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Mother’s Day The King Parrot Group are featuring different Mother’s Day setmenus in their chain of restaurants. Al Pasha (Shop 401, K11, 18Hanoi Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 3122 4444) is appropriately decorated withMiddle Eastern and nomadic accents. It also has an almost tribalessence to the cuisine, which is inspired by the province of Xinjiang.Al Pasha is known for dance performances during dinner. ItsMother’s Day menus include a set for four for $1,088. Appetizersinclude mezzas with fresh Xinjiang naan bread and three smallbowls of dips – the hummus with pine nuts is rich and crumbly,resembling a chunky peanut butter but chilled and creamier inconsistency. The cucumber yogurt is similar to an Indian raita inwhich cucumber, mint leaves and tangy yogurt blend harmoniously.The smoked eggplant puree with almond is Al Pasha’s take on theeggplant dip baba ghanouj, with a strong tart bite from lemon juiceand toasty almonds. Other highlights in the set include a soup madewith bamboo pith and assorted seafood, a rather Chinese addition.Deep-fried egg rolls wrapped with spinach and fish fillet featuresfillets of Mandarin fish, boned and steamed then stacked withblanched spinach leaves as a filling for a thin egg crepe. The crepeis finally deep-fried until golden brown. It is a light dish needingminimal seasoning. Mutton and chicken kebabs are served on metalskewers. Both meats are heavily seasoned with a blend of spicessuch as cumin and chillies. They are best eaten hot with a Szechuanpepper-salt. The deep-fried lamb spare ribs are surprisingly not oilyat all despite also being deep fried. The set menu is rounded off withsteamed pumpkin dumplings. Shaped like Cantonese shrimpdumplings, these are filled with sweet mashed pumpkin. A set menufor eight is also available for $2,088, as well as a la carte options.The celebration menu sets are available on both May 8 and 9.Reservations are recommended.

King Ludwig Beerhall (Shop 32, Tsim Sha Tsui Station, SalisburyRd, Tsim Sha Tsui, 2369 8328) also features a Mother’s Day menufor four ($880). Among the selection of appetizers, main coursesand desserts are Ludwig’s signature smoked German sausage withveal liver parfait and bread basket. Sliced German sausages arepaired with a freshly baked German pretzel. While the savourysausage is deeply flavoured, the veal liver parfait is made like aterrine, with seasoned pureed liver steamed until set. This softspread is a slight pink, and surprisingly meaty in taste. A thin smearacross bread would mark a sweet beginning to a rich meal. Theprawn and seafood broth with leek is simplicity itself. It is a soupmade from fish stock and white wine simmered with fresh leeks,followed by a melange of seafood such as prawns, fish and scallops. Flavours are light, though the leeks do stand out amongthe other flavours.

In pan-fried garoupa fillet with sweet red pepper coulis the puree isa nice complement to the fish’s richness but the main star ofLudwig’s menu is the crisp roast pork knuckle with sauerkraut. Eachknuckle is marinated overnight before being boiled and finallyroasted for an evenly distributed crusty crackling. It may be fattybut the knuckle fairly oozes flavourful juices. The sauerkraut, made

from fresh cabbage, is tart but matches the knuckle well enough. Ifyou have a sweet tooth, you will appreciate the King Ludwig carrotcheesecake – essentially a carrot cake trapped inside a cheesecake.The Mother’s Day menus at the two other King Ludwig Beerhalllocations, in Wan Chai and Stanley, won’t be the same but bookingsare recommended for all three eateries. Celebration sets will beavailable on both May 8 and 9.

Tsui Hang Village (G/F, Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Rd,Tsim Sha Tsui, 2376 2882) is also celebrating Mother’s Day with aselection of special menus. A festive set for 12 comes with disheslike sautéed scallop and clam with celery and lily bulb. Deep-friedcrispy chicken is a classic at Tsui Hang Village. Each chicken is firstrubbed with a pepper/salt mixture and blanched in boiling water.After considerable basting with a maltose vinegar mixture, thechicken is left to air-dry for at least 4 hours before it is deep fried. Afirst round of deep frying cooks the bird, while the second round ata higher temperature ensures a perfectly crisp skin and a deepgolden-brown colour – really this dish needs not much else. Friedrice with dried conpoy, dried fish and duck meat looks like anordinary fried rice, but the mixture of conpoy, minced duck, fishflakes and egg makes an instant impact on your taste buds. Thecombination of meats works very nicely with the rice, which staysdry and is topped appropriately with more aromatic dried fish flakes.This celebration menu is rounded off with almond cream with eggwhites as a dessert and is set for either 12 or six people. Othermenu selections feature similar dishes, including an abalone set forone at $688 with dishes like braised abalones and a generoushelping of birds’ nests on double boiled fresh milk. Reservations forthe celebration menus are strongly recommended.

Phoebe’s Designer Bakery (25 Aberdeen St, Central, 2815 6678),specialists in wedding cakes, are now venturing into cookies. Atpresent, owner Cheekay Chow’s creations involve 10 basic flavours,but more will come in due course. The range of cookies are calledPhoebe’s Treats are they’re made from natural ingredients. Currentlyfour types of cookies are on offer – pressed, cut, piped, and rolledand cut. Pressed cookies are made by putting dough into a gun-likedevice that presses each cookie onto a pan before it is baked. Inpiped cookies, soft dough is piped from a large pastry bag intoshapes before baking. And in the roll-and-cut method the doughgoes through a cookie sheeter to ensure that the entire cookiedough is of uniform thickness, while the cut cookies are doughblocks that are chilled and cut manually before baking.

The in-house bakery at Phoebe’s Treats turns out 10,000 cookies aday, to be placed into dark tins for storage for as long as 2 months.Classic flavours such as coffee and cinnamon are crispy to the bite.Earl Grey and Iron Buddha are tea-flavoured cookies, with greenIron Buddha cookies more subtle than Earl Grey. Poppy seed cookiesand peanut butter cookies come in pressed blossoms. The almondring is the lightest of all, made by folding ground almonds intowhipped meringue piped into rings. On first impression, the almondrings look like delicate calamari rings, only slightly more beige and

al pasha

the codfather oyster and seafood bar