Confessions of a City Slicker

The hunger was gnawing at me as I drove home from the gym. Suddenly, the prospect of going home to instant noodles doesn’t seem so appealing anymore.

So what will it be?

Char hor fun?
Char koay teow?
Hokkien mee?
Beef koay teow?

Then it caught my attention.

I was waiting for the lights to go green at the junction of Cantonment Road and Burmah Road when I saw it - this little unassuming cafe at the opposite corner. Other than the big banner in front advertising Francis Western Food, there is nothing else that tells you what this cafe has to offer.

I have heard about this place before and been wanting to try it out. Just that I have also heard about the long waiting time there, so I passed out several opportunities to eat there.

Decision made, I quickly cut into the right lane as soon as the lights were green. As luck would have it, there is a strategic parking spot waiting for me - not too far to walk and brightly lit.

Alexandra Wong wrote about this place in The Star once. She mentioned the stern looking owner, Francis, who looks like a very strict headmaster that you only dare to speak to him in a meek, polite voice. She’s right. When I saw him, I can’t help but feel a little intimidated by his hard stare.

There were menus on all the tables so one does not have to stand in front of the frying pan while deciding what to order. Dishes were categorized according to their meat - poultry, fish, beef/lamb and side dishes.

There were standard cooking methods for each meat category - baked, deep fried, cordon bleu, bacon wrapped and cheese baked, if I remember correctly.

I think Lillian picked up the bacon wrapped baking method from him. It’s basically wrapping your meat with bacon strips so that they don’t get overcooked in the oven. I tried it out once but it was a disaster. My chicken ended up undercooked, but the bacon strips did lend a wonderful smoky flavor to the meat.

Anyway, seeing how much I love my cheese, of course I ordered the cheesy pork chop priced at RM15.00. I really wanted the sirloin steak, but at RM22.00, the price was double that of Little Chef’s. Maybe one of these days when my budget can bear it, I’ll go try it. Little Chef never got my medium rare steak right.

The place was already full when I arrived so I expected to be there for a while. Surprisingly, I saw Francis popped my pork chop into the oven in no time. My food arrived soon enough and it was a big portion, almost comparable with Mizzi.

Look at all those yummy treasures hidden under the cheese. There’s mushrooms, a generous helping of shredded ham, tomato, and even a pineapple ring that I only discovered halfway through my meal.

The pork chop itself is rather tasteless, but whatever sauce Francis used, sure is good. It’s tastes vaguely familiar, yet I can’t really put my finger on it. I also didn’t quite like that the cheese was not chewy enough, so Francis probably didn’t use mozzarella cheese. Still, it’s better than Little Chef who only uses a piece of sandwich cheese. The other accompaniments that comes with the meal, now they were superb!

The garlic bread was soft on the inside, yet crispy on the outside. I noticed that they put an aluminum foil on top before popping them into the oven. Guess that stops it from being overcooked.

The side salad, that I didn’t touch but the potatoes exude a heavenly buttery aroma, like when I make my own mashed potatoes. Add the parsley to that and it’s just that perfect kind of combo.

I was the last customer to leave. Checking my watch, I noticed that it was just a little after 9.00 pm. I didn’t look at the banner to see what time they closed. Since Francis was not too busy by then, I managed to chat with him a little. Like what Alexandra discovered, he’s actually quite a nice man.

I asked him which one of the dishes he considers his specialty but he can’t name one. However, there are different recommended dishes each day. Note they are “recommended” only. No special prices if you order them.

So yeah, I will definitely stop by again, hopefully next time, it will be for a date with the sirloin steak.

Oh yeah, there was a really lovey dovey couple at the table next to mine doing the “I feed you one bite, you feed me one bite” thing. Thing is, they couldn’t be more different than night and day. He looks like an engineer, while she was sitting there like a lang chia poh, shaking her legs non stop.

Love really is blind, after all

Well, I did it!

I attended the first WBDD committee meeting yesterday and somehow committed myself to producing their promotional video. How the heck did that happen? And I thought all I will be doing are ushering duties during the night.

I’ll have to discuss with Conny what how she wants it done. If it’s a simple matter of taking bits and pieces of existing videos and putting them together for a 30 second commercial, that shouldn’t be a problem with the tools I have. But if it’s something that requires shooting additional footage and stuff like that, weeeeeellllll, that’s gonna be a big problem because I know nothing about this sort of thing.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the finished product doesn’t have “AMATEUR” stamped all over it LOL.

But, I’m not gonna worry about all that yet. I always believe in crossing that proverbial bridge when I get to it.

It’s a sad thing what Conny said during the meeting, that most people who volunteer to help out only want the excuse to parade around in a beautiful costume on that night. They’re not really interested in what needs to be done before the big night.

They can sure use all the help that they can get, especially with finding sponsors. I already have a few parties in mind to approach, but I won’t be able to do anything yet until I get the sponsors proposal.

Meanwhile, thank you, Eleen for giving me the push to take it up. You always believe that I can move mountains if I put my mind to it. Muaks!