My Very First Blog

I know Chinese New Year is over, but that does not mean I can't blog about it right?

On the 15th day of Chinese New Year, I went to a potluck party at my friend's house. Maybe I should be at the river collecting oranges, but I think going to a potluck party is way more fun! Haha!

I could not decide what to bring to the potluck but in the end, I bought a nice cake (which I shared with a friend) from the Australian Confectionery in SEA Park.

We started with the yee sang.



After adding the crackers on top, it was 'lou sang' time! I always enjoy mixing all the ingredients and tossing them high while saying auspicious words.



This is the yee sang all ready to be eaten in my bowl. Yummy!



After the yee sang, I went straight for the mushroom pasta.



It was delicious and I had wanted to go for another round but there were more food awaiting me!



The highlight of the evening of course was the steamboat. My friend, the host, had carefully prepared all the raw ingredients on skewers ready to be placed in the hot boiling pot!



Other ingredients for the steamboat included these prawn dumplings...



Sausages....



Fresh prawns ....



And mushrooms.



The skewers were an ingenious way to enjoy the steamboat. It was hygienic - No dipping chopsticks into a pot of boiling soup and tasting everyone's saliva!

My bowl of cooked meat, dumplings and prawns. Yum!!



A big plate of cooked meat and seafood taken out of the boiling pot was put on the table for all to eat!



Honestly, even though there were about 15 of us, we could not finish all the cooked meat! Some of us had to bring them back to be eaten for lunch the next day.

Besides the steamboat, there was also raw chicken ready to be cooked or microwaved.



Minutes later, the chicken were ready but I was late in taking the photo. Look! Some already went missing! Obviously, we had many hungry people at the potluck party that evening.



Fresh salad



Fruits galore!



I think I ate loads of strawberries, persimmons, pomelo, apples and cashew apples! There was a big bowl of grapes too but I did not take any photos.

Lastly for dessert, I took out the cake which my friend and I bought. I think it's chocolate praline cake though I could not really remember the exact name.



The walnuts on top of the cake made it super delicious!! It was finished up in no time.



I had a great time at the potluck party. Besides the food, chatting with a group of friends were really, really enjoyable. My friend the host had assured us that she would organize another pot luck party again next year. And I am invited. Yay!!

On the first day of 2013, I went to Suki-ya at Paradigm Mall for a steamboat buffet lunch reunion with my blogger friends.

I could not make any reservations as I was told it was fully booked so I decided to try my luck and go there as early as possible at around 11am.



I was the indeed the first customer on that day as the restaurant was empty. Quickly, I asked for a table for five people and was shown to this table.



Suki-ya is an ideal place to eat all you can sukiyaki and shabu-shabu. However, you can also order  from its a-la carte menu, which include food like salmon sashimi, tempura, unagi, shisamo, gyoza and edamame to name a few.



In the middle of the restaurant stands the Healthy Bar where you can take all the vegetables that you like!



They have quite a wide selection of greens. I also saw tofu, pumpkin, mushrooms, sausages and some vegetables that I did not know the names to!



Three different types of sauces to choose from. Besides these, each person is also given two special sauces which I shall mention later.



They also offer fresh pasteurized eggs to be used as dipping sauce for the cooked meat.



On the table in front of every seat is a piece of paper with excellent information on how to enjoy your sukiyaki to the fullest. If you are new to this kind of dining, this can prove to be a very handy guide.



Three different types of meat to choose from - beef, lamb or chicken. You can choose all three of course and they can be replenished unlimited number of times. It's a eat-all-you-can buffet after all!



For pork lovers, sorry no pork here. I guess it's a halal restaurant?

The meat were very thinly sliced. Look! We were given 5 trays of each meat stacked on top of each other - and we could not finish them all!



There are four different soup bases to choose from : shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, miso soup and kimuchi. Each hot pot has two sections so you can have two different soups. My favourite is sukiyaki! So I chose sukiyaki and miso soup.



Each person is given 2 special sauces - I do not know the names but I love them especially the spicy one on the left! Dipping your cooked meat into this spicy sauce will make you want more!



Eating here is never boring as you can choose to dip your meat in the many variety of sauces and also in the raw eggs.



Priced at only RM29.80 for buffet lunch and RM39.80 for buffet dinner (children below 12 eat at half price),  I thought dining here is well worth your money!

The only downside is your dining is limited to 2 hours - they charge RM3.50 for every 15 minutes thereafter. Despite this rule, I had eaten more than 2 hours here before and they did not charge me for the extra time so I am not sure how strictly they follow it.



Green tea is free flow and is included in the buffet price. Other drinks are chargeable.

Lastly, do not forget your desserts! Suki-ya offers ice cream in three flavors - green tea, chocolate and roasted rice. You can eat the ice cream in a cone or in a cup, with toppings too.

My cup of plain roasted rice ice cream. Yum!



We had a great time at Suki-ya that day. For more information on Suki-ya, check out the Suki-ya website.

Guess who were the blogger friends I had lunch with that day?

They were Caroline and Eric.



Saucer (does he even blog anymore?!) and Witch - both of them came back from Australia for a holiday! Great to see them again!



Grey (ex-blogger) did not manage to join us but we met him briefly later inside Paradigm Mall. The photo below shows Grey posing in the middle of Witch and Caroline.



Naturally, I am not in any of the photos. Haha!

Now who wants to go shabu-shabu with me at Suki-ya? : )

After going on a wild goose chase in Lan Kwai Fong, my friend and I returned to Mongkok.



If you have been following my Hong Kong trip posts but are still confused as to how I arrived at this point, let me apologize as I did not blog in chronological order. LOL! Anyway, to help you out, here are the posts so far - in proper order.

Day 1
My First Day In Hong Kong
I Bought Something Naughty At The Ladies Market In Mongkok!
Yummy Mango Desserts At Hui Lau Shan Hong Kong

Day 2
My Breakfast At Australia Dairy Company
Pandas Galore At Ocean Park Hong Kong! (Part 1)
Pandas Galore At Ocean Park Hong Kong! (Part 2)
The Waterfront At Ocean Park Hong Kong
The Cable Car Ride At Ocean Park Hong Kong
The Summit At Ocean Park Hong Kong
The Symbio Water Screen Show At Ocean Park Hong Kong
Searching For Roast Goose Rice At Lan Kwai Fong

So after failing to find the roast goose rice at Lan Kwai Fong, my friend and I decided to go for a steamboat meal at Dao Xiang Restaurant. We eventually got to eat roast goose rice during the trip, but that would be a post for another day.



Located along Nathan Road, Dao Xiang serves steamboat meals as well as dim sum. We actually went to this restaurant again the next morning for dim sum.

Choosing what you wish to eat is difficult for someone who does not know how to read Mandarin words. Luckily, my friend knows Mandarin and so we were able to select what we wanted from the menu.



Pictures do help a lot! LOL!



This is our hot pot.



Some of the ingredients for our steamboat include fish and seafood....



Meat dumplings ....



I did not take photos of all the ingredients but I remember having pork meat, noodles and vegetables. Surprisingly, the portion was really large!! I was wondering if both of us could finish them all!

We looked at our next table where a couple was dining and were amused to see that they had ordered even more food than us! Good luck to them! Haha!!

The steamboat meal came with 8 different condiments.



My cooked meats and dumplings.



Our table - a little too big for just 2 people! But who cares? LOL!



My bowl of noodles with tomatoes and potatoes. I was so full by then I had to stop eating the potatoes.



Lots of green vegetables to balance the meat.



We spent about 2 hours eating here. At the end of it, both my friend and I were so full we could hardly move!



Guess what happened to the table next to us? The couple could not finish even half of what they actually ordered! I could still see raw ingredients left uncooked on the table! LOL!

Moral of the story? When dining in Dao Xiang (and probably elsewhere in Hong Kong), always order less than what you think you can eat. Because the portion are usually huge, which I like of course!