a cone for a lower price which was a little bothersome because their gelato creations are not cheap! The creation I got cost $56 HKD if I remember correctly which is about $7 USD! (And I thought Coldstones' was expensive at about $5 for a similar sized cup!). However, gelato/ice cream in Hong Kong is actually quite expensive so I suppose the price was "normal" as buying a tub of Dryer's ice cream in Hong Kong is like $50 for a tub that is about 1/3 the size of a normal Dreyer's bucket here in America (and we wonder why America is the fattest country in the world).

All in all, I would recommend Holly Brown's gelato for all my ice cream lovers out there. Yes the price is a little high, but the taste is definitely there and next time I go back, I'm planning on trying another creation or a honey toast or waffle with ice cream on the side ^__^; If you're looking for a place for a client meeting or somewhere to study or just some place to get out of the Hong Kong heat, stop by Holly Brown because hey, it's a nice change up from your usual Starbucks or Pacific Coffee and probably less crowded (unless you come in around lunch time). The wide selection of gelato and normal savory foods makes Holly Brown a perfect cafe for everyone.

Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - Teakha (Ep. 3)

Address: Shop B, 18 Tai Ping Shan Street,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Located in the quiet street of Tai Ping Shan, Teakha is a low-key must-stop-by cafe in Hong Kong. Aimed at being a "lifestyle concept tea cafe" and "zakka store", the shop is decorated with many little tiny decorations that each add their own touch and life to the cafe. It took me a good half an hour to find Teakha from the Sheung Wan MTR station, but for a typical person with a well-developed sense of direction and Google maps, I would reasonably say it would only take you about 10-15 minutes to arrive at Teakha. Tai Ping Shan street is located just a little ways from Holllywood Street which there are many signs leading to (yes in English!) so as long as you follow them, you'll be headed in the right direction!

The outside front of Teakha. Just around the corner is another entrance to a seating area that you can go to after ordering and obtaining your food if the front seats are already taken (which they likely will be as there is only one table and a small bar area in the front of the cafe).

Looking down the alley nook (away from the front of the store). The horizontal street is Tai Ping Shan.

Once inside the cafe, I was greeted with a nice cool breeze of air conditioned air (well what else?) and then an awkward stare from the three staff members all situated at the front of the store behind the counter. I'll admit that I must have looked a little funny covered in sweat in an awkward post-interview outfit with two giant bags but I did feel a bit uncomfortable with me being the only customer in the shop at the time and three workers just standing in front of me with nothing to do really. I'm not sure why they need so many staff since the cafe is so small, but perhaps it gets busier later on in the day. I arrived at the cafe around 12 PM and there were two other customers before me but when I entered the store front, they had already gotten their food items and had headed to the additional seating room making me the only one in the store front. The first impression I got from walking in to the cafe was "Wow..this place is so.. hipster." Hipster is really the only way to describe it. With all the bits and bobs cluttered in the small area, it's hard to think of anything else. The decorations are very nice though and the light pale blue color really catches the light nicely in the cafe. On the counter with the cashier, they have their freshly baked pastries lined out in glass covered displays and upon walking up to the cash register, I was handed a paper bound menu with a list of items.

In my awkward Cantonese, I managed to ask one of the staff what was the most popularly ordered item from their menu. The lady told me it was their Green Tea Cheesecake along with a hot cup of Masala Chai tea. Looking at the price of the cheesecake ($40 HKD so about $5 USD) and seeing as I was TRYING to eat healthy, I decided to opt out of the heavy cheesecake (though it looked absolutely delicious) and try for the "Scone of the Day" which was recommended by a few on OpenRice (a site like Yelp for Hong Kong diners). There were two scones of the day and I decided to go for the Roselle scone. I wasn't exactly sure what kind of fruit (or if it even was a fruit) Roselle was and the staff wasn't sure how to explain it either but they showed me a pot of dried Roselle and it smelled decent enough that I decided to go for it.

As mentioned on OpenRice, the staff warmed up my scone for me right on the spot in a small conventional oven before serving it to me. This allowed me to take the time to look around the cafe some more and enjoy its nice arrangements. I noticed they also had a blackboard with specials of the days and lunch sets like sandwiches with tea that I could have ordered had I been a bit more observant (as these weren't on the menu) or more hungry. I'm glad I just got the scone because along with the Masala tea, it filled me up quite a lot (mostly the tea filled me up really since it was so large!). The Roselle scone turned out to be extremely delicious though different from the kinds I might get in America at Panera or some other bakery. It was soft and warm due to the heating but had just enough of a crumble without being SO crumbly that it fell apart. I was able to easily cut into the scone using the side of the fork (meant to be used as a butter knife) and the Roselle tasted somewhat like dried cranberries. It had the perfect amount of sweetness and moisture without being too over the top and maintained scone like qualities. I just wish they had waited a little bit to serve me the scone because it didn't take long to warm it up and my tea wasn't quite ready so they served me the scone about 5 minutes before they served me my Masala tea so the scone did cool a little bit before I got to enjoy it with the tea. I'm not generally a big tea drinker but as I was at a placed called Teakha, a tea cafe, I decided it was only appropriate to order tea and the lady did say Masala was a popular tea drink. Though it was a hot day, the air conditioned cafe made drinking the hot Masala tea bearable and it was quite good. It came in an extremely large mug (so large that I actually couldn't finish the last 2 sips D; ) and was freshly brewed and steaming hot (yeah I was the fool who burned her tongue). The tea had a unique taste.. I'm not really sure how to describe it, maybe like English Breakfast tea but with a more sweet taste? Maybe I shouldn't even bother trying to describe it because I'll make you think it's something it's not and either disappoint you or make you NOT try the tea when you really would like it haha! Regardless, it was quite good and I'm glad I did try it out.

All in all, I had a pleasant experience at Teakha. I did feel a bit awkward with the 3:1 staff to me ratio, but the food and decor were so nice that I could get over it. I would definitely suggest you stop by Teakha as it is a unique and urban "hip" cafe with yummy food. If you go check out their website (teakha.com), you can see part of their menu (not the whole thing!) and decided if you want to check it out :) Hope you enjoyed this review and have a lovely day~!

Good Eats - Hong Kong Edition - Phoenix Sweets (Ep. 2)

The lighting is pretty off since the place is very well lit but I think the white walls made my camera get confused and dim all my photos a tad.

On the rare occasion that I didn't have anything to do on a lovely Friday, I was able to go out and explore a couple of cafes I had on my bucket list of places to go before I leave Hong Kong. One of these places I stopped by was Phoenix Sweets - partially on accident - but I was in the Central and Sheung Wan area and found PMQ. PMQ is a sort of like a shopping plaza but not really since it's basically just a building filled with lots of hipster type small shops that are either dessert/sweet shops or ridiculously overpriced clothing shops or random small useless item boutiques (you get my point.. basically places you take pictures of but don't actually buy anything from besides the foodies). Anyways, Phoenix Sweets drew me in right from the start with the elaborately decorated cakes all across the shop and the super cute pastel coloring. They can do personalized cakes which you can order in stores or online at their website (definitely go look at their site if you're looking for cakes for a wedding or some sort of party because they are freaking amazing looking). On display, they have beautifully decorated cupcakes and the lady was super nice and friendly and helped me pick out the Rose Earl Grey cupcake. Honestly my current pictures don't do it any justice because I walked around the entire day before getting back home and taking the photos so the frosting sort of dropped BUT I think it still tasted quite nice. I actually had difficulty getting it out of the container which was like a good and bad thing. The lady put my cupcake in this nice plastic cup with a lid and their logo on it which was super cute in my opinion and a really smart way to hold the cupcake to prevent it from getting squashed or anything. The only problem was actually getting out my cupcake because, as you can see from the photos, I sort of ruined the frosting while trying to get it out T__T I mean there's no other way other than to shake the cup/tap it gently to sort of wiggle the cupcake out and.. well you get the point hand + cupcake coming out of cup = not so pleasant. 

The Rainbow Vanilla is supposed to be a special that is not always around but it seemed pretty standard in flavor and just different looking so I decided to go with the Earl Grey :)

Sooo cute although a bit pricey but I love the packaging and detail.

Admittedly I had high hopes for the Rose Earl Grey cupcake. I mean first off it cost $40 which is pretty pricey for a cupcake (about $6 US dollars!) but it also just looked very nice and the lady said it was one of the more popular flavors. I liked the bottom cake part of the cupcake as it was very moist and I could definitely taste the Earl Grey with hints of rose and it wasn't too sweet at all. Sometimes cupcake bottoms are too sweet or they're not sweet enough but this was the perfect middle. The frosting however... wasn't as amazing. It wasn't exactly a smooth texture in my mouth and felt more grainy like I could feel the sugar particles in the frosting, but then the frosting actually wasn't even very sweet, like not sweet at all! I suppose you can say that it's a good thing for those of you who aren't too fond of overly sweet treats but I do feel like the frosting could have had a bit more flavor. I could taste a little bit of rose but that was really it. I ended up scraping off most of the frosting because I just couldn't get over the strange grainy-ness of it but the cupcake part still tasted delicious!

Taken inside Holly Brown Cafe earlier in the day so the frosting is a bit higher haha!

Despite the slight mishap with the frosting,  I had a pleasant experience at Phoenix Sweets and would recommend you check it out if you are in the Central area and stop by PMQ. There are a lot of other sweet shops (that I'll be sharing in later episodes!) but make sure you leave room to stop by Phoenix Sweets. The decor and presentation of the shop is nicely put together creating a pleasant atmosphere and there are two small tables (though outdoors) for customers to sit and enjoy their sweet buys. The lady who helped me out was absolutely nice despite my horrendous Cantonese and she even helped tape up a box I had got from another shop that I had accidentally torn. The shop is definitely a bit pricey but if it's just a one-time thing, it doesn't hurt to try their cupcakes ;P They also have gluten free ice cream for the hotter days which apparently is pretty good and is also sold at the PMQ night market. Though I'm not particularly fond of the frosting on my cupcake, I did appreciate the "not-too-sweet" aspect of the cupcake and the way they were able to incorporate the earl grey and the rose without it being too much or too little.

Adventures in Seoul, Korea: Day 3

Day 3.. almost half way through our trip yet still so many more things to do~! The first thing on our itinerary was Trick Eye Museum located in Hongdae! It was a bit of a walk from the subway station but not too hard to find. It's located in a somewhat shop street area so I stopped by a Holika Holika while my mom and sister picked up some bread with baked cheese on top from one of those street food carts before we went into the museum. The museum has an a large section that you can view for free but there is also a huge other part of the museum that requires purchase of a ticket to go into. Tickets cost 15,000 won for adults and 12,000 won for kids (18 and under) but if you look on the web, you might be able to find some discount coupons. We spent quite a long time in the museum because there are so many places that you just HAVE to take a photo of (I have included just a few of the many we took). There is even an Ice Museum which is reaaally cold in order to keep all the structures frozen in the right shape (but they provide a blanket for you to wear while inside). The Trick Eye Museum is definitely a place to stop by when in Seoul!

The famous eye illusion (Amber from f(x) has a photo in here! :D )

You can slide down a slide!

After we finished going through the museum, we were quite hungry and moved onto our next location in Hongdae - the Hello Kitty Cafe~! (The address is: 358-112, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea) It was actually very close to the Trick Eye Museum so it wasn't hard for us to find, especially since it's a giant pink building. The inside is SO cute and everything is nicely decorated with pink cushions and Hello Kitty photos all over the walls. The menu items are also super cute and delicious - though a bit on the more pricey side but understandable since anything related to Hello Kitty is always quite expensive. The chocolate and banana waffle we had (shown in picture below) cost 6000 won (if I remember correctly) and there was this like Hello Kitty shaped mini cake that was 10000 won! However we also ordered a pink slushi (tasted like strawberries I think) and a sweet potato hot drink which was superrr good and actually tasted like sweet potato!

 

After our little Hello Kitty cafe break, we walked a bit more around the Hongdae area and visited the Free Market (also known as the Hope Market) in Hongdae Park which is only open in the afternoons after 1 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. The Free Market features artist who make jewelry, paintings, and other artsy craft items that you can purchase to support them. We looked around there for a little bit (it's not a very big area) and then continued on into the rest of the area until we got hungry enough to eat lunch. The whole area has many restaurants so there were plenty of eating locations for us to choose from but we settled on one that looked interesting from the windows (well open windows with the delicious smell of food floating out didn't hurt either) and we weren't disappointed. The restaurant was bustling with people but we were quickly seated. There were only like 5 options on the menu.. two A and B sets (one of the A and B sets included squid, the other didn't.. the difference between A and B was that A had less of something that I forget). We ended up choosing the 5th option which I'm not sure if it was a special but it was on a separate menu by itself and the waiter told us it was the not spicy option so we chose that (though it was meant to be split between 2 people not 3 but we knew it would be more than enough for us. The only problem with choosing it was that they only gave us 2 scoops of rice). The way all the dishes in the restaurant was set up was that each table had a mini burner (like at a Korean BBQ restaurant) and then they would bring out a giant square metal dish that held your raw meat, noodles, and vegetables in some sort of sauce/marinade, and then you would let it cook. It wasn't exactly Korean BBQ though since the style was a bit different (you'll see in the pictures) but it was DELICIOUS! Of course the dish was actually a bit spicy but not spicy enough to cause us a problem. The sauce was actually some sort of sweet soy sauce? I'm not totally sure but it was gooood. If only I could remember the name of the restaurant we went to.... -__- Either way if you find a place that has menu items that look like my pictures in Hongdae.. go check it out haha!

Before...

...After! (After we devoured most of it haha!)

Once we finished our satisfying lunch, we headed off, once again, to explore the area. My sister had looked up some special cafes she wanted to go to because Hongdae is famous for its many cafes. We passed by so many interesting ones but didn't have the room in our stomachs to go in. Some of the cafes we saw included a whale cafe, piano cafe, cat cafe (these and dog cafes are supposedly quite popular), and many more! We finally found the cafe my sister was looking for which was ... the Hongdae Mustoy Doll Crafting Café (located on 344-6 Seogyo-dong,Mapo-gu, Seoul) !! It's a cute cafe that has these blank white dolls that you can draw on and decorate. Many famous celebrities have gone there and made a doll and you can see the pictures of which celebrities have visited that cafe. We were a bit behind schedule though so we didn't actually make a doll but going to see the cafe was a fun trip! There are some REALLY nicely made dolls *amazed at the talent of some folk* There was also another cafe in the area called Coffee Prince cafe where a popular Korean drama was filmed at (forgot the name of the drama exactly since I've never watched it but apparently it's pretty popular because they have a sign that specifically says if you're here to take pictures, please only stay outside" haha).

Mustoy Doll Crafting cafe - from the outside you can see all the dolls on the shelves that people have made. If you look closely on the top shelf you can also see pictures of the celebrities who have visited this cafe.

Coffee Prince cafe from the outside

To my mother's relief, we finally left Hongdae and all it's tempting cafes to go to Ewha Women’s University. Of course my sister and I weren't too interested in the university itself but more the shopping areas around it buut for my mother's sake, we walked around the campus for a little while, until the sun set. The campus is actually quite nice (well on the outside, who knows about the classrooms, dorms, etc) but the shopping district around it is even nicer~! We picked up some shoes from the markets and shopped around until we got hungry enough to find a place for dinner. We picked a random restaurant on the streets of Ewha that I shall post a picture of as soon as I can (haha sorry don't have all my photos with me atm >__<). I would definitely recommend it though it wasn't exactly your typical traditional Korean food. It was a mix of Korean and Japanese style food in my opinion? But it was absolutely delicious and scrumptious :)

Udon (typical but delicious!), deep fried pork cutlet with rice and the yummy sweet sauce LOL, and a small bowl of salad that was SOO good. It had the Japanese miso dressing that's like sweet? Soooo good :)

Spicy seafood fried rice. It was delicious but definitely spicy haha!

Omelet over rice with a sausage patty? I don't remember exactly what the meat was but it was superrr yummy~!

After dinner, we finally had enough time and energy to go to Dongdameun - the place to go for nighttime shopping and street food~! The cool thing was that there weren't just street markets like you might expect at a night market area but there were actual department store buildings that were 12+ stories filled with little boutiques that sold shoes, hats, clothing, jeans, and everything for males and females! There were definitely some good deals at some of the shops and a few Kpop shops that sucked my sister and I in (though we resisted and didn't buy anything *super proud*). I must mention though, there was this one floor that was all denim material and the jeans were.. I'm not kidding.. Abercrombie Kids sizes!! Like they were seriously THAT skinny - I didn't even bother looking at them because I knew they wouldn't fit haha >__>'. The shop owners are all really nice and welcoming though. If you have time at night, you should definitely check out Dongdameun because there is an endless amount of shopping to do there. ^__^'

One of the many story-high buildings in Dongdaemeun

Alrighty.. that concludes day 3! I must say, writing our entire trip out is taking me a lot longer than I expected haha. I hope you guys are all finding this helpful and interesting and feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or just wanna say hello C; Hope you all have a wonderful day~!