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.

Tonshou, Tras Street

The talk of the town tonkatsu lately is Tonshou (51 Tras Street). They're Korean. You read that right. They do tonkatsu and not donggasu/donkkaseu. I didn't stutter. Also a claimant to the world's first charcoal grilled tonkatu restaurant. What? I know right? Tonkatsus are fried. What charcoal grill is this? 🤔

Well, they're fried like regular tonkatsu and then charcoal grilled.

Place is small. Seats about 20-23.

Chilled corn soup was creamy and sweet. Nice. Think everyone gets one.

I tasted this first so in retrospect, it established both the bar and a bias in me for their tonkatsu. 'This' being their Hokkaido kurobuta special rosu katsu. 30% fat. There's a non-special cut which is 10% fat. Meat's nicely flavoured from the fat and pretty tender. But the fat does get to you towards the end. 

I enjoyed most of it with grain mustard and wasabi which helps cut though some of the richness. As does their not so vinegary tonkatsu sauce and kimchi. As much as these helped set a taste equilibrium by offsetting some of that richness, what they did in equal capacity was mask the natural flavouring.

The combo katsu featured regular hire and rosu cuts along with a fried prawn. While they paled in comparison from the Hokkaido kurobuta, these were also pretty good tasting.

I was quite impressed that the smokiness from the charcoal grill lingered in the fried meat.

Some light and creamy yuzu dressing for their salad.

Char siew rice from Fatty Cheong (肥仔祥)

This was ordered without any specifics or requests at Fatty Cheong. Just 叉烧饭. Char siew's pretty chunky and tender. Sauce was deep and sweet. Am quite impressed. Gotta do this again another time.

Zhen Wei Kitchen (珍味小厨), Bukit Timah Interim Food Centre

Zhen Wei Kitchen (#01-008 Bukit Timah Interim Food Centre, Jalan Jurong Kechil) is apparently another "ex Din Tai Fung story". These shops that are set up by ex DTF chefs always have standards that are close but never the same. Decent fried rice with luncheon meat there. Don't mind coming back if I'm in the vicinity.

Revisiting Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant

Back for another breakfast at Murugan Idli Veg. Restaurant. Seems like they're flavouring up the traditional varieties of rice flour cakes at the restaurant which weren't available in the past.

The vaunted addictively tasty ghee podi idli has a new variety called... *Junna drumroll*......ghee garlic podi idli. Nice this one. 👍🏼 It's reminiscent of garlic bread. Garlicky and buttery with warm spices.

Ghee uttapam - possibly my first plain uttapam. With ghee 😬. Nice buttery saltiness in this one.

This was a ghee mudakkathan podi dosai. Mudakkathan is balloon vine or cardiospermum halicacabum, a plant/herb used as remedy for various ailments. In this case, the hearb is dried, powdered and added into the batter of the dosai. Since there was already the spicy salty podi and delicious ghee, I couldn't tell if the mudakkathan had any particular flavour. Pretty sure I'm not getting measurable health benefits from this one dosai.

First time getting coffee here. Not the deep and robust kind I normally prefer. This one's pretty milky.

Maggie goreng extra mutton from Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani

Back at Ya-Mahyuddin Al-Jailani and having another go at their maggi goreng. This time with extra mutton like I said I wanted to. The obvious difference for this plate today was the fried egg - this wasn't the same fried egg as the last time. This one was better. And the extra mutton did make significant difference in the flavour. This will be the way when I get noodles goreng here the next time.

Caffe Italia, UE Square

New-ish Italian bar/restaurant (#01-15/16 UE Square, 81 Clemenceau Avenue, tel : +65 9895 6857) which took over the spot where District 10 used to be at for the longest time. The unique value proposition here (😂) was conveyor belt tapas - something some people have breathed that could be a first in the world. 

Not that it mattered. Don't expect variety that people are used to expecting in conveyor belt sushi. Nothing in particular looked good enough that we wanted to reach out to grab a plate anyways.

Loads of tanginess from the mustard and capers in their beef tartare. It's their rendition and admittedly not a bad one.

I ordered their pizza pineapple to spite all the people in the world who thinks that pineapple on pizza is wrong. Just kidding. I just wanted some hot pineapple on pizza. 😏

These things cool pretty fast and the mozzarella hardens when that happens. Flavour on the pizza was citrus sweetness from the pineapple, milkiness from the mozzarella and some bit of smokiness from the Scamorza. Decent crust.

These was supposed to be cacio e pepe with mushrooms. Did not look or taste like cacio e pepe. Tasted like pasta with a cream of mushroom sauce that was Campbell-esque. That being said, it did not taste bad. But it's not cacio e pepe.