Service? Singapore still has a long way to go

It would otherwise be a cheerful, happy, fair-weather Sunday afternoon until my shocking encounter at Margaret Drive Food Centre less than an hour ago.

I joined Chup's regular tennis kakis today for lunch. The Food Centre serves the most wonderful and cheap Fishball Mee Pok for an unbelieavable $2! There were at least 8 crunchy fresh succulent fishballs in one serving.

We were a group of 9 plus 1 infant seated on 2 makeshift tables at the pavement of the Food Centre facing the Church. We also ordered Yiu Char Kwey, Carrot Cake, Dumpling Soup, Rice with stirfry beef and Fish Slice bee hoon. As dessert, we ordered a mix of coffee and tea siu tai (meaning less sweet). It was here that a great error had been commited!

A thin-built, dark man came over and asked us in mandarin. Donned in checkered red shirt and shorts with silver earring on his right ear. He is probably in his 40's.

Man: Are you all done?
Us : (Looking puzzled) Not really...
Man: You are using my table you know. So are you done?
Can't you see you are using my table? Who's gonna clear the table?
SH : Ok, we will clear after we finish.
Man: Who's gonna clean the table?
SH : No problem, we will clean your table too.
Man: (obviously not satisfied with the answer)
Please move away. We are doing business here you know.
How can you use our table like that?
Move! Move! I want to keep the table.
(Flabbergasted, we all started shifting our food to another table while the angry man folded the table and stacked away all the chairs we were sitting on, giving us the killer stare everynow and then)

Apparently the 2 tables we were using belong to two separate drink stalls, each from 2 corners of the food centre. We had ordered our coffee from one of the table owners, making the other table owner (yes, that's the angry man) very upset.

Competition had made this man so angry and hostile. But are innocent customers to blame for his bitterness? Couldn't he have put it more gentlemanly? It's not as if he had many customers waiting for tables that we had accidentally occupy. Then again, it was probably due to his lack of business that he was even more angry.

.... the one who still couldn't believe what just happened

CASANOVA
Rating: ***
Cast: Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons
Genre: Romance Comedy

Watched on 11 Feb 06 with Lina, Lily, Imelda and Chup at Plz Sing 4.20pm slot.

It's crowded everywhere yesterday! It's weekend, and it's Thaipusam. Theatre was also full house. Luckily I managed to buy the ticket the day before. So we were occupying the best seats. Last row, centre :)

Surprisingly I didn't fall asleep for this 18th century setting movie.

Entertaining but not a must.

... the one who's stll munching pineapple tarts

CUBE
Rating: ****
Cast: unknown people
Genre: Sci-Fi thriller

This is quite an old movie released in 1997. I watched it on DVD in Malaysia during CNY.

An intelligent, mind boggling, low budget movie. Superb opening scene. Basically it's about 7 individuals from different backgrounds being trapped in a sophisticated maze with traps that are sadistically fatal. Think before you enter.

Highly recommended!

There's also a sequel CUBE2 which I thought was not as good as the first.

Here's a comment written by a viewer named Matthew Williams from England:

It probably cost about half the budget of this movie, to make the opening
sequence, which successfully gets your attention. Once it has your attention it
simply refuses to let you go, it is compelling to say the least.The Entire cast
were pretty much unknown when the film was made (and most still are), but they
all gave fine performances throughout. Without the successful casting this film
could have easily been a disaster, as it is almost entirely character driven.
I'm glad to say that definitely is not the case.Despite the low budget and
practically unknown cast, the film manages to be clever, intriguing,
Thought-provoking and Highly enjoyable. Sadly, this film is probably a one off,
i can't think of another low budget film that has half the impact of this one.

... the one who's munching pineapple tarts now

Fearless
My Rating: ***
Genre: Action
Casts: Jet Li, Nakamura Shido
Director: Ronny Yu

I watched this movie on the night of CNY eve, 28 Jan 06, in Sri Kembangan (M'sia). At 10.40pm after our reunion dinner. The theatre was fully packed and there were many Malays inside. It made us wonder for a moment if we were in the wrong theatre! But no mistake though. I think this was partly due to the agressive publicity of the movie in Malaysia. Wow, Jet Li certainly has many Malaysia fans. After all, this is supposed to be Jet Li's last martial arts movie.

To me, the storyline was rather disappointing. I told Chup, the show only started after 1 hour of introduction.

Mainly, the movie concentrates on showing off Jet Li's kungfu. Literally from beginning to the end.

So, watch it for the kungfu, not the storyline.

... the one who's feeling really hungry this Sunday morning

Le Troquet

Add : 529 Balestier Rd, #01-01, Singapore

Tel : (65) 6736 1070

Hours : Tue - Sat, Public Hols 10.30am - 10.30pm, Sun 1.00pm - 10.00pm, Off on Monday

Rating : ****1/2

Price : below S$60/pax with wine

Want some really nice French food? Try the Le Troquet Cafe Bar. A modest looking place located on Balestier Road. Lini's colleague discovered them from a website, and we thought we'll try having an early Valentine's dinner there.

On a rainy Friday evening Lini and I were there, there was only 2 other tables occupied. By sheer coincidence, one of the table was occupied by Tan Swie Hian, the Singapore artist who had also dine at another table when we were at Ember restaurant not long ago. Swie Hian sat just behind Lini and I could hear his fluent Mandarin conversation with another couple (he is, after all, a poet and calligrapher also). He'd brought his own wine, a $400/-, 25 year old bottle of wine, which he shared with the couple and the restaurant's owners, with whom he is familiar with.

The owners are 2 sisters, Suzanne and Yvonne, who had started the business 11 years ago. Both of them chatted with us, and they were humble and pleasant. Suzanne, the elder sister said she had enjoyed French food while living there, and when she returned, she found the French food served here "different". So she started this to serve a niche market. Most of her customers are regulars and she doesn't believe in growing big. Her personalised service is one advantage of her staying small.

I took their set menu; 1 glass of red wine, a grilled goat cheese in fresh cream sauce started, a main course of duck confit with sauteed potatoes and mesclun, and tiramisu dessert with fresh coffee. Mine had been a wrongly-printed menu where the word "or" was missing between the 2 choices of dessert, and I'd thought the dessert also includes a "French form of cheese platter". They brought the correct menu to show me the mistake in my copy and I accepted that without any fuss. To my surprise, they served me the French cheese anyway, to make up for the error. How very nice of them. But the real highlight was the Duck confit dish. It was perfect! Crispy skin, tender meat. It's their specialty/signature dish, it seemed. Highly recommended. The set menu is priced at $48.00 nett. Beside the Duck, you can also choose 3 other choices mainly Griller Ribeye Stick w/Blue Cheese Sauce OR Chicken "Truffle" w/White Wine Truffle Cream Sauce OR Raibow Trout "Amandes" w/Almond Butter Sauce and Vegetables.

The House specialty: Duck confit

Lini had ordered a panfried foie gras starter ($25/-) and stew lamb shank as main dish ($23/-). The foie gras was good, as good as the one at the Sage and better than Ember's. But somehow, foie gras in Singapore tends to be crunchily fried on the outside but a little too soft and fatty on the inside, we thought, different from those we tasted in Colmar (France), where there was more uniformity over the whole body. Lini's lamb was less successful. The meat was a little too tough and the portion too big. Among others, we also ordered an extra glass of red wine ($8.50) and bottled water from Italy ($6.50 Ouch).

All in all, great food with reasonable price.

Chup and... .... the one who's still sleepy from the wine

Ember

Add : 50 Keong Saik Road, Hotel 1929, Singapore
Tel : (65) 6347 1928
Hours : Monday to Friday 11.30am to 2:00pm (Lunch), 6.30pm to 10:00pm (Dinner)
Saturday dinner only
Closed on Sundays & Public Holidays

Rating : *** Price : around S$60/pax without wine

According to my last food review on Sage the Restaurant in Nov last year, Chup and I were supposed to be fine dine once a month. We didn't quite manage to do that.

Well, mainly because Aunt Feti was here in Dec. So our fine dining was literally all the sumptuous home-cooked food she prepared for us. That's our source of nutrition, usually happens twice a year when she is having a break from teaching in Jakarta.

So for January 2006, our fine dining was the much talked about "Ember" at Hotel 1929. Got this S$50 voucher for the place from my company's D&D last year. So we were trying to use it before it expires at the end of the month. Lina wasted hers because she didn't make it in time!

I heard so much about the restaurant from my friends. That it is very popular and it'll be impossible to get a table without reservation. In fact, not only that, reservations also have to be made way way in advance to avoid disappointment.

Very excitedly, we secured a table on the night of 20 Jan 2006. We were actually the first diner to arrive. Then again, we were early. We were there at 6.30pm. I guess most people haven't even knocked off at that time.

Nice cosy setting, with an optical illusion where a large piece of mirror is positioned at one corner of the restaurant, making it look larger than it actually is. In actual fact, the total area is rather tight, possibly accommodating max 40 people at full capacity. They had definitely utilized the space to the fullest, packing as many tables and chairs as they could.

Every reservation is allocated designated seating with exact number of chairs to a table. Perfect.

What we had:
Sparkling bottled water $6
Foie Gras as appetizer $17
Rack of Lamb for Chup $32
Roast Quail for myself $26
Warm Chocolate Cake $11
Fruit Sago $10

With the use of the voucher, we still had to top up $68.90. Quite pricey I thought. We didn't even have wine.

As the place gets more crowded, it became noisier. Due to the close proximity between tables, we can soon hear the conversation from our neighbouring tables. It became quite a marketplace. A very expensive market.

Waitress who served us didn't understand what is "pate". And she mixed up Sherbet with Souffle. Certainly not too acceptable for such a reknown restaurant?

As for the food, the lamb was juicy and tender. When Chup requested for the lamb to be well done, waitress said "Sorry, our Chef only does it to medium well". Hmmm... what happened to customer's freedom of choice? But in the end, I guess the Chef knows better, cos it turned out quite delicious. Very fragrant and buttery.

As for my quail, the taste was too "Indian" for me. So nah, didn't really like it. Quite troublesome to eat too due to the many small bones.

Dessert was great though, especially the fruit sago. Very refreshing and cleansing after the rich meal.

And yes, I almost missed out the foie gras. It was ay okay. Thought the one at Sage Restaurant was better. The search for great foie gras goes on... The best is still the one I ate at Colmar town, in France at Resaturant Bartholdi. Here's some review but it's in French :@

Overall, I think the place serves pretty good food but its rather pricey. For that kind of price, in my opinion, Ember is rather over-rated


...... the one who just had milo peng at Hwa Nam