Roast & Coffee - Retro Garden 1968's, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

Roast & Coffee (62 & 63 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-1895 6100) came up on our radar sometime late last year. They're a Nanyang cafe that isn't dissimilar to Oriental Kopi.

Got a couple of drinks. Butter kopi's respectably robust and that ice cham was surprisingly good with a nice tea flavour.

Curry lava egg - a couple of soft boiled eggs on toast soaked in curry. Nothing unexpected here and pretty good eat.

These guys use pretty good tasting otah that's filled with bits of fish. Enjoyed their otah omelette sandwich.

This was called Madam J seafood mihun. Seafood consisted of prawns and couple of squid rings. The former was nice - sweet and fresh tasting, filled with tomalley that was spilling out as you detached the heads. The broth was savoury, not exactly seafood-y and filled with evaporated milk and hua diao (花雕)? Appreciated how the home made fried shallots added to the broth. Delicious as a whole but the portion was kinda small. 

Chef Hainanese Western Food, Margaret Drive Hawker Centre

I ate once at Chef Hainanese Western Food years ago back at Tanglin Halt food centre and haven't gotten any food from them since they've migrated to their current location (#01-32 Margaret Drive Hawker Centre, 38A Margaret Drive). I remember being not impressed by their mixed grill but it was a long time back. Here's a fresh start getting reacquainted.

Portions were huge. This was their Chef Set 4. Crinkle cut fries tasted potato-y and unexpectedly addictive. Cheap pink sausage was cheap pink sausage. Chicken chop's actually pretty good with nice charring and the meat wasn't overly thin or dried out. Not a fan of their breaded fish....think that's dory. Potato was surprisingly sweet and naturally flavoured. The coleslaw which didn't have any sauce/mayo was the weakest link. One actually has to pay a dollar for tartare sauce here.

Oh I have missed thee, spicy dry Megamen

It has been a while. Still loving the spicy dry Megamen from Brothers Ramen (一, 二 , 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九). The one thing I thought could have been improved on this precarious mound of noodles + bean sprouts + minced garlic + seaweed + ajitama + pork fat was their thick charshu from a cut of pork which is kinda boring and lean. Like maybe bring back that braised pork belly. One can hope.

Formaggi con burrata di Parma from Fernando's Pizza

 

Fernando's New York Slices at Margaret Market has been renamed Fernando's Pizza. I'm wondering if the change could be due to the fact that that some of their toppings are starting to look more Italian and, assuming that I'm not imagining it, I'm seeing the wispy spectres of Zazz Pizza on the menu here. Man I miss Zazz Pizza.

Anyways, this was Mozzarella, Taleggio, Gorgonzola, burrata, prosciutto di Parma and figs. How could I say no to them? I did wish that they were more generous with those figs and perhaps, not have them cut up so small. Otherwise, great combination of umami and milky saltiness accented by some of that stinkiness from the Gorgonzola and creaminess from the burrata. Good with and without their spicy hot honey.

Liang Kee Teochew Seafood (亮記潮州菜), Bukit Merah Lane

If my memory serves, the stall that is Liang Kee Teochew Seafood (127 Bukit Merah Lane 1) used to be Beo Crescent Hokkien Mee. What I aren't sure about is, if this was the same Liang Kee as the one I ate at 10 years ago. I think it was.

Nice cai por hor fun. Lots of crunch from the kailan and bean sprouts paired with wok hei on those scorched rice noodles. There's bits of squid in it too.

Pork aspic was delicious. Once it's been out for a little bit, the gelatine would melt with umami in the mouth. Together with the bits of pork, it tasted like some head cheese terrine.

Their bitter gourd omelette was the most loaded one we've ever had. Lots of sliced bitter gourd in it.

Pretty nice orh nee with pumpkin.

Will come back again.

Nanyang Fried Chicken Rice (南洋香脆雞), Hong Lim Food Centre

Came across Nanyang Fried Chicken Rice (#02-09 Hong Lim Food Center, 531A Upper Cross Street) at the unit where BurGrill used to be. Just right next door to Ah Fatt Handmade Fishball Noodle. Fried chicken's pretty decent with crunchy bits on the outside. Chicken rice was nicely flavoured but a little dry - would be awesome if they could improve on this taking cue from the veterans; those are not far from being good enough to eat on their own. Chilli's lime-y and bright. Ajitama with molten yolk's tender and infused with shoyu flavour. Not bad.

Sin Kian Heng Minced Meat Noodle (新建興肉脞面), Sin Ming

I've been wanting to try the bak chor mee at Sin Kian Heng (Gourmet Street Coffeeshop, 22 Sin Ming Road) since hearing about them. Took a while but it finally happened. They're a league of their own with a flavour profile that isn't unfamiliar but also distinctively different from most of not all of their competitors. That I know of at least.

This was a bowl of mee pok with added on pork trotters and sweet intestines/chitterlings/粉肠. The former's mostly skin, fat and gelatinous/collagen-y bits which you could slurp off the bone and the latter's stewed till tender. This bowl was saucy, heavy and intense. What they also do have that other bak chor mee doesn't are fried fish balls. Those tasted freshly fried and were delicious. 

Base flavour profile had a bit of heat, was mostly savoury, a little lard-y and I thought I detected vinegar. The chilli/soya sauce on the side's pretty potent. Lip burning potent with a hit of garlic. Nice.  

Revisiting Kalam Restaurant

Back at Kalam Restaurant. Couldn't resist getting a serving of their Mangalore buns for a start. These banana flavoured hum chim pang. I figured out a good combination here - with a generous pinch of the grated coconut/jaggery and a spoonful of the coconut chutney.

Paneer briyani - portion easily feeds two. Nice warm spices, including cumin and a bit of heat in there. Not heavy handed on the salt here. There's bits of stuff in the rice that looked suspiciously like coriander. Didn't expect fried onions but no complains. Just wished there was more paneer. Came with some delicious korma (refillable apparently) and raita on the side. The orange stuff's kesari - lightly sweet and buttery but a little dry.

Prawn tikka was kinda forgettable. Prawns were a little small and we've had more compelling tikkas.

Thanos juice. Just kidding. 😬 It's blueberry lassi. I couldn't tell if it's real blueberries or some concentrate/cordial inside but the flavour of those berries weren't shy and the lassi was sweeter than I normally prefer.

A McGriddling experience with McD

It's true. McGriddles are back. Ordered this via app and they gave me a McMuffin Stack. I went back to change with the order slip and the first thing the auntie told me was "对啊, Muffin Stack". 😳 Strike one for McD's quality control. Anyways I told her it states McGriddle. I can attribute the error to 老花. She then went to a supervisor who promptly looked at the order and the slip and said to me "Correct, this is the stack." 😳 I told her it's a McGriddle on the order and not a McMuffin. Strike two for McD's quality control. Two layers of verification in the morning have failed to correctly identify a single incorrect order. 😓

Anyways, what I really wanted to bring up was that they took the McMuffin and dumped into the bin and gave me my order. I think - the least they could have done was to ask me if I still wanted it before wasting food and shame on McD for not making an attempt not to waste food.

Authentic Chai Chee Bak Chor Mee, Potong Pasir

I don't really know much about this stall (120 Potong Pasir Ave 1) but the name was familiar and it was mediocre experience. Mostly because the mee pok was overcooked and too soft which pretty much ruined it. That and the lye flavour in the noodles as well. Decent sambal and soft, almost stale lard included. I left half of it unfinished.

Soup which was spruced with rendered lard, couple meatballs, a dumpling and some minced pork was drinkable. The ingredients weren't exactly generous. There's bits of 芹菜 in it which I didn't like. As I said, a mediocre experience.

One last plate from Twelve Hainanese Chicken Rice

From what I read,  Twelve Hainanese Chicken Rice will be closing for good at Jalan Kukoh due to rental issues they're facing. Which is a pity since they're decent. But not so much with how they chopped the chicken though. 😬 Quite a bit of bone fragments in there. Otherwise another decent stall bites the dust.

Salted vegetable fish soup with ee mian from Jia Li Seafood Soup (佳丽)

Back at Jia Li Seafood Soup to try the salted vegetable soup that I noticed from the last time. I still rank Yan Ji above this even though I kinda enjoyed this one with the tanginess from the kiam chye. Ee mian for the win.

The end of Keisuke Plus

Keisuke Plus is folding up. Kinda sad because there's gonna be a bunch of stuff we're gonna miss from them that isn't available anywhere else. As it was with their duck broth ramen from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke it might disappear and never be available again. We came back to get some of the stuff we liked because it might be the last time we'll ever get to.

Like their Hokkaido oyster broth ramen.

And their wagyu mazesoba.

And also their tastier than Mashi No Mashi's wagyu gyoza.

Dian Xiao Er Prestige (店小二臻选), Great World

New outpost by 店小二 with an expanded menu at Great World (#01-140 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6337 7973).

There's crab roe bee hoon in this branch. Definitely new on the menu. This dish had enough of the roe to impart a discernible flavour along with an underlying smokiness in the noodles. Loads of egg white in the gravy. Not bad.

Dian Xiao Er's dang gui/angelica duck (当归药材烤鸭) has been reliably tasty with a savoury sweetness from the herb infused sauce over tender sliced meat. Not to mention a nice flavour from the roasted skin. 

Revisiting Mei Mei Roast (妹妹李记烧腊)

Back for more char siew rice and this time, with salted vegetable duck soup (咸菜鸭汤) at Mei Mei Roast.

Lovely fatty cuts which fell apart easily in the mouth imparting flavour from the fat and the sweet smokiness from the caramelized exterior.

Pretty decent tasting salted vegetable duck soup with sufficient sour and savouriness.

The Hamburger from Shake Shack

<RANT>Shack Shack, you need to do better with your declining service. 👎🏼 Even for fast food standards, it's a low. I paid for my food, screen on the kiosk got stuck at the 'printing receipt' screen and we approached the staff at the counter who came back with the response telling me that the order didn't go through. And she left it at that. 

What the flying fuck do you expect me to do here with this response? As it turned out, I had to get back to her about the problem before SHE pushed the issue to a colleague who had just arrived. SHE looked very reluctant in trying to get the order fulfilment resolved. This experience is obviously an echo of Shake Shack's management's lackadaisical attitude.

How else would it be that a business has staff thinking it's fully acceptable not fulfilling an order that has already been paid for.</RANT>

I came across the mention of the Hamburger in Shake Shack's menu recently and was naturally convinced by the argument that without the distractions of the other items in their burger, one could get the full flavour from the meat. We got the double and weren't disappointed. That burger was delicious in it's simple beefiness. That being said, I'm equally happy with the extra plot in their Shackburger too.

That mandarin lemonade tasted like regular lemonade so that was just gimmicky without actual value. Why bother with this flavour failure? Also curious why my ShackMeister fries had the cheese sauce separated when every order had them on the fries. What's going on here?

Turkish beef murtabak from Al Tasneem

I noticed the Turkish beef murtabak on the menu previously when I was having their Turkish beef kuey teow goreng and was wondering if it was good. Featured the same doner kebab beef slices, chopped onion and egg. Pretty edible but the kebab beef didn't taste beefy today like the last time. Which was disappointing. Now that I've tried it, I don't think I'll be getting it again.