Saturday, August 27, 2005

Ramly Burger - in Singapore!

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Whoa. Normally one has to go up to Malaysia to get this (apparently the Singapore health department does not approve of this mystery meat), but it looked like there were a bunch (I counted up to seven) of hawkers selling Ramly Burgers the other day at a pasar malam (a temporary streetside night market) in Serangoon North. Or so I thought.

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Many of them looked like the real deal, with the "metal pressing down thingy" and logoed banners and wrapping paper. But unfortunately, they were still not quite the same thing. Many of the vendors had pre-cooked patties, and none of them were butterflied in half like they often do in Malaysia. None of them used Maggi sauce on the patty. Most of them used the egg-wrapped-patty technique, but one guy actually used little metal rings to hold the egg in. One vendor used her own patties but called them Ramly (it was obvious that they weren't Ramly being that they were too thick - even though she had the official Ramly wrapping paper and logos everywhere). Heck, there was even a guy doing a knockoff "Pakistani Ramly" of his own! (I didn't try it.)

At the end of the day, it generally had the same greasy goopy taste that we've come to love of Ramly Burger. But it still wasn't the Real McCoy. At only S$2 (US$1.20) a burger though, it wasn't exactly painful to buy three burgers from three different vendors and try each one out.

Separately, there was a guy selling some sort of "Thai Shark's Fin Soup." Having never had a Thai version before, I got one, but it wasn't anything unique...just a bit too sweet and definitely not spicy. It was only S$2 (US$1.20) though, so tree huggers can rest easy knowing that it had to have been fake shark's fin.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just want to clarify one thing, there is no such thing as 'Pakistani Ramly'. If you see it properly, it written as 'Pastikan(not Pakistani)Ramly baru beli'. In malay languange, it simply means 'make sure (it's) Ramly, then only you buy (the burger)'. :)

bma said...

Ahhh...thanks for pointing that out. I should read it more carefully next time. Or at least, learn some Bahasa. :)

I was a bit distracted by the green sign though - I don't think the true Ramly actually uses green, do they? That's the first green sign that I saw from them anyway.

bma said...

ahhh! I didn't think of that one! I heard that the Tanjong Pagar Station is actually Malaysian property in Singapore, right? Hmmm...OK, I'm gonna make a note to myself on that one.

Anonymous said...

yup, tht whole area is Malaysian owned, thus the similar taste of Malaysian Ramly Burger. :) Not only the ramly burgers, but the other hawker food there are pretty Malaysian as well...n yes, the ambience too.