tastebudds

In Singapore, Changi Village is renowned for great hawker food, as well as the scrupulous activities in the twilight hours belonging to those of blurred genders. And while Changi Prison still lurks of ominous speculations of ghosts and residual spirits, it does not hold back the faithful. But amongst the tough competition from so many ethnic groups in Australia, they may need more than just faith to succeed.

CVNL is interesting. It’s laid-out in such a way that it mimics the canteen. The interiors are rather barren and devoid of the warmth of cloth and upholstery which reflects the cold, hard-knock school life. Cutlery is laid out on the table, and glasses are placed at the back. Funny thing is that they use beer glasses when Muslims own the restaurant!

Anyway I found service to be substandard. The man at the counter had no clue as to what was spicy and general information about their dishes (for which I can only excuse if he’s new), so he kept on turning to his ‘supervisor’ before us before echoing whatever he just said. Which I feel is simply a poor effort in itself anyway because if you’re new, they the least you could do is ask the cooks what they served before standing behinding the counter like a white elephant, spastically punching the cash register.

Sidenote: I think I scared him with my stare so he didn’t dare ask for my payment until I offered it to him. Hahaha.

There’s a choice of Nasi Lemak Rendang or Chicken ($7.50), but Rendang looked markedly more appetising and less dry. It includes their sambal, ikan bilis with peanuts, egg and cucumber slices. Apparently according to one taster the ‘ikan bilis gives a nice touch’ and the meat ‘falls apart nicely’. Rice was deemed to be nicely done and not over-cooked, and then she drew all these analogies to college food but I’m just not going to go there folks. And there’s a student discount to this dish, perhaps because it’s their signature one.

I had the privilege of taking the Mee Siam ($6.50), which is a soupy rice noodle that rocketed me way beyond my thresholds of chilli tolerance! Ah! I was really sweating quite readily, and no amount of water helped. But on the other hand I like the spiciness of it all because it really kicks me awake, which really helps in afternoon lectures. My nasal passages clear up and it’s all good. But I only ever say this when I’m not eating something spicy, so I guess it doesn’t really count?

Argued to look the best, Kway Teow Goreng ($6.50) was described as having just the right amount of sweetness, though that really depends on personal tastes. I for one do not want to be swamped with sweetness because I DONOT want to (ever, hopefully) need to visit the dentist. This dish consists of shredded carrots, beef, shrimp, spring onion and tomato slices on the side. Don’t ask me why, but they were found to be off-putting to say the least.

Above all the thing that pissed everyone off was the Crispy Noodle in a Claypot ($8.50). It took a good half an hour for it to reach the table when typically something like that should be whipped up most speedily. Service gets the thumbs down. Another odd thing was that there was all the noodles were submerged in watery gravy that there is no Crispy anymore. Plus the fact that it was served with a claypot lid only adds to that oddity and strangeness of this restaurant’s interpretations.

On the whole there is still considerable shortcomings, but costs are rather reasonable for the student to afford. And who can resist an occasional spicy kick?

13/20 budds