The Fake Marche

Ok ok I know I’m supposed to be mugging hard right now but I’m bursting with joy because of the good food I ate that I just have to tell everyone about it.

A few months back, Liang tried to persuade me to go to this restaurant he went to, called the Village, which is exactly like Marche but not. I refused to go because I’m outraged on Marche’s behalf at such blatant copying and also because I don’t support piracy (instead, I buy my CDs from an extremely cheap shop at Chinatown. Bought the Stephanie Sun CD for only $5.90!) To spite the Village people, I insisted on going Marche.

What changed my indignant mind was the voucher I saw in this magazine they were giving out in school. So the cheapo in me made me go check out this shameful restaurant. When I reached the restaurant, I saw an all-too-familiar cow. Except that the Village cow is blue with green flowers and the Marche cow looks, well, like a normal cow. Everything else is EXACTLY the same though, the décor, the tables and chairs, the cutlery, the plates, the this-table-is-reserved thingy, the food variety… … In fact, the food looks so familiar that I immediately homed in on the three dishes that Village serves but Marche doesn’t: Fried Kway Teow, Oven Baked Rice and Italian cuisine. Oh some of the prices are cheaper though. I ordered an Italian set meal which consists of a soup, Salmon ravioli and some ice-cream cake thingy with a chim Italian name. It only costs $13!

Like Marche, the soup is self-service but I have to wait for 10 minutes before I can collect my Ravioli. So I’m happily talking to Liang at our seats and forgot the time and the guy actually served my Ravioli to me! Then he popped away for awhile and then magically appeared again with utensils and serviettes. AND he asked me whether I wanted cheese to go with it and came back with the chili powder in a small saucer and a whole bowlful of cheese (I think he actually took the bowl from the counter) and helpfully sprinkled spoonfuls of cheese in generous proportions. I’m so amazed I just kept thanking him profusely, then the funniest thing happened, he handed me a tiny plastic toy crab and told me to use it to redeem my dessert from the ice-cream counter. Tee hee hee hee hee. It’s really very cute, I’ve half a mind to keep the crab and forsake the ice-cream. To prove that the good service is not just for the pretty ladies (*slaps face* joke ok!) after Liang collected his food, the moment his butt hit his chair, a waiter came over to clear his tray and helps him squeeze lemon juice over his seafood baked rice. Jeez this is such good service that it’s kind of freaky, compared to Marche’s “excuse me miss, you’re not allowed to drink that here, please purchase mineral water from our drinks station�.

Anyway, in conclusion, the food is cheap and good. The service is out of this world. The food is even cheaper for me because of the $10 vouchers we had. And the waiters are silly enough to remind us that one voucher can be used per exit so we happily paid separately so the two of us paid a total of $7 for a fantastic meal!

There is a catch though. The Village is located at Chinatown. Haha! Stick my tongue out at all of you who have ever laughed at me for living at such an uncool place.