参香肉脞面 (San Xiang Bak Chor Mee), ABC Brickworks Food Centre

Came across 参香肉脞面 (#01-132 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah) facing Wow Wow West and decided that their bak chor mee looked good.

This was the $6 bowl and it was enjoyable. Mee pok was a little softer than I prefer but really easy to inhale. Saucing was spicy and savoury with the zing of vinegar while those extra fried pork lard really added to the aroma. Now I know there's another stall for decent bcm here aside from Mr Meepok.

Sahebs The Indian Restaurant, Claymore Connect

Came across Sahebs (#01-01 Claymore Connect, 442 Orchard Road, tel : +65 9855 4794) recently and thought their menu looked interesting. 

Mango lassi which the menu mention had saffron that we couldn't taste any of. Pretty sweet.

This was curry leaf & shrimp popcorn. From the size of the bugs, they were more like full fledged prawn popcorn. Breaded and pretty good munching. These paired pretty well with the spicy mint/coriander chutney and that other sauce which was described as garlic cream chutney. Pretty sure the latter had yoghurt in it.

Tried their pind da saag which aside from spinach also supposedly contains mustard greens. The restaurant also mentioned fenugreek so I'm a little confused here. Flavour was earthier than the usual palak dishes, equally creamy in texture but not as rich tasting. We were recommended to eat it with makki ki roti. I don't understand why but we did.

Rara gosht was something we discovered back in Omar Shariff. Think lamb keema masala with chunks of lamb. Or a tomato-y Indian spiced lamb bolognese. Unlike the rendition from Omar Shariff, this one wasn't nutty but had a pleasant tomato flavour infused with rendered lamb fat. Nice. Those chunks of lamb in this were also pretty tender.

Tadka dal - yellow lentil stew. Looked red because of the chilli oil which was just on the surface. What's beneath looked like regular dal. This one was well done. The ghee and cumin made it. I was on the verge of disappointment when I detected bits of coriander in it but thankfully, they were sparse enough and not as intensely flavoured that I could ignore them.

Nice Kashmiri naan. 👍🏼 Maraschino cherries and cheese on the outside, crush nuts and something else on the inside. Not sure what that something else was but they reminded me of dates.

Butter naan and the previously mentioned makki ki roti.

Okay-ish saffron rice - I'm sure it was meant to go with the gravies and that would probably be the logical reason why it's very lightly salted. But I'm not impressed. I liked this the least of all the food we've ordered.

Masala chai's forgettable here. Their masala was kinda underwhelming.

Kine, ABC Brickworks Food Centre

Story of Kine (#01-113 ABC Brickworks Food Centre, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah) was that the proprietor apparently made substantial returns off Tesla shares and ended up using AI to design the stall and cutleries inspired by the Cybertruck. Their presence must be a tribute to Tesla on at a least a couple of levels 

We came to try their double American smash burger. From what's been shared, it's lactose free so there's no cheese in it. What it has is "vegan “mozzarella” cheese" (whatever that might be 🤔), raw onions and a tangy chipotle gochujang.

Not bad tasting. Meat's dry-ish and crusty because they're smashed patties. I'd go without that chipotle gochujang the next time because that's kinda taking centrestage a little too much. Shoestring fries tasted similar McD's except that these were nicely fried with a firm crisp exterior. No soggy sticks here. Buns definitely held up.

Recently at 无名海南鸡饭 (Wu Ming Hainanese Chicken Rice)

We were back at Wu Ming Hainanese Chicken Rice recently. A few things definitely have changed. For a start, the chap who previously peppered his sentences with '他妈的' did not today. 😂 Or rather, he didn't utter a single word the whole time we were there. Rice no longer has the pandan flavour I remembered from the last time and appears to be a little dryer. The chilli that I remembered being at an off balance sweetness was garlicky this time round. The latter two ended up being a fortuitous pairing on hindsight. Today's soup was a pretty good chicken and corn soup. Good because I finished it and I usually aren't into soup with corn.

Somerset Delicacies, Maxwell Food Centre

Somerset Delicacies (#01-60 Maxwell Food Centre, 1 Kadayanallur Street) has been around for as long as I can remember. Never tried anything from them until today's yang zhou fried rice (扬州炒饭). I've a few thoughts. It's a decent rendition but not great by any stretch. To be fair, it's only $5 so that stretches only so far in these parts. They do use real char siew but those were finely minced and hence felt sparse. Some of the rice was visibly scorched and there was definitely smokiness. Am quite impressed that it didn't have excessive oil. Would be great if they could just add a bit more salt. Or fish sauce.

I'd put this in the category where I wouldn't mind eating it again but I don't think I'll have a hankering for it.  

Maggi goreng ayam from the food court at Oxley Bizhub

Maggi goreng's putih by default. This ayam version came with chopped up fried chicken which was stir fried with the noodles. Standard instant noodle flavouring with bits of veggie. Not bad tasting as maggi gorengs went but it's a wee bit too greasy for my liking. Check out all the glisten.