Alegro

This has been on my "I Desire" list for quite a while, largely because I'm just curious how the Spanish churros will taste like. It looks like an European variation to the Chinese fried you tiao (also fried dough sticks) and a simple check on Wiki would show that it was the Chinese who started this little snack:

"After the Portuguese sailed for the Orient and returned from ancient China to Europe, they brought along with them new culinary techniques, including modifying the dough for Youzagwei also known as Youtiao in Northern China, for Portugal. However, they modified it by introducing a star design because they did not learn the Chinese skill of "pulling" the dough (the Chinese Emperor made it a crime with capital punishment to share knowledge with foreigners). As a result, the churros is not "pulled" but pushed out through a star-shaped cutter."

See, a food blog can give you a history lesson.

Churros: 3.25/5


A couple of my friends who went on overseas student exchange slammed this - left, right, centre - in part because they claim to have eaten the "real deal" during their (brief) overseas stint. They asserted that the "real" churros should be "lighter", "air-ier" and "fluffier" as compared to these from Alegro which are more deep-fried than anything else. The rest of us thought it was fairly okay but agreed that it wasn't that impressive as well. The chocolate sauce was nice though, but then, I'm always biased towards anything chocolate =)

Service
Good. All Filipino-crew at this "Spanish Street Food" stall. Well, maybe it can be justified since Spain used to colonise the Philippines (cultural exchange!) but then, that was a veryyy long time ago. Or maybe it's just a coincidence!

Price
$7.70, incl. 10% service charge.

Place
Clarke Quay, #01-13.