Wonderful Bapsang, IMM

Someone suggested this place (#02-25 IMM, 2 Jurong East Street 21, tel : +65 6250 9609) for lunch and I hadn't any idea what was the place about aside from being Korean. They did have a pretty generic looking menu with Korean bbq and was attached to a mart selling Korean products.

Ended up with a donggassu/donkkaseu which was presumably (and obviously!) the Korean take on tonkatsu. Meat's thinner and so was the crust which didn't look like it had panko. The drizzled over sauce also didn't taste like regular tonkatsu sauce - this tasted like some brown sauce with a tanginess like it had HP sauce. The shredded cabbage was also much coarser. It wasn't bad though.

Banchan was pretty decent and free flow. We liked the kimchi that we had multiple refills of it. Wouldn't mind coming back again.

Chick ‘N’ Cheese Burger from McD

It's a McChicken with a piece of fried mozzarella cheese, their regular cheese and "sweet tomato chilli jam". Limited time menu item. Didn't think much of the fried mozzarella - almost half of it was the fried crust anyways. Between this and the regular McChicken, I'd pick the latter. The har cheong gai drumlets were not bad though. They should have har cheong-ed the chicken (preferably the thigh they use for McSpicy) and made a sandwich out of that instead. 

SP3 Chicken Rice, Redhill Food Centre

Heard about this chicken rice stall (#01-69 Redhill Food Centre, 85 Redhill Lane) that used to operate from the canteen at Singapore Polytechnic. It might sound out of the blue for me to mention this at this point but these guys have a better cabbage soup than many chicken rice stalls.

One of the options they have was a combination plate which featured their lemon fried chicken, roast chicken and boiled chicken. Quality of their cooked chickens weren't bad - reminded me a bit of Rong Ji nearby.

Rice was grainy and pretty flavourful. The sort that you could eat without sauces. Their chilli sauce had a light burn and was lime-y though.

Of yellow croakers, Duotou clams and others at Putien

The Yellow Croaker Festival is not yet over but the Duotou clams are already in season. Hence both items have their seasonal dishes on their menu. What are Doutou claims you might wonder? they're succulent meaty clams which are harvested in and named after the village of Dou Tou in Putien.

Here're some of those clams in chilled in fermented wine. The dominant flavour here was the wine. I thought that the clams packed more flavour in previous cooked noodle dishes we've had.

The clams were also available steamed with garlic puree. What worked here was the garlic that they used weren't overpowering and had a sweetness with paired with the meat from the clams.

Fried yellow croaker from their regular menu.

Yellow croaker steamed with chopped chillis. Not as spicy as it was salty from the fermented black beans that were used in those chilli. Delicious with rice. The meat from the fish was tender.

Tried their spinach in supreme stock - a stock that oddly reminded me of the smoky gravy from hor fun that I had when I was a kid. This was good. Garlic cloves in the dish were fragrant, tender and sweet.

Gotta have rice for the chopped chilli from the steamed yellow croaker and that supreme stock from the spinach.

We had room for desserts so this was their double boiled pear with osmanthus and aged mandarin peel. The flavour from the mandarin peel came through in the soup and the pear.

And some very tender white fungus that was sweet and soothing.

Super Shiok Nasi Lemak, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

Was introduced to this stall (#02-38 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) recently. No idea how long they've been around but they did Chinese styled nasi lemak. There was definitely coconut flavour going on with their grainy textured rice - which might have been a mixture of jasmine and longer grained basmati. Not outright impressive but very edible. 

Sambal tasted of anchovy and onions. Wasn't too sweet and had a nice flavour. Thought it was not bad but this always puts me in a dilemma because they become dominant flavour when eaten with the rice - which robs the rice of most of the coconut taste.

Ingredients were so so. Chicken wing had a bit of bite to the meat - did not have the slurp off the bone tenderness which I preferred. Omelette was old school thin which was nostalgic. Didn't like the chicken luncheon meat much and otah wasn't spicy. Not bad a nasi lemak but I wouldn't call it super shiok.

Shake Shack, Great World

Shake Shack has a new branch, a sixth one in Singapore out at Great World (#01-101, 1 Kim Seng Promenade). With that, there was also a limited time Jalapeño Ranch burger and fries on menu. Not impressed by the fries since ranch sauces have never been my thing. Should've listened to my inner voice and given it a pass for the regular cheese fries instead. 

The burger tasted like their ShackBurger with bacon and tomatoes even though it was Pepper Jack cheese they used. House pickled jalapeño (I know it doesn't look pickled but it was) provided the bit of acid (and no discernible heat) cutting into the rich cheese and meat.

If there was anything that I've discovered today about them, it was that their organic brewed ice tea can be ordered without ice. It's thick, astringently bitter and pretty aromatic. Best way to drink it methinks.