Wagyu txuleta burger sets from Basque Kitchen by Aitor

I was intrigued by the txuleta (pronounced choo-letah) that was mentioned for these burgers from the one Michelin starred Basque Kitchen by Aitor (97 Amoy Street). Txuleta in a nutshell are older cows - aged between 3 and 18 years old from what I've read that are reared in the Basque region which purports a more intense beefy flavour in the meat.

So is wagyu Txuleta what I think it is or is it something else? Anyways I decided to splurge to see if it was good.

Pretty and nicely constructed between brioche. Flavour was not bad actually. I got the beefiness but a couple of things didn't work for me. The sauce - I don't what it was made of but there was a tanginess which reminded me of the "Thousand Island-esque" concoctions. Once I had gotten beyond the lightly crusty edges of the burger, I though that the sauce was too much and was contending with the flavour of the beef.

Definitely not the first time I'm wondering why kitchens sauce up supposedly better quality meat that they're selling.

The other thing was - I got a chunk, not sure how a chunk came forth minced meat, of very chewy...part I couldn't tear with my teeth after some effort. Too big to swallow. I had to spit it out.

The first comparison that came to mind for the burger was with the Smash Burger at Employees Only. Rather instinctively I would say. That was a better experience and one that was less expensive. $24 for 2 versus $78 for 2.

This came with dessert. Guanaja chocolate custard - kinda like mousse with dark chocolate/salted caramel pearls. Not bad. Tasted a little coconut-y though.

More fruits

Rock melon from supermarket. Not bad.

Home delivery from Maddie's Kitchen

We ordered in a bunch of stuff we liked from Maddie's Kitchen when we were eating there previously. Like their beef tenderloin black bean sauce hor fun with gravy that was packed separately. This dish survived delivery quite well. As delicious as I remembered it. 

Their Hainanese pork chop rice has the option of having the curry packed separately. Which was ideal if you wanted some crisp to still remain on those tasty pork chops by the time they get delivered to you. Very nice.

Batang soup with additional red garoupa meat.

Spuds and chicken of the sea

Made with ingredients that we had around in the house. A couple of Russets, Ayam Brand tuna, butter, pepper, salt and roughly chopped spring onions. Simply and tasty.

A breakfast of bread, eggs and cheese. And ham.

So good. Bread pan fried in butter so that it was a little toasty and browned, shaven ham, President plastic wrapped sliced cheddar and scrambled eggs. Salt and pepper.

More food from Kok Sen Restaurant

Tried more food from Kok Sen. So that we could get a better sensing of the quality and style of their food.

I miss good mui fan. By good, I meant the kind that I used to eat as a kid. Something with decent to good quality ingredients and without excessive starch in the gravy. The closest I've come to one in recent times was at Hillman Restaurant. I had imagined this one from Kok Sen to be similar. It wasn't. 

What I didn't expect was the rice that they had used. It was fried rice instead of white rice. Like the 福建炒饭 from Tian Tian Seafood. There was more aroma because of that. The portion was huge.

This was their big prawn hor fun. Egg drop gravy with the prawns was packed separately from the hor fun. More than half of the social media food porn from Kok Sen featured this. I was hoping that the flavour justified the hype. It didn't. 

Not for me. The gravy was a little crustacean-y with sweetness from onions and some sort of sambal. Gravy that became watery after a while. It was not bad tasting but I wouldn't get it again.