ABC Kitchen: Market Fresh

The first time I tried out ABC Kitchen was back in March for a dinner organized by the one-and-only Mr. Lau. He's the awesome kind of foodie you want to be friends with - enthusiastic, knowledgable, nice, generous, and soooo in the know.

This was exactly the case with ABC Kitchen. Who woulda thunk that there'd be a fine dining western joint in a cooked food market? I didn't. But here it is - complete with tablecloths, wineglasses, excellent service, all sandwiched between and Indian-Nepalese restaurant and a ChiuChow snacks stall. Awesome.

(Margherita pizza)

(La bouillabaisse)

As for the food, I've been several times now and I have to say, dinner is definitely infinately better than lunch. The bouillabaisse is particularly good and they're extremely generous with the seafood. Also loved the braised til tender beef cheeks. I cut them apart like butter with my fork. Mmmm.

(Braised beef cheeks)

(Look ma, no knife!)

(Signature roasted suckling pig)

Special mention goes to the suckling pig. I still prefer Chinese style roast pig (crunchy skin) but ABC's version follows Spanish recipe. As a result, the skin is less crisp, but the meat becomes unbelievably moist and supple.

(Sticky toffee pudding: mmm...)

(Creme caramel)

The sticky toffee pudding sealed the deal for me. And if YOU'RE still not sold... get this - ABC serves illy's coffee!

ABC KITCHEN ($$/$$$)
CF7, 1/F
Queen's Street Cooked Food Market
38 Des Voeux Road
Sheung Wan
3740-0727

Classified: Ooey Gooey, Oh-so-Lovely

Imagine a vat of cheese. Baked in the oven until the outsides become a wonderful, smoky crust while the innards transform into a mass of warm, ooey, gooey, melty deliciousness. No, you don’t have to imagine it, actually. It’s real.

It’s the Mont’dOr cheese.

We were invited to Classified the Cheese Room to try this winter-weather cheesy special and, oh my, it is luuuuuurvely. The cheese “fondue" was served with cubes of crusty bread, apples (so you can trick yourself into thinking you’re being healthy) and – my personal favorite – sweet potato for happy dunking. And happy dunk we did.

FOOD: 3.75/5
SERVICE: 4/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5

CLASSIFIED THE CHEESE ROOM ($$)
108 Hollywood Road
Sheung Wan
2525-3454

Charcoal Egg Waffles Cart: A Brown Paper Bag

Last week, walking back from a busy restaurant shoot, we came across something that I personally haven’t seen in a long time – an egg waffles cart with a charcoal heater. Old school. And though I had just finished a fatty Middle Eastern lunch not too long ago, with the delicious eggy pastry aroma wafting through the air, how could I resist?

(Proud Cart Owner)

I plunked down a ten while the friendly, chatty man poured a stream of egg batter from his Heineken plastic jug into the pasty mould. Not even two minutes later, there it was – a fresh piece of golden eggy waffles, à la nostalgic Hong Kong style. Crispy on the outside and warm and pillowy on the insides… sigh. Those ten bucks worth of little domes of deliciousness in a brown paper bag were, without a doubt, a very satisfying step back in time.


FOOD: 4/5
SERVICE: 5/5
ATMOSPHERE: N/A

Charcoal Egg Waffles Cart ($)
Around 3-4pm
Near Ladders Street/Bridges Street Intersection

Bowl Burger: When They Won't Shut Up Behind You

(Burger: The road to get to you was painful)

Wednesday lunch place was supposed to be my choice and I suggested checking out that shiny new Chinese joint that just opened up near the office. Was supposed to be a good plan. But all our way down, I had – not one, but TWO annoying voices behind me going:

“Are we there yet?” “Ohmigawd this is SO far.” “Are we walking to the…omg is this the MTR station?!” “How much further is this place?” “Oh great, look at all these people. Now we’re going to have to wait.” “Don’t tell me you’re lost.” “You’re lost aren’t you?”

I was so disconcerted by these two annoying non-shutter-uppers that I lost all sense of direction, my brain only being able to think: “SHADDUP! SHADDUP! SHADDUPPPPP!” but half exhausted by their sea of complaints, I gave in on my search for the new Chinese place and instead, we dove into the shoebox-sized Bowl Burger on Mercer for a bit o’ beef and carbs.

…which reminds me, I haven’t actually had a fast-food beef burger since moving back to Hong Kong (I had one of ‘em Four Seasons burgers a while ago but, good as it was, it’s just really not the same thing). Weird. We placed our orders and obnoxiously hovered over two just-finishing-up diners with our “we’re waiting for your table, so hurry” expressions.

I went with the #2 single patty beef burger set ($42) with drinks and paper bag of fries. I had read before that the burgers here are all handmade using 100% ground US beef, so I was actually pretty excited to give it a try. True enough, the burgers were perfectly juicy with a good bit of bite. Could’ve been grilled just a little more (I like ‘em kinda charred) but still, would have to say that it was a pretty well-rounded burger overall. Good sauce, good flavor, and none of that ridiculous overflow of unnecessary fillings (my burger pet peeve). The burger was a hefty portion too, though nothing that the food champion in me couldn’t down in its entirety.

(Fries: a paper bag of warm deliciousness)

And special mention goes out to their fries. Leaning towards the thick-cut variety, with perfectly, pillowy-soft potato innards and a hot, crunchy, exterior… I loved. Time permitting, I would’ve downed the whole bag…and gotten another. But time did not permit. Next time then…

So yes, the trip down to lunch was annoying. But the food was good. And on the way back, I had an errand to run so I took a separate, SILENT and PEACEFUL route back to the office. So I guess it ended up being still quite a pleasant afternoon.

FOOD: 4/5
SERVICE: 3/5
ATMOSPHERE: 1/5

BOWL BURGER ($)
25 Mercer Street
Sheung Wan
3118-0676

The Press Room: Lunch of the Food Champion

I was totally in “Food Champion” mode during Friday lunch at the newly-renovated Press Room. I like the place, with its high ceiling, chalkboard menus (brownie points right there), and casual bistro vibe. It felt like I was taking a lunch break in Chelsea, NY…sigh, if only….

As for the food, I was struggling between the lobster and avocado sandwich and the eggs benedict at first…that is, until the server brought over the chalkboard set lunch menu ($132). A three-course lunch? Done deal. Started off with a simple, light frisée salad with a light balsamic dressing. Standard stuff so nothing to write home about, save the lovely servingware that immediately caught my eye (I’m a huge sucker for nice plates and bowls and stuff like that). The salad did put me in an Autumn-alert mood though, and I found myself looking ahead to frisée mixed in with walnuts and grilled, warm peaches. Can’t wait.

(Frisée salad: would be better if Autumned up)

I went with the beef tenderloin for my main course and, let me just say that I definitely made the right choice. The meat was smoky and slightly charred on the outside, but a lovely, juicy pink on the inside. It was drizzled with a balanced gravy sauce that went extremely well with the vegetables. I loved the rustic presentation of the whole thing, especially the skin-on potatoes on the side, which turned out to be, surprisingly enough, the best part of the whole dish, beating out even the delicious tenderloin. Its slight sweet tinge won me over and I polished off the whole plate.

(Beef tenderloin: take 1)

(Close-up shot of the lovely, juicy, deliciousness)

I had the brownie with chocolate ice cream to end. The brownie was served in a little glass pot, sitting on top a small pool of vanilla sauce. Dense enough, though not as sticky and chewy as THE perfect brownie, with lovely chunks of walnut bits, the chocolately cake went beautifully with the choco ice cream. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of chocolate brownie OR chocolate ice cream (don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t like these two things or anything…I’d just usually rather something else) and I had wanted to try The Press Room’s lemon tart instead but it was not a set lunch option. Given that though, I happily lapped up every last bit of my brownie à la mode. So yes, it was good.

(Brownie with ice cream: pot of choc)

I was very proud of my food eating abilities. Especially since I was the only one on our table who went with the three-courser. Whee for me and to a satisfying lunch.

FOOD: 3.5/5
SERVICE: 3.75/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4/5

THE PRESS ROOM ($$$/$$$$)
108 Hollywood Road
Sheung Wan
2525-3444
www.thepressroom.com.hk

Monsieur Chatté: You Can't Always Get What You Want (But You Get What You Need)

I had a very idyllic plan for today.

Type away at the office (klack klack klack). And then…
1) Grab lunch-to-go from somewhere close.
2) Fill up on cookie cutters and colored sugars.
3) Maybe pick up a bunch of flowers?
Skip back to the office.

Well, one out of three isn’t a bad run. I made my much-delayed stop at the rustic red French specialty foods store, Monsieur Chatté. I LOVE the bakery smell that fills the place. And the bottles of wine amidst jars of jams, and boxes of biscuits next to cartons of candy. How lovely.

I picked up a Provence veggie baguette sandwich ($38), filled with thin slices of grilled eggplant, zucchini, peppers, carrots and fresh arugula. I ticked off the first thing on my to-do list. Stopped by Pantry Magic on my way back and realized they didn’t have anything I wanted. Disappointing – I wanted to have a giant shopping extravaganza a la Surfas in LA. No dice on number two. Walked by a flower stall but realized I still didn’t have a vase. Cross off number three.

Well, things don’t always go according to plan. At least I had my veggie sandwich… that’s good enough for today.

Monsieur Chatté ($)
121 Bonham Strand
Sheung Wan
3105-8077
http://www.mrchatte.com.hk