Dark Meat Hot Chicken burger from Shake Shack

So Shake Shack currently has the Dark Meat Hot Chicken burger on menu. What did this bring to the table that hasn't been already done? Not so much. I mean, we in Asia know dark meat better than the West. McD's McSpicy and Popeye's chicken sandwich here are part of the testimony to that. 

In my nutshell, this Dark Meat Hot Chicken burger beats McSpicy in every aspect except maybe for the chicken. Now that this is out of my system...

I like the buns better for a start. Not to mention that the moderated creaminess from the slaw along with the tanginess from the pickles are next level - compared to the mayo/shredded lettuce mess from McSpicy. I cannot and won't tell which fried chicken thigh is better but I think McSpicy could be spicer and juicier while this one has a crispier crust. 

Lamb chops from Hot Tomato

Came to know of this at Hot Tomato (#B1-24 Funan, 107 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 6970 0679) from a co-worker. I had to admit that this wasn't bad - a rib with a couple of t-bone-ish cuts for what some restaurants would charge for just a rib. That and pasta on the side with a small salad. The meat was also beautifully browned with a respectable crusty surface. Not sure how I feel about that sweet mint sauce on the side though.

Chun Seng Noodle House (春成面之家), Ghim Moh Food Centre

This stall (#01-12 Ghim Moh Food Centre, 20 Ghim Moh Road) originated from ABC Brickworks Food Centre and seemed to have re-invented themselves after having shuttered their business for a while. What they are known for are their slices of stewed pork belly that they include in their noodles. I haven't eaten from their old premise before so I don't have any frame of reference for any comparisons. 

But I liked this one that I had. Great texture from their mee kia and it rocked with their soya sauce marinated sliced red chilli which packed a bit of heat. Those dumplings in the bowl were meaty and the meatballs were stinky. Nice bowl of noodles I'd love to come back to.

Re-visiting Binomio

I made reservations at Binomio because their menu indicated that they had baby eels which I was curious about. But they were out of it when we were here so.....bummer.

We had fried squid and anchovies. Not bad.

Lamb t-bone with lamb sweetbread and goat's cheese. This was so good - which doesn't even begin to express how much I liked this dish. We had this the last time we were here more than two years ago.

The other dish I wanted to try was their seaweed paella with sea anemone. Yes, sea anemone. That's the fried bits of stuff on top of the rice with the sprigs of ice plant. I'm actually at a loss on how to describe them. The sea anemone had a texture almost like oyster or mussels. The flavour reminded me of seaweed and also oysters. I liked it. And that robust seaweed flavour in the rice. For the first time ever, I was scraping and looking forward to the socarrat off the bottom of the pan.

Because they allowed half portions of paella from their regular serving, we made our second half the one with duck liver (it's foie gras!) and figs. So these two paellas were technically single serving portions which were heavier than we imagined. The rice for this one had a flavour like some kind of red meat stock. Don't know if it's duck of beef but it's not bad. 

Crystal Cafe, Killiney Road

The website at Crystal Cafe (Orchard Grand Court, 131 Killiney Road, tel : +65 6830 2020) mentions Taiwanese porridge buffet but I'm not sure what exactly makes this Taiwanese porridge. Food appears to be local to me. Anyways, the spread was not bad. That's specially so for the braised/stewed dishes. 

We had a few rounds of the sweet potato porridge because of the food and the sodium spiking preserved/fermented accompaniments. 

There's char siew bao and siew mai in the buffet. I kinda like the former and they're actually pretty good eating with those preserved olive leaves (橄榄菜). Didn't see that coming did you? Neither did I. Siew mai was not that great.

Stewed chicken claws were nice. I'd qualify it as slurp off the bone tender but they just about made it. What was impressive was the spice flavours that were infused in it. Tasted a lot of cinnamon. The other thing in the bowl were chopped pieces of pork knuckles. Those weren't as good.

Preserved and pickled mustard greens. Sweet, salty and delicious with the porridge.

Braised duck and some fried fish that looked like shishamo but wasn't. That fried fish had a light turmeric flavoured batter. Not bad.

Stewed eggs, tau kwa and pork belly. While the flavour from the stewing sauce didn't permeate deeply, I enjoyed them.

Curried vegetables were not bad as well.

Chicken was so so. Meat was dry-ish and not particularly well flavoured.

These things alone made me go through more porridge than I usually have in a week. That doesn't say very much because I don't have porridge often. 🤣

I was surprised they had char kuey teow. Not as good as those freshly fried from a competent hawker but coming from a buffet trough, it wasn't half bad.

What was unexpected was how much I liked that chocolate cake. Not excessively sweet and had crispy bits of stuff that reminded me of Chocolate of a Thousand Leaves from Coffee Bean. Remember that one? The mango mousse cake was soft and light. We had thirds.

There were fruits.

And a piping hot red bean soup with sago and dried orange peel. This was a lot nicer than I had imagined.

Yam ice cream.

And Hainanese coffee that also wasn't half bad.

I thought that we were done with stuffing our faces until the mini chocolate cream puffs came out. Haha.

Allaudin's Briyani, Tekka Food Centre

It can be a little overwhelming getting briyani at Tekka Market because there's a number of them clustered in the food centre. The other briyani which I remember having here was Yakader some years back. Don't know if I've ever had Allaudin's (#01-232 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) or if this was my first.

Allaudin's doesn't do dum briyani. Their rendition is the regular one where the meat is cooked separately from the rice. While some may think that it takes away from the flavour of the rice, I could taste the spices infused in it and if you're looking for more, there's also the side of tangy achar and a pretty solid dalcha. The mutton was delicious and fork tender. Let me take a step further and narrow that description down to something a little more precise. It's plastic fork tender. I could extract all the meat cleanly off the bone using those irritatingly flimsy plastic utensils.

What's special about the dalcha? It's creamy and packed with the flavour of mutton along with a light manageable warmth from the spices. The cloudy and curry stained piece floating in the bowl is a chunk of mutton fat. Tender almost like bean curd and disintegrates in the mouth almost like bean curd as well. So good with the rice, egg or the papadum.