McAffogato

I found McD's affogato a unexpectedly/surprisingly acceptable substitute for... a "proper" one. As much as they would wax lyrical about their managed processes for their food product from kitchen to customer, nothing much was standardised about these. The taste didn't appear to be consistent for reasons. Sometimes, it's milkier and other times, it would have really weak coffee flavouring. But I buy it as an acceptable substitute.

Ah Lim (阿林), Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop

Ah Lim is located in the same coffeeshop (Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop, 15 Upper East Coast Road) as Chendol Melaka - stall's literally a coin's flick away. This was their $8 bowl. There's plenty of minced pork in this one. Okay-ish tasting bak chor mee as a whole but I also thought it was a little pricey. And not particularly memorable.

Chendol Melaka, Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop

I read about Chendol Melaka (Soy Eu Tua Coffee Shop, 15 Upper East Coast Road) quite a while back and have been wanting to try their nasi ulam. It's finally happened.

 

I like it. I'm getting kaffir lime and lemongrass amidst the umami of dried shrimps, shallots and numerous things I couldn't quickly tell apart within the melange of flavours. Their sambal packed respectable heat and was delicious with the rice. 👍🏼 If I had to compare with the ones I've had previously, I like this better than the one from Little Red Hen. 

Sadly their durian chendol wasn't good. The flavour of the puree reminded me of those tubed durian kueh which I never liked because they don't taste like actual durian. Nonya Chendol beats this hands down.

Old Master Hong Kong Grill (炭烧香港烧腊), Smith Street Food Centre

Noticed Old Master Hong Kong Grill (Yellow Zone, #02-006 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) which I had initially thought was the Old Master Roasted Grill stall that disappeared some years ago.

Decent roasts here. Roast pork (烧肉) had a good bite and the duck breast slices were relatively tender. Love the sweet char siew sauce. What didn't work for me were the char siew. We ordered 半肥瘦 and this was probably 85% 瘦. Those looked a lot better hanging in the stall than they tasted.

Shiikuwasha Fair at Nirai-Kanai

We were at Nirai-Kanai quite recently getting some stuff we liked.

Stuff like their mustard leaf fried rice, the meaty gyozas and the chanpuru. Speaking of which, their chanpuru has improved considerably. The bits of pork were no longer hard and dry. These today were pretty tender.

And we chanced on their Shiikuwasha Fair which featured the citrus fruit. Got a shiikuwasha beer and juice. These were deliciously refreshing.

French onion soup inspired burgers from Shake Shack

Current limited time flavour from Shake Shack.

In retrospect, doubling the meat kinda detracted from the flavour of those onions. Without the usual American cheese, I also realised that there's actually not much salt on those patties. 😮

The "French onion" flavour was more apparent in their shroom burger. 

Garlic parmesan fries has the cheese sprinkled on and some garlic aioli thingy on the side. These were pretty forgettable if you asked me.