Lunch at Chatterbox

Last week during the long holiday, my family decided to go to try the famous chicken rice that a lot of tourists rave about. It is the coffee house "the Chatterbox" in Mandarin Hotel.( Next to Taka)

Each of first ordered a main course and we also ordered an appetizer.


The below picture is the appetizer which is prawn dumpling with wasabi sauce. The prawn dumpling is very juicy and the wasabi sauce goes well with it. However it is quite expensive though. Will most probably not try it again due to cost :)

The below picture is the famous chicken rice. The rice was fluffy and fragrance. The chicken was also very tasty and juicy. The soup was full of flavour. I could see why it is so famous for their chicken rice. It has been an experience but I feel that for the price I paid I could buy a whole chicken elsewhere. Maybe come here as a very rare treat.

The below is the fish and chips. The deco looks very neat and attractive. My aunt commented that the fish is very nice.

My mum had the grilled chicken. She commented that the chicken was surprising very tender and full of flavour. She really enjoyed the meal.

In summary, the dishes in terms of taste and presentation were all of very high standard. The only downside would be in terms of the cost.

Pictures of delicious food taken in HK ( second day)

The below is the second part of a picture blog of my trip to Hong Kong.

The below picture is taken in front of the restaurant where we had our breadkfast before the half day city tour.

The following photos are the dim sum items that we had during the morning.

The following pictures were taken during dinner after a tour of the Victoria Peak to take in the evening scene. Really the evening scene on the peak is really beautiful and best part the weather is cold and windy. My favourite.

Anyway we had our dinner at a local eatery in the shopping area. The first photo shows the name of the eatery.

The dish below is the fried noodle with prawns.

The next dish is the Sichuan style stirred fried prawns with crispy noodle. The taste was excellent. It had a hint of sweetness and the hotness of the dried chilli used. Personally, I always like the San Mee so this dish go down well with me.

My mum had the chicken rice and surprisingly it was very good. The flavour of the rice was very good and the chicken was tender and tasty.

The Ee Fu mee was ok. Nothing outstanding.

The last dish is the abalone fried kuay tiao. As can be seen fromn the picture, there is quite a lot of abalone. However what made the dish outstanding is the taste of the kuay teow. It may look very white but it was very well stirred fried. ( a really excellent dish)

The following photos are the porridge that we had bought for supper from the nearby stall near the hotel. We had the centuary egg porridge with lean meat, the pig organ porridge and the fish slice porridge. All were excellent.

Pictures taken on second HK visit in Nov 07 ( First day)

The below is the first of a series of post from my recent trip to Hong kong. ( Really a food paradise only problem need to have good cantonese/ Chinese) ( Neither I am good in though :(

This is the place that we went for dinner once we reached the hotel in the evening. It was a sidewalk coffeeshop. The below is a screenshot of the menu.

Above: Seafood Hor Fun ( Huge Quantity)

Above: Leftover of the Suckling Pig ( too hungry so took photo after a few bits have been eaten)

Above: Famous Roast Goose ( personally do not find it outstanding too fattening)

Above: Char Siew mee ( favourite as the noodle texture is out of this world yum yum)

Opinion on the sack race in the EPL

Currently the EPL is into the business part of the season as what a lot of manager term it as it is in the December and January timeframe that will make or break clubs aspiration and dreams.

However we already seen so many managers leaving the club in which they were in charge at the beginning of the season. Even now there is quite a lot of speculation with regard to Sam's reign at Newcastle, whom in my opinion is a every good manager. (See how he developed Bolton from a lower league club to a club which is established in the EPL). Till recently, there was quite a bit of supposed clamouring from the upper management of liverpool hierachy to get rid of Rafa when he requested for additional transfer funds.

In addition, the below are a few examples managers have already left their original job at the start of the season.

1. Jose Mourinho (Chelsea he brought them one of their most successful preiod in their history winning 2 EPL titles as well as the FA cup and the league cup and also progress in the Champion League)
2. Martin Jol ( He brought stability as well as a brand of attacking football to spurs)
3. Billy Davies ( Derby manager who brought them from the mid table to a playoff promotion to the EPL)
4. Sammy lee (Bolton due to poor start of the season and players under performance)

In the case of Sam at Newcastle, the current situation he is facing is something which is a problem which has plagued Newcastle for quite sometime which is a leaky defence and the need to play attacking gung ho football.

I feel that for fans to be clamouring for his sacking so early in the season would be a mistake, as you will need time to get the players on your side as well as to have the new players brought in to adapt to the style of play required. He should be given a period of time to put his style of football into the team and not be lambasted when the team is not playing the gung ho attacking football that the fans enjoy.

For Jose, his untimely departure is even more of a waste for Chelsea. He was without doubt one of the best managers available but left when the upper echelon in the club wants to have more say in the matter of the style of football and the players to be brought in. In my opinion, the idea of having a sporting director which makes the signing is not one which seems to be working. This is because when a manager builds his team, the best person who can make judgement on the players required will still be the manager himself. When you have a second party vending through the options available, there is a likelihood that the manager first choice may not be the one brought in.

It seems that now in the league, managment and fans expectation for success is very high and once there is a slight drop in the requirement, the chances of the manager getting the boot is higher than it ever has been. This is not a healthy trend to develop as a club will not have a stable platform to work on not to mention the various compensation packages that need to be paid out when a whole team of support staff is removed when a new manager is brought in. In addition, there could be also unrest among the players as their future become unclear which could affect the performance of the players.

I believe before the end of the current season, we will be seeing at least among two sacking.