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2016-11-16
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Instant noodles. Who doesn't love them? Yes, they are bad for you. Totally unhealthy. You may turn your snobby foodie nose and say "I only eat MSG free, home made noodles and none of the plastic tasting stuff from a bag." Yeah yeah yeah. But deep down, instant noodles are your secret guilty pleasure. When that person at work opens up a package, pours hot water onto it and that intense beautiful smell wafts through the room, you know your stomach growls and you know you wish for one, too.Instant
Instant noodles was first introduced in the 50s by the Japanese company, Nissin. Bringing an efficient, yet soul comforting meal to the Japanese masses. If you go to the Nissin Ramen Musuem, you'll learn all about the history of instant noodles and create one yourself. Seriously ... worth a detour if you are ever in Japan. I spent two hours there! Instant noodles are so popular, that there are brand and flavors of every shape and form in every corner of the world.
Recently, The Dessert Kitchen has teamed up with Nissin to create a series of sets that involve a bowl of instant noodles and an instant noodle inspired dessert for the price of $60. Cash only. No 10% service charge. As I have a serious guilty pleasure for that cup of addictive joy, I had to go! Boyfriend wasn't so excited. He doesn't understand why I secretly mark off one day a month to divulge on a gloriously expensive imported instant noodle.
The Dessert Kitchen is located in Tsim Sha Tsui. It's on the street where there are a lot of other dessert shops. A bit diagonally from The One. For the event, the dessert shop has decorated inside and out with images of the Nissin ramen boy.
The walls have all been decorated with the Nissin images.
As are all the tables.
The staff have also changed their uniforms and put on Nissin ramen cloaks.
They even have bowls with the Nissin words on them. It seemed they went all out for this event!
Like all pop up events, they have a pop up store to sell items such as this! A toaster! How cool is that?
For this event, they have created a whole new menu. You can't order anything from their normal menu. Only this is available. Yes, it's in Chinese only. There is no English. But there are photos. Price of the set is $60 that include one bowl of instant noodle and one dessert. Drinks not included but you can add $15 for a drink. You must order one set per person. You cannot share.As the menu is only in Chinese, I'll explain what you get. First you choose one of three types of instant noodles: tonkatsu, black garlic tonkatsu and miso.
Desserts are specially created for the event. You choose one: soft serve ice cream served on a black garlic waffle cup, their popular grape sorbet, Nissin boy cake, strawberry mousse pudding cup and pancakes.
If you upload a photo of you enjoying your instant noodles and do all the necessary hashtags onto Instagram or Facebook, they will give you a pen or memo pad. Boyfriend and I got both to show you.
Memo pad is rather sweet as it has a picture of the Nissin boy on each page.
Boyfriend chose the tonkatsu flavor. He said it was ok. He is not a fan of instant noodles. Each bowl of noodles also comes with a semi soft egg, char siu, onions, jews ear, sesame seeds and a couple of slices of kamaboko.
I chose the black garlic tonkatsu flavor. It tasted the same as tonkatsu except for the added black garlic oil on top.
The noodles used were the instant noodles from the package. Cooked to al dente. Just the way I like my instant noodles.
The char siu was rather tasty. Had a decent amount of fat to meat ratio.
My egg was pretty good. A semi soft yolky center. Boyfriend's was a bit too cooked.
It came with two kamaboko. One had an image of the Nissin boy.
The other had the words Nissin instant noodles in Chinese.
Dessert arrives after you tell them to bring it. I suggest due to it being busy, to start ordering your dessert when you're 90% done your bowl of noodles.This is dessert is a soft serve ice cream on a black garlic waffle cup. It comes with a dango. The ice cream tasted like vanilla and was fairly ok. Smooth and milky in taste. The waffle cone had a hint of garlic taste but not too much. It was interesting.
This is the Nissin boy cake. It was actually a serradura. The Nissin boy was a piece of white chocolate. The cake was ok. Not as rich as I would have expected but alright. It came with a little panna cotta type flower.
While we were eating, the Nissin boy mascot came in! Or at least tried to as the place is very cramped. No one seemed to care about him. So sad. I was too far away otherwise I'd give him a selfie.
The food was ok. But I appreciated the fact they put a lot of effort into a pop up. This is something I find not too many restaurants in Hong Kong do. Most just do a cross over, lazily slap together a few things and call it a day (example Wired Cafe). Everything from the menu to restaurant decoration to the uniforms were for the event. That makes me give it bonus points! I love pop ups and this is probably the best one I've been to. A must for those that love theme events or just love instant noodles. This will all over by the end of November.
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