Tai Weng Hainanese Chicken Rice (大榮海南鸡饭), Smith Street Food Centre

Half chicken and some livers/hearts from Tai Weng Hainanese Chicken Rice (Yellow Zone, #02-039 Chinatown Complex Market and Food Centre, 335 Smith Street).

Roast chicken was competent. This one had a different sauce though - it wasn't the usual dousing of sesame oil and light soya sauce. It was something darker. Wondering if they might be similar used in soya sauce chicken.

Serving of livers with some slivers of hearts.

Soup's pretty good; one can taste the chicken in the broth. The only thing I haven't quite decided on was the rice which was dry and grainy - something I don't normally gravitate to. That rice however was adequately flavoured if not salted sufficiently, and was pretty good with their prickly chilli. We'll see about coming back.

Western Boy, Kopitiam @ Tiong Bahru Plaza

Here's a half spring chicken with aglio olio spaghetti from Western Boy at the food court  in Tiong Bahru Plaza (#03-101 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road). There's the same spicy garlicky local aglio olio like the one we had and liked previously at their branch in Malaysia Boleh at Bugis Junction. Decent fried chicken but it's not Arnold's. I'd go for a protein without the hassle of bones the next time.

Hajah Maimunah Mini, Hawker's Street @ Clementi Mall

The last time we ate at Hajah Maimunah Mini in Clementi Mall, the food court was Boleh Boleh!. It's now Hawker Street and Hajah Maimunah Mini ended up being located in the same spot as they did previously. Anyways we got a plate with some favourites -  ayam goreng, sotong hitam, quail eggs sambal and sambal goreng. Still as delicious. Am pretty sure the food quality's better at the flagship but we took what we could get here.

Shiok Burger (新奇汉堡), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Shiok Burger opened up Tiong Bahru Plaza not long back (#01-159 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road).

Came over to try the XXL Mala Inferno Burger. Given the name, its appearance was a little underwhelming.

Meat's a little thin. Decent mala sauce like what we've had previously but I'm not feeling the 'inferno'. McSpicy has more burn. For an "XXL" sandwich, it sure didn't feel that way after eating.

Zam Zam has gotten a makeover!

Haven't been to Zam Zam for a while. The interior has been refurbished.

Hot limau less sweet's nice. There's enough citrus sour in the fruit to make believe that we're cleansing the grease from the food we're about to ingest. 😂 

The thing to eat here which we don't come back often enough for is their crusty mutton murtabak. Spiced ground mutton, egg and diced onions layered in folded prata which is crusted with more ground mutton.

This was the $12 portion.

Ordered their dal for the first time and wishing that we had thought to do so earlier. Love the cumin infused savouriness.

Not bad mutton kurma. The onion loaded gravy was more nuanced with the spices than I had imagined. Mutton's relatively tender but still had a bite to them.

Sergeant Chicken Rice, Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ

Remember the chicken rice I had at the Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ previously? Just found out that they're Sergeant Chicken Rice. A branch of the very same one at Food Opera. Have been back a couple of time since.

They've a Duo Style Chicken Rice which includes both the 白 & 烧 going at $8.50. Eggs cost extra. Not bad but just kinda pricey for an additional serving of protein.

What came across as a better deal was the $7.90 Power Up Chicken Set. Only available at this branch if I'm not mistaken. Extra portion of meat and a choice of either greens or bean sprouts on the side.

Sikkander's, Marine Parade Central

Came across the mention of Sikkander's (#01-590, 83 Marine Parade Central, tel : +8711 8925) for their mee siam dum biryani.

That's right.

Sikkander's has created a first of its kind; at least for me. Those vermicelli were infused with briyani-ish savoury warm spices that came with a bit of heat. One could choose between chicken or mutton. We had the mutton which was arguably fork tender and chunky. There's also some tangy achar on the side for that cut through.

In retrospect, a bee hoon briyani would probably be more accurate than a mee siam briyani since there weren't any mee siam characteristics/ingredients in it beyond the bee hoon. #justsayin What's pertinent here was that it was delicious. We'll come back again.

One week later......

This was the chicken mee siam dum briyani. Not a slouch compared to the mutton rendition we had last week. Meat from the bird was relatively moist and tender, even for the breast meat. We had some toasted cashews in the noodles today. Very satisfying plate.

Prata's pretty good stuff. That's a double egg underneath a kosong. Both were competently done. I liked how light that kosong was.

Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie, Dempsey Road

They're (#01-03/04, 13 Dempsey Road) apparently a chocolatier that has started incorporating chocolate into their food so we were here to try them.

That's the Chocolate BLT. What intrigued me was the 45% milk chocolate mascarpone which turned out to be really good. Sadly, the beef bacon was no good at all - it was tough, chewy and sinewy. Some parts weren't edible. Pretty sure it would have been much better with regular bacon but the food's Muslim friendly so that's never happening.

There's steak frites with 72% dark chocolate peppercorn sauce. Kitchen has obviously little experience with plating. Sauce appeared to be watery because of the juices from the meat. Meat's edible, not great quality and also had some chewy unswallowable parts. Adequately salted though. The fries were the best tasting things on the plate.

Was nice of them to oblige when we asked for more sauce because there was barely enough to taste. It's creamy, not bad tasting but also neither memorable nor dark chocolate-y. Felt more like milk chocolate without much discernible pepper.

Pan seared duck breast with chilli cocoa powder was mediocre. I'm not sure what's their definitely of sear because I wasn't tasting any of it on the duck.

Meat was lean and had a powdery feel to them. There's little to no fat under the skin and that skin was very chewy. There were bits of silver skin in them. Apricot gastrique on the side didn't taste bad. Reminded me more than a little of tamarind but I didn't think it worked with the chilli cocoa powder.

Quite a bit of stuff we couldn't chew and/or swallow.

Chocolate's not bad though. We were offered samples and ended buying some.

Another dessert idea at HaiDiLao (海底捞)

White fungus and their tau huay from their dessert station. The former's hot and latter is cold so you kinda are still going get that hot and cold with a fresh bowl.

An egg briyani and a disappointing gobi 65 from Junior Kuppanna

Came back to Junior Kuppanna for an egg briyani and a gobi 65 on the side. Briyani's delicious. But the cauliflowers were subpar - not much like those crispy ones we had here the last time. The flavour did not change but the texture was mostly spongy. These tasted like they had been fried much earlier and all the crunch has gone. I'm guessing they were microwaved for serving. 👎🏼

Sushi Dorobo, Bugis Cube

Got wind of Sushi Dorobo (#03-17 Bugis Cube, 470 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 8344 2811) and was intrigued by their aburi engawa don which was a lunch only item on their menu.

It looked a lot more impressive as a picture on the menu.

The first thing that came to mind was that it wasn't as aburi-ed as I imagined. I was hoping that it would be smokier. But it's savoury and unctuous with melty fat. That egg layered a smooth richness while spikes of brininess from the ikura cut through with some character to the flavours.

The engawa was not quite as exquisite as Sakari Sushi but way better than the one from Tsukiji Sushi at Avenue K.

Revisiting Paradise Classic

Back at Paradise Classic for more of their "classic" zi char. Started with a pretty smoky braised bee hoon with assorted seafood. One could see those scorch marks in the noodles and also the gossamer of eggs from the decently done up 滑蛋 in the gravy. 

Egg with sliced bitter gourd. Competent, a little greasy.

Kung bao chicken was sadly disappointing. The flavour leaned towards tangy and was missing body - not so much sweet, dark and assertive with heat like how I like kung bao sauce. 

Rising heat and another single serving bowl from Gong Yuan Ma La Tang (宫源麻辣烫)

We upgraded the heat from 小辣 to 中辣 previously at Gong Yuan Ma La Tang because we enjoy a bit of heat and I mean...this was mala tang. Recently, the heat has been seriously cranked up. This was apparent even at Zhang Liang. Is there a 麻辣 association that I didn't know about cracking the whip on what's acceptable heat standards in the local shops. We're now settling for 小小辣 because it's already packing as much heat if not spicier than what the 中辣 used to. 🥵

Sausage McGriddles with scramble eggs from McD

So now there's a limited time Sausage McGriddles with liquid scrambled eggs as opposed to the regular disc of round real egg. Didn't taste bad though. What bugged me was that the kiosk didn't allow for much customisation beyond adding chicken bacon. Technology has brought McD a few strides back, not improved them. Cements the sentiment that what the customers may want aren't as important to them anymore. 

Revisiting Choon Hoy Parlor (春花馆)

Came back to Choon Hoy Parlor because I wanted to try their chye ber which we missed the last time.

But first some spicy hot old ginger & red date tea.

That's the chye ber. The menu mentioned offcuts of the day with mustard greens. Pretty sure the pork trotters in there weren't offcuts. Not complaining though. The broth was delicious and tangy with loads of tender softened mustard greens. That and those trotters with meat and skin that's fall off the bone tender. Smooth like butter, like a criminal undercover...🕺🏻😂. Rice thieves!

More of their dou miao and tau gey. Mind still trying to wrap around the fact that these vegetables were dou miao because I kept thinking that we were eating kailan. 

Soup we had today was white pepper pig stomach collagen soup. There's winter melon, tau kee and goji berries in it. Tasted like how I thought it would but not as gao as I imagined. 

This, their claypot dry bak kut teh. The dried cuttlefish infused dark soya sauce was rich and kickass umami coupled with characteristical sweet & savoury. That and some heat from dried chillis. Ribs were meaty. Wished there was more lady's finger than those token few slices. Another rice thief!

Rice for the rice thieves!