Texas Chicken's charcoal chicken for Halloween

I came with minimal expectations for the gimmicky charcoal chicken Texas has on limited run this October. It turned out to be better than I had imagined - even redeeming the last run we had with them.

Batter was crunchy and nicely spiced with heat while the meat from the bird was moist and tender. They delivered on that front and I couldn't ask for more. What's more though, was the impressive spicy smokey dip on the side which was the proverbial icing on the cake.

Even the Sjora lychee berry drink was sweet and delicious. What surprised me was that it was Nutrigraded B, no worse.

The only gripe I had was how much they were charging. $15.90 for this measly portions and to swap the powdered potato for coleslaw required a top up of $1.50. Each additional piece of charcoal chicken was $6.50. 😲

Foong Kee Traditional Charcoal Roaster (豐記), Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre

Foong Kee closed down a couple of years back when they were operating at Keong Saik Road. They've re-opened again at the food centre at Commonwealth Crescent (#02-90 Commonwealth Crescent Food Centre, 31 Commonwealth Crescent) recently and the queues are already there. Notice that their signboard still says 6 Keong Saik Road in an attempt to call back to that era? Were their roasts the same?

I did not think so. I had the triple roast (三拼). The duck was dry-ish and a little tough. While the char siew was not bad tasting, it also didn't taste like the bu jian tian that they used in the past. Roast pork was mediocre compared to the one with outstanding crackling we had in the past. The standards of their roasted meats have obviously taken a nosedive.

Sim Lim Square Bak Chor Mee (森林肉脞面), Lengkok Bahru

Heard a bit about these guys (#01-387, 55 Lengkok Bahru) who have apparently been around for a couple of decades operating at Sim Lim Square previously. They closed up their business last year and re-opened recently at this current location. Hey, doesn't the first couple of Chinese characters in their name mean 'forest'? 🤔

Here's their signature bowl. I enjoyed it. Vinegary but without the weight of Tai Wah/Tai Hwa, a little lardy and shot through with a bit of nice heat from their chilli. Came with a freshly fried dumpling and fish cake which isn't the run of the mill. Delicious bowl but portions were a little small.

De-veganized veggie delight pizza and mushroom risotto at Zazz Pizza

What's a de-veganized veggie delight pizza you might wonder? Zazz Pizza (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一) has vegan pizza options with vegan cheese. This was the vegan delight with stuff like olives, artichoke, bell peppers and eggplant. It got de-veganized by having the vegan cheese replaced with mozzarella. And I added Gorgonzola. 😬

The product shot definitely looked better on menu. Olives were whole and the toppings didn't look as melted. But it didn't taste bad. Just not enough Gorgonzola which I thought they were pretty stingy with considering that they charged for it and this ended up way above $30 for a vegetarian pie.

Finally tried their mushroom risotto. I thought it was pretty well done with a good balance of flavours from the mushrooms, truffle cream and cheese.

Extra wanton at Legend Wanton Mee (传奇雲吞麵)

This I thought was a better configuration at Legend Wanton Mee than what I had previously. Extra wantons which I prefer instead of the char siew. That said, the char siew slices I got today looked just sad compared to the ones from the last time. A $2 top up gets 3 wantons. Pricey. No red chilli sauce this time round - just the sliced pickled green chilli which doesn't wipe out flavour on those noodles. 

King Of Fried Rice, Happy Hawkers @ Kim Tian

So the menu at King of Fried Rice has expanded a little since the last time I've had them. This was the branch at Happy Hawkers at Kim Tian (201 Kim Tian Road). There's a chicken chop plate now which featured a pretty large slab of freshly fried chicken thigh that's marinated with the same thing as their pork chops - that DTF five spice pork chop kind of flavour. Meat's moist and piping hot under the crisp golden brown. For $6.90 (without the additional fried egg), I couldn't complain. Now I'm intrigued by their bacon fried rice.