Cedele Wheelock

Today I met up with Zhu for lunch. Our dear girl is back from Canada and I managed to snuck some time out with her for lunch amidst her busy busy schedule. She has taken two weeks off her exchange program in Toronto to dance for the da:nse festival 2006, which I will be catching next friday and I'm really excited to see her perform alongside Tammy- the Miranda Priestly in my life.

15 years and (thankfully) counting, Zhu is my oldest friend and we STILL haven't ran out of topics to talk about. Over lunch, we realised our elder sisters are working in companies where we criss-crossed-interned for. Funny enough, her elder sister is at Citibank (though at a different department from where I am) and Zhu herself has just wrapped up an summer internship over at Allen and Gledhill.



I got to Cedele first as Zhu was running late from her hair appointment. Although the restaurant was queue-less at 1pm, I would still recommend reservations for parties bigger than two. I made use of the time to go through the extensive menu thoroughly. I must admit that armed with an odd craving today, anything with the words 'onions' in it was worth a second thought.

I had quite a hard time deciding what to have as even the vegetarian section sounded decadent. In fact, I haven't even made up my mind when Zhu (meet new 'do!) eventually arrived. After much delibration, Zhu and I decided to share two sanwiches- Roasted Ham Roasted Onion & Cheddar and Beef Onion Burger.



Although I do think sandwiches quaify as finger food, attempting to take a mouthful bread-filling-and-all would have amounted to image sucide. Sandwiched between two really thick slices of toasted sunflower bread was premium smoked ham with roast onion beetroot chutney & melted cheddar with cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. It was some 'tall order' alright.



Although the sandwich was pleasing, it was a little too safe for my liking. The onion-whatsit chutney tasted no different from cranberry sauce and failed to lift the sandwich beyond 'ordinary'. In the end, it became a glorified ham and cheese sandwich. Ok, maybe I'm a little too harsh as it still definitely tasty. However, if you are sandwich enthusiast, this might bore you..

Since Cedele pride themselves for serving up healthy "trans fat free" food, I wasn't expecting to see the beef onion burger (ever the long-suffering punching bag for nutritionists and anti-fast-food activists) on the menu. Thus, I was looking forward to see if Cedele could step up to the task of creating a healthy delicious (oh the oxymoron!) burger. Two bites (again, tall burger we are talking about here) was enough to make me congratulate Cedele for living up to their promise. It was all the more reassuring to know that health-tifying something didn't necessarily mean having to make a mockery out of it.



Check out that beef patty! The beef onion burger consisted of onion balsimic marmalata, sauteed mushrooms, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes.



The half-an-inch-thick beef patty was nicely grilled: slightly charred on the outside, without getting all dry on the insides. Granted a cube of fat would have sensationalized the overall experience but this was "healthy food at its baddest". The onion balsimic marmalata spread was spot-on. Sweet and tangy, the marmalata spread was great in reducing "meatiness". Just call me Lady Marmalata! Haha.. Incidentally, this is the first item on the menu so if you are a gourmet burger nut, look no further.

The accoustics of the restaurant would rank poorly with most but I found it easily to have a heart-to-heart chat with Zhu. Service was forgetful- our waiter forget our ice water and had to make a detour to ask for the type of bread we wanted- but he was so apologetic and polite and that erased all hard feelings. Ultimately, Cedele at Wheelock struck a chord with me. The food was tasty and better yet, feel-good as I didn't get a sinking guilty feeling when I left the restaurant.

Could this be the brunch place that would replace Lazy Gourmet in my heart?