Saturday, February 16, 2008

The strangest Hong Kong food I've encountered...

...isn't snake soup, isn't turtle pudding, isn't pig's blood, isn't frog hot pot, it's...

Pizza Hut! ;>

Tonight I wanted to be really adventurous and experience Hong Kong's Pizza Hut, and Katherine agreed to subject herself to the experiment as well. In truth, Pizza Hut is my least favorite of the major American pizza chains and I haven't actually set foot in one for more than 10 years. In Hong Kong, however, Pizza Hut projects a different image than what I'm used to: fine dining. Well, more so fine than what one would expect, anyway. It's closer to an Olive Garden than my traditional concept of Pizza Hut. (Though, to be fair, Katherine and I both agree that it is definitely a notch or two below Olive Garden.) Let's take a quick peek at some menu pages...



Norwegian Salmon and Fruit Salad? Spanish White Wine Blue Mussels? Pizza Hut? Does not compute! ;>

Now, before you ask, they do have pizza. Many of the same pizza toppings are available, but a few may surprise you: pork, tuna, crab sticks, and corn. (Corn, in particular, is all over most of the pre-designed pizzas.) The most surprising ingredient choice, though, has to be thousand island dressing. Yes, instead of tomato sauce, you can have your pizza slathered in thousand island dressing before the cheese and toppings arrive. This sounds absolutely revolting to me, which means I must try it.

I didn't try it tonight, though. Instead, we decided to go for a promotional combo meal to get a more complete experience...


The combo doesn't actually include all that food - a few of them are either-or choices. Let's take a closer look to find out what Katherine and I chose...


Iced Aloe and Iced Citron Tea



Minestrone


Sicilian Chicken Trio


Mushroom and Black Truffle Sauce Spaghetti


Abalone Sauce Slice Cheesy Lava Stuffed Crust Pizza

I'll let Pizza Hut further describe this particular pizza themselves...

"Savour the taste of fresh seafood slices flavoured with authentic Abalone sauce served with crayfish and crab roe dressing, then perfectly complemented with succulent chicken bites and fresh enoki mushrooms. All served on your favourite Cheesy Lava Crust – a delicious combination of Mozzarella, Parmesan and Cheddar that's simply irresistible to cheese lovers!"

Not your everyday pizza, eh? ;> And it was actually pretty tasty - particularly the crust. But what's with the "fresh seafood slices"? I'm not sure how one gains a slice of all seafood, but apparently we had six on our pizza (one per pizza slice). We speculated that they were actually squid slices.

All-in-all, however, the meal was... just okay. A better experience than I expected, really (considering my lack of love for Pizza Hut), but not something I'll crave. There are many other local restaurant near us which are far tastier and cheaper (this was about $US17 per person). Still a good experience to have and one that I'm happy to share with you. ;>

3 comments:

Unknown said...

We have a new pizza place opening the end of the month...brick oven pizza...new jersey style...i think that will be my preference...we can skip pizza hut when we visit!

LinJ said...

Mmmm... it doesn't seem bad at all! In Shanghai and Hangzhou, there are those fancy pizza huts too. I was so disappointed to visit the counterparts in US...way too shabby! hehe....

Carson said...

Okay, that iced aloe looks great... and truffle sauce?? cool! That pizza sounded quite bizarre ("Cheesy Lava Stuffed Crust"... nothing like molten mozzarella volcanoing out with every bite!) but it actually looks pretty good. I am intrigued!

 

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