Junior Kuppanna, Kitchener Road

I remember seeing the long queues outside Junior Kuppanna at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur the last time I was there. This was the local branch at Little India (161 Kitchener Road, tel : +65 9235 5116)

Mutton briyani. Full portion. Seeraga Samba rice is used here.

Not bad tasting. Ample warm flavour from the spices in the rice. Mutton was tender but dry-ish. Half of mine were bones. 

Chicken briyani. Half portion. Also not bad tasting. Flavour's a little different because of the meat. Like the other briyani, the protein was tender but dry-ish.

Note to self: Raita has coriander hidden inside.

A couple of curries came with the briyani. The chicken one was spicy, coconut-y and delicious.

Their gobi 65 was nice. Cauliflower florets were coated in a deliciously savoury crisp batter.

Eisbein and seabream from Brotzeit

There's a North Sea menu at Brotzeit which caught our attention recently. 

But first affensaft mango. Affensaft, I venture, is a German equivalent of shandy. Came across the mention of it being called monkey juice. No monkeys were used as far as I could tell. So this was weissbier with mango juice. No monkeys.

The mango flavour was initially faint and got stronger close to the end because the juice ended up mostly at the bottom of the glass.

What intrigued me was their eisbein - or boiled pork knuckles. Tasted kinda like how I imagined. Tender, easily off the bone and still very meaty with some bite to them. Those sauerkraut definitely helped. Potatoes were nice.

The menu mentioned grilled seabream but this appeared to be fried. Anyways, fish was pretty good tasting with firm and flaky meat. Potato salad was nice and tangy.

初二 lunch from Hajah Maimunah @ Jalan Pisang

Been a while since we last ate at Hajah Maimunah. 初二 of CNY was a good time as any and it also coincidentally marked the last day of their operations for this location before it will be closed for a month to focus on tingkat deliveries during the Ramadan period.

The food has mostly been good pretty much every time we're here - barring occasional inconsistencies which aren't common. We've had most if not all of these dishes before so there won't be much to say.

Except maybe for the terung belado which was squishy and tender. Nice with that belado salsa.

Perhaps just a reminder to self that we'll need to break out of the routine stuff once in a while...

...like their paru belado which I don't want to say no to. 😂

Today's assam pedas ikan pari was nicer than the last time. Stingray meat was less stiff.

We finished with some lopes and a green bean soup with coconut milk

Breakfast during 初一 and 初二

初一 Nasi lemak with extra chicken wings from Queenstown Lontong. I got a piece of tau kwa with it today which was unusual because it's not something they, or other nasi lemak stalls for that matter, include in nasi lemak. Not complaining though. I do feel that the rice tasted better when I had it in their old location at Tanglin Halt. I don't see many of the add ons that used to be available anymore too.

初二 Egg, onion & cheese prata from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七). Red onions lightly cooked down in the prata with milky saltiness from the cheese which is subsequently layered with a mutton-y dalcha and their signature sambal. Nice! 👍🏼

rumeL, Tiong Bahru Plaza

rumeL's (#01-107 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road) a mixed bag. Back when they were renovating, I thought the signs looked like they were promoting a generic Italian cafe with Neapolitan pizza. I think they're a bit more and less than what they claim coupled with some localised flavours.

That and the fact that their name is the reverse of 'lemur'. A Madagascan prosimian primate mascot? I struggle to decipher the meaning behind how they amalgamate. 😲 

Anyways there's a kaya butter pizza. Which was pretty nice. Peranakan styled pandan kaya. It's available for breakfast cheaper than their regular prices and can be gotten with soft boiled eggs and kopi. What's notable was their puffy sourdough crust which was kinda enjoyable. I guess I could call it Neapolitan-esque.

Even with some powdered parmesan cheese, the kaya flavour was dominant.

There's the localisation. Though admittedly these kaya-carb-soft-boiled-egg-kopi traditional breakfast has been a lot more marketing than reality. If it had been tradition, it hasn't been much for the better part of the past few decades. When it was, it might have been only for a couple of decades at best and never widespread. This is just the narration driven by capitalism.

Kopi's drinkable stuff.

Hot honey pizza wasn't spicy. Just sweet and cheesy.

Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice has opened a restaurant in town called Tiong Bahru Hainanese Chicken Rice (B2-36A Ngee Ann CIty, 391 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6900 4320). So they're no longer boneless? 🤔 Anyways, there's a slew of other stuff on the menu other than chicken rice. That seems to be how all these old chicken rice brands that expand end up.

Chicken's pretty decent. Quarter portion was bigger than I imagined.

Chook has jelly beneath the skin.

But it kinda feels a little different from eating them at Tiong Bahru Food Centre.

There's Hainanese crispy pork on menu too. I liked this even though I'm generally not a fan of crispy pork with the exception of the ones from the defunct Blk 38 Curry Rice. These were crispy, lardy and savoury. Loads of crunch and porcine flavour.

Even the curry that accompanied those crispy pork was delicious. 

The pickled mustard green were much more intense than those that I remember from their Tiong Bahru stall.

Bean sprouts quite nice. There're bits of salted fish in it.

Egg.

This outpost has chicken rice made using basmati and Niigata Koshihikari rice. Might come back and try those another time.