Shiok Burger (新奇汉堡), Raffles City

Noticed Shiok Burger (#B1-79 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road) the previous times we were here and curiosity got the better of us. Couldn't find any info about their origins so I'm assuming that while the food appears to be Chinese themed, they're local.

One can choose cheesy beef fries as part of their sets. The passionfruit soda has a taste of artificial flavouring.

Didn't realized that their buns weren't the regular kind. These were like flatbread/pita. Ang moh rou jia mo. 😬 I liked that those black sesame studded in the buns imparted some of their aroma.

Their beef burger uses wagyu. According to them. I'm also not aware how little wagyu needs to be in that patty content for a business to legally be able to state so. As far as I can tell it's beef but I'm not sure what else was in it because it did not taste like a 100% beef. Much less wagyu. The mala sauce that made it was kinda nice and tangy.

Said mala sauce works better with the chicken methinks. Don't think I'll ever get the beef burger again but I not against revisiting the chicken one.

The $7 bowl from Sheng Ji Fishball Noodle (昇記)

Previously, I kinda griped over how small the regular portion of noodles was at Sheng Ji. I decided to go big this time with 加面 and 加料. The amount was substantially increased. Pretty sure this was more than doubled from then. But this bowl didn't feel as satisfying as the one before. Noodle texture wasn't as firm for one. Maybe good things do need to come in smaller packages. 🙃

Re-visiting Jane Deer (简鹿糖水铺)

Back at Jane Deer.

Got ourselves a double skin milk (双皮奶) today. Sweet and creamy. Not bad. I don't know if they're made the same way but just for the record, I rank the one at the defunct Honeymoon Dessert higher.

I've been curious about their durian toast since the last time. Did not expect it to look almost identical with their cheese toast. Why the similarity? Because this durian toast was covered with a layer of cheese.

Loads of durian puree inside. I can't identify the type but it did not seem to taste the same as the ones we had with the egglets previously. I think it unlikely that they'd have different batches/quality of durian puree for different items though. Not bad tasting.

Lemon tea's good.

More food from Al Tasneem

Back at Al Tasneem. Could I be just trying to stay away from Zam Zam and Victory for the current time while exploring the food here? 🤔 Perhaps. Then again, there were some things that I've been meaning to get as well.

Love their chicken dum briyani which has a deliciously savoury spice infusion in the rice that belied its mundane appearance. Great flavouring in there. It's not apparent in the photo but there's raisins and cashew nuts in the rice. The chicken we got today was breast meat, arguably tender for such a part but a little dry-ish. Nothing that their spicy assam curry couldn't fix or improve on.

There's a bunch of Turkish noodle gorengs on Al Tasneem's menu. The proprietor explained that they contain meat from the doner kebab stalls. Specifically A-Mor down at the junction which they also own. So here's a Turkish beef kuey teow goreng. Rice noodles were a little greasier than I like but these usually are. Meat was unexpectedly beefy with a nice chew to the texture. Not bad. 

An order of fried chicken liver which also happened to contain many pieces of gizzards which I don't care so much about.

Paru goreng was delicious and actually pretty tender except for the parts with bronchioles of the lungs.

The mediocrity that was the masala tea from the last time echoed still. In spite of that, we tried our luck with the teh tarik and we're glad we did. This was not the run of the mill sweet milky tea. The flavour from this one had character. Pleasantly surprised here.

Soon Soon (顺顺古早味), C&L Cafe @ UB. One

Chicken rice from Soon Soon (#01-07 UB. One, 81 Ubi Avenue 4). It's an unusual name for a chicken rice stall. But I guess that makes it easy should they decide not to sell chicken rice anymore and do something else someday. 😂

This was 烧鸡尾 + tau kwa + egg and those two brown tubes are shrivelled up fried sausages. Why were there fried sausages in a chicken rice stall? Beats me. But I got them because I can. Meat's not that smooth so on hindsight, any part of the 烧鸡 would be about the same. No sense paying more for the thigh. The eggs look mutated. The verdict? Pretty decent eating.

Competent, not outstanding rice. Pretty good with their garlicky chilli sauce. The soup is worth mentioning. It's real chicken soup and I thought I detected lotus root in it.

Louisa Coffee, Guoco Midtown

We stumbled into Louisa Coffee (#01-13 & 14 Guoco Midtown, 130 Beach Road) without knowing anything about them. Apparently they're a prominent coffee chain from Taiwan and they're known for something called Boston Cream Pie. More on that below. First, their coffee mojito - fizzy, lime-y and a hint of mint. Nice. This appears to be deepening our recent forays into citrus coffees.

Boston Cream Pie. Louisa Coffee's rendition is a cake with fillings in the middle and a layer of mochi skin over. This was the Citrus Sunshine flavour which featured diced fruits and cream. Not impressed by the fruits because I couldn't even tell what they were from taste.