Cool autumn breezes are all the excuse chef Yves Matthey needs to whip up hot chocolate. The executive pastry chef is serving up a traditional afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental's Clipper Lounge (Tel: 2825-4007) with a strong accent on rich gooey delights, as desserts, savories and sandwiches arrive in a three-tiered serving platter alongside 17 types of tea.
He highly recommends the sea salt chocolate tart, with its interesting contrast of flavors, and his hand-made chocolate therapy range.
"It took more than six months and almost one tonne of chocolate to create the 40 different types of chocolate with ingredients such as olive oil, salt and black sesame. I want our guests to explore the wide range of things we can do with chocolate and leave them wanting more."
Other attractions are the chocolate textura cake with five different layers, chocolate fondue with seasonal fruit, chocolate macaroons filled with praline cream and baked chocolate mud pie.
Diners can also enjoy spiced hot chocolate or spiced hot white coffee chocolate served with a chocolate spoon.
The weekend tea costs HK$208 for one person and HK$378 for two.
Chestnut lovers can pop into Regal Hongkong's Cafe Rivoli (Tel: 2837-1772), where executive chef Ray Yau Wai-kuen has created a fantasy tea buffet for weekends.
"Diced chestnut goes very well with both hot and cold dishes while chestnut puree, made by boiling roasted chestnuts with sugar, water and cinnamon, is great as a dessert," sa
id Yau.He has also incorporated the nut into his mini shepherd's pie, Cajun tuna carpaccio and apple salad, Alaska crab meat and avocado in cone, green tea mousse cake, cream brulee and custard tart.
"My favorites are chestnut tart and roasted chicken supreme stuffed with chestnut and truffle as they represent the versatility of the nut."
The tea buffet is on till December 13. It costs HK$158 for adults and HK$108 for children.
The approaching winter making you melancholy? Executive chef Lau Shiu- bor of the Renaissance Kowloon Hotel has just the thing to lift your spirits - mango delicacies at Lobby Lounge (Tel: 2734-6650).
"The sweet and sour fruit is refreshing. I mixed it with creme brulee, deep- fried it with prawns, and complemented it with sweet and creamy glutinous rice to create a mango sushi," Lau said.
The weekend tea buffet also offers rice wine and sakura jelly, bean curd with minced tuna, assorted Japanese skewers and papaya and crab meat rice paper rolls. It is priced at HK$138 for adults and HK$88 for children and is on until December 20.
Those who get a kick out of coffee will surely enjoy the teatime buffet at the Regal Airport Hotel's Regala Cafe and Dessert Bar (Tel: 2286-6618). "To give a nice scent to our desserts, we use a variety of coffee beans, including instant coffee, freshly grounded coffee, and roasted coffee beans," said executive chef William Stringfellow.
"Coffee aficionados would fancy the tiramisu as it has an intense coffee aroma while the coffee cheesecake, made of light cheesecake and a crunchy base with a subtle hint of coffee, is fit for beginners."
Diners can order any classic coffee, like latte, cappuccino, and espresso to go with macaroons, coffee panna cotta, cappuccino almond bread pudding, coffee nougat mousse and souffle at the buffet, which is priced at HK$118 for adults and HK$98 for children.
"A weekend tea buffet promises a fun and relaxing afternoon for a family," Stringfellow said.
