When Chendol was served in a beverage cup and contained sea salt, this dessert (or did it convert into a beverage) became a novelty of the drinks stall within Food Junction, for S$2.20. Though we had probably been accustomed to salted caramel already, the sea salt was subtle and sort of balanced the sweetness.
But if this were to be compared with a bowl of shaved ice dessert, then I would prefer the latter, for it was easier to consume with a tablespoon than with a straw no matter what.
The Vietnamese stall within Food Junction also had Bahn Mi available for dine-in and takeaway. Costing S$6.90, they seemed to have also toasted the baguette before stuffing the fresh ingredients in. Fresh stuff always tastes more flavourful in a Bahn Mi, don’t you think?
When I first had this for takeaway, I was delighted by the sheer crispiness of the baguette crust. Though things might have gone a little messy with the crumbs, I would classify this as a happy mess no less.
Given that their standard version of Mango Sticky Rice was S$7.00, I surely didn’t mind paying S$9.00 to get the “upgraded” version with a scoop of coconut gelato as an add-on.
Despite the added creaminess from the generous amounts of coconut cream and gelato, I felt that the glutinous rice might be compressed too tightly, to the point it had caked a little. It was a little awkward for me to have difficulties separating the rice from the decorative leaf at the bottom. On the whole, this dessert was not as exceptional as I would have hoped it to be, but it was hard not to love a Mango Sticky Rice when I would see one.
Initially, I wanted to have their Crab Meat Fried Rice, but I realised that their Crab Meat Omelette with Rice (S$10.00) was only available on weekdays, so I thought I might as well give it a try.
And I was indeed satisfied with my change of mind. I was amazed by the looks of the dish, which reminded me of a lava Omurice. The omelette was neatly blanketing a portion of plain rice, and it seemed that the chef poured some beaten eggs over the omelette to give it the molten, runny look. Chunks of crab meat was then placed on top of the mains.
Even though plain rice was used, the taste of the dish was still uplifted by the eggs and the crab meat. Given its price, I would most likely choose this over the Japanese Omurice for something less heavily seasoned.
#BurppleBeyond
The Grilled Pork with Homemade Sauce (S$12.00) was one of their popular dishes. Just from the looks of the dish when it was served, the pork seemed sufficiently tender and juicy. They were also well-marinated and tasted good on its own, but the homemade sauce could beautifully top up some spice and acidity to the meat.
To be honest, I thought that the portion size, given its cost, was a little on the large side. Assuming a normal Thai-style sharing plates concept, methinks this would still be sufficient for 4 or 5 diners.
A common table snack that was deep fried to perfect crispiness, their Pork Skin (S$6.00) was not difficult to break. This also meant that it would be safe for those who could not take foods that were too hard.
And if this was something you’d like to nibble, Khao Hom also had these in takeaway packs at their cashier counter.
The Beef Carpaccio (S$24.00) was beautifully plated with the yellow egg yolk emulsion, tiger’s milk, flying fish roe and parmesan. Even though the beef was served raw and denatured, there were sufficient ingredients to create a symphony of flavours to bring out the beauty of the protein. And perhaps, this might be one of the few times that I would think that beef could pair well with white wine or cocktails.
A beautiful sharing plates of BBQ Whole Squid (S$19.00) was something I would recommend to order. The seafood was cooked on point with adequate levels of smoky flavours, and the passionfruit dressing that came with it gave a good taste of acidity with a refreshing aftertaste. I personally also enjoyed that crunchy bits of passionfruit seeds that was blended in with the dressing, though not everyone might have found it unnecessary to have.
Probably their signature cocktail, the Lumo Uno (S$24.00) was a nice mix of Perla bianca sparkling wine, salt homey syrup, chamomile tea and lemon juice. I thought what really struck me was the subtle salty flavours that complemented the floral and citric profile of the cocktail. Being easy to drink, I thought I ordered at least three of these during my light dinner.
Love the profile but would prefer to ditch the alcohol? They also have a mocktail version of this at half the price!
It was a little funny seeing RVLT sell their in-house Chicken Nuggets in the same denominations as McDonald’s, but this was the better deal for sure.
Priced at S$60.00 for 20 pieces, these bar snacks were made of full pieces of chicken meat, almost like chunks of Karaage. However, what really attracted me to this dish was that the nuggets were seasoned with tamarind powder to give it a sourish flavour, and if that was not brilliant enough, be sold to their home-made sriracha sauce which was kind of addictive to me.
In short, if you would want prominent flavours of chicken with elevated sour and spicy notes, this would be the perfect bar grub for you. Just take note that they might not be available when the price of fresh chicken gets ridiculously high.
I ordered this Prosciutto E Rucola (S$30.00) through the Oddle Eats platform, and this was one of the more satisfying takeaway pizzas to date.
The dough was to my liking: airy and not too dense, with a good balance of crustiness to every bite. It was very nice of them to have packed the arugula and shaved parmigiana separately so that the greens remained raw when served. Apart from the parma ham, another important element was the sauce tub of chilli oil that accompanied the pizza. I’m sure many would agree that one tub was barely enough to go with the pizza, because it could make the already-delicious pizza even more mouth-watering.
Being a burger kiosk at Basement 3 of 313@Somerset, RambĂĽrger might be one of those places to pick up what was known as the Pasar Malam favourites, the Ramly Burger?
Though the cooking method was akin to the famous street food, I felt that their single-patty Beef Burger (S$4.80) fell short by a pretty large margin. Somehow, I didn’t really like the brown sauce, and it wasn’t surprising that the sauce created a big mess when I unwrapped the burger (well, I like messy burgers sometimes, but this one was not what I would take while eating on-the-go).
