Nasi Lemak Strawberry by Zaza @ Banafee Express CIQ, Johor Bahru

There's a strawberry flavoured nasi lemak which we came across at Banafee Express CIQ (LOT A1 aras 3 bangunan, JB Sentral, Jln Jim Quee, Bukit Chagar, Johor Bahru 80300).

Certainly warranted a double take. We did. And more.

Not entirely sure how this worked. Tried the pink rice on its own and I wasn't quite sure what I was tasting. Maybe it was just a strawberry flavour I was imagining. The sambal was spicy and also a bit sweeter than usual. Don't know if the sweetness from the sambal brought out the strawberry flavour in the rice or that the sambal itself has strawberries.

In any case, there was a discernible strawberry flavour if you ate the nasi lemak with the sambal.

Annapoorna Pure Vegetarian, Kitchener Road

First time at Annapoorna (#01-26, 320 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 9680 9577). We've seen it a number of times while in the vicinity. While the address is Serangoon Road, the place is actually accessible along Kitchener Road somewhere across the road from Toast Box at City Square Mall.

Vadai's so so. Light, crisp and freshly fried. We've had vadai a number of times from different shops/restaurants around the area and while it wasn't bad, we didn't feel the ones here were as tasty as others.

Something called deepawali idli, which was basically a couple of idlis in a vegetable korma with some cashews. I liked this one.

Milaga podi cashew idiyappam sevai. Shredded idiyappam with presumably podi, ghee and cashews. Not bad. Tasted better with the coconut chutney.

Nishas Indian Food, Mei Ling Food Centre

Mutton murtabak from Nishas Indian Food (#02-34 Mei Lin Food Centre, 159 Mei Chin Road). Old school-ish and not bad tasting. Noticed that there's egg smudged onto the exterior which isn't how they're like usually. Murtabak came with 3 different curries ladled into the plate. I guess my only gripe was I would have preferred the onions to be more cooked down or finely diced. Maybe I'll get them with no onions the next time.

Sushiro, Q4 2025 - Q3 2026

Another compilation of random stuff from Sushiro (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九,十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七) eats from last quarter of 2025 to around 3rd quarter 2026. Most of it happened in the last quarter of 2025 so there's more of the winter toppings.

Curry clams udon.

Shirako gunkan with ponzu jelly.

Ankake shirako chawanmushi.

Winter yellowtail with anikmo.

Anikimo gunkan with ponzu jelly.

Crispy chicken nigiri.

Kani miso wrap.

Mozzarella tempura with honey and salt

Roast beef with yuzu kosho.

Sweet potato apple.

 

Wagyu if I remember right. It tasted much better than it looked.

Miyagi salted beltfish. Forgettable.

Uni & cream cheese with ponzu sauce - there's bonito powder and onions in it as well. Sushiro has traditionally not faired well with the quality of their uni and this was no exception. The smokiness from the bonito powder was nice with the cream cheese though.

Aburi shiodare cod. Didn't remember much of it so it probably wasn't great.

Tempura cod nigiri.

Butter & scallop. Nice.

Shrimp, cheese and mentaiko mayo. A guilty pleasure.

Some limited time thing. It's Arabiki sausage with mayo and ketchup. It's actually kinda nice.

Prawn nigiri two ways. Raw and boiled. I prefer the raw one which was sweeter.

Matcha parfait with matcha Kit Kat.

A $6.10 Suntory for ND 2026.

Miss Saigon, Fortune Centre

Miss Saigon (#04-14, Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road) is an eatery by Bánh Mì Saigon. Their first shop is at Orchard Plaza and now they have another at Fortune Centre.

That's the bánh mì áp chảo - baguette with a tomato-y stew with sardines, a couple fried eggs, a couple of meat balls and pate. The bread was pretty airy and crumbled a lot. I'm guessing this is similar to the Saigon breakfast thingy we've previously had at Nam Nam.

The stew tasted like tomato, sugar and Maggi seasoning. So it's sweet, salty and umami. After a while I thought it became a little sweeter than I was comfortable with.

The name of this dish was cơm thịt kho trứng cải chua củ kiệu. What I managed to decipher online via translation was cơm (rice) thịt kho trứng (pork belly & hard boiled egg stewed in a rich, savoury sweet sauce made from coconut water and fish sauce) cải chua (pickled mustard greens) củ kiệu (Chinese onion). Sounded about right based on what we had. Those pickled mustard greens were crunchy and fibrous.

We've had something similar in the defunct O Banh Mi.

The stew was sweet and a little smokey with really tender chunks of pork belly.

And a a hard boiled egg that has been deeply infused by the flavours of what it had been stewing in. Nice.

Dulukala, Silat Avenue

I remember eating at Dulukala many years ago at Beauty World. They've since moved out to a stall in a coffee shop at Silat Avenue (Kopi Haus, 148 Silat Avenue) near to the old Cantonment Railway Station.

Got ourselves the ayam buah keluak and the beef rendang sets. Each set is accompanied with chap chye and rice. 

Sauce from the chicken was savoury and the rendang sweet & spicy. Just to be clear, there's a load of spices in the rendang but it has little heat. Beef was relatively tender. Chap chye was tender and packed with flavour.

One has to top up for the actual buah keluak as the chicken doesn't come with any. $2 a piece. We also asked if one could just get buah keluak without ordering the chicken. I wished it was otherwise but 不可以. 😏

Black gold scraped from the insides of the nut. These have a flavour which is somewhat like caramelized fermented black beans. Texture's like a little gritty dryish paste. I also seem to detect a subtle sweetness through the flavour density. It's complex.

Some stir fried lady's finger with ikan bilis. These weren't slimy if anyone was wondering. One could taste the smokiness from the charred vegetable with some sweetness from onions and umami from those ikan bilis. Nice. 

Sambal on the side with manageable heat.

Every dish was a rice thief. The buah keluak and sambal alone wiped out most what I had on my plate.

Sadly their chendol was unimpressive. The coconut milk lacked richness and the dessert felt diluted.