Scrumptious Scones at Smith & Hsu, Taipei

While I love a good scone and tea in the afternoon, this classic combination works for brunch as well. With that in mind, we arrived at Smith & Hsu (Hengyang store) at around 10.30am, only to find that we were the only ones there. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we ended up spending a couple of hours there, savouring every moment. In fact, it felt a little like a private dining event!

The first thing the staff did was bring over a tray of tea leaves along with the menu. The variety of teas, from green to black to floral, was simply astounding! Picking our tea was definitely quite the experience, and for a while it seemed like we would never be able to narrow it down to just two! Finally, we managed to settle on No. 99 “Black Tea Golden Rush” and No. 102 “Falling in Love Again”. Pretty names to go with pretty scents!

Some of the most eye-catching tea leaves I’ve ever seen. This one was No. 100 “Philosopher’s Tea”.

Exploring the store while waiting for our food.

Gift sets.

The salted caramel coffee cake looked so good!

Just about everything was for sale.

As usual, the camera “eats” first.

For the scones, there were four flavours available: original, cranberry, rose petal, and Ore0. We picked original and rose petal. I had heard great reviews about Smith & Hsu, and these were indeed some of the best scones I had ever tasted. They were warm and fluffy on the inside while slightly crusty on the outside, which is how scones should be.

The scones were served with clotted cream and our choice of jam. The options were raspberry, strawberry, plum, and lemon curd. We went with classic strawberry jam. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough to go around. We finished every last drop of the cream and jam, and maybe 20% or even just 10% more would’ve been prefect.

Unfortunately, the tiramisu was a little dry and bland. I definitely wished that I’d picked the salted caramel coffee cake instead.

Like I mentioned earlier, just about everything was for sale. If you liked the tea, the teapot, or even the jars that the samples came in, you could purchase them at the store. I adored the tea “Falling in Love Again” so much that I bought two boxes of them! (The 12% discount didn’t hurt either.)

Now on to do more shopping before our next meal!

Smith & Hsu
No. 35, Hengyang Road, Taipei
(Metro Ximen Station Exit 4 or NTU Hospital Station Exit 1)
Tel: +886 2 2370 0785

Royal Afternoon Tea at Walt’s Cafe, Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

After spending a glorious day at Disneyland, we headed over to Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel for an afternoon tea at Walt’s Cafe, and to take a much needed rest!

While we were on the Disney shuttle bus, I caught glimpses of the newest hotel, Disney Explorers Lodge, which is due to open at the end of the month. I’m so excited about it, and you can bet that I’ve got every intention of staying there in the near future!

Situated in the stunning Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel (I believe it’s modeled after Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa), Walt’s Cafe is similarly themed with elements of Victorian architecture, paying tribute to Walt Disney himself. The menu comprises mainly of Western dishes, with a few items from various Asian cuisines to satisfy a range of palates.

As mentioned earlier, we were there for afternoon tea, and since there were four of us, we decided to try two different sets – the regular Leisure Tea Time set, and the limited edition Beauty and the Beast themed Disney Royal Afternoon Tea (available till 28th May 2017).

Pictured here is the Royal Afternoon Tea, presented by Pandora, in case the yellow pastries haven’t already given it away. The set comprised of Boston lobster and mango salad on toast, smoked salmon and ricotta cheese sandwiches with caviar, cherry tomato and beetroot mousse on wild pork rillettes, lemon cookies, rose-flavoured strawberry mousse, and mango passion fruit mousse cakes.

As usual, I preferred the savoury elements to the sweet ones. You can’t really go wrong with classic flavour combinations. I’ve yet to meet a mini toast/sandwich that I didn’t like. The mousse + rillette combo was the most interesting, taste-wise. The little brownie base underneath the strawberry mousse was a pleasant surprise, and gave me the chocolate kick that I craved. To me, an afternoon tea isn’t really complete without chocolate.

The Royal Afternoon Tea set also included scones (with clotted cream and jam) and what I can only describe as a Chinese-style soup, which contained Alaskan crab meat, steamed egg white, maitake mushroom, and crab roe. The soup was the only hot dish out of the lot, and we enjoyed it the most. I could definitely finish a much larger bowl of the stuff!

The scone, on the other hand, was a bit too dry, and I didn’t like the taste of the accompanying clotted cream. Loved the Mickey shape though.

The Leisure Tea Time set was served in the classic three-tier stand. Can you spot all the not-so-hidden Mickeys?

More scones.

There was a different assortment of mini pastries, including a vegetable quiche tart with braised crab meat cream sauce, caviar and sour cream on dark rye pancakes, mini sausage rolls with onion marmalade and sun-dried tomatoes, poached quail egg and sauteed spinach on a filo tart with cheese sauce, a ham and cheese sandwich with mango, and a smoked salmon and cream cheese roulade with black truffle.

I do apologise for the poorly taken photo, which makes it hard to make out the various items mentioned above. In any case, they weren’t as memorable, and nothing really stood out.

Les desserts! There were macarons, a lemon tart, Stitch cookies, a Swiss roll, a crunchy chocolate cake and a blueberry cheesecake. I wanted to fall in love with the Stitch cookies, given that Stitch is one of my all-time favourite characters, but the cookies were rock hard. 😦 The others fared better, though I didn’t taste the cheesecake, as I generally dislike cheesecake and didn’t bother trying.

I didn’t get to taste the lemon cookie as well, as we were all stuffed towards the end. I kept it in my bad (wrapped in tissue of course) with the intention of photographing it while at the park. Naturally it was later forgotten, and when I got home it was all crushed.

The drink on the far right was honeydew green tea, which came with the regular tea set. The other two drinks were called Rosy and Fancy Dress, though I don’t know which is which! These were part of the Royal Afternoon Tea set.

This is what one of the drinks looked like after pouring in the pink soda. Despite the champagne and martini glasses, these drinks don’t actually contain any alcohol.

Do note that the Royal Afternoon Tea has to be booked at least 48 hours in advance, and it’s advisable to make a reservation at Walt’s Cafe over the phone. The Royal Afternoon Tea is HK$558 for 2 persons, HK$488 for 2 persons if you’ve got the Magic Access Membership. The Leisure Tea Time is HK$378 for 2 persons, and Magic Access Members get a 25% discount.

Cheers, till next time!

Walt’s Cafe
Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Lantau Island
Tel: 3510 6000

Restaurant Week Review: SHACK Tapazaka

Japanese tapas, anyone? Personally, I love the concept of tapas-style dining. Sharing dishes means you get to sample from a greater variety, which is always a win.

In any case, Restaurant Week usually means a three course meal, so you don’t have that option. Nevertheless it’s a great way to try out a new place, as I’ve mentioned before.

Anyway, let’s just dive in, shall we?

STARTER

Left: Soft shell crab salad
Right: Chicken karaage

It’s no secret that I adore deep-fried food, and both dishes definitely delivered. The crab was sitting atop the usual suspects: mixed greens and sesame dressing, no surprises there. The chicken karaage was seasoned with some spices that made it slightly more interesting than the average fried chicken.

So far, so good!

MAIN COURSE

Beef short ribs with rice

The beef was juicy and tender – lots of umami goodness!

Iberico pork with rice

It was a bit too charred for my liking, plus it was drowning in terikayi sauce. It wasn’t terrible, just meh.

DESSERT

Left: Matcha ice-cream with red bean mochi
Right: Strawberry 3 ways

Both desserts tasted alright, but they weren’t particularly great or exciting.

VERDICT

The portion sizes were SMALL, for all the courses. There were only three pieces of beef and slightly more than half a bowl of rice for the main course. The strawberry dessert comprised of one frozen strawberry, half a fresh strawberry, and maybe one teaspoonful of puree. I don’t usually have a heavy lunch, so it was okay for me, but I imagine that many people will not find it acceptable.

Also, when we first arrived, we were told that they never received our reservation. After the guy refreshed his app, he then saw it and grudgingly seated us at the bar. I didn’t mind sitting there, but his attitude left much to be desired. It wasn’t our fault that there’s a technical error, and he could’ve been more professional about it. We were later served by another person who was somewhat friendlier. There weren’t that many diners while we were there, so it didn’t seem like they were understaffed and overworked or anything like that.

Just like with Marbling, I left the place with mixed feelings. I really liked the decor and overall vibe of the place. There were some hits and misses for the food, but the service was disappointing.

SHACK Tapazaka
G/F, 1-1A Yiu Wa Street, Causeway Bay
銅鑼灣耀華街1-1A號地下
Tel: 2555 6058