Healthy Signage

Here's a photo one of our mates snapped while walking by Freshness Burger on the ground floor of the Central mall at Clarke Quay here in Singapore. An establishment that promotes its "healthy meals" will sell you a "Butter & Sugar Burger" plus coffee for less than S$2 (1.63 USD/1.00 GBP).

This is the Singapore outlet of the Japanese burger chain that is currently promoting a vinegar drink. I will have to stop in and compare their wares with their Nipponese competitors Mos Burger. If I bring a ten-dollar note to Freshness, I might be able to sample breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Mashed Potato Machine

ZOMG! I have been in Europe and the US for most of June and July. I totally missed the introduction of mashed potato machines to Singapore. They are in 7-Eleven stores around the island. $1.00 buys a cup of steaming Maggi-brand instant potatoes topped with gravy. I'm sure a device that spouts hot gravy poses no hazards to customers whatsoever. Strangely in our local 7-Eleven on Erskine Road the button for barbecue-flavored potatoes looks like it receives more attention than its regular-flavored counterpart.

At 7-Eleven in Singapore I can buy an ice cream, settle my electric bill, top up my mobile phone, and pay for Jetstar flights I reserved online. Now I can go there for nearly palatable mashed potatoes at the push of a button.

Jolly Glee Pizza (from Pizza Hut)

Roast chicken, turkey bacon, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce make the Jolly Glee a festive pizza. Notice the cherry, too.

Pizza Hut has a new gimmick for Singaporean customers. Previous gimmick here. Instead of actually making tasty products, Pizza Hut now offers a Jolly Glee pizza. It has all the ingredients you might expect from a Christmas dinner – poultry, pseudo-pork, potatoes, cranberries – plus some you didn't know you wanted. Click the picture to see a larger image and guess what else lurks beneath the lattice of crust. I can spy red peppers and onions, but I am unable to swear that the yellow items are simply yellow peppers. The website says it's pineapple. Not satisfied? Apparently there is also cheese in the crust... and a glacé cherry! I knew this was missing something.

You know what this needs? More cheese.

7 cheeses: Because 6 was not sufficient. Click the picture for a larger image.

 I first saw this food product advertised on the MRT. I was shocked. 7 cheeses? How do they all fit on one pizza? How does the fat fit in one person's arteries? What are those freakish globes strewn across the topography?

I would love to know if this 7-cheese extravaganza is available in the USA, Britain, or wherever is your country? Click the link below left to leave a response in the comments.  I am curious about this because Singaporeans are not wildly enthusiastic about cheese.  I have a hard time getting quality fromage here at a good price. It's not part of the local diet, and it even keeps a low profile on the menus of restaurants with international cuisine.  I'm not sure why Pizza Hut thinks this product will sell.

Pizza Hut Singapore is certified halal. That's the little green logo underneath the Facebook tag. This is the reason that the one time I ate Pizza Hut pizza in Singapore I was very disappointed by the sausage, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, and any other toppings usually made from pork. A 7-cheese pizza would get around that problem, but I still don't think I would like it.

Chicken!

The signboard for an eatery in the basement of our local mall.

Part of the love of food here in Singapore includes a somewhat overly enthusiastic demand for chicken, preferably fried.  In the mall around the corner from our flat, Novena Square/Velocity, there are several imported imported chicken outlets.  This is in addition to multiple mom-and-pop chicken rice stalls.

KFC has prospered in Asia.  The image of the venerable and inscrutable colonel welcomes diners to a KFC outlet on the ground floor.

The big American fast-food brands can really thrive here, but the affection for mass produced poultry means that even obscure or regional American franchises can do well in Singapore.  Our mall is soon to add a Popeyes.  Most confusingly, there sits upstairs at the mall a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant.  I thought that corporate venture went bust and disappeared sometime in the 1990's.

I am counting down to savoury biscuits coming to our neighborhood.  Popeyes already has at least two other locations in Singapore.  This one will open along the street-level shops of Novena Square.

Somehow the Gambler he broke even here in Singapore.  The third floor of Velocity.

Of course, these chicken locations are in addition to the Burger King and Long John Silver's fast-food outlets in the mall.