Welcome to the Black (Tap) Parade

It's been a while since we ate at Black Tap (一, 二, 三, 四,五). About a year and a half by estimates. I've been looking forward to this.

In all the times we've been here, we've never imagined getting one of their Crazy Shakes. Reason is kinda obvious. But because there were more of us today, we got a Cinnamon Bun Shake. I'm not ashamed to admit that I liked it. Great cinnamon-y vanilla shake with crunchy stuff, cream cheese and cream. Old fashioned flavours. Hell the cinnamon bun put a smile in me. 

I got their Old Fashioned burger today. It has shiitake mushrooms which I'm usually not a fan of but this burger was delicious. The hefty patty was beefy and the Swiss cheese subtle. Very happy with it.

Black Tap's coffee shake wasn't great. Wouldn't say it's good even. Wouldn't get it again. Coffee was weak-ish and not satisfying as a flavour. Shake Shack makes a better coffee shake than this.

A banana lassi from Mohd Hanifa Drinks

We were seated near Mohd Hanifa Drinks (#01-255 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) and decided to get a banana lassi from them. I was initially a little concerned seeing that there were no bananas in the stall......

The proprietor Houdini-ed for a short while after taking my order, returned with a couple of bananas and proceeded to blend them with a few spoons of curd and crushed ice. This was nicely done. Great banana flavour infused into the lassi which wasn't made dilute by excessive ice. There was just enough to chill the drink. Will come back for it.

Prata Saga Sambal Berlada, Tekka Food Centre

If anyone's wondering, that's two double egg pratas that's banjir-ed and has extra sambal on the side from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada (#01-258 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). There's even a piece of surprise lamb tendon on top of those prata if you could tell. I'm not a fan of that dalcha because it had a sweetness which I did not expect. What impressed me was how everything rounded up beautifully when paired with the spicy sambal. Will definitely be back.

Mushroom triple cheeseburger and taro pie from McD

Flavour for the season at McD is their creamy mushroom cheeseburger. This one's the triple cheeseburger version. Why creamy? Because there's some creamy pepper mayo thing inside. For a triple cheeseburger, it felt kinda puny.

Not bad tasting though. Not much of the pepper mayo getting through but definitely feeling/tasting those mushrooms. I like this - it's just a little too damned small for what they were charging. Half of its price tag would sound fair.

That's the custard taro pie. Also enjoyed this. The taro fillings and the custard taste separated - which I thought might not have been the case since both were wet and hot and ready to slide into each other. Not complaining.

白鸡尾, livers and egg from Hwa Kee Lemon Chicken Rice (华记柠檬鸡饭)

Re-revisiting Hwa Kee Lemon Chicken Rice and this time is for the 白鸡尾 that never happened in the first time. Competently done meat from the chicken thighs that was tender, layered by a nice application of soya sauce and sesame oil. I'm ranking the fried lemon chicken and this poached one on top among their chicken offerings.

Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (夜来香潮州粥), Bukit Merah View

We've passed by Ye Lai Xiang Teochew Porridge (116 Bukit Merah View, #01-217) on some occasions but have never encountered a queue as long as this time round when we intended to get some. This was the same coffee shop that houses 吉隆坡正記葉子楣手工包點 and Sheng Ji Fishball Noodle.

Ordered a bunch of dishes that could conceivably be considered favourites amongst the commonly seen offerings from Teochew porridge stalls.

That's fried pork belly that's been marinated with fermented red bean curd (南乳). Not freshly fried by the time we got our portions but the flavour's not bad. I can imagine how much better they might be if we had gotten a fresh batch.

This was chap chye with red fermented bean curd. The stewing liquid has a pink hue which was probably not so obvious in the photo. For the record, that fermented bean curd flavour was there but not in your face.

We love us some hairy gourd (节瓜) with tang hoon sometimes.

Nice salty minced pork with fermented black beans. Rice thieves!

Stewed tau kee (dried beancurd sheets). These aren't the better ones around but it got the job done.

Otah's decent. Would love for them to pack more heat but I'm not complaining.

Farhana West Coast, Tekka Food Centre

Pretty decent Indian rojak from Farhana West Coast (#01-262 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). The breads were freshly refried on order and that dip was filled with crushed peanuts. What got my attention though were the thick slices of paru goreng. Check out the lattices on them. They were tender like fish cakes. Can you believe it?

BSM in garlic bagel from Two Men Bagel House

Haven't had the BSM from Two Men Bagel House ( 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十) before but apparently that's from the TMBH Classics section of their menu so I guess it's been around. Egg, cheese and bologna with a hint of that maple butter. Breakfast-y. This one was piping hot with the innards spilling out as I ate.

Ms. Durian, Jalan Besar

Heard about Ms Durian (11 Kelantan Road, tel/Whatsapp : +65 6962 0057) so we finally made it down to try...whatever it was they had.

Like their durian coffee which was a cold brew served with an ice ball.

Drink had a good balance between the durian and coffee but neither was particularly potent. Was pretty milky.

Matcha mango milk did not have much mango taste. It was there, just too subtle in the the background.

Breaded fried Brie with fruit compote - nice crunchy exterior with melty insides which was kinda drowned out by both the crunchy exterior and the accompanying compote. I thought this would have been nicer if it was Camembert.

Tom yam pasta had a nice lemongrass flavour. I liked it but it didn't taste particularly tom yam to me.

Most intriguing was their mao shan wang nasi lemak. Most of the flavour in the rice was from the durian and not coconut and we couldn't definitively tell what type of durian it was. Wouldn't have associated nasi lemak with it. Fried chicken was nice. Most awesome item on the plate was...*drumroll*...the fiery sambal which I wasn't sure what they expected us to use on. I ate it with the egg and cucumbers because I didn't want to waste it and it did not make sense with the rice.

Mao shan wang ice cream puffs were not bad but were puny. Two biter max.

There was a whiskey mao shan wang cake which didn't contain the slightest hint of whiskey. Lovely cake but overpriced.

Durian tiramisu was pretty good though. Both the durian mousse and espresso were potent and balanced. Wouldn't expect to see a concoction like this at any part of the world aside from our sunny shores and northern neighbour.

Fong Hup Koka Noodle (豐合可口麵), Jalan Bukit Merah

Decent bowl of tom yum Koka noodle from Fong Hup Koka Noodle (Detian Coffee Shop, 28 Jalan Bukit Merah) with a spicy tangy tomato flavour. There's marinated minced and slice pork (and a hidden egg) in it but the quantity of meat felt somewhat sparse. I liked that they did not overcook those noodles. Not as awesome as I recall from the bowl at Hai Xian Zhu Zhou though.

Zham Zham Muslim Food, Tekka Food Centre

Here's a mutton dalcha rice meal from Zham Zham Muslim Food (#01-217 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road). Nice one. The dalcha was filled with slivers of disintegrate in the mouth mutton fat which was delicious. Got some sambal quail eggs and cabbage poriyal on the side too.

The boned in mutton was relatively tender but not at the stage where they easily slipped off the bone. Those flimsy plastic utensils managed to handle much of the meat extraction but there were parts where they failed me. Anyways, pretty good. There's an option which involves lamb ribs which weren't available because it's one of those things for the earlier birds so I'll try to catch that worm the next time.

One week later......

Managed to get a portion of their lamb ribs dalcha before peak hour. No extra slivers of fat in my bowl today. 

Like the boned in mutton from the previous visit, the meat on the rib was relatively tender. Not wieldy with plastic utensils but definitely easy eating using hands which I eventually did. Their dal palak was delicious.

Semolina, Tanglin Mall

Noticed Semolina (B1-121 Tanglin Mall, 163 Tanglin Road, tel : +65 8868 4415) a while back. They're Indian vegetarian along the food section at the basement of Tanglin Mall. For all the chaat and street food on the menu, this is Tanglin Mall so there're no street food vibes. Everything feels......clean.

There's saffron chai on menu. Tea's creamy with a hint of saffron. No unfair comparisons to another saffron tea will be made here. 😂

Decent dahi puri. I was imagining that it would have more splashes of colour from the yoghurt and chutneys but I guess that's not the way they roll here. The sev was fine. 

This might be the first time we've ever ordered paratha. The honour of our first was a gobi paratha - served with avakaya (mango pickle) and sweetened curd (yoghurt) on the side. 

Cauliflower's mashed in between layers of the bread infused with cumin. This was quite delicious.

Got a serving of their Hakka noodle. It's not Hakka styled/influenced if anyone was wondering. It's Indian Chinese stir fried noodles.I think there's soy sauce it in and some vegetables. Quite salty but that made it moreish for me.

Masala chai to end. Tea's milky and I wished there was stronger spices from their masala. Tasted safe. Decent but not memorable.