Nicholini's = overrated

Restaurant: Nicholini's
Type: Italian
Location: 88 Queensway Rd, In the Conrad Hotel, Pacific Place, Central, 2521 3838
Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 4.25/5
Service: 4.75/5
Expected damage: HKD 800-1000 pp, with appetizer, dessert and drink
Our Menu:
1) Buffalo Mozarella and Tomato salad/Grilled milk-fed veal chop/Apple Tart
2) Grilled sardine Pomelo salad with tartar sauce/Penne with Morel cream sauce

I was lucky enough to go to Nicholini's twice in one week; luckily, it was not on my tab. I had heard a lot about this place from friends and co-workers, and it had the reputation of "best italian in Hong Kong". It let down the first time, but the 2nd time made up for it (did not "more than make up for it").

The first time, the mozarel' and tomato salad was perfect (but I consider it an easy dish to make), but the veal chop was overcooked and came with about one bite of fettucini. The apple tart dessert was nicely presented, with the thin apple slices forming the tart's circular shape - filo pastry with nuts layered the bottom, and it of course came with a scoop of vanilla.

The second time, my grilled sardines salad was very good - the sardines were grilled just the right amount, although I was quite surprised because it looked completely different than the same salad which my coworker had the first time (that time, the sardines looked almost uncooked). The pomelo added some nice flavoring to the salad, and they had some interesting croutons which added the texture.

The cream-sauce penne was good - very heavy, to be expected, a bit salty for my tastes. Overall, it was delicious anyways. The morels, or maybe morels in general, didn't have much flavor.

Every meal comes with a huge sorbet after the starter to cleanse the mouth.

The portions are very stingy, so I left both nights with an unfull stomach - even the one where I had a dessert. My co-workers thought otherwise, but I'm pretty sure I could eat two entrees there.

We sat in the private room the second time, and it is notable that it looked like something out of MTV Cribs...perhaps something from Outkast's house. It is heavy on the velvet - the walls and the table are covered. It's pretty dim, with a few candles on the table. The velvet is actually too long off the table, and prevents you from even crossing your legs; this is quite uncomfortable. The temperature is quite freezing, but that's normal in Hong Kong.

Press Room

Restaurant: Press Room
Type: Western, with seafood and cheese focus
Location: 108 Hollywood Road Hong Kong, 2525-3454
Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 3.75/5
Expected damage: HKD 300 pp, with no drinks
Our Menu:
Soup: Blue crab bisque - a healthy serving, with a dollop of creme fraiche (I think). A tad bit on the salty side
Main: Fish & Chips - 4 Monkfish strips, with seasoned batter and thin-cut french fries. The batter was pretty good, not too thick, but it had a problem sticking to the fish. The total portion filled about 55% of my stomach.
Comments:

• The interior of the restaurant feels like a Wall Street kind of feel, but not as exclusive as some places. It's a single large hall with dark wood flooring and walls.
• They have a small area where they shuck oysters and prepare the other cold seafood, such as crabs. I noticed that their dungeoness crabs were taken out of vacuum-packed plastic wrapping. Not sure if that is good or bad, but it wasn't from a tank.
• The cheese plates looked good, with four pretty good servings of cheese. They also have a huge blackboard listing the wines and cheeses of the day/week.
• Service was fine for us, but looked like they had some issues to work out with other tables. For instance, they brought a cheese plate to a table sans crackers.

HK Fish and Geckos

There are two places in Hong Kong that fish hobbyists congregate.

• Kowloon side: Mongkok's Goldfish Street (金魚街)
  There are a few blocks worth of fish stores (saltwater and freshwater), where you'll find fish cheaper than you ever imagined (vs. US). The stores are usually packed with hobbyists.
• Hong Kong side: Tai Koo place's Hong Kong Aquarium Plaza
  This is an enclosed building, where you can shop in a quieter and cleaner environment than Mongkok. The prices are pretty much the same, perhaps a tad higher for equipment. The pictures you see below are from this plaza, not Mongkok.

So how cheap is cheap? Just look at the floating styrofoam price of HK$ 15 (US$ 1.92) for the Pearlscale or Auriga Butterfly. You'd pay about 25-35 in a fish store (online it's cheaper by a bit). You see full grown dog-face puffer fish for ~$3-4. As you can also see, they pack the fish in tight, and allow you to catch your fish yourself (so you can choose the one you want). Unfortunately equipment is oftentimes more than the US, for the same brands. However, if you feel like gambling, you can go with the China products.

Here you see how they see those sad Goldfish. Just like clothing on a rack, but they're fish in bags. They also sell 'em this way outdoors in Mongkok. On the bottom right you see the cheap freshwater guppies.

Because the fish are so cheap, I rushed my tank setup which probably resulted in several premature deaths. This is a Heniochus butterfly fish which was doing well in my tank for 2 weeks but then caught ick (I guess it was in its body, since there were no fish in the tank before) and died a nasty death. White dots lead to not eating for 2 days, and then he lost balance and died. His body at the TOD was splotched with red marks, which I'm not sure what disease that is.

I came back to my apt at 2AM one evening and went into the bathroom. I was startled by the sight of a swiftly moving gecko (or whatever it is) on my shower wall. It's apparently normal for this to happen in HK. Anyways, I caught it in a box and kept it overnight. I planned to release it into the park, but due to time constraints I ended up "releasing" him into the elevator. I know it sounds cruel, but I didn't spot a cadaver later that day, so he should be fine.

You won't find Texas Hold 'em in Macau

Location: Macau, China

Date: New Year's Eve

Tourist Rating: 2.5/5

Gambling Rating: 3/5

Would I go again: Maybe

Summary: I spent New Year's Eve in Macau, with the goal of passing the new year while feeding my gambling urges since I've been away from Vegas' proximity for so long now. The new Vegas of Asia didn't really live up to all the hype it's been getting. If you like second-hand smoke, go to Macau. I think I lost a year of my life there.

Tourism: I was only there for one night, so my main goal was to "tour" the casinos and get some authentic Portuguese (Macau's an ex-colony) food. I was able to do the former, but the latter proved very difficult since I found out the hard way that the cab drivers don't like taking tourists - especially if you No Speaky Chinesey (Cantonese only). I had made reservations at Littoral, a well-known but not overpriced Portuguese place ahead of time. However, since it took us over 30 minutes of waiting for a cab (and walking), during which we were passed up about 3 times due to language issues, we gave up and had something along the way (which wasn't half bad - below is Duck & sausage in portuguese baked rice).

We did see the New Year's Eve fireworks, which were quite nice over the water by Taipa Bridge. Got some decent pictures with my Samsung D908 phone. That said, they were pretty average (lasted about 10 minutes) compared to what we're used to seeing in the States. Countdown caught me off guard since it's been years since I've actually counted down outloud - pretty interesting to hear it in several different dialects simultaneously.

Gambling: I checked out the Wynn, Sands, Hotel Lisboa, and Rio.

Sands: Filled with mainlanders (Macau is in general) smoking Double Happiness (Quadruple Cancer) cigarettes. But they do have a non-smoking gambling area, which is a welcome rarity there. Most of what you find here and elsewhere in Macau is Baccarat, Sikbo (Big/Small), Blackjack, Roulette. The minimums aren't as low as you'd expect in China. Maybe it was due to NYE, but they were usually about US$ 13-26.

Rio: Casino is pretty new, but strangely almost completely empty. The upside was less smoke~ We only played slots there, which were like 2 generations behind what's in the US. Some machines were still dealing in coins, versus the e-ticket type. No Price is Right or Monopoly machines.

Hotel Lisboa: Very local. I think they only have Baccarat and Sikbo. If you want a prostitute, go to Lisboa.

Wynn: Had an upgraded Bellagioesque water show out front which was....something to see.

Gambling space there was limited compared to Sands, but I think I detected a bit of an upgrade in clientele there. They also had some VIP-type club on the first floor, which seemed Vegas-ish. They also had floor managers which were visibly imported from the US (they were caucasian). Here is an excerpt from a conversation I had with one of them:

Me: "So, do you have Texas Hold 'em?"

Flr mgr: "No."

Me: "I've been to 4 casinos already and none have it. Does any place in Macau have it?"

Flr mgr: "No, but you're the 4th person who's asked me"

Me: "Tonight?"

Flr mgr: "This year! Once more people start asking, then we'll set it up"

Me: "Your mutha was hoo ah"

(the above was true except the last line)

Because there was no Texas Hold'em, I had to get my fix via Carribean Stud Poker. My first time playing, and last. I paid a steep tuition to learn this game. It's completely luck, and has all these little rules that benefit the house. I'm not going to go into details because it just hurts me to relive it.

Check out the spelling on this MitsubiChi I saw parked: