So Good It's Worth Pawning Your Belongings For!

    This is an old school pawn shop in Hong Kong-somewhere you hopefully do not have to go to hopefully in order to afford the next two amazingly yummy places of mine. Both of the following places are my favorite must goes of HK each time I'm here. But if it comes down to pawing things, then the following 2 places are definitely worth pawning your life savings for!

    Jasmine (八月花) in Kowloon Tong serves the best crispy baby suckling piglet ever! I'll explain more on that in a little bit. Their dim sum is also unique & to die for and their drink selection is delicious. They have many types of juices and teas to choose from. Their ambiance is lovely as well not to mention their menus are really pretty. Get there at 2:30 and you can even enjoy their 15% off afternoon tea special. It's also located in a huge shopping mall so you can shop and walk around while waiting for a table. Big plus!

    First out came our drinks. Mom & I shared some white tea (Box 1), which came out in it's own tea pot and was kept warm throughout our meal by the little candle lit underneath it. The white tea was also a type of flowering tea, which I mentioned in my previous dim sum post here. It opened up and bloomed in front of our eyes. My sister opted for Jasmine's Grapefruit Soda (Box 2), which was yummy but not the best choice for the huge meal that was to come. It made her feel so full that she could barely walk after. 

    Fist of our dishes to come out was my me & my sister's favorite baked barbeque pork pastry aka cha siu buns (Box 1). What's special about the baked buns is that their crust literally falls and melts into your mouth. It's a texture that is way better than the typical cha siu buns at dim sum. So Good! My favorite dish of all time at Jasmine has got to be their eggplant in sesame sauce (Box 2). It's basically Japanese sesame dressing but for some reason it tastes way better than the Japanese sesame dressing I've had elsewhere. I think the chefs must put some special ingredient in their sauce or something. I've ordered 2 plates of eggplant for myself before. I'm usually pretty reluctant to share because it's THAT good. Box 3 was also very delicious. It was our crispy fried tofu with salt and pepper. The seasoning is basically made up of a lot of fried garlic. It's not great for your breath but tastes so good. We actually got super thirsty from eating all of the seasoning. 

    Then came our lovely beef diced with crispy garlic (Box 1), persevered vegetable and sticky rice in bamboo steamer (Box 2), and Jasmine's famous crispy baby piglet (Box 3).  Did I just say piglet? Why, yes I did. Piglets are better tasting because their bones are still soft so that you can eat them with the whole piece of meat. There's sweet sauce that is spread on the bottom of each piece. You can choose to order a full piglet or half. This is the half order, which contained only 4 pieces. Sure, it may be cruel but if you think of Piglet in Winnie The Pooh and how annoying he was then I'm sure you wouldn't feel so bad! The skin is crispy and it's soo soo good! You've never had good pork until you've had baby piglet and this is definitely the place to go for it! Jasmine isn't too expensive-definitely not a place you should need to pawn your belongs for! 

    This is Hana Sakazuki, a Japanese restaurant that specializes in teppanyaki, a type of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook stuff. You can have your own personal chef cook in front of you and your guests while doing some fancy tricks. It's the equivalent of Benihanna's in the U.S. which by the way is a total rip off and has crappy food. They have set teppanyaki meals with such as delicacies such as wagyu beef, crab, abalone, etc. and their sorbet and meats are flown in fresh from Japan daily. Hanna Sakazuki is also one of my biggest regrets. If you recall in my first post, I told you that my Mac Book died and deleted all my pictures. My best pictures were of the teppanyaki at this place. I had pictures of the lobster still moving as it was being cooked and an awesome chef making a snowman out of fried rice that was delicious. Unfortunately, I did not order the teppanyaki this time around since my mom and sis were not hungry enough for that. We ordered their bento box lunch specials instead, which means I will have to come back soon to retake their teppanyaki pictures in the future... not that I mind.

    For the quality of stuff, this place gives you their lunch specials are a pretty good deal. We each were started off with some green tea, and 2 salad appetizers. 

    My sister who is deathly afraid of raw fish was about to order a boring beef teriyaki bento box. I eat Japanese food a few times a week and love raw stuff. The more alive-the better, unlike my sister.  Luckily though, I was able to convince her to try the Grilled Tuna over Rice instead! It was delicious and she was glad she did (Box 1). My mom ordered a 10 piece sushi lunch set (Box 2) and I ordered my favorite Raw Fatty Tuna Over Rice (Box 3). I dumped my wasabi inside and mixed it with soy sauce-finishing my entire bowl! All our lunches included the 2 appetizers shown above as well as an order of udon and steamed egg. Just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, they brought us the dessert of the day, which was also included in our lunch special.

    Japanese Cheesecake with Chocolate Sauce over it! Delicious! My sister couldn't eat anymore so I got to eat 2! At this point, the waitress asked us if we wanted coffee or tea, which was also included in our lunch special. I don't know the prices of my mom's or sister's meal but my meal was $160 HK, which is about $20 U.S. Such a good deal! We got 2 appetizers, our bento box, udon, steamed egg, dessert, and coffee or tea! My mom wasn't too pleased with the price. She said it was the most expensive lunch we've had since we've been in HK, which is true but it was soooo worth it. 

Would you pawn your life savings for these two meals?

Happy Pawning Eatings!