Home Cooking x Farewell Dinner

Before heading back to the States for my junior year (yes, the infamous junior year), my family made a dinner filled with 3 of my favorite dishes at home. Up till this post, you may pretty much notice that all my family does is eat. 

Roast Goose

We ordered this dish from Yung Kee Restaurant. Believe me, this is the best goose I had eaten/will eat in my lifetime! 

Scleropages Formosus Fish

Special feature: its incredibly and deliciously smooth and chewy skin (of course, you have to take off its scales first). 

Sweet & Sour Pork

One of the best dishes cooked by our maid!

Baby Clams

From Left to Right: White Chocolate with Raspberry, Pistachio Banana & Vanilla, Pear

(Partly because of my never-ending sweet tooth and temptation of trying out new cake shops) For dessert, we had cakes from Petite Amanda (the owner Amanda Strand is actually a model). I tried all three of them, and my pick was the White Chocolate with Raspberry Cake. The red sprinkles on top is white chocolate and has a special texture that I had not imagine, which goes perfectly with the white chocolate mouse and raspberry sauce evolved inside (and I just love the color of the cake). 

Yung Kee Restaurant:

32 Wellington Street,

Central, Hong Kong

(852)2522-1624 

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Petite Amanda:

Shop 2096,

IFC,

8 Finance St, 

Central, Hong Kong

(852)2234-7522

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Summer Tour of The Boot

Every summer, my family travels; most of the time we enjoy swimming and eating on tropical islands. This summer, we ventured to Italy, the beautiful and laid-back country in South-Central Europe. And some people doubt this but yes, we did have gelato every single day.

Our first stop was Rome; here we mostly visited historical monuments and sweat a lot (NEVER cut your hair to a length that you cannot tie it in the summer because you WILL die). 

Piazza Spagna

Colosseum

Giovanni DeSimone

A modern artist who died a decade ago. My family loves his potteries and have a few of his collections at home. The figures he drew have cartoonish features and geometrical shapes that remind me of Picasso's cubism.

Second Stop: Florence, the medieval town; a lot of churches, duomos...

River along the leather street; I was thrilled to go home with a leather cross-body bag!

Beef Tartare- my new love!

Fun Fact: Italy has more than 300 kinds of pasta!

The famous Florentine steak: perfecto-ly cooked!

Wish I had a dessert cart at home...

Stopping by Pisa

I had my most memorable dinner at Fiesole, the summit of Florence. The scenery was spectacular, let alone the amazing weather, music, and needless to say: food.

Third Stop: Venice, the City of Water. After arriving, we decided to take a train to Verona first as it was nearby (and forever I've been dreading to go there because of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). We visited the House of Juliet!

City of Love

Romeo's Costume

Juliet's Dress

Surreal Mixture of Fantasy & Reality

Murano: Glass Factory

Two pieces of artworks my parents decided to buy:

Murano Glass Pandora

When there is water, there is also fresh seafood.

Last stop: Milan, the fashion city. Seriously, there is nothing to do except to shop and eat. 

Louis Vuitton Octopus everywhere...

Best gelato in the world!

FYI, the bottom of the cone is filled with dark melted chocolate.

MY ITALIAN DREAM IS FULFILLED!