Ang moh food

I wonder if restaurants obey the 90% rule: 90% is shit. Like 90% of pop music is shit, or 90% of academic research is shit.

I will come clean about this: I do not think that ang moh food is better than Chinese food or Malay food or Indian food. Except that French food and Mediterrenean food is probably on par, if you discount that they have all those fancy ingredients and stuff. And the stuff that makes it to Singapore is very same-y, unlike those that I've bumped into on my travels, which make more imaginative stuff like rabbit meat pate or paella or tripe sausages or bouillabaisse soup or squid ink sausage. Yes, maybe fancy ingredients are expensive. Yes, maybe Singaporeans are not very adventurous with other cultures' foods. Too bad for us then.

Well it's curious, when I go to ang moh countries (other than Oz or NZ) and there are very few Singaporean / Malaysian restaurants. Like you know how great our hawker food is, right? Like it's one of the few things where we are at least as good as HK or Taiwan. But very few Singaporean / Malaysian restaurants there, unlike Viet outlets which are a dime a dozen. So you can imagine that people are really queuing up for those places (and they are).

But when I go around hunting down some restaurants that I see good reviews for it probably has to be an angmoh place or a Jap place, because Chinese / Indonesian / Indian restaurants are usually places you go with a group of people. Unless it's hawker centre stuff.

So I will list here 5 angmoh food places that I've come across that are actually pretty decent, even though it's just angmoh food.

Steeple's Deli 2nd floor Tanglin Shopping Centre, Tanglin Rd
I guess that it's hard to find this place because it's mostly open during office hours. Also it's tucked away in the corner of Tanglin Shopping Centre which means it's not really that accessible (although it's near a bus stop and 10 mins walk from Orchard MRT).

Let's just say that that's the place where I first came across a Reuben in Singapore worth eating. They served Reubens in my uni cafeterias, and they were pretty decent: rye bread, melted Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and corned beef. I think that was when I first found out that pickles always go well with meat. (Those of you who don't know what pickles taste like, next time you eat your hor fun get yourself some green chilli.) Cost me $13 which is not that expensive for a fried sandwich.

Pizza da Donato
Pizza al Taglio
8 Sixth Avenue Singapore 276473
Tel: 6462 0838

Pretty decent pizza for decent prices - $6 a slice (neither cheap nor expensive.) And they import all their ingredients from Italy. The pizza is not ordinary run of the mill Americano super supreme stuff you'd get some interesting things like goat's cheese or parma ham or anchovies on it. (Note: anchovy is ang moh ikan bilis.) Not as good as Spizza but cheaper, more worth it than Pizza hut.

Le Petit Cuisine
#01-05, 10 Jalan Serene, Serene Centre

A French place, and the prices are quite decent. Ordinary bistro fare, only ate 1 dish but the rest of the stuff smells great. As you would expect from a place that sells French food at decent prices, it's packed on a Sunday, the kitchen's a little too small to be handing the loads of customers, and I overheard the French chef throwing a tantrum about "tell ze customers zat I will close ze kitchen in zen minutes and too bad if they're late".

Had the ravioli (ang moh wantons) with foie gras, should have known better than to expect generous dollops and servings, because it was foie gras is ex. Tastes great. I had probably the same dish somewhere else in a more pretentious place and had to pay twice as much for it, so this is fine. I haven't been back to try the rest but French food for affordable prices is A-OK with me, and I don't necessarily have to hunt down the French Stall.

Then there are the Garibaldi restaurants. 1 on Riverside Walk, and 1 at Raffles City. Pretty decent pasta and good deserts, you get a set lunch with $20 and it's worth it. Pretty OK to bring a chick there if you have one. Also there is Friends at Jelita and Serangoon Gardens. Great Ukrainian Borsh soup and steaks, but also ex.

I realise that these places will be a little out of the way for HDB heartlanders. Yes, they are in districts 9, 10, 11. Expat / angmohland. Paradoxically where land prices are not so high. Just remember this: every time you eat at a place less than 500m away from an MRT station you are subsidising the restaurant owner so that he can pay for the land. you'd be better off in these places than heartland malls where it's crowded, lots of screaming kids playing catching, food is hastily prepared and not very good but it's OK for the restaurant and the crowd is always there.