Happy Easter! Easter Afternoon Tea 2012 @ The Lounge, Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong

Happy Easter to my dear readers! :D I hope you are enjoying the holiday as much I am. What I really like about Easter is that, unlike Christmas or Chinese New Year, you can enjoy the long holiday without the obligation to attend parties or gatherings. But a coin has two sides - if you are neither a Christian/Catholic, nor a child who is crazy about egg hunt, you may be left to wonder what you can do to share the festive joy. Instead of the classic option of overdosing yourself with Cadbury Mini Eggs, what about having an Easter afternoon tea? Yes, tea is for EVERY occasion!! ;)

Last year I went to The Lounge of Four Seasons for their Easter afternoon tea and truly enjoyed it! The Lounge is one of my top 5 favourite tea places in HK, though I don't go there very often because of its somewhat annoying no-reservation policy. Still, it is much better than the ridiculously overrated Peninsula, which requires you to queue up like an idiot until you get assigned a table (which usually happens after an hour of waiting). The FS way is, when The Lounge is full and you want a table, they take your name and phone number. Then you can shop around freely in IFC, until they call and let you know that a table is available. That's service, if not humanity!

I am not sure if they are still doing it, but when I visited The Lounge for regular tea set some years ago, they served us extra pastries in addition to our tea set! What a lovely touch. During Easter, an Easter inspired dessert buffet is included in the price of tea set. I have to show you the pictures I took last year! Btw I know the cassis macaron tower in this pic didn't look so great because it's half-empty, but that's what I saw because I only managed to get a table after waiting for 45 minutes...

On the buffet table - flower chocolate cookies! 

Blueberry and vanilla Easter eggs with a molten berry-flavour core :9

Bunnies!!! Cute but the royal icing tasted of raw egg white... 

Mini cupcakes: flower power!

This little carrot was eye-catching but it tasted like play-doh. The crunchy cookie base of the cheesecake should be the real highlight!

Soft and sweet strawberry cake pops. Tempting!

Of course, one cannot call it an Easter afternoon tea without the much-loved chocolate eggs...

... and Easter staple hot cross bun! It's my first hot cross bun but perhaps it's my last too. I never like things with dried fruits and spices much...

I named this plate "Easter Egg Hunt in Blooming Garden". ;P The desserts were actually a bit hit-and-miss and I will blame the extensive use of icing decorations. But since I am a sucker for cute things, I was happy whenever I looked at my plate!! :P

Assortment of pastries - they were okay but not exceptional. I only remembered that the roasted pecan and vanilla profiteroles were the best because I ate at least 2 of them. Creamy profiterole is one of my favourite desserts; when I was an exchange student, I would always show up for dinner in college refectory when profiterole was on the menu. ;)

Spearmint marinated spring berries: a refreshing must-have after tasting so much sweets

I felt sorry to the tea set because I had little room for it after sampling the dessert buffet. While the set we had on the day wasn't the best (the menu changed frequently and I had tasted better tea sets at FS before), it was decent by any standard. 

Top tier: sweets. I don't remember what they were but the general impression was that they were too sweet. A slight disappointment I must say... perhaps it's because my taste buds had been assaulted by enough sweetness! 

Middle tier: savouries. They were superbly made with fresh ingredients. From the tangy curry puffs to egg-cellent truffled egg open sandwiches, every savoury item was made to perfection. FS should consider including sandwiches on their buffet table! 

Bottom tier: scones. They were so enormous that we had trouble finishing them and had to take 2 of them home in the end! They were a wee bit harder than expected, but that's not a big problem and I wasn't sure if it's because I didn't eat them right away. Anyway, the scones were nice, especially when being eaten with lots of apricot jam and clotted cream!

THE VERDICT 

Ambience: A

Service: B+ (waiting staff were friendly. I only hope they would allow people to make reservation for tea some day!)

Food: B++ (the Easter tea was not bad but you know, I expected something impressively splendid because it's FS! But anyway I would give the food a slightly higher rating because of the lovely presentation :P)

Overall remarks: If it's food that you are after, it may be better to visit The Lounge on non-festive occasions - it's understandable that the quality of food may be compromised to some extent when they put so much thoughts in decorating the festive desserts. But if you want some fun in Easter, FS's Easter tea is your best bet because you will not find such adorable food elsewhere. Their Easter tea 2013 seems to be even more creative, which will definitely brighten your day despite the gloomy weather. Check out the pictures here! ;)

INFO

The Lounge (website)

Lobby Level, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong

Easter Afternoon Tea 2013: 2:30-5:30pm, 29 March to April 1

$328 per person

Taipei Special: Japanese Afternoon Tea @ Toutouan

I am so fond of afternoon tea that it is always part of my itinerary no matter where I go. I am truly grateful that sweet-toothed Hellish likes afternoon tea more than most men (even gay men :P) do, and he is always too lazy to plan anything, so he is happy to go along with whatever tea adventure I propose. ;) 

We went to Taiwan with our families 2 months ago and as usual, I reserved 2 afternoons for tea. Like HK, there's an explosion of afternoon teas in Taiwan in recent years. The choices in Taipei are staggeringly abundant, from authentic traditional tea sets in posh hotels to desperate emulations with merely fruits and cookies on tiered china stands. As the obsession with afternoon tea continues to grow in Taiwan at an infectious rate, tea sets can now be found virtually everywhere - even in Japanese restaurant! 

   

Toutouan is a modern Japanese fine dining restaurant that has taken the lead in offering afternoon tea set. It is located in a sleepy neighbourhood in Daan District. 

Inside Toutouan

We were excited when the waitress showed us the tea menu!

This is really cool isn't it? :)  

Hellish and I ordered a tea set for 2 persons. There's no need to share the food as it came as 2 individual tea sets,  each of which was elegantly presented in a wooden bento box. 

The tea set was essentially an edible Japanese courtyard garden! I knew I should spend some time admiring its beauty, but it was so mouth-watering that I grabbed my chopsticks and started eating right away... :9

Top tier: savouries (more or less) including tsukudani, grilled chicken, roasted chestnut, egg roll, pork patty, squid ball, etc... I wouldn't say the food was amazing, but it was good enough to make me happy and want more!

Bottom tier: sweets. A variety of ingredients, colours, textures, and cooking style, were used to give unique character to each little piece of sweet.There were dried strawberry and apple pieces, caramelized walnut, red bean mochi, sweet potato yokan, and a few items which I could not really label. If only the waitress could give us a bit of introduction to what we were having! Though I didn't really care as long as the food was yummy. :P

We weren't served our matcha until we wolfed down the whole tea set... which I couldn't understand why. Matcha is the best companion to Japanese sweets because its bitterness can mellow the latter's extreme sweetness. There's a pretty layer of foam in my bowl of matcha which reflected the whisking skills of the person who prepared the tea. I remember how hard I had practised in a Japanese tea class before I could make a foam that was only half as dense as this one. :0 For those who think matcha is an acquired taste, Toutouan offers genmaicha or sencha which gently cleanses and refreshes the palate. 

THE VERDICT 

Ambience: A-

Service: B (Service could have been more attentive, but I was quite impressed by their kid-friendly attitude.  They gave my young nephew an origami ball as a gift!)

Food: B++ (A tea set for 2 cost only 1088 TWD, i.e. ~284 HKD! There's no way you can find tea sets of similar quality at this price in HK!)

Overall remarks: A recommendable place for afternoon tea lovers who 1) want to stay away from fattening cream, 2) want something different for a change and 3) wish to share their love for tea with their boyfriends/husbands (who typically shudder at the thought of having cakes on floral patterned stand in pink tearoom). 

INFO

Toutouan 燈燈庵 (website)

20, Lane 81, Dunhua South Road Section 2, Taipei City, Taiwan 

*The restaurant is currently renewing their afternoon tea menu, so tea set is temporarily unavailable. Keep an eye on their official site or Facebook page for future updates!

Happy Chinese New Year! Celebrating with The Red Box @ Lobby Lounge, Intercontinental Hong Kong

Kung Hei Fat Choy! Wish everybody good luck and good health in the Year of Golden Snake! :D 

CNY is all about food, food and food. In case you've got tired of radish cake and year cake before the holiday has even started, I recommend you to celebrate with Intercontinental's deliciously festive Chinese tea set!

Look at this beautiful 3-tier lacquered box in red colour! It makes me feel 鴻運當頭 instantly! ;)

Top tier (from left to right): braised abalone and mushroom tart, fried taro and shrimp dumpling#, golden crab claw

# named according to what my taste buds told me. Not sure about the official name!

Middle tier: (from top to bottom): barbecued pork bun, puff pastry with pork in Portuguese sauce#, baked sesame flatbread#

Bottom tier (from left to right): mung bean paste dumpling with mango, yuzu & lemon custard cream dumpling, almond coconut egg white tart with candy ginger

The dim sum was lovely. The top tier was the most luxurious (did you see the gold flakes on the abalone tart?) and tastiest of all. I loved the creamy taro puff, the plump crab claw, and the succulent abalone! :9 The middle tier was not as amazing but it was decent enough. The sweet delicacies on the bottom tier were a feast to the eyes. Do try the rose-colour dumpling even though it's too pretty to eat - the fragrant mango and smooth mung bean paste will leave you no regret. 

Served along with the tea set was a basket of dried longan and chestnut madeleines (中式雞蛋糕), which carried the blessings of 步步高陞 or 快高長大. Apparently 雞蛋糕 is the Chinese answer to scone. Guess what, it tastes really good when it has an elegant English/French name! :P 

The tea set was rounded off by a small bowl of nourishing sweet soup. This sweet soup containing lily buds, lotus seeds, glutinous rice dumplings, is a classic CNY dessert. It symbolizes 百年好合, 連生貴子, and 一家團圓 - which basically means a happy family life! Though personally, I would like to avoid lotus seeds for the time being... :P

To complete our auspicious Chinese tea experience, we ordered Zhejing Super Long Jing (i.e. dragon well tea) for the 意頭 of 龍精虎猛 - 

and Calendula Beauty, a blooming flower tea meaning 花開富貴. :) Both were delicate green teas from Fook Ming Tong; they complemented the flavourful food perfectly. 

I wore this merry-go-round ring to tea because it carries lucky meaning too! What new year blessings does it remind you of? ;) 

THE VERDICT 

Ambience: A-

Service: B+ 

Food: B++

Overall remarks: Simply the best Chinese afternoon tea set in Hong Kong. Look no further if you want a more innovative way to celebrate CNY or to kill time between family meals. It is expensive but it may be cheaper than playing mahjong! ;) 

INFO

Lobby Lounge (website)
Lobby Level, Intercontinental Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Afternoon tea: 2:30 - 6:00pm (Mon - Fri), 2:00-6:00pm (Sat, Sun & PHs)

The Red Box Contemporary Chinese Tea Set: $548 (Mon - Fri) or $568 (Sat, Sun & PHs) for 2 persons
* Champagne tea set and traditional afternoon tea set also available

** Afternoon tea menu is updated seasonally. Enjoy the current menu from now till 24 February 2013!

We ♥ Vegetables @ SEVVA

December. My favourite month of the year! With winter solstice, Christmas, New Year Eve and my b-day all lumped together in December, it is always the month of gatherings, dinners, and shopping. But I've got to admit that I have been in this love-hate relationship with December in recent years... the grand feasts, party-planning and last-minute shopping take a toll on my health, whether physically or psychologically. :( The December of 2012 was the most fruitful yet busiest month in my life. The result of overeating, stress (from work and hectic social life) and inadequate sleep is that my aging stomach has not been feeling well since mid-December. :(

But being a tea lover and a reckless Sagittarius means that I am not giving up afternoon tea, no way! I am going to eat in a healthier way though. That's why SEVVA came to my mind when I was planning for my first afternoon tea in 2013 - it's the only place that serves vegetarian afternoon tea set in HK. ;)

Aware of its no-reservation policy for afternoon tea, Hellish and I arrived at SEVVA before teatime. It was 2:44pm, and a waitress greeted us at the entrance. Then the most ridiculous thing happened. The waitress said that they would only allow customers to start queuing for afternoon tea at 2:45pm - ah, so that's why many ladies were waiting on the ground floor just now. She went on to tell us to go down by the lift and get back to the restaurant at 2:45pm. I really could not believe my ears. This is, as of today, the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life! There was another girl who arrived at the same time as we did, and she was equally appalled by this stupid suggestion. I protested to the waitress that there was just a minute to go, and a minute could have easily passed by the end of our conversation. Still, the waitress rigidly insisted that we should all leave. She added that we would not be granted the first place in the queue even if we stayed. Oh come on, who cared about being the first?? The restaurant was so big that I didn't worry about not getting a table at all. The point was, it was plain foolish to go down 25 floors and immediately go up again!! 

I told the waitress that we were not going down. She repeated that we would not be given priority for queuing (obviously she didn't hear me...) and said nothing more. While I could totally understand the need of maintaining a strict control of the queuing time, it was absurd, if not rude, to tell the customers to spend a minute in the lift! Couldn't she say something more sensible like, "I'm sorry that there's still a minute before you can start queuing. Why don't you take a look at our sweets and cakes in the corner and start queuing at 2:45pm sharp?" After all, the beautiful patisserie corner in Marie Antoinette style can easily distract any female customer for a minute or two! And it was indeed how I spent that stupid 1 minute.  

In the end, a group of ladies burst from the lift at almost 2:46pm. They were promptly escorted by the waitress to the queuing point. We joined the queue and were ranked 6th or 7th. We got seated immediately when the clock struck 3. I told you it wasn't necessary to be the first, didn't I?

Anyway... we got seated outdoor, as we preferred. The weather was a bit chilly, but it would be a shame not to enjoy winter sunshine on the spacious terrace. I loved their huge outdoor sofas which could accommodate at least 4 persons each. And we had 2 of these sofas to ourselves!

View of Central from the terrace

We were glad to see that the waiters who served us were polite and generally responsive. We just hoped our vegetarian tea set could have come a bit earlier because it was not easy to stay patient in the cold wind. :P

Top tier (clockwise from top): SEVVA vegetable spring roll, golden crumpet with chive cream cheese & cucumber, mini burger with ratatouille 

Middle tier (clockwise from top): mini asparagus roll; deluxe vegetarian club sandwich; SEVVA poori - Indian nachos... our way; tri-coloured tomatoes, avocado, chopped egg white on toasted soylin bread, wild mushroom ragoût  on crispy rice cracker 

View of middle tier from another side

Bottom tier (clockwise from top): double chocolate-dipped strawberry, the original caramel crunch cake, SEVVA pineapple carrot cake, cigar wafer cookies, chocolate fudge cake with marmalade, mini Mont Blanc 

If you are biased against vegetarian food like most of my guy friends and have the impression that it is bland, boring and not filling, SEVVA's vegetarian tea set will make you painfully ashamed of your ignorance. ;) This gorgeous tea set looks anything but boring right? The carrot cake (just because I don't like carrot cake) and soggy asparagus roll aside, the tea set was nicely executed. The pastries on the bottom tier are actually the same as those in the non-vegetarian signature tea set. Whether it was SEVVA's famous feather-light crunch cake , the dense orange-scented chocolate cake, or the chocolate-dipped strawberry that could never go wrong... everything was pure bliss. 

The top 2 tiers were the stage for vegetarian savouries. Since veggies have less intense flavours than meat in general, vegetarian chefs tend to use lots of cheese, spices, and herbs to enhance the flavours of their dishes. The result is that, vegetarian dishes are flavourful, sometimes even more so their meaty counterparts. Try their crumpet with oh-so-yummy chive cream cheese, or crispy rice cracker with piquant stewed mushrooms, and you will see what I mean. :) Of course, I enjoyed the toast with tomatoes and avocado cos I love gooey fatty avocado. Who needs meat when veggies taste so good?? If I could have great vegetarian food like these every day, I wouldn't mind being a convert... for a week. :P

So far, so good. This is one of HK's best afternoon tea set - if we do not take its price into account. What is your guess for the price tag? $450? Not even close. $500? Nah. The answer is: a whooping $580, plus 10% service charge!! :0 I was a bit mad that at this hefty price, we were only entitled to choices of everyday tea and coffee... I would love to try the organic teas from Penelope Sach, but they cost extra. :( I really didn't want to dole out more money from my bleeding wallet, so I reluctantly settled for an Earl Grey...  

THE VERDICT 

Ambience: A- (Love the terrace! Despite having opened for several years, SEVVA's niche as one of the hippest place in town remains unchallenged.) 

Service: C- (To be fair, the waiting staff weren't bad as a whole, but the waitress at the entrance was just hopeless. First impression is important!!)

Food: B (Wonderful food that deserves an A-. But value for money? NO!)

Overall remarks: Ok, now it seems that I am in another love-hate relationship... SEVVA is a charming place for tea, but when I pay over $600 for a tea set I would certainly ask for A LOT MORE. At this price, I would expect all food items to come in pairs (or else show me some black truffles :P), gourmet tea instead of Twinings, and most importantly, reasonable service. SEVVA should really organize customer service training for the staff; if this is too expensive, just replace the waitress at the entrance with someone else! 

INFO

SEVVA (website)
25/F, Prince's Building, 10 Chater Road, Central, Hong Kong
Afternoon tea: 2:30 - 6:00pm (Mon - Fri), 3:00-6:00pm (Sat)
* Signature Tea Set and vegetarian variation available at $580 for 2 persons

Lazy Sunday Afternoon @ Teavers

Living in the West of NT, travelling to Eastern HK Island  has never been an uplifting idea to me. Although I am aware that there are a growing number of interesting restaurants in Soho East, I don't really bother to visit them whenever I think of the hours to be wasted on travelling. :( Two weeks ago, there's finally a sufficiently strong incentive for me to go to Sai Wan Ho - F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" was showing in HK Film Archive! I decided that it would be a good chance to check out Teavers, a baby member to the dining scene of Soho East. 

Teavers is a small teahouse that has only about 8 tables. It's divided into 3 functional areas: the tea bar and kitchen, the seating area, and the shelves displaying tea products for sale. The soft lighting and wooden interior give the place a warm, calming ambience - you know, it's the kind of place where you would like to spend an afternoon with a good book or a Macbook. ;)

The waitress gently placed a large wooden rack on our table as she seated us. On the rack were test tubes containing dry leaves of different types of tea; we were encouraged to smell the samples before ordering our favourites. More choices of plain teas can be found in the tea menu. In particular, the "Signature Drinks" section offers a selection of flavoured teas which casual tea drinkers will likely find less intimidating. 

The food menu was trendily presented on iPad. Pretty cool indeed, but I couldn't really get the rationale behind because a piece of A4 paper would well accommodate the small number of food items...  :P

While waiting for our order to come, our attention was inescapably caught by the eye-catching siphon tea makers at the tea bar. Though Hellish had failed to convince me that siphon tea maker was in anyway superior to traditional brewing method (not sure whether it's because of my scientific skepticism or poor physics :P), it was truly mesmerizing to watch tea leaves and bubbles dance in the snow-globe-like gadget.  

Spellbound by the tea-brewing extravaganza, I almost failed to notice when the scones arrived. I took a bite only because I was not hungry at all. It appeared to be quite pleasant. It would have been even better (and more proper) if they served them with clotted cream and jam, instead of butter. 

One of Teavers' signature drinks - Ginger Phoenix Oolong. It's D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! It had a good balance of sweetness and spiciness. It was so sweet that I was certain that they had added honey, but on second thought, it was possible that the sweetness simply came from the tea itself because Phoenix Oolong is known for its honey flavour. A wonderful winter drink! :)

The pot of Mount Honey Black I ordered was less likeable. I am no expert in Taiwanese black tea, but I didn't think the bitterness of this tea was normative by all standards. Either it was oversteeped, or excessive tea leaves were used for the brew. The tea was so strong that I developed a bit of headache after drinking 2 cups. This being said, I quite enjoyed the tea set because everything was nicely presented. I loved the teapot and teacup for their spontaneous, poetic beauty. The small cup of water - for palate-cleansing and preventing/alleviating caffeine overdose I guess - was a thoughtful touch. I was genuinely amazed by the superb quality of the complimentary cookies. The fragrant notes of green tea and osmanthus oolong, despite being very delicate, outshone the buttery flavour and easily stole the show. Seriously, Teavers should consider selling them in packs if they are not doing that already!

The people behind Teavers seem to be tea and art lovers. Apart from the artistic teaware and tea-brewing method, their aestheticism is reflected in Teavers' tea products. These elegant tea fragrance diffusers say it all.  :) My best pick is the Magic Mushroom at the far end, which you can have a better look here. ;) 

Teavery Tea Poles are Teavers' most featured products. Though the idea of putting tea leaves into a perforated metal foil tube - which doubles as a stirrer - is not new, it's probably the first time Chinese teas got packaged in this smart and convenient way! I'd like to have some in my office pantry - that is, uh, if my office has a pantry... :(

As gourmet tea is fast becoming a food trend in HK, Teavers is a promising teahouse with great potential to flourish. I will give their plain tea another chance when I go to HK Film Archive again in mid-Jan. Geez, I am already missing their tea-scented cookies! :9 

INFO
Teavers (website)
Shop GB22, Site B, Soho East, Lei King Wan, Hong Kong
Opening hours: 10:00am-7:00pm (Tue - Fri), 10:00am-9:00pm (Sat - Sun)