I urge everyone to vote wisely. If you have 2 lousy parties running in your constituency–for instance, one party is elitist, money-grubbing, and unconcerned for citizens, and the other party is a bunch of well-meaning morons–remember this: a void vote is also a vote.

How does politics link to food? Well, I long for the day it isn’t news when a minister appears at a hawker centre to buy food during elections. It’s news because the appearances are rare, right? I also long for the day when a minister goes to a public area for the sake of enjoying the facilities regularly, instead of pulling publicity stunts, shaking hands and carrying babies.

So yeah, the new 24-hour hawker centre at Ci Yuan Community Centre is run by Fei Siong. And The Pasta Stop is by fine-dining Italian restaurant, Ristorante da Valentino, at Grand Stand, Turf Club Road. According to online sources, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited the new hawker centre and ta-bao-ed from this stall. There are photographs of the Prime Minister at the stall front.

The shop’s speciality, chicken conchiglie (known better as the shell pasta, $7.50), was tangy and appetizing, but was undercooked and hard. There was hardly any chicken in it.

The spicy fried chicken combo ($10) fared better. Very aromatic when it came, the chicken was crispy. Mr Fitness thought it too salty and didn’t like the Hainanese-chicken-rice-chilli-sauce-meets-buffalo-wings spicy dip. But I didn’t mind its saltiness, and I thought the spicy dip was refreshing.

The pasta that came along with the chicken had a sauce that was similar to the dip but was less spicy. Rather well done. And the carrots seemed to be soaked in a lemon emulsion which gave it a refreshing taste.

If you add $2.80, you can get a set of garlic bread, mushroom soup, and tiramisu. The mushroom soup was beautiful and subtle, but a little too bland. Nothing salt and pepper couldn’t solve.

There were 5 guys in the small kiosk, cooking and taking orders. I have never see a hawker stall with so many people in it. It did seem that too many cooks spoil the soup, because the orders were mixed up; they were good natured but blur.

But the food here has great potential. If they could tweak some things, this stall will be a legend in time. We paid $20 for two persons.

The Pasta Stop