Hong Kong Restaurant: Sharp Star Restaurant

Eating out a lot on vacation is normal, even if we have a place to stay. In Hong Kong, when you have a big group, its generally better to just go out because the space is so tight in the living quarters.

After the outing at Citygate Outlets, me, my mom and her friends ended up spending the entire day running around town.

At the end of the day, we stopped at Sham Shui Po to check out some technology products and to compare prices.

When my mom’s best friend joined us afterwards for a short while, she took us to a rather popular restaurant located in that area right by the subway exit of Sham Shui Po.  This lovely restaurant is called Sharp Star.

Sharp Star is hidden in an alley behind stalls located in front of it but welcoming you in the entrance are snippets of newspapers (if I remember correctly) and pictures of popular Hong Kong stars that went there to dine.

We went at a fairly early dinner time so the place was empty.  As we sat down, the waiter was funny and very nice as he helped us make our choices for the meal.  The service was pretty impressive.

First up, we had the chef’s invention on Fried Spare Ribs with the taste of plum and this other Chinese ingredient that I don’t know how to translate.

 

Next up, we have this Soy Sauce Chicken but its with this soy sauce which is supposed to be like the first batch making it more premium or high quality or something like that.

“Premium” Soy Sauce Chicken

I love chicken and one of my fave ways is eating it after its been simmered in soy sauce.  This one was mega delicious 🙂 The chicken was so tender and even the soy sauce wasn’t all that salty.  I wonder what else they put in there 😉

Following that, my mom’s friend had gone out to pick out a lovely fresh fish.  We took the simple option and decided to have steamed fish.

Steamed Fish

Don’t ask me what type of fish because I seriously cannot remember anymore.  I really should jot down notes while I travel at restaurants.

I can’t remember if there was another dish, maybe plain veggies.  I just can’t because I don’t have a picture of it but its rare we eat out without any veggies included.

Moving on, our last one was a little bonus from the waiter with a little fried dessert.

Dessert

I believe they had some taro paste inside but I don’t quite know and didn’t ask because the restaurant was getting busy. It was pretty good also.

I totally recommend Sharp Star Restaurant. It has some creative and delicious meals. The service is fantastic and…its just awesome!

I had really wanted to go again before I left but I never got the chance….

Here’s hoping  next time it will still be there and I can try some more awesome dishes 🙂

Is there a restaurant that you ate at while travelling that gave you an unforgettable dining experience?

Stir-Fried Pork with Vegetables and Pineapple Chunks

In the previous post, I had promised to post up the second part of my Chinese New Year dinner and here it is.  I went into my Looneyspoons cook book and did a recipe that I’ve been planning to do for a while.  I love cooking with pineapples.  Since I already had chicken on the menu, I went ahead to make stir fried pork tenderloin with vegetable and pineapple chunks and its paired with sweet and sour sauce.  Doesn’t that sound delicious?

Here’s how it turned out:

Ingredients:

2 tsp sesame oil

1 1/4 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into cubes or strips

2 tsp grated gingerroot

1 tsp minced garlic

1 1/2 cups each chopped red pepper and sliced carrots

1 cup chopped onions

398mL pineapple

1/4 cup each ketchup and rice vinegar

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp (reduce sodium) soy sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 cups white rice

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large wok over medium-high heat.  Add pork, gingerroot and garlic.  Cook and stir for 6 to 7 minutes, until pork is cooked through and begins to brown.  Remove pork from wok and keep warm.  Add green pepper, carrots and onions to wok.  Cook and stir for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

2. Meanwhile, prepare sauce.  In a small bowl, combine ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch. Add sauce to vegetables in wok, along with cooked pork and pineapple chunks.  Cook until sauce is bubbly and has thickened, and pork and pineapple are heated through.  Serve over white rice.

The recipe is inspired from Looneyspoons. The one up there is how I did it because I did make a few changes to the original. They used peanut oil instead of sesame oil.  Also, green bell peppers instead of red peppers, and canned pineapples where they could use a bit of the pineapple juice to add to the sauce.  The sauce had chili powder but I don’t eat that so I took it out. The last thing is that you should match it with rice but they recommend to use brown rice or quinoa.  That is pretty much all that I modified.

Finally, to the actual results! This was awesome tasting.  I’m serious, these two ladies over at Looneyspoons have some amazing skills.  All their recipes that I’ve tried have been pretty great.

The best reward of cooking was to see my boyfriend give me the approving reaction that he liked it.  And he did for the complete meal and I enjoyed it a lot too.  Even have some leftovers for lunch!

Do you cook with pineapples or other fruits for meals? Any ingredient combinations you like in particular?

Food Review: C-Jade Kitchen

Back to back food reviews are awesome, right? Don’t worry, I do have some good food to share with everyone and its an actual meal that I enjoyed a lot.  This restaurant is a chain throughout Asia actually.  This one was located at New Town Plaza in Shatin.  On Sunday, I went to this restaurant with my mom, aunt and uncle and also cousin after visiting grandma.  The lunch there was scrumptious.  This restaurant is called C-Jade Kitchen.  It focuses on Cantonese and Teochew cuisine.

Seeing as we have a bigger group of people, we also ordered more food to share.

Congee: This is a type that was originated from fisherman’s village with peanuts, fish pieces and lean meat and green onions

Soy Sauce Chicken and Barbecued Pork with Rice.

I didn’t show the rice because I’m sure most of you have seen steamed rice.

Scrambled Eggs and Shrimp Noodles

Fried Rice Noodle Roll with Soy Sauce

Teochew style Sweet and Sour Fried Noodles

This one was a pretty interesting experience because the noodles are crunchy but you have to pour a bit of vinegar on top and then add a little bit of sugar and mix it before you eat.  Its a pretty interesting taste, in a very good way.

Looks familiar? Yes, its black sesame paste but this time its with Tofu Pudding (thats what Wikipedia calls it in English)

This place was a great eating experience.  I haven’t had actual Teochew style meal before so the noodles were a really wonderful experience.  As weird as the combination may seem, it tasted really good and I’d gladly eat more of it if I had the chance.  The dessert was good as always.  I’m not a big fan of congee but this one was really tasty.  I think this style suits my taste.  The noodles and Rice Noodle Rolls were also quite yummy.  Everything was even better because it tasted just right.  I usually have the problem of how restaurant food puts too much sugar or MSG or oil.  At this restaurant, I didn’t feel it as much.

Have you tried any of these foods before somewhere around? Which do you like? I need to start looking into which to try to make. It should be fun!

Thanksgiving Dinner: Honey Garlic Chicken Thighs

This year, I decided to kick it into gear and make an actual Thanksgiving Dinner for me and my boyfriend.  Every year its tradition for us to go on a hike. This year we did another event (I’ll post it up real soon)  the night before so we took it easy: went out for a little shopping and then came back to prepare for dinner.  Dinner had its problems and some of the food was delayed.  I wasn’t too happy about that but still, my boyfriend was very encouraging and patient with it all.  After all, the food all turned out pretty tasty.

So are you wondering whats on the menu for my Thanksgiving Dinner yet?

Here it is:

Minestrone Soup (as the recipe before, still without turkey and pasta included)

Penne Rigate with Pesto

Oven Baked Turkey Thigh (that was  big one….)

Honey-Garlic Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks (recipe below)

So the star of this post is in fact, the Honey-Garlic Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks.  Originally this recipe is made for Chicken Thighs and to be made on the grill.  However, its too cold for the grill, even if I had one so I just did it in a pan.  Also, I used Chicken Legs so I split it down the middle and had 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks.  Please note that you need to marinate the meat at least 4 hours and preferably overnight so budget your time accordingly.

Here’s the recipe from Looneyspoons Collections by Janet & Greta Podleski:

Recipe name: Honey, I Shrunk My Thighs!

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

12 bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed (about 3lbs/1.4kg)

1/2 cup liquid honey

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 tbsp reduced-sodium soya sauce

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 tsp gingerroot

1/2 tsp each ground curry and ground coriander

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

 

Directions:

1) Arrange chicken thighs in a shallow glass dish.  Whisk together all remaning ingredients in a small bowl and pour over chicken.  Turn pieces to coat both sides with marinade.  Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.

2) Preheat grill to medium setting.  Remove chicken from marinade and place on a grill rack that has been lightly brushed with oil.  Grill thigs for about 10 minutes per side.  Be careful not to burn them.  Serve hot.

Easy, right? I’m starting to really appreciate easy cooking since I’m not that good at it.  This one is awesome. I love learning near marinades for chicken.  I already have one which is similar and I used that one for the turkey this time, adding  a little twist of course.  For this chicken, I also had to make some adjustments to the marinade.  I didn’t have lemons so I couldn’t squeeze fresh juice but I used lemon juice.  I also used normal soya sauce and omitted cayenne pepper.  Everything else remained the same for the marinade.

For the cooking, well, I simmered the chicken in a pan instead of grilling it, for about 20-30 mins on low-medium heat.  It turned out amazing.  My boyfriend is already asking me to do this a second time.  Even though, it turned out that there were little time frame errors and this meal took a bit longer to do.  It was still a nice result. This is a nice little recipe and I do recommend for you to try it out my way.  I’m sure the original will taste awesome too.

Whether you do it in the grill or in the pan, tell me how  it turns out.  Are you going give this a shot eventually one day?