Harlan's Cake Shop @ The ONE

Harlan's Cake Shop is located on the 4th floor of shopping mall The ONE in Tsim Sha Tsui. Its counter is filled with beautiful cakes delighting all passers-by.

We had the Rose Champagne and the Dark Grey Chocolate Cake, two beauties that were unfortunately not as tasty as they were pretty.

For drinks, J chose the regular Coffee {HK$28}, which he said to be one of the worst coffees he's ever had, and I went for the Caffe Orientale, which was good but not worth the price {HK$36}.

The sit-in area is limited to the three tables you can see on the picture above, which I didn't fancy that much because of their lack of privacy and the fact that I don't like low tables that make you bend over every time you want to reach your food. 

Visited on: January 20, 2013

Overall Quality: 2*

Price: Cakes prices start at HK$35

Value for Money: 2*

Would I recommend it? Don't bother, these cakes are only good to take nice pictures.

Ice & Wang's Perfect Vintage Wedding

Last Friday Ice and Wang got married in an incredible wedding filled with beauty and elegance. It was the most special wedding I've ever been to, and that's a good thing! You could tell everything was planned to the detail, you could sense all the work and effort they put on their big day so that everything came out perfect, as it certainly did. Ice is a fashion designer and her dresses were stunning, too bad I only got to take a pic of the first dress again, as with Daisy's wedding! Wang is a graphic designer, and he designed their logo, invitations, albums and videos. I was really impressed by how talented this couple is in the design field! Everything was filled with beauty and elegance, with the main theme of the wedding being vintage...

Paparazzi snap of the bride!

Ice and Wang's logo, on the stage and on the album cover

Ice & Wang's wedding invitation designed by Wang

Personalized Candy! Ice Wang 25 1

J and I had a great time, as I guess all the 500 guests did (yes, it was a big wedding, too!). A very touching and inspiring reception that we shall always remember.

The wedding banquet was held at ClubONE (Kowloon Peak).

The Press Room: my new favorite restaurant in Hong Kong

Thursday night J treated me dinner at The Press Room to celebrate Xenia's day {Xenia is my first name while Olivia is my middle name, and even though some people celebrate both their first and middle name's day, I only ever celebrate Xenia's one}

I heard many good things about The Press Room and I was dying to try it out. I can tell you I wasn't disappointed, more on the contrary, I was unexpectedly surprised by everything at The Press Room, to the point that it is now my favorite restaurant in Hong Kong!

We started our dinner with some complimentary bread and butter. Then we ordered a starter, a risotto, a main dish and a dessert to share as follows.

* Foie Gras Ballotine with truffled French beans

* Wild Mushroom and Morel Risotto with Shaved Winter Truffles

* Duck Confit with wilted spinach and wild berry jus

* Crêpes with Chocolate sauce, hazelnuts and vanilla ice cream

The food was exquisite {Michelin star calling!}, I specially enjoyed the Foie Gras, and the service was polite and professional too. The atmosphere is very special, the whole restaurant is very dark, iluminated only by dim lights located on the corners. It was an amazing dinner experience that I would be glad to repeat soon. In my humble opinion, this is the best restaurant in Hong Kong !

Visited on: January 24, 2013

Overall Quality: 5*

Price: $650 for the dishes above

Value for Money: 5*

Would I recommend it? Hands down! You can't miss on this one!

The Press Room
108 Hollywood Rd, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Wedding Wednesday: Save the Date for our wedding

I'm really excited to finally get to show you the amazing photoshoot for our Save The Date!

Please save the date for our wedding, which will be held in Barcelona on Sunday, October 6, 2013.

This date is very meaningful to us, since it's the day we started our relationship back in 2010. Being able to use the same date for our wedding is a dream come true, and I believe it's definitely auspicious as well! Both J and I love this photoshoot so much, and I hope you will, too! The pics were taken by the talented photographer and friend Fung Chan from Fung Chan Foto. Thank you Fung for this incredible album! We will also be having a wedding reception in Hong Kong for all our family and friends from the city on the 29th of December. The venue is already booked, and I will be introducing it to you very soon!

 

 

The first pictures were taken at St Andrew's Church, and the last ones at the Kowloon West Waterfront Promenade. Please save the date! :)

Daisy's Wedding

Last Saturday my colleague and best friend in the office, Daisy, got married. I had been so looking forward to this day, and I have to say everything went perfect! As it is customary in Chinese weddings, the bride changed dress 4 times, too bad I only got to take pictures of the first! I was so happy for her, she is one of the nicest persons I've ever met. Sometimes I wish I could be a bit more like her. Or that everyone could be a bit more like her for that matter! The world would surely be a better place ^^

Tracy wearing my necklace :) 

Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Bands

I'm super excited to tell you that last weekend J and I chose our wedding bands!! We decided on the Classic Wedding Bands from Cartier, timeless pieces of beauty and elegance. 

Something J and I had very clear was that our rings had to be exactly the same, so that by looking at his hand and my hand, it was clear that we belong to each other. It's common nowadays for brides to choose a ring full of diamonds for their wedding band, but that way the rings of wife and husband can never be the same, so that was not an option for us. I allowed myself a little treat and got the classic band with a small diamond on it :) We chose the ones in Pink Gold, a perfect color that we both love on our hands. The yellow gold was too much, and the platinum didn't really give us the "wedding feeling". So these are our beauties, mine in 2.5mm and J's in 3.5mm :) I'm so looking forward for us to wear them...

Maccha House - A Green Tea Feast Made in Heaven!

This time we nailed it. We found the green tea paradise on earth {in Hong Kong, precisely}. Anything "Green Tea" you can imagine, it's available at Maccha House, and it's to die for. If heaven does exist, I hope it comes with a Maccha House :D

Maccha House is a Japanese restaurant specializing in Matcha products {green tea}, and using premium ingredients flown in from Japan, and a Japanese chef from Japan too, who you get to see thanks to the open kitchen!

We arrived to Maccha House at lunch time, so we had some regular lunch first, which is also available at the restaurant. I had Teriyaki Chicken & Soft-boiled Egg Rice Bowl (HK$59), and J had the Spicy Tomato Ramen (HK$69). My dish was delicious, and apparently so was J's, but he warned me against trying it, because it was way too spicy!

For drinks we had a Matcha Latte (Hot) and a Maccha Latte with Azuki Beans & Rice-flour Dumplings (Iced). They were the best matcha drinks I've ever had. Since I particularly enjoy sweet drinks, for my taste the Matcha Latte could have been sweeter, which is why I'd recommend getting the Matcha Latte with Cream instead. The Maccha Latte with Azuki Beans & Rice-flour Dumplings was delicious, both J and I agreed it was the best green tea drink ever ever ever!

After lunch we ordered the dessert... We were a bit indecisive on what to order with so many choices and those tempting parfaits, but we finally went for the Maccha Azuki Bean Dorayaki (HK$44), and boy did I enjoy it! The Dorayaki was soft and warm, and it was a beautiful contrast to the cold Matcha paste. For it to be perfect, I'd rather have the whipped cream removed and have a bit more Matcha instead {who? me? addicted to Matcha?!}

One curiosity to note is I learned something interesting from visiting Maccha House. I was very surprised to see Matcha spelled as Maccha, so I did some research of my own... It turns out Japanese people spell it as Maccha, and may not even be aware of the English world using the Matcha spelling for this Japanese treat...

Visited on: January 13, 2012

Overall Quality: 5*

Price: HK$264 for two main dishes, two drinks and a dessert

Value for Money: 5*

Would I recommend it? Most certainly! I can't wait to go back!:

There's currently two branches of Maccha House in Hong Kong:

*Tuen Mun Branch: Shop 21, UG/F, Phase 2, Tuen Mun Town Plaza, 3 Tuen Lung Street, Tuen Mun
*Diamond Hill Branch: Shop 325, 3/F, Plaza Hollywood, 3 Lung Poon Street, Diamond Hill