Sala Rim Nam, Mandarin Oriental BKK

Got curious about this restaurant for quite some time. Finally tried their lunch buffet as I got reminded of my last pleasant surprise from Sala Rim Nam taking place at Clipper Lounge of MO HK. In general, the food of Sala Rim Nam is at average. When we consider the price at THB750++, we would find it not over-priced. However, I would recommend them to increase the price a bit more by having some stations for freshly made som tam and pad thai which shouldn't be well prepared in a buffet.

1. the rest room door. 2. Something good about MO is that they have many flowers kept in good condition.

3/4. some melon decorations outside the restaurant.

5/6. cold dishes.

7. hot dish. 8. Tom Yam Gong.

9. kind of a tofu pork egg soup. 10. dessert.

11. herbal jelly. 12. Apple Mojito.

13. fresh fruits. 14. food station.

15/16. the restaurant.

17. the restaurant with a view to MO's main complex and classic wing.

The One, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, HK

1/2. shops and restaurants.

3/4.Tutti Melon a frozen yoghurt shop which charges on weight.

5/6. Milkissimo - ice cream made of milk claimed from Hokkaido.

7. Best Berry has a branch here and I took one. 8. more shops.

9. Broadway Cinemas - very golden. 10. various lines in lift lobby, to several slots of certain levels.

Woo Loo Moo Loo, 21/F., The One, TST, Kowloon, HK

This steak house has expanded with 4-5 branches respectively in Central and Tsimshatsui and the new one took the 21st floor of The One.

1. Rosemary tomato bread. Freshly made and served hot on the table. So aromatic. 2. Iced coffee. Very selected coffee beans.

3. Tomato mozarella cheese salad. Nice mix of olive oil, vinegar and salt/pepper. 4. Poached seabass salmon roll. The cooking is good as the salmon is inside the seabass. Seabass has to be cooked longer than salmon. However, if the fish is a frozen one, poaching is not suggested since the frozen smell stays. Or some chicken stock is used for poaching if fresh fish is not available.

5. 6 oz Australian Angus beef filet - medium rare. I like the way they made it. No gravy, no sauce to go, leaving some meat juice on the plate. Unfortunately, the filet was grilled at a very high heat. The surface is much dried out and even a bit too hard. Not the crispy burnt. As you can see, the surface is a bit too dark. It's true that beef filet or quite a no. of steak should be grilled at high heat. However, if the beef filet is like this thick, they should slow down to medium heat after a quick high heat grilling. After a while, go back to high heat to seal the juice inside, and make it more aromatic on the outside. 6. Vanilla cream custard. Nice presentation and very vanilla. However, it's a bit too sweet to me.

7. Showing some charcoal to tell they use wood fire for cooking. 8. the restaurant is only 20% full. Woo Loo Moo Loo offers the above set lunch at HK$198+ Considering the price, the food quality and the view, it's a good deal.

9. This lift lobby reminded me of Alila Cha Am. I guess it's part of the trend of some contemporary design.

車仔糯米飯的茶, 筲箕灣到柴灣

12歲那年的秋冬，姑母失去姑丈。某一天，姑母對我說 “明早我帶你去晨運，好嗎？”　常常在山頭東跑西跑的我立即點頭。早上五時來了姑母清脆聲音，喚著我的名字。那時清晨的筲箕灣，山上青蔥翠綠，還有樹林霞霧。我和姑母沿著柴灣道（俗名：長命斜）邊走邊說。魚魚菜菜，山山水水，不著邊際地一問一答，熱與凍咖啡的燥熱與清熱功效，還有食物進食次序（先菜後肉）等等...., 這些比任何課本來得更早。走了一小時，到了當時仍是工廈居多的柴灣。就是相中的這個街角，一檔熱氣騰騰的車仔，吹來陣陣糯米飯香，急不及待叫著“兩碗五毫“。熱烘烘飯上，洒上豬油豉油花生蔥花，相信這是世上最美味的早飯。然而最香的茶也是同時出現，車仔檔旁放了一個大水煲，拿著還有半點飯香油香的碗，冲下暖暖濃茶。油香飯香茶更香。就這樣過了一個12歲的冬季。那一年多，身體好得很，一個噴嚏也沒有。

昨晚晚飯時，不慎將一點荷葉飯掉落茶杯裏，與姑母一起吃糯米飯的情景湧現眼前，突然身後的侍應將杯拿走“幫你換一杯”，我即刻說不用，但那侍應堅持要換，不知怎的牽動我的情緒“說了不用就不用，這杯茶沒問題，油飯香的茶是很好喝...." 走了一段路的她總要送回來這杯掩影著那車仔糯米飯的茶。

那侍應當然不知如何是好，同桌友人在問為何這麼著緊，只是一杯茶，自己才知道有點過了。寫了這段往事下來，日後仍要抱擁這杯車仔糯米飯的濃茶。

後記：　那年姑母也開朗了，笑了，不再失眠，放開了。那晨運也劃上一個句號。

View from 21/F of The One, TST, HK

Went to a lunch at a steakhouse called Woo Loo Moo Loo (guess it's Australian and review to be reported later) on 21st floor of The One (the new shopping mall - was the Tung Ying Mansion). The One is on the contrast to that 38 floor residential building claiming as 88 floors. The 21 floors would mean over 50 floors. There it goes a super view to TST and a panoramic view to the harbour and northern coast of HK island.

1. Swimming pool of the new Hyatt Regency.

2. Holiday Inn's rooftop swimming pool. Kind of bothering with those big machines nearby. 3. View to the east and south of TST and the harbour.

鮑參翅宴, Abalone/sea cucumber/shark's fin meal, Hoi Choy 好彩 Seafood Sheung Wan, HK

My sister and I went to try this set menu after last time I saw quite many experienced seniors from the seafood shops in Sheung Wan visiting this restaurant.

1. the meal set is HK$288 per person. 2. A freshly squeezed orange juice.

3. Deep fried shrimp ball. I guess this is my most wanted dish when I went to those wedding/birthday dinners in my childhood. This one is so good - very crispy outside and tender/juicy inside. 4. The house special sauce to go with the deep fried shrimp.

5/6. Shark's fin soup. Think I haven't tried the real shark's fins for so long. This one is very nice and original. Check the thin slices of Chinese golden ham. This is the thing bringing up the salty aroma. If salt is put to make it taste, the nice soup base would be spoiled. See how thick the fins are. So now you know why I checked this restaurant in Sheung Wan. They can't cheat our experiened seniors from those dried seafood shops. I think it's worth around $200, but it is even more worth for me to stay until 3-4am due to indigestion of the fins as my stomach hasn't been adjusted to fins for a long time.

7. Suckling pig and roasted goose. Pretty nice. 8. Stir fried and stewed veggie. Good too!

9. Abalone and sea cucumber. So yummy!

11. veggie fried rice. Very nice quick stir-frying and nice veggie aroma. 12. fresh fruits.

13. this dessert is quite disappointing. Too mashy.

Start from a bargain prosumer's camera Fujifilm S2500

Stopped by a camera shop with my friend and got a sparkling big discount on this Fujifilm camera S2500. That reminded me of the time I encouraged our Angel to get the Fujifilm S1000 at HK$1,200, and the other friend for S1500 (with 720HD) at HK$1,860 2.5 years ao. This time this one with full HD and more AI function is at HK$1,799. BTW, our angel and my other friend had some wonderful weekends on using the new toy in taking photos in Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai. Some very beautiful flowers they took, and they both loved their bargain buy.

When people's attention was paid at Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony due to their massive media ads, there are yet some good cameras like Fujifilm's prosumer's line and Ricoh GXR line. In terms of price and the electronic parts, Fujifilm would be my recommendation. So I got one more friend to buy this camera and there it goes the journal of another photo taking. Tonight I got to try it for some night scene photo taking and see how this model can perform as compared to my Leica D-lux 3, though I know D-lux 3 is poorer in electronic parts.

1. So besides the camera itself, there are more complimentary stuff like 1 memory card, tripod and an original Fujifilm camera bag and a protective sleeve. Then the good things about this kind of camera are the bigger lens and a little bigger cmos plus the manual mode like aperture, shutter and manual exposure setting. We call it prosumer's camera, as compared to those compact camera's with a smaller sensor without manual mode setting...etc. From the manual mode, you get to know more about the basic things of photo taking - aperture, shutter speed while leaving you the standard auto and other A.I. functions from not discouraging you in trying photo taking. What's more we are talking about HK$1,799. :)

2. on D-lux 3, the cons are always the electronic part of this one and the poor ISO even when it reaches 400. This auto-mode set to ISO800, F2.8, AWB and 1/10 shutter speed, but the noise is quite serious. Yet, it tends to be whiter and bluer.

3. on S2500, auto-setting at F3.1, ISO800, AWB, 1/8. Apparently the light of the actual scene should be like this yellow. Fujifilm's CCD system boosts up the light and the color and the noise is much less.

4. on D-Lux 3, ISO800, AWB, 1/10, F2.8. As it's on F2.8, it appears with more field depth and Leica lens is of course with more clarity on the object but the noise is still poor.

5. on S2500, AWB, F3.1, 1/8. Again the noise is much better.