Tuesday, December 30, 2008

New Year's Resolution

I know, I know - I've been terrible not writing more regularly. Henceforth my new year resolution is to keep it as up to date as possible. And I've decided I shall be writing about practically every outlet I eat at, and it will be a real review, warts and all.

So for a start, I decided to write a place I ate at during a recent trip to London, where there is a new breed of restaurants being spawned by so-called celebrity chefs which is getting very popular amongst the middle-class and yuppies, and of course I had to try one, so we took some friends to The Devonshire in Chiswick, West London, a pub restaurant owned by the inimitable Gordon Ramsay, one of the most, shall we say, “colourful” chefs on TV.

The decor was simple and classy, but not really anything special, and the menu was small and slightly pretentious, listing items like foie gras, lentils, pheasant and duck. I chose a “Salmon, Lobster and Crayfish Pie”, with visions of large chunks of bĂ©arnaise-sauce coated seafood covered with a thin layer of creamy mash. The reality was rather different: the tiny dish (not much bigger than a small bowl of noodles) was ¾ mash and ¼ mushy almost tinned salmon, and I could not find any trace of crayfish, let alone lobster, anywhere. It tasted OK, but was a trifle bland and boring.

At £14, you still had to order vegetables and potatoes separately, at £3 a pop. The total bill for five, inclusive of two bottles of wine but without dessert, came to £200 – almost RM1100. Bearing in mind it was only a pub – I shudder to think what a meal would have cost in one of his restaurants – was it worth it?

Definitely not. Most of it went to pay for the name, and of course the privilege of saying that I’d been to a Gordon Ramsay outlet. Next time round, I think I’ll give such places a miss.

When I emailed them to complaint the response was relatively quick and tried to be reassuring, "Rest assured we take your comments seriously" - but that was basically it. "We hope it hasn't put you off coming back". Actually, I think it has.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Makan Makan

One thing I've discovered is that it's not as easy to run a blog as I thought! In fact, as you can probably see, I'm having problems keeping the site up to date. As my son so kindly said, "It's not a blog - it's a web page!" True.

So welcome to my webpage. I will attempt to keep this as updated as possible, but one major obstacle is that with so much writing to do (I do after all write for at least FOUR publications, all of which have deadlines ... the bane of a writer's life) that it takes all my energy and intellect, whatever that is, to keep this going!

What publications, I hear you ask. Well, I don't just write about FOOD - I also write about PENANG, my favourite place in the world, and about LIFE in general. I write for The Expat magazine, Essenze magazine, Star Metro North and Star Sunday Metro. It's a great life and I thoroughly enjoy it - but it's tough keeping it all going!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Although I write a lot about food, and I admit to, rather immodestly, being ahem, rather a better than average cook, I don't cook very much at home.

There are many reasons for this: as a food reviewer, I eat out a lot, and in my age-old battle against becoming horizontally-challenged, I cannot afford two meals a day! "Afford" in this case being non-financial, of course. So a once-a-day indulgence is more than sufficient, and I'm not even talking about the health-aspects of it.

The main reason though is that since I decided to dispense with a live-in maid, it's been much simpler not to cook, and we tend to entertain out nowadays. Take it from me: the amount of time spent planning a meal, purchasing the ingredients, and then I have to cook all day - by the time our guests arrive, I'm ready for bed! And then there's the serving of the food and the clearing-up after. It's much simpler to just go out to a restaurant, order the food, enjoy your own party, pay for it then leave them to clear up the mess!

Having said that, I actually did some cooking the other day, something I have not done since my two sons left for further studies abroad. Now that they are back for the summer holidays, I decided to make some Roast Beef, Roast Potatoes, and to go with this traditional Sunday Roast, Yorkshire Pudding.

The Australian Tenderloin I got from Pok Brothers in Penang was, I have to say, superb - tender, succulent and juicy, and with a hint of red in the middle, just how it should be (despite 26 years abroad I still cannot stomach raw meat). The Yorkshire Puddings though were another matter: no matter how I try, I just cannot replicate the beautiful, light and airy ones I used to make in England. Is it my cooker or the ingredients? The different density flour, eggs and long-life milk here? I don't know. I'd like to blame it on one of those two reasons, but have a sneaking suspicion it may be just sheer incompetence - I'm losing my touch!

However, whatever I made was polished off by the family, and I have to take heart from No.2 Son's comment, "They were delicious, Mom. We're so used to your Yorkshire Disasters that we love them!"

Thanks, Son!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

FOODIE STARTS BLOGGING



Greetings Food Fans

IT'S HERE! What you've been waiting for ... well, at least, what I HOPE you've been waiting for - my very own blog.

And it won't just contains past and present articles written by yours truly, but also restaurant reviews, favourite foods and hawker haunts - if you'll pardon the awful alliterations...

I will also post photos, thoughts, opinions and ideas, and if gets popular enough some personal favourite recipes.

For all you fellow foodies out there - please read, enjoy, and above all try out the various places I mention. Any comments welcome, and please feel free to suggest changes or new ideas - you never know, I may use it, and give you due credit.

And here's an incentive -if it's a really innovative idea, then I will send you a signed copy of my new book GREAT DINING IN PENANG - a must-have if ever you come to visit this wonderful island!

For now, I bid you adieu but please keep checking in.

Terima Kasih!

HELEN ONG
Food Writer & Columnist

PENANG FOOD

Everyone has heard about Penang hawker food, and how excellent it is, although lately I've been enjoying many a debate with non-Penangites who come up here to eat at Gurney Drive (of course) and all the other dozens of kopitiams and food courts we have then moan after they've pigged out for two solid days. "Ai yo, Penang food not so good any more lah". "Can get better in KL/Singapore/Ipoh etc." and "Expensive."

Well although I agree that to a certain extent Penang hawker food is definitely no longer what it used to be (and man, the Hokkien Mee that the old man used to sell when he did his rounds on his mobile stall was to die for ... mmm, I still remember that certain aroma - a whiff of that was enough to make you drool, let alone the taste ... it's definitely not there nowadays) I will still stick my neck out and say that the hawker food in Penang is better than anywhere else.

Even supposedly good hawker food FROM Penang at certain places are just wannabes. You've got to come here to get the real thing lah!