shiokadelicious!

Wham!burger

This will be a slight departure from the norm for this blog: I’m going to talk about a food outlet that’s already closed down. Well, I suppose, if I have had more time and have been more conscientious about staying on top of my blogging “duties”, I would be writing this in the present tense. But life does have a way of getting busy like that. So here I am, writing after the fact.

Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t make much sense – to talk about some place that no longer exists; in this instance, this joint is merely taking a hiatus (or so the owner says). The lease on its original premise has expired, and the owner has decided to take a short break before making a comeback, with renewed vigor, in some new location. As such, I feel it still appropriate to write about it all the same; I do hope this outlet will reappear soon, in some spanking new outfit.

Wham!burger was a very small, one-outlet, independent burger joint. That in itself was a rarity in Singapore, a land of many globalized fast food chains. The fact that it had built up quite a fair following of fiercely loyal, die-hard fans made it an even greater rarity still. Some swore that it had one of the best burgers in town. Others were willing to drive across half the country (well, okay, so we live on a tiny island that you can cross from coast to coast in less than an hour ) just to chomp into one of its large 1/3 pounders.

I had heard and read much about this little burger joint ; so before it pulled down the shutters on its old premises, I just had to make a visit to see what all the hype was about.

I invited my mum to join me; I dangled a carrot : after the lunch, she could pop into the Giant Hypermarket that was next door – a good enough incentive for her to be willing to drive out to Turf City just for a burger.

It was a weekday; and when we got there just before 1pm, there were 2-3 other tables of 3-4 persons waiting for their food. The set-up was a small, hole-in-the-wall fast food take-out joint: utilitarian, with just a small service counter, a tiny food prepping area and outside, in the passageway in front of the shop, about 6 small foldable tables for those who chose to “dine-in”. However, the service modus operandi was more a semi-restaurant style, if you can call it that. You placed your orders at the counter, paid up, and took your seat; the food was brought to you when it was ready. And you had to be prepared to wait. This was not “fast food”. We waited a good 15 minutes or more for ours to arrive. Each burger was cooked only after the order had been placed; and that was a good thing – nothing quite beats a freshly cooked burger. But with only a single small griddle from which all the cooking was done, it meant a wait was inevitable if you had several people ahead of you.

Another distinguishing feature of the outlet? Because of the shop’s tiny size, the griddle was placed right next to the cash register and order-taking station, and faced the customers directly. With seemingly minimal grease and odor extraction facilities in place, it meant that if you had to stand in line for more than a few minutes, you ended up feeling and smelling like you just spent some time in a grease sauna! Not pleasant! You ended up walking around for the rest of the day with hair and clothes that reeked heavily of oil and burgers. Yum! Or euwww! I guess, depending on your inclinations.

The menu was kept deliberately sparse; obviously specializing only in what the owners were good at. This to me was usually a good sign. They weren’t trying to do all things or be all things to all people. I’ve always believed in the business principle that if what you served up, no matter how limited the choice, was good enough, the customers would just keep coming back. There were about 8 main items, with the 1/3 pound beef burger and the chicken burger headlining the list, and supported by things like fish and chips, chilli con carne, hot dogs and chilli dogs. Then there were the side options of things like crinkle cut fries, macaroni salad, potato salad and so on.

We opted to try their famous 1/3-pounder, the chicken burger and with some fries on the side.

The fries were the first to arrive; some five minutes or so before the burgers. The fries were pretty much devoured by the time the burgers arrived.

These were pretty good as far as fries go: nicely crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. They weren’t over-salted, and most importantly, had barely any greasy feel to them (a sharp contrast to the burgers, as we later found out). These were good fries; definitely above average.

Next to arrive was the chicken burger. It was a good thing we had decided to share the burgers so that we could each have a taste of both. Otherwise, one of us would have had to sit for a few minutes more and watch the other person eat, before their food was delivered to the table.

The burger was made up of a whole piece of boneless, skinless chicken thigh meat, with shredded lettuce and mayonnaise as garnishes. The chicken filet was extremely tasty. Wow! It really tasted very good! The star of the show was the marinade. It was hard to describe – rather peppery from a generous amount of ground black pepper, with a tiniest hint of sweetness and an overtone of savoriness. The closest I could think of was a sort of not-so-sweet, slightly savory teriyaki sauce, mixed with some sort of BBQ-type sauce, and with some spices like turmeric and maybe a touch of cumin thrown in for good measure. There was also some indefinable Chinese sauce (or maybe sauces) which I couldn’t quite put my taste buds on. Whatever their secret recipe was for the marinade, it was a winner! Both my mum and I loved how the chicken tasted. It was pretty awesome, taste-wise.

The meat was incredibly moist, juicy and succulent; and oh so tender. The patty was cooked to perfection. Just lovely!

However, there were several let-downs too (aren’t there always?), and these unfortunately detracted rather significantly from the over all chicken burger eating experience. First, the mayo. There was just so much of it… both under and on top of the chicken patty! That was a lot of mayo! I mean, I recognized that I was not much of a mayo person to begin with, and that there were probably people out there who liked lots of mayo with their burgers, but this was decidedly overkill. The sweetness of the mayo also tipped the sweet-savory taste balance too much. I think just a little mayo with maybe a little mustard (which was provided at the tables) would have been a much more holistic blend of flavors.

This excess of mayonnaise was further compounded by the bun that was used. The bread used to create a burger is often a much neglected consideration, and yet it really does make or break a burger. And unfortunately, these buns were far from ideal. They didn’t have much texture to begin with, and were also thirstily absorbing all the mayonnaise. So you ended up with a bun that was soggy, mushy and simply very “wet” from all the mayo and the oil that was oozing out of the chicken. It just didn’t feel very good in the mouth. My mum must have uttered at least 5 times throughout our short meal that the buns at McDonald’s were way better than these buns, that these weren’t palatable at all. And I had to agree with her.

I ended up discarding the bottom half of the bun (which was soggy beyond redemption) and scraping off some of the mayonnaise from the top half. Still, all in, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the chicken filet. That was a hands-down winner.

The beef burger arrived just as we were finishing up the chicken burger. This was a 1/3 pound patty of pure minced beef, cooked well done and served up with the same mayonnaise and shredded lettuce as the chicken burger. Fans of Wham!burger always cited their freshly home-made beef patties as the trump card – they raved about how moist, juicy and tasty the burgers were. I really wanted to believe them; I really wanted to find another great burger place in Singapore that I could keep going back to. But alas, I just could not find anything I liked about this burger.

When I had requested for the burgers to be cut into half for us, the man behind the counter said that he didn’t recommend that for the beef burger, as the patty would fall apart. That had me a little suspicious. I asked him to go ahead and cut it anyway, as it would make sharing the burger a lot easier. And true enough, the burger had fallen apart into a messy pile of minced meat by the time it arrived at our table.

I laud the principle of using pure ground beef to make burgers; however, I really don’t think the use of some form of binder (in the form of eggs or egg whites, if you want to eschew breadcrumbs or other such like) would have detracted significantly from the integrity of the patty. Quite obviously, no binders were used in this patty… and thus the mess. I could not imagine biting into this burger whole without also showering your shirt with a good sprinkling of meat stains.

Then there was the case of the taste and texture of the beef itself. This seemed more like it was ground from thawed meat, rather than fresh. And it had a weird mushy texture (as you can see from the picture) that we really didn’t like. Good mince should have a certain distinctness to the grain of the meat, with a certain toothsome, meaty bite to it. This was almost like mashed meat rather than minced! Then, in the midst of all this mushiness there were numerous (and I mean numerous) bits of hard, crunchy tendon-like bits, which were non-chewable and non-swallowable. So, we ended up spending a lot of time trying, as discretely (and as lady-like) as possible, to remove these hard bits from our mouths with each bite that we took of the burger. This certainly did not make for elegant eating! Not a place to come on a first date that’s for sure!

Following as it did from the highly flavorful chicken burger, the beef burger was a pale cousin. There were barely any detectable seasonings in the patty. It just tasted of, well, beef – beef and just beef alone. It was, um… very beefy. Have you tried eating 1/3 pound of beef with minimal flavoring? It gets cloying, to say the least.

The patty also came swimming in grease; the burger arrived at the table sitting in a big pool of oil. I think it would have done even the greasiest of greasy spoons in New York proud. Now, add to that the copious amount of sweet mayonnaise slathered on top, and you have an overkill of oiliness and richness. My taste buds were crying out for mercy. It was a two-note taste experience: beef and mayo. I think some herbs in the beef would have made for a flavorful highlight; some finely diced sweet onions in the patty itself would have been a decided “wow” bonus; a slice of fresh, ripe tomato in the burger would also have provided a much needed tangy reprieve from all that cloying richness. Add to that the same problem of the rather sickening mouth-feel of the soggy, mushy, oil-soaked, disintegrating bun, and well… it was quite a task to finish the burger – and we were only having half a burger each!

My mum couldn’t help commenting that she would have a Big Mac any time over this. And sadly, I was inclined to agree with her.

I spent the rest of the day with this awful, heavy-as-a-rock, greasy feeling sitting in the pit of my stomach. Even drinking one full pot of Chinese tea did nothing to elevate the queasiness and feeling of fullness and over-satiation; that lump of heaviness simply would not budge. Dinner time came and went, and I still could not bring myself to eat another morsel of food.

I’m sorry, I know there are a lot of Wham!burger fans out there, but try as I might, I can’t say I liked the beef burger at all. I had heard such wonderful things about the place; I had so wanted to fall in love with their burgers. But I guess, as the age-old adage go: one man’s poison is another’s meat.

Yet, having said all that, I still hope the owners will find a suitable new location soon, and reopen for business. I think they are on to a good thing. Their chicken patty alone is enough to make a repeat visit a must. And maybe with a change of bun supplier, I think they will have close to the best and tastiest chicken burger in town. I’ll just remember to ask to skip the mayo when I place my order, and then slather my patty with yummy mustard!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.

Cheap and Good

Sitting on the fringe of one of Singapore’s many well-known food hubs is a rather unassuming, almost nondescript food stall. It takes up a small corner of a kopitiam (local coffeeshop), which itself is off to the side of the famous Alexandra Village Food Centre (or hawker centre). It is so humble looking that to this day, after years of patronizing the stall, I still cannot remember its name. I know where it is, I recognize the owners, but I can’t remember the name of the stall!

This small food stall sells but two items – the Teochew Soon Kueh and the Ang Ku Kueh (for more information about South East Asian kuehs, please refer to my previous post on kuehs); and it is well-known and highly regarded for both.

Soon Kueh is a classic Teochew steamed dumpling. Traditionally, a thin, smooth and translucent skin envelops a voluptuous filling of sautéed young bamboo shoots (“soon” in Chinese). The dumpling is then brushed with a little oil and steamed to soft, succulent perfection; a light sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds adds the finishing touch. However, for some unknown reason, in Singapore at least, the “traditional” version of Soon Kueh is taken as being one filled with sautéed mung guang (jicama or Chinese turnip), and the bamboo version is normally referred to as being a variant of this. Nevertheless, on the whole, “soon kueh” is the term used to refer to both flavor varieties.

There is also a further variant with a chives filling. In this incarnation, it is technically no longer a Soon Kueh, but a Koo Chye Kueh (“koo chye” - sometimes spelt “ku chye” - being the dialect term for chives).

This stall sells all three versions. I’ve only ever tasted their mung-guang and chives dumplings, since my body doesn’t take too well to the presence of bamboo shoots.

The Soon Kuehs from this stall are big – quite a lot larger than the standard ones sold at hawker centers. And they come stuffed chock-full with filling - shredded turnips sautéed with finely diced carrots and wood-ear fungus.

The ones we bought on this last visit were unfortunately a little under-flavored. And the turnips could have done with more time in the wok too… that elusive “wok-hei”, or rich, complex flavor that comes from using the right intensity of heat and cooking the food for the right amount of time, was sadly missing.

The skin (made from rice flour and tapioca flour), on the other hand, was as good as ever. So beautifully thin and translucent that the fillings could be seen through it; and yet strong enough that it didn’t break or tear when the dumpling was picked up with chopsticks. The true mark of well-made skin I say. The texture was pretty close to perfect too – soft, smooth and succulent, with just the right amount of bite. There was just the right degree of sticky chewiness, without any dough sticking to the back of your teeth as you bit into the dumpling.

The accompanying chilli sauce was very good too. I have always liked the home-made chilli sauce from this stall. It is not tongue-searingly hot. But spice heat alone does not a fine chilli sauce define, in my opinion. I’ve never been one to enjoy food or sauces that have but one dominating flavor note that overshadows all else. I prefer balance, and a holistically complex package of tastes and aromas. It is about richly layered flavors, finely tuned spice and ingredient combinations, fragrant aromas, and just as importantly, long and patient frying (cooking) of the chilli sauce – an often overlooked factor that is essential for delicious sauces.

The chives dumpling also came filled to the brim with stuffing. Look how beautifully and evenly thin the snow-white skin was. Gorgeous. The only let-down was again the filling. Chives absolutely require a good amount of cooking time; otherwise they retain this rather unappetizing green, grassy taste, and sometimes even with a hint of sappiness. Ideally, they should be sautéed to just the right amount of softness so that they are very tender and smooth on the palate. Perhaps it was a substitute cook that prepared the fillings that day; a cook that was inordinately light-handed with the flavorings. Even the finely diced dried shrimps that were added to the chives could do little to lift the filling.

Still, at just 50 cents (US$0.30) per piece one can hardly gripe too much. The Soon Kuehs at this stall are truly cheap. Similar sized ones, and not necessarily better tasting ones either, will normally go for S$1.00 to S$1.20! I think this stall has held their prices steady for years and years, and this fact has not gone un-noticed with their very large and loyal following.

My favorite from this stall however remains their Ang Ku Kueh, and more specifically, their Peanut Ang Ku Kueh.

Again, at just S$0.50 a piece, it is incredible value. Super generous fillings are the trademark of this stall, and it is true of their Ang Ku Kuehs too.

I like their peanut filling for several reasons. The peanuts are roasted just right – not too much, which gives the filling a slight “burnt” aroma, and not too little that the filling lacks fragrance… but just right. (And no, there is no Goldilocks in this story, sorry.) The peanuts are then ground to a very good consistency, not too coarse and chunky and not too fine, but just… right (hey, we’re getting good at this! ). The sweetness of the peanut filling is also finely tuned. And the biggest bonus for me personally is that you can’t see or taste the granules of sugar. I tend to find this to be a problem with many other versions of peanut ang ku kueh. Another common problem is an overly moist filling where the peanuts clump together into a soggy lump and become soft with nary a crunch to them. At this stall, although the filling can occasionally fall a touch on the dry side, but more often than not, it is very fragrant, aromatic and nicely crunchy.

Not to be out-done, the skin is very well-made too. It is nicely soft, with the right amount of stickiness and chewiness. It is also not so thick that you get a whole chunk of glutinous rice flour dough with every bite, nor is it so thin that you feel like you are eating pure ground peanuts and nothing else.

All in all, just three words: good and cheap!

They also sell the Green Bean (Mung Bean) Paste Ang Ku Kueh – both sweet and savory. While the sweet version always has a red colored skin, like the peanut ang ku kueh, the savory one (pictured above) has a skin that is flavored, colored and flecked with a Chinese herb, the name of which I do not know. It lends a very subtle aromatic overtone to the skin, giving it a touch of the savory. In this form, the kueh is known as Aw Ku Kueh.

The generous bean paste filling is again very well made; with a soft and fluffy texture that doesn’t tip over into mushiness (unlike the one I wrote about previously). I’m not usually an aw ku kueh person. I much prefer the sweet one; but this savory version I will eat.

In recent years, they have added to their original repertoire of peanut, sweet and savory bean paste ang ku kuehs. Their range now includes “modern” flavors like yam and yes, even durian. I’ve never tried any of these “new” flavors, and am not inclined nor tempted to. I’m a classic kind of gal, you know… But given their generally high standards, I don’t think they will disappoint if you are so inclined towards those flavors.

I would say their kuehs are definitely among the better ones that I have tasted in our island state. They have remained steadfastly a specialist in these two types of kuehs, and it shows in the standards. And where value for money is concerned, they are pretty much unbeatable. This is one stall that has stayed on my “repeat list” for many years. I don’t visit it often; but whenever we happen to be in the vicinity, this stall is a must-stop.

[Update 19/06/04: a reader has very kindly emailed me the name of the stall: Poh Cheu]

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.