The Bargers and The Cider Pit

Remember De Burg and their choco lamb burger? It's been at least a decade back. Apparently they're still around. The chef currently operates his current joint, The Bargers, right in the bowels kitchen of The Cider Pit (#01-03, 328 Joo Chiat Road, tel : +65 6440 0504). In the pit but not swallowed by the earth. A literal stone's toss from East Treasure Speciality Prawn Noodle.

The Cider Pit is a watering hole. Think they've been around and are doing pretty good. More ciders than other watering holes on tap definitely and while at that, the majority are non sparkling. Tried a Westons Vintage Reserve with a middling dry profile. Interesting but not my usual pour.

The bottled stuff from Brother Cider were nice. These had a commercially agreeable flavour and I liked the lemon and the caramel-y sweet honeycomb. 

What pulled the rug off my feet was their trio of calamari. Awesome fried squid with a flavourful crunchy batter that clung tight and meat that wasn't chewy. Each bite was clean and none of that thin batter loosened or fell apart. No excessive grease as well. Anyone who's had enough of fried calamari would know these don't come together on squid often. Rings, body and geso.   

So the choco lamb burger......

...or Choco LamBARger as it is known these days. Chopped onions, sliced tomato and some greens on that hefty 200g lamb patty sitting on a Nutella-ed heel.

Meat's dusky pink inside. I liked this then and I still like this now.

The other item that was unexpectedly good was their bitterballen. Beef stew in croquette form if you would.

Underneath the crunch was creamy tender beef piping hot and savoury. Mustard was a nice touch to cut through that richness.

Burger King's Plant-Based Whopper

I've been curious about Burger King's Plant-Based Whopper for a while now. I think it was available a little more than half a year ago featuring soy based patty from The Vegetarian Butcher which was acquired by Unilever. BK's been careful about the release marketing making sure that reviews mention that it's flame grilled on the same grill as their other meat burgers and that the mayo inside is made with eggs. Fair enough. None of that bothered me because I haven't any restrictions and I just wanted to see how it tasted like.

This was a double. Looked pretty decent on my tomato and pickle sides. Burger's hefty as BK burgers go. Looks a little less like meat compared to say Impossible. Which would be my only frame of reference for these plant based meat patty thingies since I've not tried other alternatives.

One can tell it doesn't look like regular meat from scrutiny. The shape's a little too clean and the texture doesn't look it. But it doesn't look bad. Looked better than their Chocolate Whopper in any case.

I'd ballpark the resemblance to meat at about 75-80%. Which is less meat-like than a properly done Impossible burger patty. By that, I am implying that there are crappy ones too.

There's a smokiness from these plant base patties but it ultimately revealed itself from the mouthfeel, lack of beefy oil richness and a missing aftertaste. Didn't taste bad all all. As a Whopper, the mayo/vegetables have enough taste/texture to further mask the differences so it didn't feel very different. It's there. Just isn't glaring.

Wen Kang Ji (文康記), Golden Mile Food Centre

I've heard Wen Kang Ji (#B1-39 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) being mentioned numerous times over the past year or so. We stumbled up on them today and decided to get an order of their wanton mee. Got to say it was pretty good. The plate came with tender slices of fat distributed char siew and strangely smoky wanton with chewy egg noodles. Said noodles aren't as lardy as Deng Wen Ji but I'd rank them in the same tier together with Zhong Yu Yuan Wei as ones I'd gladly come back to.

Fatburger, Star Vista

I remember being not impressed with the first/last time at Fatburger.

Dum dum dum....yet we ended up here (#01-33 Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green) today. The shop looked quiet...even forlorn and devoid of the bustling energies of a successful or busy burger joint. The ventilation was pretty bad that we walked out smelling of their grill.

We had an order of the skinny burger - that one without buns. Didn't look so skinny to me soaked in all that mayo. Nothing on the menu or its picture suggested that there was even sauce. Could barely make out the cheese and egg which were added to the order.

Could barely taste said cheese and egg through the ridiculous saucing. While the burger as a whole didn't taste bad, the meat could have been seriously improved with some char. Managed to Google a bunch of images of this with nice looking char on their patties in a minute so I conclude that the local franchise must be skimping on the quality control. Couldn't get past that $1.50 I wasted on the cheese because I couldn't even tell there was any. 

One more thing. I thought it would make sense if they could get a better wrapper/box to catch the excessive sauces that will never stay in the burger. No further beef with their skinny burger.

The hot honey chicken sandwich was not bad though. There were some serious crunch on the chicken which was nicely paired with the bit of sweetness from the honey and some pickles. Would have liked more pickles. Buns were softer than they looked. The chewy beef bacon didn't do much for the sandwich methinks.

Wen Li Taiwanese Food (文礼台湾美食), Golden Mile Food Centre

Pretty decent lu rou fan from Wen Li (#01-65 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road). The proprietor was exceptionally polite and chirpy. Love those molten yolked eggs and the fatty minced pork gravy over the rice that was suitably salty and savoury. What made this bowl different was the optional chilli on the side that spiked it with burst of heat that kept the flavour from becoming monotonous. Don't mind coming back.

Braise (卤之家), Golden Mile Food Centre

Holy cow 🐷, the braised stuff from Braise (#01-104 Golden Mile Food Centre, 505 Beach Road) was good!

I've been wanting to try the food from the stall for quite a while but these guys have been out of sight and mind for the longest time. Finally made it today shortly after they've opened. Picture above was the pork belly set with added on meat from the shank ($5.50 +$2). The set came with tau kwa (what they call pressed tofu), tau pok (one of the best if not better renditions I've come across), wood ear fungus, nai bai (奶白), half a ajitama and braised shiitake mushroom (exceptional braised rendition this one). 

Both meat were fork/chopstick tender with a layer of fat that fell apart readily in the mouth. Love that dark brown gravy which was deeply flavoured. Will be back.