Hibiscus

Hibiscus is the name of a flower, in fact, the national flower of Malaysia. However, in this blog, I am referring to the name of a restaurant.

In celebration of my housemate's birthday, we reserved a table for lunch in this 2 Michelin Starred restaurant in London called Hibiscus.

By the sound of the restaurant name, we first thought that it serves Asian-inspired dishes. But we soon found that the chef had Classical French training hence the restaurant serves French/British cuisine with a twist of Asian influence (what we gathered from the menu).

Tucked in the middle of Maddox Street, London, it took us some effort to find but we finally found it with a quick phone-call to the restaurant.

Outside

Upon entering the restaurant, we felt drawn into a rather posh place with minimalistic design. It is quite a small restaurant with only 15 tables available, therefore booking well in advance is highly recommended.

As soon as we sat down, we were given the menus and plates of homemade pork scratchings.

Then we were served complimentary glass of white wine each - courtesy of booking through toptable.com

Menu

Like any other fine dining or Michelin starred restaurants, the menu here offer few but exciting and delicious sounding dishes from start to finish!

After placing our orders, we were served with this wonderful complimentary Aperitif - Pineapple cream and Hibiscus juice.

Complimentary Aperitif 

The citrus-y and slightly sour pineapple cream cut through the very fragrant hibiscus juice which had a bit of fizz in it. A pretty nice Aperitif to start our meal.

Butter

I just could not resist taking photo of the very cute butter - sphere is unsalted and cube is salted.


To start......

Veloute

My friend had the Royale of Amalfi Lemon, Toasted Pine Nuts New Season Wild Garlic Veloute.

The dish looked beautiful and I can imagine that it presents lots of different flavours and textures. I am sure my friend enjoyed the taste of it as much as the looks of it.

Cornish Crab

My housemate and I went for the Cornish Crab, Rhubarb, Cardamom and Cucumber.

The wonderful ingredients were beautifully arranged on the plate and looked very inviting.

Surprisingly, the cardamom did not over-power the delicate flavour of the crab whilst the cucumber added a freshness to the combination.

The ever increasingly popular rhubarb used in this dish was nicely treated and again, did not over-power the crab but instead added some sweet/acidic flavour to the dish.

A delicious starter with very well-balanced flavours and textures - definitely a Michelin star standard dish!

Hibiscus Knife

To follow......

Crispy Plantation Pork Belly

All three of us went for the Crispy Plantation Pork Belly Cooked in Hay. Peas 'a la Francaise', Smoked Bacon, Pink Grapefruit.

A wonderful aroma hit us as soon as our main course arrived.

A beautiful piece of pork belly resting on a bed of  brightly coloured sauce and peas.

As soon as I sliced through the pork belly with my knife, we could hear the wonderful 'crackling' sound from the crispy skin. The pork belly was very well-flavoured and cooked to perfection that the meat and the fat layer melted in our mouth.

The buttery and creamy sauce with the nicely cooked peas and crispy bacon not only added different flavours to the dish, they also added different textures.

The pink grapefruit was just the 'icing on the cake' as the acidity and slight bitterness of the fruit nicely cut through the richness of the pork.


To finish......

Asparagus, Olive & Sorbet

To finish my lunch, I went for the  Asparagus Cream, Candied Black Olives, Whey and Coconut Sorbet as it sounded really unusual with a unique combination of ingredients for a dessert.

Again, a beautifully presented dish.

The asparagus cream was slightly salty and the candied black olives were slightly towards the sweet side. The whey and coconut sorbet was really refreshing and had a sweetness which complimented the asparagus cream and olives really well.

The coconut meringue (with a sprinkle of black olives powder) added a layer of texture to the entire dish.

Personally, I think this is a pretty special dessert more inclined towards a savoury rather than a sweet dish.

Blood Orange and Marjoram Givre

My friends had the Blood Orange and Marjoram Givre.

They looked pretty cute with nicely piped orange cream stuffed inside the blood orange shell and served with some toffee-look-alike sponge cake.

The cream was pretty nice but the blood orange flesh and the skin (recommended to try by the waitress) was so bitter that my friends weren't impressed at all.

A rather disappointing dessert with a restaurant of this stature (not to mention the price).


Overall, a very good lunch experience in the very first Michelin starred restaurant I ever visited.

I could see great efforts being put into the flavour combinations, textures and presentations, combined with attention to details is what make this a Michelin starred restaurant!

PS: Where other restaurants give chocolates/sweets with the bill. Hibiscus gave freshly made Madeleines (peanut, coconut and almond flavours) - still piping hot and very delicious!

Madeleines 

The Savoy Grill (The Sequel)

We enjoyed dining in The Savoy Grill so much on our last visit that we decided to especially make a detour to London from Cotswolds just to dine there again!

Also, we were in such a rush last time to finish dinner before going to the theatre that we could not properly enjoy the good food (and we did not even get to try the desserts!).

NB: Photos are not that great this time as the lightings were really dim.

Basket of breads

Lovely basket of homemade olive breads with cold butter that went really well with my lobster bisque.

To start......

I ordered the lobster bisque again as I enjoyed it so much last time, it sounds so delicious that even two of my friends ordered it as well!

Lobster Bisque with brandy butter

The bisque was beautifully rich with seafood flavour and the wonderful fragrance of brandy butter making it a very complete dish. The lobster pieces were really fresh and nicely cooked.

Crispy pig's head croquettes with gribiche sauce

When my housemate ordered the crispy pig's head to start, we all joked that she might be served with a big pig's head with an apple in it's mouth on a plate!

What a relieve when she received these delicious looking croquettes on a bed of leafy salad with gribiche sauce!

The pig's head actually had a texture like any other parts of the pig. The croquettes were beautifully deep-fried in breadcrumbs that turned into a healthy golden brown.

Delicious!


To follow......

Chateaubriand (for two) 20oz

With the many different cuts of steak on the grill to choose from, I ordered the 20oz Chateaubriand (for two) to share with another friend as the waiter highly recommended it as a very sweet and tender steak.

The medium-cooked steak was indeed very tender and the meat very sweet. The half-bulb of garlic on the side was really fragrant and the rich, buttery Bearnaise sauce was absolutely amazing and filled with flavours from different herbs.

Roasted Goosnargh duck breast with sautéed foie gras, braised endive and smoked bacon

And the third duck dish for my housemate in three evenings!

Another nicely cooked duck breast, which was a bit pink and not over-cooked at all. Juicy and succulent duck meat with very tasty braised endive and smoked bacon.

A very fine dish with fine ingredients - thumbs up!

But if you ask me, I would say this duck dish was the best amongst all three duck dishes in terms of flavours. But this one from last night won in terms of presentation.

Braised Steak with truffle topping on curly kale

The 'special' of the day was this braised steak on curly kale with a topping of truffle shavings!

The beef was slowly cooked and it absorbed all the flavours from the sauce. The meat was superbly tender that it melts in your mouth.

The truffle shavings, needless to say, enhanced the taste of the entire dish!

Rib-eye steak

One of my friends ordered the rib-eye steak, medium-rare.

It looks absolutely delicious and the respond I had off my friend was:"It's ok".


So....going to the highlight of the evening - desserts!

We must have ordered four of the most difficult desserts to make on the menu as we waited at least half an hour for them. But the restaurant did kindly served us with a complimentary watermelon granita for the wait, and the granita was absolutely refreshing and delicious!

Passion fruit and lime baked Alaska flambé 

The passion fruit and lime baked Alaska flambé was a sight when the waiter lighted it up on the table. It was so beautiful with the blue-coloured flame dancing around the ice cream and the colourful fruit pieces on the plate.

The meringue on top of the ice-cream was wonderfully light and creamy and the passion fruit and lime ice-cream beneath was so refreshing and tasty.

Pistachio soufflé with vanilla ice-cream

The beautifully risen pistachio soufflé, we later found out, was the 'culprit' in us having to wait so long for our desserts.

We were informed that the kitchen had made several failed attempts to make the perfect soufflé as they did not raise properly.

However, the wait was well worth it as the soufflé we had has wonderfully puffed up and had a very light texture. The pistachio was amazingly fragrant and gave a very nice flavour to the 'egg-y' soufflé. Delicious!

Opera cake with milk and honey ice cream

I particularly liked the opera cake with milk and honey ice cream.

Layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, ganache and coffee buttercream is what make French patisserie and cakes so famous.

Each layer was bursting with flavours yet complimented each other well. You can taste the slightly bitter coffee used and was very fragrant and the light ganache cuts through the richness of the coffee buttercream. Fabulous!

Apple Charlotte with calvados crème fraiche 

Another pretty dessert - apple charlotte, served warm.

A very beautifully constructed dessert, the sponge was nice and light with apple flavours coming through each bite. The lightly flavoured Calvados creme fraiche was perfect with this spongy dessert.

A very enjoyable dinner with a perfect end to the evening, and I thoroughly enjoyed the company of wonderful friends!

Eating Spree!

I went to visit my friends in London, well, Kingston Upon Thames to be exact, over the weekend.

As soon as I arrived, we went out looking for food and did not stop until late evening when we headed back to the flat!

We started by heading into Camden Town. My friend brought us to a stall in one of the many markets, run by Malaysian, selling authentic Malaysian food. No photos taken as we were starving and could not wait to tuck in! We ordered the Kari Laksa, rice noodles in thick egg sauce (滑蛋河粉), meat sauce noodles (肉酱面) and a bowl of Wonton Soup.

The rice noodles were quite fragrant and tasted nice with lots of squids and prawns on it. Passable as authentic Malaysian dish but there are nicer ones in other places in London. The Kari Laksa was very authentic as we could taste rather strong curry (and other spices) flavour to it, would have been nice with a squeeze of lime juice though!

The meat sauce noodle was very hot and spicy, we thought it looked and tasted more like a different Chinese dish (tomato aubergine in fish sauce dish) rather than a proper meat sauce noodle dish. However, the most shocking thing was the amount of chicken stock (most possibly made from chicken stock powder) put into the Wonton soup. It was incredibly salty and we could feel our thirst getting worse and worse by each mouthful!

After walking around a few more markets in Camden, we headed towards an ice-cream shop selling rather unique ice-creams. Unique in the way they were made rather than the tastes or looks of the ice creams as they looked exactly the same as any other ice creams. Chin Chin Laboratorists, as mentioned in Time Out London, uses very raw material to make ice cream right in front of customers! The place looks like a laboratory with liquid nitrogen tanks, test tubes, glass flasks, people in lab coats and so on.

You might have already guessed, yes, they use liquid nitrogen to freeze flavoured cream immediately to make ice creams!

One can choose from three different flavoured ice-cream, then choose a syrup before choosing the toppings!

Coffee Popcorn Ice Cream with toffee syrup and hazelnuts

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Dark choc syrup and hazelnuts

Vanilla Ice cream with dark choc syrup and roasted white chocs

The ice-creams were silky and creamy like any other good ice-creams. Very nice flavour combinations. For the price of each cup, we could have bought a big tub of Haagen Dazs or Ben & Jerry, but the experience of it all was well worth it.

Dessert done, you thought we would have stopped there and headed home? No, no, no...we still needed to complete our day with dinner!



So we headed to Hoxton, London for Vietnamese food! On the bus, we saw several Vietnamese restaurants along the street, some with very long queues, some with minimal customers inside.

So we went into one highly recommended by my friend (which of course had a really long queue out the door!) - Song Que. This place was voted TimeOut London Hot 50 restaurants to visit!

For starters, we ordered, prawn goi cuon (prawn spring rolls), char-grilled quails and fried soft-shelled crabs.

Prawn gỏi cuốn

Goi Cuon is a traditional Vietnamese spring roll made of prawns (pork, sometimes chicken or tofu), fresh herbs, lettuce and rice vermicelli wrapped in moistened rice paper.

It has the freshness of salad wrapped in cool rice paper which makes it a rather summery dish. I loved the combination of ingredients used which makes it so refreshing, tasty and bursting out with flavours of South-east Asia!

Deep Fried Soft-shelled Crabs

The  deep fried soft-shelled crabs were also absolutely delicious! It was deep fried in salted batter which reminded me so much of the the 'Big Fried Chicken' I had in Taipei last September.

It was very tasty with very balanced seasoning of the batter, seafoody taste of the crab, with a hint of spiciness from the red chilies.

Char-grilled Quails

The char-grilled quails, although may sound un-appetising to some, is a must-try! It has such amazing smoky flavour to it, and very well seasoned. Dipped into the nice home-made sauce, it was totally 'finger-licking-good'!

It had the texture of chicken, and tastes like chicken, so those of you who are still a bit apprehensive about eating it, do give it a try, trust me, it is good!

Grilled Pork, Shredded Pork, Spring roll with Rice Vermicelli

Then came the main course. One of my very favourite Vietnamese dish - rice vermicelli, served cold with fish sauce! The dish came very neatly presented, a splash of the accompanying sweet chilli sauce and mix the ingredients together then it's ready to be consumed.

Each ingredient on its own was very tasty but the combination of them makes it an even more delightful and mouth-watering dish!

The smoky grilled pork was full of flavours and the spring rolls (this time deep fried) had a really nice crunch to it and very tasty too! The deep fried chopped oninos, shredded carrots, daikon and cucumber just add another dimension to the many different textures in the dish and was very refreshing!

Even though I was getting very full from a whole day of feasting, I had to finish the rice vermicelli as it was just simply delicious!



Of course, my trip to Kingston will not be complete without a proper English afternoon tea!

So we headed to John Lewis departmental store, and what drew my attention was the name of the restaurant, as it was simply called 'The Place to Eat' - how very appropriate.

Banoffee Tart

We had a lovely looking banoffee tart that looked rather pretty and appetising. I found the cream a bit too light, the toffee not sweet enough and there was not enough bananas, but I must say that the tart pastry was well made.

Cheese Scone with clotted cream and jam

Then we had a rather unique cheesy scone, my first time having a savoury scone. We put lots and lots of clotted cream and raspberry jam on it and it was not that bad afterall!


Now that my stomach was filled up, I was ready for the 3 hours drive back to Cardiff.

A very interesting weekend with lots of food and it was absolutely nice to see my friends!

Taste of London 2011

A taste of London @ Regent's Park, London.


Taste of London is an annual event for food lovers where London's top restaurants promote their food!

It was a rainy day but the wet weather did not dampen the spirit of food lovers enjoying delicious food!

The type of food the restaurants served ranges from French to Chinese, from Italian to Japanese, from Thai to British. Every corner you turn into, you can find fine cuisine!

The Restaurants Map

Tea-smoked salmon

Rare roasted Angus steak with sweet corn

Lemon Cheesecake

Black Truffle

Braised Pork Cheek with mashed potato

Pan fried scallops with spicy squid rings

Roast duck with tamarind sauce

From starters to main courses to desserts served by restaurants we visited, we get to try very high standard and good quality food. All of which tastes as good as it looks.

Live oyster

Lemon Tart with strawberry compote

Top-dog Deluxe

Top-dog deluxe. This is one of my favourite dish. It looks like an ordinary hotdog in a bun, but there is nothing ordinary about it. Smoked Strasbourg sausage hotdog full of flavours, complimented with honey bacon and tasty mustard/mayo sauce which brings out all the flavours of the hotdog, served in very nice and crunchy toasted pain au lait is just simply delicious!

Toasted pain au lait

We also came across a Malaysian stall selling Malaysian food! We found very local Malaysian fruits like durian, rambutan, starfruits and honey jackfruit as shown in the photo below. This finding instantly had us feeling at home and excited at the same time to have food that we missed.

Honey Jackfruit

Porcini Tagliatelle with Black Truffle

The last dish that we tried was most definitely the highlight of the day! I must commend the generousity of that restaurant shaving lots and lots black truffles onto our dish!

A very good end indeed to a very enjoyable day of food tasting despite the weather being a bit downcast and wet!

I would highly recommend any food-lover to attend this event! More info on the official website.

Vietnamese and Taiwanese

Yes, we went and had Asian food AGAIN in London. Only because the Asian cuisines are so, so, so nice!

We were shopping, well actually window shopping, in Westfield London Shopping Centre and decided to have some dinner at the foodcourt upstairs. After walking along the foodcourt, we settled for the Vietnamese store - PHO, where the food they served looks enticingly delicious!

Beef Steak and Meatball soup noodles

As with any authentic Vietnamese noodle soup, the beef steak and meatball noodle soup I had was served with fresh mint and lots of beansprouts. The medium-raw steak was left to continue cooking in the hot soup and was absolutely delicious and succulent. The meatballs were also filled with wonderful herb flavours, while not losing it's beefy flavour. The soup was very tasty and sweet, freshened up by the fresh mint. Delicious!

Wok fried noodles with prawns and chicken

The wok fried noodles with prawns and chicken also looked very authentic Vietnamese with its trademark fragrant crushed peanuts and bean sprouts. The sweetness and saltiness of soya sauce complimented well by the sour lime and spiciness of chillies was absolutely amazing and gave lots of flavours to the dish!

Vietnamese rice paper roll

The Vietnamese rice paper roll with prawns, served cold, was also one of my favourite dishes. The rolls were filled with prawns, lots of crunchy lettuce leaves and herbs. Dipped into specially made sauce, the dish was just magnificent!


A wonderful dinner indeed, much better than one would expect in a food court of a shopping mall!


Our trip would not be complete without a lunch visit to the Taiwanese restaurant, Leong's Legend in Leceister Square (see previous post).

Vermicelli in Soup

We have been to this restaurant so many times, and we always order certain dishes like the vermicelli in soup as shown above. The soup is thick and tastes sour from black vinegar, filled with mussels and chopped up pork large intestines, a very delicious dish! Normally, I would say no no NO to internal organs, but this dish is just so nice!

Mussels omelette

One new dish we did try was the mussels omellete. Pan fried like a normal pancake, it was made with eggs, mussels and lots and lots of corn flour! We did not know that they used corn flour until my mom and I visited Taipei last year and asked the food hawker who was cooking it:" what made the omelette so sticky?". Covered with tomato sauce on top before serving, the omelette is just simply delicious!

Bamboo shoot rice

Another new dish we tried was the bamboo shoot rice. It was made of glutinous rice cooked inside a bamboo shoot which gave out fragrance of bamboo and tasted rather salty from the soya sauce.

Spicy stir fried snap beans

We also had the spicy stir fried snap beans which was well cooked and well seasoned. Very nice to go with some cooked with rice.


A rather enjoyable lunch and we would most definitely go again in a next trip to London!


As for a lovely afternoon tea, this time we went to Patisserie Valerie.

Apple Tart

The apple tart was absolutely gorgeous! You can see big pieces of apple; perfectly caramelized; nice and soft; sleepily lying on top of mild custard cream on a very crunchy pastry base. Dessert that is not too sweet and with lots of different textures - mouth-watering!

Black forest Gateau

The black forest gateau was equally heavenly! Layer upon layer of chocolate sponge and fresh cream with black cherries randomly embedded then topped with a chocolate roll, a touch of kirsch liquor and a nice touch of cream. Makes me want to visit Blackforest, Germany one day and try the original black forest cake!

With black cherry pieces

Belgian Hot Chocolate

Last but not least, the Belgian hot chocolate. Rich and creamy, sweet and chocolaty.

If I must be extremely picky, they did not have marshmallows with the hot chocolate! Haha!



Another satisfactory trip to London, a place that we will visit again, and again!