Café Le Troquet

I have not been to the one in Paris, but I must say that the Le Troquet in Singapore is pretty damn good!

BF and I decided to check out the place last Saturday after hearing so many good things about the restaurant. In fact, we did not make any reservations as the restaurant is located in Balestier, thus assuming the place should be empty. (Despite being a Saturday night, but who wana hang out at Balestier on a Saturday night?!?!)

And we were right.

There were only 4 tables being occupied, although the restaurant can easily sit about 26 people (inclusive of the “al fresco” area outside). It was a very simple restaurant, no frills. The crowd was casual, we had a group of Ang Mohs in a corner, a young couple behind, and another two older couples beside us.

The restaurant has a set dinner that cost S$48 NETT, with a glass of wine, starter, main course, dessert and coffee/tea. We took the set, although I exchanged my starter to “Pan fried Foie Gras” (you have to pay a bit more) and that was absolutely delicious!

It was crispy on the outside but totally soft in the inside and melted in my mouth within seconds. Wow… it had been a while since I had such well made foie gras.

BF’s starter was salad with cold cuts and that was absolutely delicious too! The cuts were of good quality and tasted really fresh, like fresh, good quality sausages. Yummy…

Oh, before I forgot, they also served WARM bread with Greek beans by the side for pre-starter. The bread was mini-baguette which I remembered eating in Nice and Paris… ahhh. So nice.

I ordered steak for my main course and BF had the Duck Confit. Oohh… the duck confit was excellent! The chef flew in the ducks from France and thus, they are so plump and juicy. A very well executed duck confit… highly recommended!

As for my steak, it was well made; however, it paled in comparison to the duck confit.

By the way, Le Troquet carries a very good range of French wine, which is not expensive at all. We ordered a bottle of red from Rhone Valley and I totally enjoyed it. (I couldn’t remember the label though).

As for the dessert, we went for the cheese selection, where 3 kinds of cheese were served. I believe they are blue, bree and camembert. I personally love blue cheese… thus I gobbled that within minutes. I did not try the sweet desserts, thus I cannot comment much on that.

All in all, it was an excellent dinning experience where I had good quality French food, in a relax environment where I don’t have to pretend and speak in a fake accent to get my orders done.

The owner of the restaurant is Suzanne Leong and she stayed in France for a couple of years. Thus, that explained the authentic French food.

She is very friendly, but a bit blur as she misunderstood my orders twice. Nonetheless, she is warm and sincere to serve the best food to her customers at attractive prices.

I really like the place and will definitely go back again.

By the way, both BF and I wore berms and slippers, but had good French food and wine. And nobody is there to sniff their noses at you because everyone there is so casual!

I love this place.


The address:

Café Le Troquet

529 Balestier Road #01-01
Singapore 329856

Tel: 6736 1070

Near Accident

Last Sunday, 27 Aug06, I drove one of my younger brothers back to his hostel in NTU, and had a near-accident experience…

I just got my license almost 4 months ago (in April) and have been zipping around on the roads to practice my driving.

So, back to last Sunday, as I was zipping down Mandai road, towards BKE/KJE (pretty close to the Zoo), a dog dashed out from nowhere and wanted to cross the road?!?!

My first instinct was to brake but as I was traveling at about 80 km/hr, I knew that brakes would not be enough and I would definitely hit the dog for sure! So, I SWERVED my car to the left.

That was a mistake that could have killed both me and my brother.

There was a van on my left, trailing behind me and THANKFULLY, he was driving slower and thus was able to avoid me even though I swerved into his lane without warning!

Good God!

My brother was screaming “Jie!!! What are you doing?!?!”

p/s: “Jie” means sister in Hokkien.

Broke into a cold sweat after that… and the dog ran back to the side of the road.

Good gracious… my brother started scolding me, saying that I couldn’t just swerved into other lanes like that… should have jammed brakes instead… blah blah.

But what if I really ran the dog over?

But what if there was a lorry behind us, and if I were to jam brakes, the lorry would have run us over?

I only had 2 seconds to react to such a situation. I had no time to analyze but to act on my instinct, and my instinct was to “save the dog”!!!

I can still remember the fear in the dog’s eyes when it noticed my car was approaching really fast and it immediately tried to turn back. How could I have run it over..?

*scary*

NO more driving for the next 1 week!

Purple and red lights upon me
I see nobody but my own shadow
I crave for the embrace of a partner
To swirl and move together
But I am alone
In an empty dance hall filled with my hollow echo

*****************************************************************************

This picture was taken at the Upper Club where 2LeftFeet presented its maiden performance and was snapped by my salsa partner with his cellphone camera... not bad huh? Got artistic feel huh?
Although it looked kinda sad and lonesome isnt it?
Actually the whole of performance team was just practising the routine in front of me!! Out of range of the camera of course...

Performance at Upper Club

My salsa dance school, Two Left Feet organized one of the biggest salsa event on last Sunday, 30 Jul 2006 at Upper Club, CHIJMES.

And what a blast!

Firstly, the tickets were all sold out – all 314 of them! In fact, the school had to turn down many people as the club simply could not contain any more people.

Secondly, Two Left Feet showcased its dance routine, which was performed at the L.A West Coast Salsa Congress, earlier this year in May05. And I was one of the performers too!

All in all, I think our dance team did a great job as we received much appreciation from the audience. As for me, I did not screw up any dance steps and put up my “performance face” through out the whole dance.

*phew*…

Previously, I was rather stressed out as I did not train as hard ever since I was back from L.A, and my instructors had commented that I was very rusty and not in sync with the rest of the girls. In fact, I was thinking of pulling out from the performance on Sat night, as I was rather discouraged.

After months of training, sweat and tears… the performance only lasted 4 minutes. And the best part is that I did not even perform the whole routine! (only did the 2nd half)

Nonetheless, I am glad that I did it. Even it was only 2 minutes and 34 seconds. Haha.