Ramadhan Special 2013: The Famous Satay Burger

I'm pretty sure that most of you would have heard of The Famous Satay Burger.
One of our readers, Syawal, sent me an email to try it at the Tampines Bazaar Ramadhan this year.
I wasn't able to battle it with the Ramly burger but it was still worth a visit.

I first heard about it a few years ago and it appeared to be a regular fixture at the Geylang Bazaar Ramadhan. It seemed like a really popular thing with the long queues at the stall too!

I tried it way back when (before the idea of this Halal Food Blog was even formed in my mind) but never really officially reviewed it so I decided that I would do so this year. But apparently they're not located at the Geylang Bazaar this year. They've apparently taken up a space at the Tampines Bazaar instead!

Satay Burger ($5.00)

So you have a choice of beef, chicken or mutton for your Satay Burger.
Is it any coincidence that it's just like ordering satay?! I think not!

Let me break down the anatomy of the burger for you...

The special Satay Sauce

Comes with lettuce, cucumber and onions

So it's a pretty standard burger from what I can see so far.
The uniqueness of it will be the taste of the satay sauce that gives this burger a truly local flavour.

You know what? Even the meat patty itself makes a big difference!
It's seasoned exactly the same as how they would season satay meat on a skewer! When you take a nice big bite, you're going to immediately recognize that familiar taste of satay spices like coriander, cumin and fennel seeds (jintan).

It was just like I was eating a steak made up of satay meat all compressed together!
In fact, you will see at the stall that they actually do press the patties at the stall itself. They actually have the patty press there! No joke! And they also charcoal-grill the patty so it's still juicy!

For my experience this time, unfortunately the bun was a little soggy (as you can see from the first picture posted above). I guess it has been sitting in the box waiting for packing for quite awhile and soaked up some water from somewhere. So I ended up eating just the patty and veggies.

But what about the Satay Sauce??

Looks a little spicy right? Well it's not that spicy.
I actually feel this was a really good Satay sauce. It had a great flavour and it went really well with the meat patty since it's like eating satay.

But this burger can tend to get a bit messy to eat...
It may not look it, but it's pretty big. So watch out for the dripping sauce.

World Halal Quest blogger Kak Mas tried it way back when in 2009 when they had a stall at the Pasir Ris fishing pond. I'm not sure if they still have a stall there to be honest. Check out her post HERE.

Adam's Verdict:
Famous Satay Burger 3.5/5

For all you Satay lovers out there - this is a must try!
It really really tasted like I was eating satay!

Famous Satay Burger

Tampines Bazaar Ramadhan
Beside Tampines MRT

Operating Hours: 12 noon til 10.00 pm Daily

Burger King: Rendang Burger

Here's a little-known fact.
My darling wife and I used to work at Burger King when we were younger!

It was just around the time after leaving school and I'm sure some of you also had a go at some fast food restaurant or other. In fact, it's quite an experience!

Well it's probably for that reason that my darling wife and I have a special place in our hearts for BK. Since we spent a lot of time with ingredients and the actual making of the burgers etc, that's probably why we hold BK in such high regard and also why we expect such high standards from BK.

Photo from Burger King

One of the most unique burgers ever in the history of Burger King (or even in Singapore I dare say) was the Rendang Burger. BK's flame-grilled beef patties topped with special Rendang sauce and onions! Yummy!

It was a sure winner back in the days and it was actually probably the only burger which uniquely held a special Singaporean flavour. I can't think of many other burgers which has such a uniquely local gimmick.
Well, the beloved Rendang burger unfortunately disappeared from BK menus islandwide quite awhile back.
It's been at least a few years...

You can imagine our excitement when we saw the ad... THE RETURN OF THE RENDANG BURGER!
Could it really be true???

BK Rendang Deluxe ($6.95 for the meal)

Let me start with the most important part of this burger - the Rendang Sauce.
And I have 4 words for you - IT'S-NOT-THE-SAME.

I don't mean that in a nostalgic-living-in-the-past kind of way. The sauce is literally different.
Trust me. My darling wife and I opened A LOT of Rendang Sauce cans when we were with BK and this is definitely not the same stuff. This one actually reminds me of Satay Sauce without the peanuts.

And for those of you who noticed - they use diced onions for this burger.
If there is one thing I remember about BK if there is onion in the burger, it's the round sliced onions.
I'm talking about the type you get with the BK Whopper you know what I mean. These chopped onions have no bite at all. They should have just left them out if this is the case.

And last but not least.
If you order the Rendang Deluxe (which is the double patty version), you get Turkey Bacon in the burger.
I'm not sure why. But there's some Turkey Bacon in there.

You can also have the Single Rendang Meal ($4.95) which doesn't have any Turkey Bacon.

Adam's Verdict:
BK Rendang Deluxe 2.5/5

Maryah's Verdict:
BK Rendang Single 3/5

Please don't get me wrong.

This wasn't a bad burger. It's just different from how it used to be and I reckon that quite a number of people will agree with me in saying they're disappointed because they were expecting a nice big bite of the old Rendang burger we all love. Oh well.

Burger King

35 outlets Islandwide
www.burgerking.com.sg

Operating Hours: Varies depending on outlet