Jean-Paul Hevin - All Day Afternoon Tea for Dark Chocolate Lovers

I love dark chocolate (who doesn't?), and if you loved chocolate so much and you want to have a very chocolatey afternoon tea as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then this is perfect for you :)

This is one of Jean-Paul Hevin's all-day afternoon tea sets. It has two chocolate cakes, two macarons, two chocolate bonbons and two chocolate coated almonds.

The chocolate cake in focus is voted the best chocolate cake in Japan!

I must admit that I've never loved macarons... to me, they are just way too sweet, until I tried Jean-Paul Hevin's macaron last year.

I love how they are not too sweet, and I love the dark chocolate ganache here.


One of the chocolate coated almond had a hint of Earl Grey Tea, which I love.

If you're looking for a nice quiet place to sit down with friends after (well, or before) a crazy shopping around Central, or a place to have dessert after an early bird dinner (just like me - a senior citizen who likes to dine latest by 6:30pm..), before clubbing, or if you just need a good dose of dark chocolate... (you don't need a reason to want chocolate, right?), then check the place out!

Christmas is around the corner, and I know what to get MIL (who's a dark chocolate maniac) for Christmas.

Oh hello, chocolate! Come to mama!

I want to keep the "rustic" wooden box.


And this will surely cure all kinds of Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday blues...

More photos on my Facebook page.

Jean-Paul Hevin
Address etc here.
Afternoon tea set: HK$168.
Chocolate cake: HK$58/slice
Macarons: HK$25/piece

Thank you Jean-Paul Hevin for the invitation! You've brightened up my gloomy weekday night.

Hairy Crab Feast

'Tis the season to get our hands dirty and wrestle with these hairy ones.


Steaming the crab.

Enjoy while still hot.


In SC's family, the boys only eat the roe, and they leave all the crab legs and claws to my MIL.


Here's how SC eats the crab (well... crab roe).

Claws and legs removed... transferred to MIL's plate.


Open the flap (this one's a boy - as can be seen from the pointy flap).


Open the body, discard the lung (those soft pointy bits).


Pour some vinegar with minced ginger onto the roe.


Ready?


Slurp.

Have you had any hairy crab goodness this season?

Super Easy Mini French Toasts

The first French Toasts I tried was the Hong Kong style golden brown deep fried one. I do love it, but I didn't realize that I'd love these non-deep-fried ones, and they are so simple to make too!

Recipe
(yields 6 mini french toasts. they are very rich and filling tho)
- 1 egg, beaten
- half cup of milk
- 1cm thick slice of butter, cut from 1 stick - melted, and 1 tsp for frying (mixed with cooking oil)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 small mixed grain bun, cut into 1 cm thick pieces

Mix beaten egg, milk, melted butter and sugar, add slices of bread, make sure the bread pieces are fully soaked in the mixture, let them "marinate" for at least 15 minutes. Heat up frying pan with cooking oil and butter, pan fry pieces of bread until golden brown.

You should get very fluffy, creamy, eggy inner part and crispy outer part. Very yum! And as if these aren't sinful enough...I ate mine with peanut butter, cream cheese, and Nutella. Perfect for breakfast or tea time.

Super Easy Choy Sum Shrimp Stir Fry

Another dish my MIL always makes, super sweet veggie, fresh shrimps. Beautiful. Finally I saw her making it recently. It's amazing how she can make the dish taste so good without even using aromatics like ginger or garlic. Very minimal, and the ingredients shine through.

Recipe
- 1 cup shrimps, deshelled, deveined, butterflied
- a pack of choy sum
- vegetable oil, salt, and pepper

Season shrimps with salt and pepper. Heat up frying pan with some vegetable oil, stir fry shrimps until half done and set aside. Stir fry choy sum until they reach the level of tenderness that you like (don't let them turn yellow), season with a bit of salt, add shrimps, stir fry until shrimps are just cooked, and serve.

Perfect for a light meal!

Crabtastic Dinner at Man Wah, Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong

Hello, yummy crab roe, come to mama!
Hairy crab season is here, and this is a preview to Mandarin Oriental's Man Wah hairy crab menu.

Ohhh... where do we start?

Smoked black cod. Tasty and succulent. I like.


Crispy "eel" - actually they are mushrooms. I always love anything crispy.


Drunken crab. Actually, it's more like drunken me. My face was red, I turned giggly and loudly obnoxious after eating this. Yep, it is that easy to get me drunk. Oppps.

The star of the show.

"Dismantling" a hairy crab beautifully in less than 3 minutes. Oh man, may I take her home?


YEAH BABY! Check out the crab roe. Slurpppp. I had to remind myself that I was not alone and... must... not... grab... all... the... roeeee. Argh!

Now, my top favorite dish of the night.

Crab tart. Oh my! I loveeeeeeeeeeeee!


Crab meat and crab roe in crispy shell, served piping hot. Abso-bloody-lutely delicious! I almost wanted to steal my neighbor's when he stepped outside. Too bad he came back too quickly.


Braised Shanghaiese cabbage with crab meat. Seriously scrumptious! Love love love it!


Stir fried hairy crabs with rice cake & salted fish.
Normally, I am not a big fan of sticky rice cakes.... and would avoid it, except for this one! They are wonderfully chewy and the super tasty sauce clings to them. So yummy, I even had seconds!


Crab broth with tomatoes, wood fungus and baby greens. Adore the broth, and was also in love with the fish tofu cake.


Premier crab roe with steamed rice. Rich roe and fragrant rice. Love it!

Pleasantly full, now it's time for something sweet!
And breakfast was served.

Huh? Oh yes, this dessert's inspired by Shanghaiese breakfast. How adorable!
Soy milk ice cream with crispy Chinese fritter and fried sticky rice cake. I always love a combination of sweet and savory. So, this is perfect! Satiny smooth and light soy milk ice cream with crispy savory fritters. Amazing!

Thank you so much for the invitation, Man Wah!

Wanna try?
Call Man Wah.
Hairy crab menu starting from HK$558/person for lunch, or HK$988/person for dinner +10%

Wanna read what other bloggers think of the dinner?
Hong Kong Fashion Geek
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