SanQiaoyiyi

> Location : Shops A & B, G/F, Ivy on Belcher's 26 Belcher's street,
Kennedy Town, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : Japanese
> Tel. # : (852) 2816-7722
> Website : N/A

SanQiaoyiyi is a well rounded Japanese restaurant serving various items in its respective cuisine. From noodles to rice to fried/grilled dishes to sushi/sashimi and various other things. SanQiaoyiyi has three other locations besides the Hong Kong island one. There's one in Yuen Long, N.T., and two in Kowloon (Sham Shui Po and Tai Po). The Hong Kong location, the one I'm reviewing is in Kennedy Town. The restaurant is split into two shops. There's a residential/business building right in between. For one shop, it's designed for rotary sushi style and for the other, it's for tables and traditional sushi bar.

I had the chance to seat on the table side for my review. The environment was bright with lots of lighting. There are quite a number of seats for both shops. Since SanQiaoyiyi has been recently opened here in Kennedy Town, there have been a lot of customers lining up to try the new place. Make sure you go early if you want to try! Not only because the place is new so people are flocking to go, the prices is noticeably below average so it's bang for the buck! But is it still of good quality?

There are two menus I was provided with. One was the table paper menu which shows most of the cooked items. The other was a pictured menu leaflet that has the following sections: salad, warship sushi, snack, sushi, sashimi, grilled sushi, cocktail sushi, roll, ice cream, drinks and liquor.

I got the chance to try a little of everything from SanQiaoyiyi. Their tempura was nice and crispy. Something that is tough to cooked improperly. Their puffer fish smoked skin was chewy, pleasant with a strong BBQ flavor to it. It's similar to the flavoring from Aji Ichiban's dried fish snacks. I also tried their soft shell crab hand roll and found it great until I tasted some mayo in it. To me, I just don't think a soft shell crab hand roll really matches up with mayo in my opinion. To me, the best hand roll for mayo would be scallop. Next, I tried the smoked/grilled salmon head. It was alright and nothing to be crazy over. If you're into grilled fish Japanese style, I always recommend yellow tail collar! I also heard the udon soup was good. Lastly, I had their daily special which was tamago (egg) filled with cheese. As expected, it was that sweet tamago sushi taste with cheese melted within. Interesting indeed. On the side, their presentation of their dishes are nice which makes your experience more special.

So how was the raw stuff? It's actually quite cheap I must say. That's one large reason why there's so many people lining up. The combination sushi plates give quite a lot for a small price. I tried this $150 HKD so combination plate that had about 25-30 pieces of sushi/rolls. It's actually quite a deal. How was the freshness? Well, to see if there's a difference between the fish served in a combination plate compared to individually ordered, I ordered some yellow tail and tasted the quality. It melted in my mouth somewhat but still preserved a bit of the chewiness. Comparing that to the salmons, white fish and other items on the combination plate, there wasn't much of a difference. Which for me concludes the freshness was adequate but not great. However, we must remember the price they give you justifies the quality! So it's not so bad overall.

How about the service? The service was average. Considering the place is brand new, it seems like some of the waiters and waitress' don't know if certain isn't even served. I ordered a certain item and the lady said "okay" but when I noticed it never came, I asked another waiter and he says they don't serve that item. Considering the situation, it was half excusable to me. Most of the waiter's attitude were fine (except for one) and the manager there was friendly. Overall, it's a pass.

For the price you are asked to pay and what's served to you, SanQiaoyiyi does exactly what it's suppose to do. It would be great if the quality, especially the raw stuff, were a bit more fresh. However, please don't look away because if you're just a casual eater, this is definitely a go. Unless you're looking for some better/top notch quality sushi/sashimi, then a close place would be Oonami (also in Kennedy Town), which I did a short review recently for. Also, if you're looking for cooked items only, I don't see much of an issue not going. Just go early because there's quite a line!

< 3.5 out of 5 >

Divine

> Location : Chungking Mansions, 4/F, Block E, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
> Cuisine : West African / Nigerian
> Tel. # : N/A
> Website : N/A

I'm excited! This is my first time trying any type of African cuisine. However, before I start, I would like to say that Divine is more of a secretive restaurant. There are no advertisements for it of any sort just like another African cuisine restaurant in Chungking Mansions. Anybody is welcome but it's always best if someone take you for your first time =D From what I heard, prices can vary daily.

First of all, Chungking Mansions is a very interesting place (where Divine is located). As elected in the May 7, 2007 issue of Time Magazine (yearly feature: Best of Asia), Chungking Mansions is the best example of "Globalization in Action." Every year, there are at least 120 different nationalities that have passed through this building. It is very culturally diverse in a building that has been around for about 40 years.

Before you attempt to go, if you don't get use to being around a culturally diverse, very old building and physically unattractive environment especially when you go up to any of the floors in any of the blocks, I don't recommend you going. But if you're a open minded person like me, please give it a shot!

Now onto the restaurant facts! First of all, please be patient with me because I've tried my best to ask the chef and do some research on what he served me. First of all, Divine has no menu and the place is very small. It seats about 15 people max, a television for viewing and kind of a dim/old atmosphere. Divine is like a family diner if you want to put it that way. Strictly for the food and not the environment =D

What's served and available each day all depends on the chef so it has come to a point that this "restaurant" review will more be educational than a possible experience for you if you're not one of those desperate, open minded person. So the chef had three notable things I would like to share with you...

The first item is what's considered "rice" to an African person. Especially when it comes to Western and Central Africa. "Semo," or more popularly categorized as "fufu," is a big dome/ball-like starch heavy (carbohydrate) soup/sauce compliment. In Western Africa, semo or fufu is generally made out of a mixture of plantain, yam, potato or even maize. The combination varies depending on what's available for the chef to use. In central Africa, cassava is even used (the root portion is used). The type of semo I had felt almost like mash potatoes but more firm and not easily broken when you hold it in your hands. It doesn't have much taste to it but just very starchy in flavor. Don't worry, it's not not like eating a hand full of wheat flour =D

So what do I get to eat the semo with? The first dish he served was the "egusi soup." This is a native dish to Nigeria. Egusi soup is largely made out of grounded shelled seeds (pumpkin, gourd, melon, squash all could be used depending on which the chef desires) with a mixture of other ingredients such as bitter leaf (or spinach), peanut oil, tomato paste, onions, peppers, and stewed meat (for my case, it was fried fish). I've done a lot of research on egusi soup and most of them used pumpkin seeds over the other types. The finished product is this thick, orange looking dish that is perfect for your semo!

Do you eat with your hands? Yes, it is African culture (at this for our case right now) to eat with your hands. There is a specific method of grabbing your semo. You grab about a handful of semo and shape it into a ball. Afterwards, use your thumb to make an indentation into the middle so your sauce or soup can flow into it. Dip it into the sauce or soup, pick it up, the liquid gets trapped and you place the delicacy into your mouth! There's always a bowl of water for each individual to wash their hands whenever they want with some soup and paper towel.

So how does it taste? Egusi has a semi-salty taste to it a little bit of sweet sensation. It is spicy but not so much you have to be drinking water every 10 seconds =D It is notorious to Western African cuisine to serve some spicy dishes. My egusi was also mixed with some "bitter leaf soup" (which I will discuss next) on the side with a piece of fried fish. The fish was flavorful and most likely have some simple seasoning on it. Tender for the most part. Very interesting indeed.

The next dish is bitter leaf soup. The chef told me it's "Betleev Soup" but as much as I researched the internet, I had no luck finding the same name. The closest from what I could find is "bitter leaf soup" or another dish is called "palaver sauce." From what I can tell, they should all be the same thing. So what is it? It's a dark brownish sauce that's largely made out of "bitter leaf" or a substitute for it would be spinach. Bitter leaf is a scrub or small tree that is used throughout Africa. It can treat and prevent various health issues. As the name tells you, the leaf is bitter. But most of the time, the chef soaks it in water for a few hours to wash away most of the bitterness. The other ingredients to this dish, traditionally speaking (because I'm not sure what I ate is exactly like it), are dried/salted chopped fish in tiny pieces (definitely it was in mine), onions, tomato, pepper, chili and okra (sadly, he didn't have any okra prepared yet that day). The taste was very distinct most likely coming from the bitter leaf. It's saltiness was stronger than the egusi soup but just by a little bit. It was spicy too like the previous. The bitter leaf sauce was served with a huge piece of chicken which was fried and very tender. After eating it for awhile, the bitterness tends to be more obvious to your tongue than initially tasting it. Yet, the unique taste that comes from the bitter leaf is what makes this dish so special.

One little information before I continue is, fish and chicken always tend to be fried and beef and pork are usually stewed when cooked. I'm not very sure of the reason but this is something I was shared with.

Did I get to try anything else? The chef actually gave me a piece of Ox stomach and a piece of beef to try. The ox stomach was actually very good with the bitter leaf sauce and the beef was very stiff. I asked my friend who took me there if it's suppose to be that stiff and she said that every time she tried it, it's stiff. So just something to share.

In the end, I had a great experience with Divine since this is my first time eating any sort of African cuisine. It was definitely interesting and delicious on a different level. Throughout my research before I typed this, I found out there are more famous Western African dishes that are worth trying. Perhaps next time I go there, I can ask if they have it so I can report back here! I had a fun time definitely and was introduced some totally unique cuisine to my life! Pictures from top to bottom: bitter leaf soup with beef, semo/fufu, egusi soup with a little bitter leaf soup on top of fish, and bitter leaf soup with chicken.

< 4 out of 5 >