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.

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.

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. 👎🏼

Breakfast and thoughts at MTR 1924

I remember back in the day when MTR first opened up, I was trying to figure out their menu online because they had a different selection every day of the week which was then further split between breakfast, lunch and dinner. The variety was noticeably larger then. Fast forward to today, it appears that there's a fixed menu that doesn't vary like it did. I sense fatigue there.

Got ourselves a bisibele bath to remember how good it tasted.

I recently mentioned being on the verge of declaring my favourite rava idli at Bangalore Cafe after getting the one again here for a fresher comparison.

I've decided that there will be no declaration. I like them both as much. 😅

We also had a chow chow bath today because it's been a while since I last had it here.

It's still delicious if anyone's wondering. The coconut chutney was good with both the khara and kesari portions.

Kolkata Beckons, Race Course Road

I came across the mention of Kolkata Beckons (52 Race Course Road, tel : +65 6291 5244) some time back and have been wanting to give them a try. The restaurant is part of the Fifth Season group which also runs Tangra Chinese. Food is Bengali. Like Mustard...and probably a slew of other places I don't yet know of.

That's the malai sweet lassi. As I understand, malai refers to the layer of cream that is formed after boiled milk is cooled. Not uncommonly used in gravies in North Indian dishes. This one had them folded into their sweet lassi for extra richness. Nice. We were cautioned that it induces food coma. 😅

Tried their peas kochuri which was a fried bread spread with peas and chilli and some spices on the inside. On the side was sada alur torkari - which translates into and is also literally descriptive of 'white potato curry'. What apparently differentiates the sada alur torkari from regular curry is the lack of turmeric. And hence, white.

Couldn't actually discern much of the peas. They looked like pooris and tasted much like hum chim pang. 😬

Mangsher chop.

A fritter of spiced potato and mutton which could conceivably be viewed as a cross between curry puff and croquette, served with mustard on the side.

We had an order of badshah malai kofta. Badsha is Persian for ruler/king/emperor so presumably, this might have been a dish for royalty in the past.

It's described as a fruit stuffed paneer. The flavour's sweet, lightly savoury and cheesy. The cheesy part was not typical of paneer that I know of and I'm not sure where's the fruit part. Deliciously rich though. Remember the bit about malai earlier?

More carbs in the form of basanti pulao. The rice which had cashews and raisins was infused with saffron and slightly sweet. Was a little thrown off at the start but it kinda latched onto me. 

Dinner at Bangalore Cafe

Happy dinner at Bangalore Cafe. The boss came over and commented that he hasn't seen us in a while. I'm still surprised that he remembered us and could even venture to narrow down to the month when he last did. 😨 Things were off to a good start with their delicious rava idli.

That's the tandoori gobi. Cauliflower. Tangy, smoky and nicely done.

A kichadi is a dish of spiced rice and lentil, texturally not dissimilar to pongal or uppuma. This one was their palak kichadi, a rendition with pureed spinach folded into the rice and lentils. It's both creamy and piping hot with a hint of cumin and garlic amidst other things. Like ghee. Flavour was nutty even. Nice. Needs to be eaten hot.

There are possibly other good ways to end this well but we know this one and we're happy with it. Lightly sweetened and creamy masala chai.

Idli and eggs from Sri Aachi Aappakadai Pte Ltd

Came by Sri Aachi Aappakadai Pte Ltd for idli and egg kalaki.

The chutney treatment was quite different from the last time.

Egg kalaki was loaded with onions. It's not bad an omelette but I'm not a fan of the overwhelming sharpness from so much onions. I like the one from Anjappar at Brickfields better.

More breakfasting at Bangalore Cafe

Here's getting more breakfast at Bangalore Cafe.

I'm on the verge of declaring my favourite rava idli here but I think I should get it again at MTR just to convince myself which one is better.

Bisibele bath tasted better than it looked. Aside from the robust warm savoury spices in the porridge, there's also boondi for some contrasting crunch.

Neer dosa's texture was a little different from what we've had at MTR and Kalam Restaurant. It's more moist/wet. Sweet coconut/jaggery was also more coarse/rustic and I didn't mean that in a bad way. There's the other coconut chutney infused with cumin that came with the dosa as well. It's not the same as their usual coconut chutney which doesn't have cumin. Not bad tasting.

Some breakfast from ABC Multi Cuisine Restaurant

Breakfasting at ABC Multi Cuisine Restaurant. Teh halia's fine and the Nescafe tarik didn't look like it went through much tarik-ing. I like these beverages better from Umar Ali Cafe next door because they're made better in my not so humble opinion.

Okay-ish roti banjir. It's not a bad rendition but I prefer Umar Ali's because that one was more umami from the dalcha and fish curry. This one had a sweet sambal.  

Their mutton dosa/thosai used rice flour with little fermentation. It's apparent from the taste.  

I got this because they mentioned that the mutton they used was keema. This set my expectations looking forward to only keema. Did not expect the eggs and shredded red onions inside. Suspect this might have been what they put in their murtabak. Didn't think much of this because I found the onions disruptive for both taste and texture.

Ghee onion rava masala dosa from Saravanaa Bhavan and......

More breakfasting at Saravanaa Bhavan. Pretty good ghee onion rava masala dosa. There's coriander in it which had its flavour cooked out so woohoo! Loads of crunch and nice flavour from the black peppercorn in the dosa.

The yummy uppuma of theirs was as yummy as before.

Junior Kuppanna, Kitchener Road

I remember seeing the long queues outside Junior Kuppanna at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur the last time I was there. This was the local branch at Little India (161 Kitchener Road, tel : +65 9235 5116)

Mutton briyani. Full portion. Seeraga Samba rice is used here.

Not bad tasting. Ample warm flavour from the spices in the rice. Mutton was tender but dry-ish. Half of mine were bones. 

Chicken briyani. Half portion. Also not bad tasting. Flavour's a little different because of the meat. Like the other briyani, the protein was tender but dry-ish.

Note to self: Raita has coriander hidden inside.

A couple of curries came with the briyani. The chicken one was spicy, coconut-y and delicious.

Their gobi 65 was nice. Cauliflower florets were coated in a deliciously savoury crisp batter.