Review of Sweet Salty Spicy

Mrs. T and I went shopping for shoes and nuts today at Bugis. After my usual coffee at Hup Cheong and bean curd with gingko nuts at Bukit Timah Food Centre, we went to Bugis to hunt for a pair of black shoes from Charles and Keith for Mrs. T. We got what Mrs. T wanted and then went hunting for nuts at the famous Fu Lu Shou Complex. The place was on top of a hawker centre near OG. It reminded me of Hong Kong. Anyway, the place sold lots of dried goods and also nuts. It wasn’t very hygienic – but the prices were good and certainly cheaper than NTUC. I will probably toast the nuts in the oven before I eat them. I bought lots of walnuts, cashews, peanuts and almonds. Hopefully, my stash will last me at least 3 months.

****

I decided to go to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve this evening with Mrs. T. Took an off the main road trek (Catchment Path) to Summit Hut. Didn’t manage to take the Dairy Farm Loop though. Anyway, it was getting dark and the I didn’t fancy being stuck at night in a secondary jungle. All in all it was a pretty good trek.

*****

Mrs. T and I went to Sweet Salty Spicy at Rail Mall for dinner. The restaurant was very stylish from the outside. Nice beautiful mural of orchids on the walls, black slate floor, wooden tables and a lot of glass like a posh Italian deli. We ordered the sharing platter, pad thai and green mango salad. Unfortunately, the food did not match the very nice ambience. The pad thai was so salty it made my hair stand – it’s a mistake to put in salty chunky dried shrimps (hae bi) and sweet chai por in the pad thai. The sharing platter was also not too great – the soft shell crab was passable, the crispy crackers with chicken curry were not very nice (crackers weren’t as crispy as the ones in Patara and the chicken curry dip was too salty) and the pomelo on betel nut was all wrong (the blend of saltiness, chilli, sweetness and spice was not done well). The mango salad was also pretty weird. It had salmon flakes and was not sour, sweet or hot enough. We paid close to 60 bucks for two. Mrs. T said we would never come back again. I bet the chef is not Thai. No self respecting Thais will serve food like that. Maybe I have been too spoiled by the wonderful Thai food at Thai Noodle House at Coronation or the Thai Cze Char place at Beauty World Hawker Centre.