Jing Jing is open for dinner now! No more closing at 5pm, just in time for Diesel's opening on weekdays. Jing Jing will continue to serve their great breakfasts and lunch specials, of course. Open every day, except Tuesdays.

They organised a little free tasting of new chef Marlon's dishes the other night and the feedback seemed to be all-round very positive. They even invited people from some of the other Western-style YSW restaurants, like Prime and Lamma Grill.
As occasional guests of all these establishments, we're looking forward to some friendly competition between these places. We'll try to figure out which one does the best versions of some of our favourite dishes.

One advantage of Jing Jing we could see right away is something I've been missing in most other YSW restaurants:
a full page of dessert selections in their brand-new menu!

Pictures to follow....

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A few pictures of Chef Marlon's new dishes in Jing Jing, now open for dinner except Tue, plus the menu! All pictures by Lovely Sam who titled her Facebook album Food from my restaurant ♥.

Yes, these dishes taste as great as they look like. They've had a food tasting last week and we got to sample most of the dishes. We've already picked our favourites to order next time. A new favourite spot for their full-page Dessert Menu, a rarity in YSW.

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An email addressed to me about the reopened Mr Ma & Restaurant,
from A Lamma Housewife, curious and snorting with indignation like a red flag to a bull. Published here with her permission:

"I would like to ask you and your lovely partner to possibly do a restaurant review and a little detective work on the new(ish) cafe in the middle of YSW where there is now a bunch of ugly red plastic fencing and vast expanse of flat concrete replacing a beautiful Bauhinia tree.

I am so amazed at the sheer drab, ugliness that it is making me unbearably curious as to who had the nerve to set this up and why? They have made absolutely NO attempt to lure customers in, advertise, give themselves a new name, prettify the huge space they are lucky enough to have by having any greenery, or canopies for shade or even using the concrete space out front they have just spent a fortune creating!

Perhaps if you like we could hold a competition to guess its real purpose. I am saying it's a Communist party meeting hall, or a DAB tea room, not open to the public, or a secret service spy room where all the members of the public are monitored on secret CCTV when they walk past. Any other suggestions? They are the PLAIN POLICE. THE ANTI beauty committee, disallowing anything beautiful that enters within (maybe you better not go there with the wife).

I am so sad about the tree and sad that they cut it down without replacing it with anything remotely pretty or green. Such a waste of a potentially useful spot too. It could be a great garden, with flower beds and a lawn in the centre and etc etc .... right now it is a typical example of Lamma shabby/ ugly. Please do, next time you visit, ask them what they intend to do with that space in the centre.

They could hire it out once a month for the handmade market.
Way back in 1989 we had a country fair / pop concert in there with Lamma expats. We were all quite new to the scene and of course the owners were being a bit adventurous allowing us to have a few bands and bric-a-brac and face painting etc in the centre there.

It was great though but it's never happened again. Saskia was the one who organized that I think.
The building was being used by a group of Born Again Christians but they didn't stay very long as I think they relocated to Sok Ku Wan."

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Email from Lamma Grill to their e-mail subscribers:

"30th August 2013
We are really sorry but the fish fryer thermostat isn't working and it's too dangerous to operate without it so we have had to turn it off.

We will get someone in ASAP to sort it out.

Sorry all fish fans!"

This must be the only Lamma restaurant informing their customers about news and specials, even temporary problems, via email. A few do Facebook updates, but that's usually missed in the flood of status updates on one's Wall.

Well done, Lamma Grill, thanks for all your welcome updates on weekend specials and this refreshingly honest update for all of us "fish fans"!
This must be the first time that somebody called me a fish face, err, fish fan in an online communication...

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Interestingly, the message that the fish fryer had been fixed arrived one hour 20 minutes BEFORE the off-message above.

Yes, online communication is both a (marketing) art and a (computer) science....

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A few photos from the other night's amazing sunset viewed from the old jetty besides Prime Bar & Grill, one of the very best sunset watching spots on the YSW seaside.

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Set lunch menus new at Jing Jing, looking like quite a bargain in YSW these days. We also love new cheerful chef Marlon's cooking a lot, and their new extensive menu with hand-pasted photos has an entire page of desserts, a real rarity in all of YSW.

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We've been following up on the many mixed reviews for the Mr Ma & Restaurant cha chan teng above and by word of mouth. It's been reopened just 4 months ago behind the "VV Parking Lot" and the "Property Agency Container". We had lunch there today and our first, very friendly chat with Emily, the new co-manager, introduced by Tigger.

Like me, Emily's studied computer science and business in Europe, so we hit it off right away. An indigenous daughter of one of Lamma's leading families, she grew up here and knows so much about village life & politics... but I'm not telling, staying out of potential trouble...

They've listened to the "improvement suggestions" from their customers and our lunch was actually pretty nice, especially at their very competitive prices, some of the lowest in all of YSW. We ordered simple food from their quite comprehensive, bilingual menu, like Singapore Fried Noodles and egg-corned beef sandwich. It was very tasty, non-greasy and fully satisfying. A new, very experienced chef will start work soon and I hope to do a more comprehensive review with photos soon.

Plus a new blackboard outside Pizza Milano and a whiteboard outside Jing Jing. We've got to try this daily changing dinner set or the below-$100 lunch set above later this week!

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We're becoming major fans of Jing-Jing's new, frequently changing lunch and dinner set menus. This was simply a wonderful, tasty and pretty lunch at a very competitive price the other day.

New chef Marlon is an attentive, smiling and jovial host, listening to customer's feedback, willing to make changes and even add some of our favourite dishes to the constantly evolving and improving menu.

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Oktoberfest on Lamma?! It takes more than German beer for that.
I've got to test the food as well, even though, being Swiss, I'm not an expert on German food. But their offer of a free pint for VIP card holders - easy to get for Lammaites after just one meal there - sounds enticing and refreshing; especially after a thirsty bike ride from one end of the Cable Road in Pak Kok to the other end at the Power Station, then back to Hung Shing Yeh beach.

Submitted by Concerto Inn:

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Is this the only place on Lamma offering traditional Thanksgiving dinners?

Got to try this as I haven't enjoyed this for several years. Stuffed turkey dinners are a very rare and exotic treat for us who've grown up without any Thanksgiving holidays and the associated customs and foods. It's at least as exotic for me as the Mid-Autumn Festival was for me when arriving in HK a quarter of a century ago. Almost as exotic and strange as Halloween.

Well, the more festivals of as many cultures as possible to join in and celebrate, the better!

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I didn't even know Canadians celebrated "Thanksgiving", but apparently they do, but on a different date then the Americans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28Canada%29
"Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Jour de l'Action de grâce), occurring on the second Monday in October, is an annual Canadian holiday which celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year."

Thanks for the explanations, Alan. I was wondering about why this Thanksgiving seems to clash with Chung Yeung today and also the Oktoberfest (starting this week in Concerto Inn) as it's usually in Nov sometime, just before Halloween. Lamma is still such a multi-cultural place, always an excuse for a party...

We've made reservations for tonight. You can catch me and Lamma-Por in Prime from 6:15pm tonight, letting me know in person why this website stinks (or not) and how to improve it!

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That was definitely the best Thanksgiving dinner we've had in years!

Considering that we haven't had any in years, that's not too much praise; but it was actually really delicious and so much better than turkey dinners I've had before. Soft, moist, succulent turkey with a yummy white gravy; crispy bread stuffing with its own sauce; smooth, creamy potato mash, well-done veggies; plus, my personal highlight, the tart cranberries in a little crispy puff pastry shell.

The single portion was more than generous enough to satisfy both of us. A pretty decent deal at $170, no service charge.

The glass of house white wine was fine, perfectly suitable for the turkey, but a little bit on the skimpy side, a third full in a big glass. Pour a bit more, at least half... or use smaller glasses! Prime's neighbour, Andy's Seafood, another major favourite place of ours, uses much smaller glasses but fills them almost to the brim.

We had to rush back to catch the Pak Kok ferry, so we got their must-have pumpkin pie to go.

Four thumbs up to Prime tonight from Lamma-Por & -Gung!

Talking to chef Richie - Welcome back after your long summer break! - Prime will be serving an American Thanksgiving dinner next month. Canadian Thanksgiving menu is still on tomorrow, Monday. We'll surely be returning next month, comparing their Canadian and American Thanksgiving offerings. What are the differences, if any, we wonder?

OK, another review done, my freshly ground coffee (beans from Lamma Gourmet) has finished brewing in the French press, to be enjoyed with our takeaway pumpkin pie!

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Hmm, I would have expected the Canadian version to have backbacon.

And beer.

Finally got around to trying the Thai place that used to be a noodle joint, managed by an old face from the Sampan - didn't note its name but opposite Shelley's cake shop. Pretty good paf Thai, pineapple fried rice, chicken green curry & morning glory. All mild choices for a table with 2 kids that went down well with all. Will return.

Photos...

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That's the place! And it more bases than Thai with that menu.