HK Vegetarian: Afternoon Tea at Paramita Vegetarian Restaurant

Due to the lack of really good, purely vegetarian places here in Manila, I was determined to find and try as many new vegetarian restaurants in HK during my last trip. One of the places that Queen J and I tried was Paramita Vegetarian Restaurant at Lee Theater Plaza in Causeway Bay.

To drive customers during lean hours, dimsum in the afternoon is discounted in many yumcha places in HK. Unfortunately, the afternoon tea menu in Paramita was in Chinese (although the main menu had English translations)! I did recognize some of the items while the manager helped translate the rest for us.

She failed to mention, though, that some of the stuff we ordered were (a) similar and (b) fried. So we ended up with 2 orders of these fried lumpia, which made us full right away. 

It's my first time to try vegetarian "shark's fin" soup, which, in my opinion, was as close to the real thing as fake could get. It's shark's fin soup minus all the oil and guilt.

We also ordered my favorite, beancurd roll (bottom right), ma lai ko, and one forgettable dimsum wrapped in seaweed. The beancurd roll was much better than the one in Kung Tak Lam since it wasn't overstuffed and the beancurd skin was still slightly crispy.

Finally, my other favorite dimsum, radish cake. A really good radish cake must have chunks of radish in it. It's also better if it's slightly greasy, like this one from Paramita, rather than dry and full of flour.

Overall, I had a good dining experience in Paramita. The service was excellent, and the place, spacious and clean. Given the convenience of its location, I can now add it to one of the places I will visit regularly (when I'm in Hong Kong). Plus, Paramita has more and better dimsum variants to offer than Kung Tak Lam.

Paramita Vegetarian Restaurant

Shop B, 7/F, Lee Theater Plaza

99 Percival Street

Across the street from the back entrance of Times Square

Afternoon tea dimsum around HKD 18-22 each

To Primer or Not To Primer?

One of the generous, travel-sized samples I received from YSL was their Oil-Free Complexion Enhancer. Recently, sales assistants in many cosmetic counters have been pushing their primers or makeup bases. According to them the purpose of the primer is to protect the skin from and enhance one's makeup. 

My initial stand on primers: an additional, previously non-existent therefore unnecessary, step to the whole makeup process

The YSL primer experience: I applied this 5-10 minutes after I put on moisturizer and before I applied concealer or powder foundation. Its consistency is thick and it blends in well with my skin. I am left with a matte and smooth canvas for makeup application. During days that I used this primer I noticed that it took longer for my skin to become oily, therefore, less makeup smudging.

The downside: The primer doesn't blend well with thicker moisturizers such as Olay, which I used during the colder months. This might be an issue of not allowing enough time for the moisturizer to be absorbed by the skin before applying the primer, but I can't be entirely sure.

The conclusion: I found the experience to be so positively satisfying that I was tempted to get a bottle of primer to replace this sample, but I'm not completely sure yet that I would want to add one more product to put on my skin. Maybe another time when I finish my sample.

Honeybee Cream Puff with A Twist

It's your usual cream puff but with mango bits. The bread, which has that slightly biscuit-y crispiness that cream puffs have, is fresh, while the amount of cream inside is just right so that there's a bit of cream in every bite.

Honeybee Patisserie branches are located along Wilson in Greenhills and Tomas Morato in Quezon City.

Yellow & Braided

Dress: Topshop

Tights: Gap

Hair: by Yaya, inspired by Nicole Richie's bohemian braid phase

Accessories: Nina Ricci shoulder bag from the mid-90s and usual duck necklace

HK Vegetarian: Kung Tak Lam, Possibly the Best Vegetarian Place in Town

A trip to HK is incomplete without stopping by Kung Tak Lam. The food is superb, the service excellent, and the ambience perfect for a long and relaxed meal.

From top: spicy mixed veggie appetizer, salted peanuts appetizer, siumai, beancurd roll, fried rice, seaweed and pine nut fried rice, vegetarian dan-dan mien (noodles in spicy peanut sauce), sweet and sour mushroom, taro hot pot, veggies with egg whites and mushroom ears

Kung Tak Lam is located on the 10th floor of the World Trade Center in Causeway Bay across Excelsior Hotel. Roughly HKD 50-80 per viand. Lunch set available. Also another branch in Tsim Sha Tsui (but I've never been there before).

Creating Space

The survivors of my ongoing effort to maximize closet space by selling, giving away, and getting rid of clothes (mostly) and bags (a few). Most of the remaining items hold sentimental value or are phased out items such as the giant plaid Polo Ralph Lauren weekend bag. How about you, how do you manage a limited closet space?

Papa John's, Just Another Pizza Place

The Annapolis Greenhills branch of Papa John's is now open, located behind Promenade, across the Teriyaki Boy exit.

9-inch Garden Special ordered to-go. Php 280. Delivery from this branch won't be up and running until after 2 weeks, according to the staff.

The thick crust is reminiscent of Pizza Hut's pan pizza minus all the grease. Personally, though, I prefer the oily thick pan pizza crust. The best thing about this pizza is that it's freshly prepared, and I could still feel the cheese melting inside my mouth. I must add that I didn't feel sleepy and gross from ingesting too much MSG afterwards, which is a huge plus for me. 

Criss-cut fries at Php 90 are soggy and also not what I ordered. I was supposed to try the waffle fries with pizza dip but only realized the mistake when it was too late.

Lastly, ambience-wise, I think I prefer, Pizza Hut's or Shakey's Pizza's homey wooden interiors and slightly dim lighting. Whether I will return to Papa John's or call for delivery all depends on how much I'm craving for a slice of pizza and the amount of time I can wait to get my hands on one.

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