Sabah Malaysian Cuisine (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

It was my Big-headed cousin's wedding tonight and he's throwing a banquet in Wanchai for all of us. For once, i was actually early so instead of sitting at the banquet hall all by myself, I decided to go to one of my favorite Malaysian restaurant for a quick snack first.

There are only two Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants I trust in Hong Kong - Satay Inn and Sabah. But getting a table at Sabah has always been tricky especially we don't have advance booking. Luckily this time, I walked in a little before 6pm so I was fortunate enough to get a table.



Fried kway teow - This is done the traditional way with flat noodles, prawns, fish cakes, Chinese sausages and bean sprouts. The spiciness was about right for me. Delish~



Fried carrot cake - Probably second only to Satay Inn's fried carrot cake. There were a lot of stuff in there including egg, prawns etc. in fact almost more than the carrot cakes!



I was a bit too full after this meal with the BIG banquet ahead but man, it's really well worth it. 

Food Rating: 6.5/10
Price: $$
Address: 98-108 Jaffe Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Tel: +852 2143-6626

M On the Bund (Shanghai, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I started the habit of visiting M on the Bund nearly a decade ago when my then-job required me to see a particular client in Shanghai on a regular basis. In all honesty, I was never a huge admirer of the food or service there but the stunning view of the Bund was too good to turn down.



The restaurant specifies in modern European cuisine. Prices are considerably reasonable but the service level sometimes leaves something to be desired. On this particular occasion, we were here for a late night snack and the hostess kept reminding us that we must at least order a main course although it was already 10pm. That was a bit annoying. If they were so keen on limiting customers to at least one main course, they should tag on a minimum charge.



We were granted a nice table on the outdoor patio with a spectacular postcard view of the Bund and as promised, we did order a main course.

While the view was nothing short of sensational, the same cannot be said about the food on this night. There was a certain degree of inconsistency displayed in a few of our dishes.

My seared scallops on cauliflower puree with spiced cauliflower and pine nuts was the best dish of the night but my main course, fried frog's leg with spinach risotto was rather unorthodox and disappointing.




Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥
Address: Five on the Bund, 7/F, 20 Guangdong Lu, Shanghai, China

Closest Metro Station: None
Tel: +86 21 6350 9988

Website: www.m-restaurantgroup.com/mbund/home.html

Jesse Restaurant 老吉士 (Shanghai, CHINA) ★★★★★

We were that close to walking out of the door without even trying one single dish here at Jesse (or Jishi) when we found out that they have messed up our reservation. But we were persistent and after sending out our best negotiator, we finally got ourselves a table after a long long wait.

You should have probably heard it by now - there's an "old" Jesse and a new one as well as Xintiandi. But if you are looking for a hearty and authentic Shanghaiese cuisine, then the old Jesse at Tian Ping Road is where you want to be.

Tucked away at a quiet neighbourhood in Xujaihui, the Original (Old) Jesse might not garner the same attention as its sibling at Xintiandi but the food here is certainly to die for.



After a hardworking day at the Shanghai World Expo, everyone was so beat up to a point where we could easily fall asleep on these wooden chairs, that despite sitting elbow-to-elbow together. But when our first dish arrived, everyone were lighting up like little kids seeing candies. 

Jishi's salted chicken, 7/10
Most often when we were having Shanghaiese food, we would start things off with a dish of drunken chicken prized for the nice wine flavor. But this time we decided to change things around a bit and picked Jishi's salted chicken.

For whatever reason, the chicken in Shanghai has always tasted better. Perhaps it's free-range chicken.



Braised wheat bean (Ko-Fu), 10/10
I always like this particular starter but this one tasted sooooo much better. The bean curds served as small sponges here and after absorbing the signature sauce and mixing well with different types of mushrooms, the result......wow!



Bean curd roll in a chicken broth, 5/10
This was a dish recommended by the manager here. Told us it's quite popular here but we found it to be just average.

Stir Fried Long Beans, 9/10

Another common dish in the Shanghai cuisine, it couldn't get any perfecter than this!



Stir fried river shrimps, 9/10
Don't know how they managed to find such small river shrimps and even managed to remove the shells neatly one by one. Those were very sweet and tasty.



Jishi's signature fried rice, 10/10
Talked about saving the best for last, the signature fried rice certainly left a long lasting impression on us. Yes it was a little oily but it was just too delicious to turn away from.

It felt a lot like having glutinous rice too.

Food Rating: 7.7/10
Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 41 Tian Ping Road, Shanghai, China

Closest Metro Station: None

T: + 82 21 6282-9260