D-Day

The D was supposed to be dessert, with a bright hope of it being delightful and decadent and delicious. Unfortunately, part of it was disgusting, another lacked depth, and overall it was quite a disgraceful dessert indulgence.

Looks cozy, but spoiler alert!

These bird cage lamps are quite the in-thing these days!

Food & Tea Hong Kong is one of many Hong Kong-styled eateries in Tropicana City Mall. This food-concept genre seems to be one of the fastest growing trends, and this restaurant is pretty much same-same. A range of Chinese food and a selection of Chinese-ized Western dishes like Asian-themed spaghetti and potato wedges with wasabi mayonnaise.

There is a large drinks section, ranging from the truly Asian, like Eight Treasures Tea and double-boiled pear with white fungus (RM3.70), or the simple barley (RM2). It seems a must for all these Wong Kok clones to also have a drinks menu of funky coloured drinks like Purple Rain and Moonlight Lady (RM6.30) which have no discernible taste base at all. This place even had Asianized milkshakes in chendol and sweetcorn and yam flavours at RM5.50. Already I see one particular New Zealander gagging at the remembrance of sweet corn ice cream!

The decor is stylish and cosmopolitan, with a nice play of grey and orange, with birdcage lamps circled with cherry blossoms for a bit of that Lunar New Year feel. It is a nice place to sit and hang out, or even enjoy a meal by one's self. However, desserts may best be given a miss, if what we had was a good representation.

Not quite a-ball-ing, but close.

I ordered Sesame Glutinous With Caramel And Crushed Peanut. The RM5.90 dish consisted of five glutinous rice flour balls with a sesame interior which were to be dipped into the caramel, then rolled in the mixture of ground peanuts and sugar. However, the caramel was runny, and probably from a pre-mixed formula. It tasted stale and was overly liquid. The balls themselves were too firm and did not really burst in the mouth, releasing a warm, liquid sesame paste, as should be the way this dessert is served.

There's a lot of wisdom in the saying, 'Don't eat the yellow snow'!

Kit ordered the Fresh Mango Snow Mountain, RM6.30, which came as a pretty cone of ice drenched with syrup and topped with a red maraschino cherry. Jellies like boba, garnished the icy treat. Unfortunately the syrup was horribly synthetic. It was like the cheapest, most horrid mango cordial was used in place of some good mango flavouring, resulting in something so sweet, so plastic and so offensive, that it was the first time Kit did not finish an icy dessert.

Full of beans is never a good thing.

My Red Bean Treasure Bowl, also RM6.30, was a little better. At least the red beans were real, and they were cooked well, and long enough. There was even the tinge of mandarin peel so necessary in stewed red bean. Topped with sago, the dessert also had cashew nuts dotting ice. If Kit's was completely fake, mine was all real. It was nice at first, but it got too rich somewhere along the middle. Also, ice does not do red beans a favour, making it gunk up and congeal most unappealingly. Hence, even this dessert got left on the table, though more was eaten of it than the mango one.

In the end, the only passable item of the whole meal was the Chinese tea. I should have just saved my money!

Food & Tea Hong Kong
Lot L1 – 15, First Floor, 
Tropicana City Mall
No 3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor