I don’t know if it’s the Hong Kong love of all things Japanese or if mochi is really that popular but I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t like mochi, the short grain glutinous white rice treat. Maybe Nobu at the InterContinental Hong Kong feels the same way as they will host a special Nobu dessert cooking class on July 24th for a demonstration on how to make mochi amongst other signature desserts. Open to only eight people, the programme starts at 10:30am where participants will enjoy a light breakfast as they learn about the Nobu concept. Following breakfast, you will learn mochi cooking techniques along some signature dessert creations. Of course, then there will be a hands-on session to try your hand at making these delectable bites. After all that hard work, you’ll be able to enjoy a special four-course omakase lunch served with unlimited Nobu sake.

Inclusive in the class:
• A NOBU kit with the cooking class menu and recipes and a NOBU apron.
• Fresh bakery items with coffee/tea for breakfast.
• Unlimited NOBU Sake, served during the lunch.
• Special NOBU Omakase lunch with showcasing the desserts from the class.

Showcased desserts will include:
• Warabi Mochi - A variation of the traditional Japanese Mochi paste, covered with yellow bean (Kinako) powder
• Mochi with red beans or yellow bean paste - Another variation of Mochi, stuffed with the different bean pastes
• Yuzu jam - A tasty Jam made with the Japanese citrus fruit “yuzu”. The jam can be used to fill Mochi for a contemporary variation.
• ‘Goma E’ - Japanese “petit fours” made with white chocolate, Goma (black sesame) paste & cocoa nibs

Price : HK$788 + 10% service charge per person.
Number of Participants : Maximum 8 persons.

To reserve a place, contact the Restaurant Reservations Hot Line at tel: (852) 2313-2323 or e-mail: nobuhongkong@interconti.com

Did you ever see Dark Water? Okay, neither did I, but I think it was that movie starring Jennifer Connelly in which she moves to a haunted house and dark water stains keep appearing everywhere due to some mysterious, ghostly power. These images are hardly in the same vein, seeing as Godiva isn't so much a mysterious, ghostly power as a bright and shiny purveyor of very tasty chocolates, but the concept of their new shop in Harajuku kind of reminded me of the film concept. I'm not sure how I feel about that ceiling, but it certainly is a concept, and the walls painted in dripping chocolate are definitely cute, the wood panelling even resembles a chocolate bar.

Images: Vidafine

We posted about a couple of cake meccas a couple of months ago, and now there's another shop to add to the list. Cake-a-licious, if you can ignore the silly name, is a small basement shop on Lyndhurst that serves a small selection of cupcakes which you can enjoy at the smattering of cafe-style tables they have. While you're indulging, you can flip through their lookbooks to discover all manner of strange cake designs, including the few here below the cut...


Except, I'm not sure if these designs scare me or amuse me. The Jockey Club logo is fairly tame and well-executed, as is the Barbie cake (if a little misguided... ) but the swimming pool, frankly, scares me a little. And so does the pack of Marlboro reds that looks like it's melted. Not even going to go into the porcupine. The plus side is that these go for $200/lb upwards, whereas a cake from Complete Deelite might set you back a couple grand... 

Since FashionGeek and I didn't have time to commission and design a full cake, complete with icing sculpture perched atop, we settled for the lemon and red velvet cupcakes, which came in pretty large tin-foil cupcake holders. They were a bit fluffier in texture than regular cupcakes (Complete Deelite is still the gold standard, more moist and dense) which I sometimes prefer, but I'd say make sure to get the cupcakes with thicker icing for a more authentic experience. The cream-cheese icing on the red velvet was a little gooey-melty for my tastes, I prefered scavenging off the top of FashionGeek's lemon cupcake, whose icing was suitably crunchy from the sugar.

Passed through the Mandarin Oriental cake shop the other day and was once again amazed by the realism their confectionary creations approach. Honestly, it's difficult to tell goods from the goodies. It's beyond too good to eat. Luckily, they have so many other little delights that it's easy to pick something that didn't look like it took painstaking labour to create, like these chocolate lips. 

I miss pies. Hong Kong is good for a whole host of stuff -- cheap clothing, bargain electronics, eclectic street food -- but pies is not one of them. There's been a recent revolution in cupcakes (that's a whole other post) but pies are kind of like the hardworking but overlooked employee that every company has.  (Hey, boss!) Pretty but unsubstantial cupcakes get all the fame and glory, cakes are generic and kind of saunter through life being generally well-liked. Then there's pies: full of all this tasty goodness, and everybody knows how great they are, but let's face it, pies are not pretty desserts, and so they naturally get somewhat ignored/taken advantage of. 

Media lunches be damned. The best way to market a new dessert menu? Send waiters on wheels around Hong Kong to the media offices bearing trays of samples. I challenge anyway to deny a dessert that appears right by your desk.