The Simple Life in Singapore

Have you ever experienced a moment where all the factors come together to make your dining experience special?

It's not just the food that has to be good. Although that helps. Sometimes, it's the balmy weather. And on other times, it can be the incomparable company.

For me, it was a combination of attentive service (with a smile, if I may add) on a lazy Saturday afternoon away from the hustle and bustle of busy Singapore's Orchard Road. I had a table by the huge glass window overlooking the world going by and only my company to enjoy. In a setting like this, food is only ancillary.

I had picked the quietest restaurant in Wheelock Place. With a name like The Simple Life (think Paris and Nicole), an unlikely tagline "Authentic Asian Cuisine", and a set menu priced at S$14.90 for a starter, main course and dessert/drink, I was immediately attracted. I normally don't visit half empty restaurants, but I wasn't in the mood to hear loud chatter from neighbouring tables. So the stage was set.

My starter was a fruit rojak. Cubed fruits like pineapples, jicama, cucumbers and mangoes were tossed with bean sprouts, fried firm beancurd and sliced yau char kuay in a sauce made of thick prawn paste. What made the dish exceptional was the generous topping of coarsely ground peanuts. The sauce, because it was quite undiluted, was on the salty side, but I forgave them because it is rare that one can taste the prawn paste so distinctively.

My prawn mee was a sight to behold. Huge prawns presented seductively on a bed of noodles with succulent pieces of sliced pork...very tender, I might add...in a rather clear broth boiled with prawn heads, prawn shells and pork bones. Slices of fish cake completed the picture. I approached it with hesitance. Partly because the broth was too clear and quite unlike what I am familiar with, which is usually a murkier soup. I'm not quite sure if I like the soup though because the flavour was rather faint. But the prawns were fresh and delicious as were the huge pieces of pork.

Instead of a dessert, I chose a refreshing calamansi drink. I needed it after all that walking during the Great Singapore Sale. I've never seen people queuing up to enter an LV shop before. :-)

Also check out Chubby Hubby.



The Simple Life

Wheelock Place #02-18

Singapore.

Tel: 6738 3212