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.

Chicken fried rice from the canteen at Singapore Navy Museum

It's edible and not great. Fried rice featured the trinity of frozen peas/carrot/corn with what tasted like previously frozen chicken. The rice was pretty bland. It was the sambal and pickled green chilli that got me through. And unexpectedly, a heart shaped fried egg. I guess if one is stuck with eating here, there isn't much of a choice.

Recently at Phat Burger Bro.

The menu at Phat Burger Bro. appears to have changed some since the last time we were here.

There's now blue cheese burger on the menu. Didn't have to customize the order to get one now. The blue cheese appears to be different from the last time.

While the quality of the ingredients didn't appear to be much different, the construct of the burger just felt a little off. No biggie though.

What was obviously different were the fries. These today didn't taste as good as what we had previously. And I remember this place also because I really liked their fries. Today's were meh and lacking of potato flavour. Here's me hoping that it's a one off.

Keria Japanese Restaurant (酒菜けりあ). Or is it Kerria. In 2025

Wow, it's been a few years since we were last at Keria. (一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 十一 十二 十三 十四 十五)

Today's otoshi is lady's finger and mentaiko tororo I think. Not sure what those white crunchy cubes were. It's a little slimy but delicious with a splash of shoyu.

Their smoky stir fried mentaiko cabbage has mostly been reliable in our visits. Today wasn't any different. Did we ever not get this?

Possibly our first grilled anikimo teriyaki. The grilling brought out lots of flavour from the liver.

Natto omulette. Yes, it is spelled 'omulette' on their menu. We've had this previously.

Oysters pan fried in butter. Yummy.

Some pork curry with sparse bits of minced pork. 

Wagyu & tofu sukiyaki. Meat was so tender and the tofu was delicious in the strikingly sweet & savoury broth.

Ended with coffee jelly again. 😬

Indonesian Cuisine, Tanjong Pagar Food Centre

Noticed this stall (#02-06 Tanjong Pagar Food Centre, 6 Tanjong Pagar Plaza) because a couple of reasons. It's one of the worst names to Google for if you're looking for the stall and nasi lemak's not Indonesian. Decided to try their nasi lemak anyway. 😬 The rice's flavoured with lemongrass which reminded me of the Malaysian ones. Fried chicken's decent. Sambal's not annoyingly sweet as well. That nice looking fried fish was unfortunately dry and a little hard. Not expecting the same standards as Coconut Club but this could have been a lot better.

Tong Fong Fatt Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice (東風發), ABC Brickworks Food Centre

We've avoided Tong Fong Fatt for a number of years because we've had a pretty bad experience with them at this particular outlet (#01-32 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah). That experience involved rice that was very undercooked. Unforgivably so. In line with that experience, I've also heard mentions about how they are one of the better chicken rice chains. I gave them a chance seeing that the guys running the stall today aren't the same people who undercooked it the last time.

In retrospect, I'd rate it as a middling average experience. Decent rice, nice chilli and better than average soup.

The chicken bothered me. I'm positive this doesn't bother most people because so many queue at their stall. This was a pretty flattened looking 鸡尾. Not much of a mouthfeel nor bite because the meat's thin. Their sauce was also irritatingly sweet. Wouldn't rule them out if I felt like chicken rice but they won't be the top of the list.