After a long day of shopping for Chinese New Year goodies, we went to Hong Kong Sheng Kee for a tea break. The restaurant was having a three desserts for the price of two promotion. My choice of dessert was always the cold one, especially if I wanted to feel refreshed. I was delighted to see my mango sago ($4.9) arrived with basil seeds on it! This is what I usually do - find the basil seeds in every mouthful and try to bite the seeds. It was actually quite a challenge as the seeds were really small and slippery.We have two black sesame paste lovers at the table, and both of them chose yuan yang paste (3.9), which means you get to choose two flavors of paste in a bowl. There were four types of paste to choose from - red bean paste, black sesame paste, tripe wheat paste and almond paste. Below is the black and white combination, with the black being black sesame paste and white being almond paste.And this, is the black and red combination, with the red being red bean paste. The sweetness was just nice, it doesn't make me feel guilty at all indulging in them. It seems to be a trend now to serve dessert that is not overly sweet, maybe due to the increasingly health conscious society. We wanted something to munch on so we ordered yam cake ($2.9) for sharing. We weren't expecting much as we were there mainly for the dessert, but these yam cakes were really yummy. There were generous amount of fried shallot on top, adding the crunchy texture to every bite of the soft yam cake. Do you notice the yam cubes inside the yam cake? I prefer finding yam cubes in the cake rather than the all mashed up version. One point to note is that there was no high chair provided in this restaurant, and the seating was a bit small, so if you bringing your little ones, be prepared to carry them throughout.

I really enjoy going to Earle Swensen's. Good thing that now they open another branch at JEM.Look at the tantalizing salad bar, so delicious yet healthy! You are almost sure leaving the place with full stomach.You can enjoy the salad bar free with order of main course.I ordered grilled black pepper chicken, the taste and the quality of the food is similar to those from Swensen's.This is fried chicken cutlet ordered by a friend.Overall, we were satisfied. There was a one-for-one deal going on so it was a really good deal!

Azuki bean is more commonly known as red bean. The red bean paste used as the filling of their pancake was not those smooth and pureed type but you can still find the whole red beans inside. I like the texture of the paste and most importantly it was not overly sweet! The staff were also very pleasant and enthusiastically showing me their CNY cookies.

If you think Japanese curry are simply sweet and not shiok at all, think about it again!Coco Ichibanya is famous for Japanese curry, there are in total 7 level of spiciness, the lowest level being mild (not spicy at all, suitable for children), then level 0 (Standard) to level 5 (Crazy hot). This is a level 3 thin-sliced boiled beef curry, and the level of spiciness made me gulped down more rice than usual.

I got a mini apple strudel ($4.5) takeaway from the shop. I had tried other types of strudel such as the mango strudel and strawberry strudel but apple strudel still remain my favourite! The crust of the strudel is made up of multiple layers. The shiny appearance on the outer crust came from sugar glaze, which added a nice crunch and sweetness to it. In between the crust, there were sweetened apple cubes which gave a crunchy twist to the creamy custard.I realise that for takeaway, you need to consume it as soon as possible in order to enjoy the crispy crust. If you left it from afternoon until night time, the crust might have already turned soft.