Burger House, Beauty World Food Centre

So I read about this guy who used to be the head chef at Omakase Burger whom has started a business of his own selling *Nyango Star drumroll*...burgers (#04-42 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road). I was curious and wanted to find out. 

It's similar but not the same. Omakase Burger had more vibrant looking lettuces, their potato bun which this doesn't and a cheesier cheese. One could see where this particular burger fell short.

To be fair, this was definitely not as expensive and they did a commendable job out of the beef patty. Again, not the exact same kind of flavour nor crustiness that Omakase Burger had but still a very respectable one that was reasonably beefy and dripping with juices in the wrapper between toasted buns. Not bad at all. I would have liked mine to have a bit more char though.

King of Fried Rice, Chinatown Food Street

Just as I had suspected, the mala fried rice from King of Fried Rice (Stall 11, 41 Smith Street) wasn't very spicy. They had to accomodate people who couldn't handle spice after all. There was a bit of heat that gave a light prickle but that was all there was to the 辣. Just don't expect any 麻 from it. Not much of fragrance coming from their mala spice mix either so the additional chilli helps if one is looking for a bit more flavour and heat. These guys are also really careful with the salt. So now I know.

Huber's Bistro-lling in October

Here's another stop at Huber's Bistro - eating here usually means that there's something we're getting from the butchery/store. Which has been a number of times over the past few years (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二). Food's not bad and generally a uncomplicated showcase of what one can buy from their butchery to make at home.

Because of the pandemic situation, the indoor seating has been noticeably reduced.

The menu does get changed around a bit now and then. New items do pop up. Like this hühnerragoutsuppe which I cannot pronounce. It's a cream of chicken giblet soup. Not bad. I like the burst of livery flavours from the bits of liver

We ordered a truffle burger from the menu which we've never seen on the breakfast menu before. Mostly because the menu mentioned blue cheese. It also mentioned carrot and orange marmalade which we did not expect to be in the burger. The only time one got to taste the flavour of the beef, a bit of the truffle and blue cheese was when you took a bite at the edges. Otherwise, it was mostly the citrus sweet from the orange marmalade. Strange one.

There's a chicken breast “Supreme” Cordon Bleu. If I had to guess, the "supreme" part of it was the almond crust which was pretty nice. Noticed that their butcher has almond crusted chicken and chicken Cordon Bleu but not almond crusted chicken Cordon Bleu. Moreish-ly savoury with the stuffed Gruyère and ham. The odd part about this was the single bone in the meat which came from a drumlet. I wonder how that connected with the rest of the meat. 

They've rotated the previous cookies for their coffee out to something....with orange flavour. The previous ones that they use were nicer. It did taste like orange. I just didn't like these as much.

Fook Kin, Killiney Road

Been wanting to try Fook Kin (111 Killiney Road) for a while. The restaurant is a collaboration between Roast Paradise and a couple of local radio personalities. Because we thought well of Roast Paradise, we decided to give this outfit a try.

The first to be served were their roasts because they were already done and just needed slicing. Since they were done by the same people, the standards of their roasts were similar to the ones at Roast Paradise. Char siew was arrestingly superb with the fat layering and sweet caramelized surface. Roast pork/siu yoke was not bad as well.

They have a crab omelette on their menu. Read that it was inspired by Raan Jay Fai. While imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, it was nothing like the one at Raan Jay Fai. Not in appearances nor in taste and quality. Far from it. 

I added cheese. Quite a bit of the mozzarella pull going on and I liked the milky cheese. With that, I also realized that there was lot more cheese than crab in that omelette. Crab meat didn't taste very good. If that was the amount of crab and the quality we were getting for what they charged, these were more expensive than eating at the pricey Raan Jay Fai.

Ordered their triple happiness tofu. I'm not sure what forms that triple happiness but they were stingy with the ikura so I'm gonna minus off one happiness there. Liked the sauce with the rest of the toppings on the tofu but not gonna order them again if I come back.

Under the Classic Dishes section of the menu was their dragonfruit with shrimp fried rice. Don't know whose classics would a dragonfruit fried rice fall under. Rice was wet without aroma - nothing like what we generally know of fried rice. Didn't taste bad but there was nothing assertive about the flavour that would give it an identity. Except for the cashews. And also sweetness from the pork floss and raisins. 

Steamed curry chicken bao from Old Chang Kee

Old Chang Kee has a steamed curry bun shaped to look like their Curry'O at their "coffee house" along Tanjong Pagar Road (#01-36, 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza). Apart from the steamed bun skin, they tasted pretty much the same as the one with the fried pastry skin. Now if only they were a third cheaper, I might consider getting them with some regularity.

The Gogijip (고깃집), Tanjong Pagar Road

We were here at The Gogijip (72 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6224 0667) because they have a lunch set which has ganjang gejang - something which we were keen on exploring further after the recent episode at Ko Ryo Jeong. These guys are apparently also known for cuts of Iberico pork so we ordered some jowl and pig's skin for the grill too.

Service was uncannily speedy. Shortly after the order slips were printed, banchans were served. Kimchi and tofu were good. The latter had a sauce which reminded me of the flavour of the red sauce from chee cheong fun.

Following closely with the banchan were the condiments and vegetables for the wrap. The condiment beside the ssamjang tasted like yuja & chilli with a blend of flavours that were citrus sweet, had a fruity tanginess and was spicy altogether.

That ganjang gejang lunch set came with only one crab. Pretty decent I would say but not as enjoyable as those we had from Ko Ryo Jeong because these were a bit fishier. I suspect wonder if there were differences in the quality of the crabs for the lunch sets and the full priced ones.

There's rice, some mini jeons and a seaweed soup that came with said set.

That seaweed soup had chunks of beef in it. The soup itself was also a little beefy. Nice.

The crab which we had gotten didn't have much roe/tomalley. 

That's the Iberico jowl we ordered. Check out the fat marbling.

That's the pig's skin.

Onto the grill they go.

See ssam-thing familiar? Heh!

The Iberico jowl was fatty, chewy and full of flavour. All the richness made it a good candidate for the ssam which would have slices of garlic, chilli, pickled onions, ssamjang and a lettuce wrap to cut through all the oil richness. The same items also mellowed the porcine strength from the pig's skin as well.