Hajah Maimunah Mini, Hawker's Street @ Clementi Mall

The last time we ate at Hajah Maimunah Mini in Clementi Mall, the food court was Boleh Boleh!. It's now Hawker Street and Hajah Maimunah Mini ended up being located in the same spot as they did previously. Anyways we got a plate with some favourites -  ayam goreng, sotong hitam, quail eggs sambal and sambal goreng. Still as delicious. Am pretty sure the food quality's better at the flagship but we took what we could get here.

Shiok Burger (新奇汉堡), Tiong Bahru Plaza

Shiok Burger opened up Tiong Bahru Plaza not long back (#01-159 Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road).

Came over to try the XXL Mala Inferno Burger. Given the name, its appearance was a little underwhelming.

Meat's a little thin. Decent mala sauce like what we've had previously but I'm not feeling the 'inferno'. McSpicy has more burn. For an "XXL" sandwich, it sure didn't feel that way after eating.

Zam Zam has gotten a makeover!

Haven't been to Zam Zam for a while. The interior has been refurbished.

Hot limau less sweet's nice. There's enough citrus sour in the fruit to make believe that we're cleansing the grease from the food we're about to ingest. 😂 

The thing to eat here which we don't come back often enough for is their crusty mutton murtabak. Spiced ground mutton, egg and diced onions layered in folded prata which is crusted with more ground mutton.

This was the $12 portion.

Ordered their dal for the first time and wishing that we had thought to do so earlier. Love the cumin infused savouriness.

Not bad mutton kurma. The onion loaded gravy was more nuanced with the spices than I had imagined. Mutton's relatively tender but still had a bite to them.

Sergeant Chicken Rice, Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ

Remember the chicken rice I had at the Food Republic @ Breadtalk IHQ previously? Just found out that they're Sergeant Chicken Rice. A branch of the very same one at Food Opera. Have been back a couple of time since.

They've a Duo Style Chicken Rice which includes both the 白 & 烧 going at $8.50. Eggs cost extra. Not bad but just kinda pricey for an additional serving of protein.

What came across as a better deal was the $7.90 Power Up Chicken Set. Only available at this branch if I'm not mistaken. Extra portion of meat and a choice of either greens or bean sprouts on the side.

Sikkander's, Marine Parade Central

Came across the mention of Sikkander's (#01-590, 83 Marine Parade Central, tel : +8711 8925) for their mee siam dum biryani.

That's right.

Sikkander's has created a first of its kind; at least for me. Those vermicelli were infused with briyani-ish savoury warm spices that came with a bit of heat. One could choose between chicken or mutton. We had the mutton which was arguably fork tender and chunky. There's also some tangy achar on the side for that cut through.

In retrospect, a bee hoon briyani would probably be more accurate than a mee siam briyani since there weren't any mee siam characteristics/ingredients in it beyond the bee hoon. #justsayin What's pertinent here was that it was delicious. We'll come back again.

One week later......

This was the chicken mee siam dum briyani. Not a slouch compared to the mutton rendition we had last week. Meat from the bird was relatively moist and tender, even for the breast meat. We had some toasted cashews in the noodles today. Very satisfying plate.

Prata's pretty good stuff. That's a double egg underneath a kosong. Both were competently done. I liked how light that kosong was.

Mr. Bucket Chocolaterie, Dempsey Road

They're (#01-03/04, 13 Dempsey Road) apparently a chocolatier that has started incorporating chocolate into their food so we were here to try them.

That's the Chocolate BLT. What intrigued me was the 45% milk chocolate mascarpone which turned out to be really good. Sadly, the beef bacon was no good at all - it was tough, chewy and sinewy. Some parts weren't edible. Pretty sure it would have been much better with regular bacon but the food's Muslim friendly so that's never happening.

There's steak frites with 72% dark chocolate peppercorn sauce. Kitchen has obviously little experience with plating. Sauce appeared to be watery because of the juices from the meat. Meat's edible, not great quality and also had some chewy unswallowable parts. Adequately salted though. The fries were the best tasting things on the plate.

Was nice of them to oblige when we asked for more sauce because there was barely enough to taste. It's creamy, not bad tasting but also neither memorable nor dark chocolate-y. Felt more like milk chocolate without much discernible pepper.

Pan seared duck breast with chilli cocoa powder was mediocre. I'm not sure what's their definitely of sear because I wasn't tasting any of it on the duck.

Meat was lean and had a powdery feel to them. There's little to no fat under the skin and that skin was very chewy. There were bits of silver skin in them. Apricot gastrique on the side didn't taste bad. Reminded me more than a little of tamarind but I didn't think it worked with the chilli cocoa powder.

Quite a bit of stuff we couldn't chew and/or swallow.

Chocolate's not bad though. We were offered samples and ended buying some.