Zhen Jie Mei Shi

MB+ - Instantly recognisable due to its stark pink signboard, Zhen Jie Mei Shi has a moderately varied menu, offering about 15 items ranging from fish, seafood and mixed pig’s organ soups to sesame oil chicken and wine prawns. At Chinese New Year, they’re also known for selling an affordable yu sheng ($16 or $24 for a small or big portion respectively, with an additional top-up of $2 or $4 for salmon).



However, as promising as this sounds, the dishes, unfortunately, fall a little short on taste. The wine chicken ($4.50) is presented as a bowl of cloudy soup, with a few strands of spring onions floating on the surface. I dug deeper and was delighted to find large chunks of chicken beneath; the chicken is tender and well-cooked, with the soup feeling light and clean. Despite not being oily, the soup regrettably does not have much ‘wine’ taste – which is supposedly the main core ingredient of the dish.



The vinegar trotter ($7) is impressive at first glance, with a giant pig’s trotter swimming in a pool of dark gravy alongside a whole braised egg. Going by size alone, I would say that this dish is extremely value for money. However, the meat is a little tough, which is a far cry from the usual tenderness of such trotter dishes. The soup also tastes sweeter than sour, which admittedly proves to be a little jarring.