Blogsters in Hong Kong | TeaWood Taiwanese Cafe & Restaurant

TeaWood Taiwanese Cafe & Restaurant

Location: 10/F, King Wah Centre, 628 Nathan Road, Mong Kok 

(plus 17 other locations in Hong Kong)

Access: MTR and along bus routes 

Price: 50-100 HKD  > 10-15 CAD

Blogsters' Rating: 4.5 / 5  

From 1 restaurant to now over 18 locations in Hong Kong, I finally got to try Teawood without having to wait in line for hours! Teawood is a Modern Taiwanese Style cafe and restaurant that's been extremely popular since it opened in Hong Kong several years ago.

Teawood's menu looks like a magazine reflecting the Taiwanese cafe culture that provide a selection of magazine for their customers. The menu contains beautiful pictures and helpful graphics that showcase favorite dishes that definitely helped me pick from an overwhelming selection of food.

Teawood Stewed Beef Noodle

A traditional Taiwanese dish, this is typically a beef brisket noodle soup with strong flavors. However, compared to most other I've had, this one is not overly salty and has very well balanced flavors. The texture of the noodles is just right and the beef was very tender.

Fried Pork, Marinated Minced Pork with Rice

This is another favorite Taiwanese dish. Usually served only as marinated minced pork with rice but this one is served with a pork cutlet. For those who are familiar with hot star fried chicken, this fried pork is done in a similar way- juicy, tender and the breading is very flavorful. Once you start eating, you won't be able to stop. It definitely left me craving for more. 

Handmade Pasta with Creamy Truffle and Mushroom

As a huge mushroom fan, this pasta dish is a must try. It has a very strong truffle aroma. The handmade pasta is al dente and seems to be the same noodle they used in the beef noodle soup. It came with a generous portion of bacon pieces. Overall a very creamy dish but slightly on the sweet side. 

Cooked Oyster with marinated minced meat with rice in soup

This is by far my favorite dish at Teawood. Yet another Taiwanese favorite, this rice in soup contains a generous serving of oyster, squid, minced pork and dried shrimp. The parsley and pickled vegetables made it very flavorful despite looking like it's a very simple dish. To make this taste even better, I added a lot of white pepper to give it a bit of a kick. This would be the perfect winter dish  but honestly I could eat this every meal. 

Strawberry Vanilla Honey Toast

As for dessert which is always my favorite part, we ordered the strawberry vanilla honey toast which is a favorite at Teawood. Consisting of Thick Toast, vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, marshmallow and strawberry sauce, this is quite a refreshing dessert for the hot summer day. The toast came out hot and fresh lathered with melting ice cream which became the perfect combination. We inhaled this in a second because it was so good!   

Teawood definitely made it to one of my top favorite restaurants in Hong Kong. Since they are always busy around dinner time, they don't take reservations so there is always a long lineup outside this restaurant. If you are going as a group, make sure your entire party is there or else they won't seat you. Unfortunately, there is also a 90 minutes seating time limit. However, these limitations don't apply during off hours and that is exactly what I did on my second visit. I have to say though the high quality food makes it all worth while so I highly recommend you all to go check them out if you get a chance to visit Hong Kong! Bon appetite! 

Stay tuned for more delicious eats around the world with Blogsters! We are very excited to share with you our foodie experiences in Toronto, Ottawa, New York City, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Seoul and Osaka! 

xoxo

 Joyce

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Blogsters in NYC - Ramen Burger

Location: 

South Street Smorgasburg, South Street Seaport, 19 Fulton Street, New York, NY

Access: Along bus route, street parking available

Price: $10-$15

Blogsters' Rating: 3/5

On a beautiful Saturday in New York City (back in August), we headed down to South Street Seaport to catch some sun and good food =P Despite the heat and scorching sun, this place is packed! 

There were a lot of unique food booths down this little street like lobsters, pizza, oysters, grilled cheese etc. We decided to give Ramen Burger a try since it's such an innovative way to eat ramen and burger. 

The Original Ramen Burger by Keizo Shimamoto was voted #17 most influential burger of all time by Times magazine.

Like any typical food vendors/ restaurants in New York, there was a line up at the Ramen Burger booth. It took around 15 minutes from line up to ordering to actually getting our burger as they made the burgers fresh. There were basically 2 options on the menu- vegetarian or beef. We ordered a original burger made with Angus beef.

The burger came with a small coleslaw and the portion of the meal was surprisingly small. It was however wrapped and presented nicely distinguishing it from your typical burgers.  

So is it a ramen or is it a burger? To me it more closely resembles a stir-fried beef noodle that you could order from a Chinese restaurant and tasted nothing like your typical ramen or burger. Aside from being served with a fork and a knife, I believe the culprit is in the condiments. There were parsley, green onion and the sauce tasted like a cross between teriyaki and soy sauce which are typical ingredients used in Chinese and Japanese food. Without the sauce, the ramen 'bun' was tasteless, however the texture was just right- not too stiff, not too soggy. The patty was nothing special and tasted like your average burger. It was nonetheless a unique experience as I still don't know how to categorize this hybrid meal. I wouldn't say I loved it but it is definitely worth a try for the novelty and creativity.     

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French Fusion at Inspire Restaurant

Inspire Restaurant

Address: 144 Main Street Markham North, Unit #1

Access: Along YRT bus route, free parking avilable

Price: Average $25 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 4.5/5

Nestled among many small shops and restaurants on Markham Main Street, Inspire is a French / Asian Fusion restaurant that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

  

Weekend Brunch Menu. We must come back for brunch sometime! 

Simple menu with a good amount of selection yet isn't overwhelming. Unfortunately we didn't get to try out the dessert because we were so full after the main course!

Duck Confit Frites

Between Pulled Pork and Duck Confit, it was a tough choice but we decided to go with the Duck Confit, which was more unique.  Topped with sweet Shallot Aioli and ground pepper together with freshly fried Yukon Gold Fries, this appetizer was very appetizing and surprisingly filling. Once the dish reached our table, we were captivated by the rich deep fried smell. The fried garlic slices gave it a very strong flavour. However it did get a little dry midway through eating.  

Udon Carbonara

Spicy Italian Sausage, braised beef, honey mushroom in creamy reduction topped with quail egg. Fusion of Japanese and French cuisine. We found this dish very unique as the use of udon instead of pasta made it a much lighter main course. The cream sauce was very rich with braised beef, sausage and bacon bits. The freshness of the alfalfa and mushroom certainly balanced out the creaminess of the sauce. Where did our quail egg go though ?

 

Chicken & Waffle

Chicken & Waffle is a signature dish here at Inspire. We all have to agree that it looks amazing. This dish is basically deep fried breaded chicken pieces with home made waffles topped with fresh blueberries and syrup. It is slightly spicy with chilli pepper and ground pepper. The ginger syrup goes extremely well together with the waffle. the waffle was so very soft, rich and buttery and is the highlight of this dish. Only complaint is that the chicken breast was slightly stiff. Sweet, salty, sour and spicy all in one dish!

This small restaurant has a very modern looking interior with unique decor everywhere. However, it was VERY stuffy and did not have enough ventilation. Perhaps they didn't turn on the AC? We were seated at the window seat and half way through eating, and we were sweating.

We had a great experience at Inspire and enjoyed the food very much! We would definitely return again to try out other unique fusion items on the menu. We definitely recommend this location for everyone who likes to try new quality fusion food items. Since it is such a small restaurant, you really should make reservations as they are very popular and constantly packed during dinner hours. Have fun and enjoy !

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Summer Carnival at Times Square Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill Times Square Summer Carnival

Location: Times Square (Hwy 7 & Leslie)

Access: Along YRT & VIVA bus routes, parking available

Price: Free Admission

Rating: 3.5/5

Stinky Tofu Hong Kong Style

The very first booth that we stopped by because we are in need of some stinkiness XD These stinky tofu is made the moment you put in an order, such that all customers will have the best of the stinky tofu.  Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

After three minutes, the deep fried stinky tofu is ready!

We added lots of sweet sauce, spicy sauce, pickled cabbage and it's ready to eat! When you're actually eating it, it doesn't smell stinky at all. I think the essence of HK style stinky tofu is in the sweet sauce so make sure you add lots of it!

A variety of seafood available at HK Seafood Station. We wanted to try everything!

Here it is! We got Grilled Whelk in Shell and Stuffed Clams.  The Grilled Whelk in Shell is very good and perfectly seasoned.  They did not taste fishy at all.  On the other hand, we felt like we were scammed by the Stuffed Clams, as there was very little clams in it.  The clams did not taste bad, but it's not worth the money for it.

Taro Tornado Fries! We were told to add EVERYTHING to the crispy goodness and so we did.  powdered ranch, ketchup, ceasar, garlic powder, chilli powder etc. it was super fresh and crunchy not to mention fun to eat!

Here's  a video of the making of tornado fries!

Notice how it's night time already. Although this was a relatively small event, we managed to spend a few hours there and ate all the food items we missed at Night It Up as it was less crowded and not as stuffy. And so here's a close for this year's night market events, until next year!

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Cho Sun Ok - Blogsters' Go To Korean Restaurant

Location: 7353 Yonge Street (Yonge St. & Clark Ave.)
Access: Along YRT and VIVA bus route, parking available
Price: Avg. $10 - $15
Blogsters' Rating: 5/5

Blogsters finally had a chance to visit Cho Sun Ok!  They served home-style quality comfort foods, which make customers coming back for more.  Every time we passed by this place, it is always packed and you can see the line outside the restaurant, but it is definitely worth the wait.  Cho Sun Ok has their very own philosophy QRST: Quality, Reliability, Service, and Taste - making sure every customer is satisfied with their meal.

Unlike any other Korean restaurant where they serve you numerous of side dishes, Cho Sun Ok will only serve you side dishes that compliment to what you ordered for your main course.  And that night we have kimchi and pickled radishes as our sides.  =)  Their kimchi is very tasteful and well fermented.  It's not like any other that we have tried, it is very well seasoned, a little too spicy for us but the flavour just makes you keep wanting to have more.   

Cho Sun Ok is very famous for their naengmyun (arrowroot noddles with icy broth), especially in the summer.  Even though Toronto's weather is not that hot right now, we still decided to give it a try.  Without a doubt, it is the best naengmyun we had so far. AWESOME!  The noodles were cooked perfectly, chewy yet not too tough or too mushy.  I guess you will call it AL DENTE, as if it is a pasta.

We also ordered steamed dumplings with the naengmyun.  The pork and veggie inside are well seasoned,  However, the wrap is a little bit too dry.

Don Katsu is another famous dish that they have.  The pork chops are slightly on the thin side but they are very crispy, and there were just enough sauce to give you the flavour.  Of course we weren't able to finish two huge pieces of pork chops, and ended up taking it home.

We had a great time at Cho Sun Ok, and plan to go back as often as we could.  The only down side to have dinner here is we would have to have an early dinner or late dinner, as this place is always packed with customers.

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