A few weeks ago I went on a date with a woman I met on OkCupid. She was pretty and seemed nice. The only issue was that she lived in JB (Johor Bahru) the Malaysian city just over the Causeway from Singapore. I was supposed to meet her at Sentral, the mall nearest customs and then we would eat at a French restaurant. The idea of a French bistro in Malaysia intrigued me, so I was excited. My first problem was leaving my passport at my apartment. Going there and back added an hour to my journey.
By the time I got to Sentral in JB it was past eight. My date said she would be late because she had to run an errand, so the time we got to the restaurant, it was nine o’clock.
The bistro was a few minutes from Sentral by car, I suppose I could Google the address.
http://www.chezpapa.com.my/usr/page.aspx?pgid=1
It looked like a bistro inside. I didn’t like the paper napkins, but there might not be the infrastructure in Johor Bahru to clean linen napkins or it might be too expensive. It was clean and the service was attentive. The tuna nicoise salad was huge. It was a good version of the classic salad. The mushroom soup looked good, but it had too much sage. Maybe French mushroom soups are supposed to have a lot of sage, but sage is for me how cilantro is to other people, as I can taste small amounts of it. There was a lot of this herb in the soup, but my date seemed to like the soup. Maybe the problem was with me? Anyway, I did eat plenty of it, although it reminded me of my father’s turkey gravy.
The filet mignon was served rare as requested. The demi-glaze was tasty although I think there might have been too much of it. Again, I haven’t eaten French cuisine in some time, so the amount might have been correct. The meat was buttery and soft. The vegetables were roasted perfectly and were delicious. My date had a dish of sole and her dish was better than mine- the fish was cooked perfectly, the breading was light and the accompanying sauces worked well with the fish. There was a remoulade and something else.
For dessert there was Bananas Flambe. Cooked tableside and served with ice cream, this was the best dessert I have had in some time. The sauce was buttery and lemony.
I would definitely go back to this establishment, but I might avoid the mushroom soup because of my aversion to sage.
I chew gum in Singapore 