CHAMPAGNE AND SAN PELLEGRINO AT IGGY'S

THE PLANE WAS SLIGHTLY DELAYED, hence my finely-honed plan to get to the hotel, check in, then have a leisurely shower and change was completely skedaddled. On top of that, clever clogs here decided to take the MRT to Chinatown, where my hotel was. Which was not a bad thing to do seeing as it cost only SD1.90 (well SD2.90 actually but you get SD1 refund at the end of your journey) instead of the usual SD40-50 if I had gone by cab.

But I had to wait 8 mins to get the MRT out of Changi airport only to get off at the wrong stop for the inter-change so had to wait another 6 mins. That delayed me again, and when I got out at Outram Stop the walk was a good 10-15 mins. So when I got to the hotel and checked in, it was already 6.40pm. The single receptionist took ages to handle the other person's query so by the time I got to my room I had exactly 10 mins to get ready. So much for the leisurely prep!

What made the evening particularly enjoyable was the fact that LAURENT PERRIER the famous French champagne house was sponsoring the drinks, so apart from the bubbles from the San Pellegrino (although there is also still) the bubbly flowed freely pretty well all night long.

Yes, I was in Singapore once more, to do a few things. All to do with food of course. That night was the get-together of the prestigious San Pellegrino Asian Judges Panel, of which yours truly is one. So there I was hobnobbing with some 40 of the best: journalists, restaurateurs, food writers and whatnots, at Iggy's, one of the top restaurants in Asia, with no less than Iggy himself there.

The food is very interesting, sort of fusion cum molecular, as you can see from some of the photos and descriptions, starting with an Amuse Bouche of uni, cauliflower, chocolate and foie gras to Egg with White Truffle Powder. The Blackmore Wagyu was delicious. It requires a lot of research and testing to come up with the matching and pairing of these very different foods, and now I know why Iggy's has such a good reputation. However, there's rather a lot of washing up to do, I thought. But then you know what a Philistine I am.

What a night to remember, and thank you San Pellegrino!

HAADJAI HAPPENINGS

WELL HERE WE WERE, BACK AGAIN ... in Haadjai, I mean. It was a quick visit to R&R after the hectic New Year what with visitors and crowded Penang ... or so I thought.

Actually the border crossing wasn't as bad as I'd expected, although it was the usual mayhem trying to get through Immigration. There's a sort of organised chaos about the place, if you know what I mean. Everything's just so LAU JUAK one can't help but be swept into the spirit of the thing.

The quick drive once past Checkpoint Sadao was relatively easy, although when we hit the outskirts of Haadjai it became chock-a-block again, especially as we'd hit rush hour traffic by this time. Once we checked into the Novotel (my fav hotel - it's relatively new, UNEMCUMBERED - by that I mean no rumours of anything nasty not like some of the other hotels which have had floods and fires and all that kind of stuff if you know what I mean - and it's right in the heart of SHOPPING LAND ie Central and but a 5-min walk from the market and bazaars), I hit the shops. But actually didn't get much. There's just so much stuff you can buy.

The town itself was packed with Malaysians all anxious for bargains: Central Supermarket had been refurnished and was much bigger and had more things than the Cold Storage here.

HOWEVER we went back to the JAR LEK Restaurant for dinner. It's been there for 60 years, started by a Thai woman married to a Chinese man. The food is authentic and quite good, and not too expensive. We had some "Coconut Cream and Pork Dip" to start with - sounds strange, but tasted good. It had lots of fresh ulam: 4-angle beans, long beans, etc AND some young leaves which tasted familiar but I couldn't quite make out what it was until it hit me - they were tender MANGO leaves! Surprisingly tasty with that mango-ish aftertaste.

Then the other dishes came along, including a Prawns and Glass Noodles in Claypot dish - which blew the top off my head, it was that spicy. My husband had a good laugh - he'd never seen me so stunned (nor quiet!) before. It was a combination of the heat, the chilli padi (the Thais REALLY know how to grow hot chilli padi!) and PEPPERCORNS which really did it. Together with 3 large bottles of beer (yes, it was hot!) the total bill came to about 750 baht (RM80) which was quite reasonable.

The next evening we ate at the hotel - I ordered Thai Pomfret which was tasty; unfortunately it was underdone so I had to send it back where they presumably re-cooked it (or stomped on it ... whatever).

I really didn't do much shopping, except on the last morning after heading back from the market where I'd gone to get some - guess what - chilli padi, of course, I stumbled upon this little corner shop and managed to get 3 fantastic pairs of sandals for just RM10 per pair. A bargain, as I keep telling my husband - just think how much money I saved him!

KIONG HEE, KIONG HEE

SO, HOW WAS YOUR CHINESE NEW YEAR?

From the long silence you'll probably have gathered that mine was pretty hectic, what with family coming up from KL so there was all the preparation for guests, let alone the normal stuff for Chinese New Year: cleaning, cooking, money worries! To be frank, this is one time of year (apart from Christmas) I can do without - it's just such a stressful time. Like Christmas, Chinese New Year is really most enjoyable when you're a kid - it's the only time you get to have all the fun - new clothes, good food, lots of cookies and cakes and of course lovely dosh (money) - without all the hassle. For adults though it's another matter.

And here's when I go into my usual rant about how at such times the pressure is almost always on the women of the family: the shopping, marketing, planning the menu, preparing the food to be cooked (granted nowadays the donkey work is probably done by an Indon maid, but not everyone is lucky enough to have one) ... then there's the cooking of the food itself, serving it then of course the washing up.

And that's just the Reunion Dinner the night before! One hasn't even mentioned the pre-CNY lead-up - the cookies to be made (or bought, as the case may be ..!), ensuring that there's enough to go around family, friends and business associates; the new clothes to be made (or bought, again as the case may be); the money taken out of the bank in readiness for the myriad ang pows to be given out - and let's not mention the fear of being robbed - and then the preparing of the ang pows.

Now that's an interesting subject all of its own, as from what were token gestures of good luck, where one gave small sums of money in pairs (never in singles or odd numbers) e.g. it was quite common to receive RM1.10 when I was a kid; if you got RM10 you were considered very lucky, let alone the odd RM50 note which was indeed a rarity! Nowadays, it's become a case of one-upmanship: see how pretty the ang pow that I use is, let alone the size of what's in it and how thick the wad of RM100 notes is. No longer are RM1 notes used, and the RM10 is about the norm, although I have seen the odd RM12 ang pows around.

Of course, DINKies are probably the ones who lose out in this case - these Dual Income/No Kids, being married, have to hand out angpows but don't have the opportunity to receive any ... yet! As for those WITH kids, there's the "let's-see-how-much-you-gave-my-child-and-I'll-return-same-plus-a-bit-more" attitude - only on hearsay of course. One would NEVER stoop so low ... not all the time, anyway!!

Anyway I digress. Going back to the Reunion Night, I'm lucky that my mother is still fit enough to want to take on the burden of this ritual, and as she's a good cook (or rather her Indon maid has been taught well) we were all treated to a slap-up nyonya meal of Otak Otak, Curry Molly, Tau Eu Bak, Jiu Hoo Char and of course the must-have Kiam Chai Ark Soup - thoroughly enjoyed it all, and the fact that I had to drink a few gallons of water that night to ease my raging thirst didn't deter from it at all! Then there are the two days of New Year to be got through, and all the ensuing meals to go along with them. You can't keep serving the same dishes all the time, but there's only so much space in your fridge!

Hope you had as good a New Year as I did. Kiong Hee Huat Chai once more. I'm really looking forward to settling down to 2010 now that the year-end and year-beginning festivities are finally out of the way. That is, after I come back from Singapore next week - but then that's another story!

Last night I had SEX ON THE BEACH. Honest! I'm really not kidding you. I really did ... however, my husband P didn't.

So now you know what sort of a woman I am eh. In fact, he had a Golden Sands, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Yes, they were actually quite yummy cocktails to start our evening off at the soft launch of the newly revamped and remodelled version of Sigi's in Batu Ferringhi.

The RM3 million makeover did more than give it a facelift: it's still in the same location, but that's all that's similar to the old one, apart from the name, which changes from Sigi's by the Sea to Sigi's Bar & Grill on the Beach (SBG, for those of us who are familiar with it ...). It was an old-fashioned patio restaurant; it's now a trendy and cool outlet; the hip will be happy to sit around the bar having a drink; couples can dine alfresco upstairs, and families and friends in the air-conditioned main dining.

There's a lot of dark rustic hardwood, and the blue lights at night give it a welcoming glow. It's not completely ready yet, but at yesterday's soft launch, I was proud to be the FIRST and ONLY journalist invited to and try the food there apart from hotel guests.

Executive Chef John Brock (there's him relaxing after the first night) has been working hard to get it ready; understandably there will be teething problems and in fact the pizza oven wasn't quite ready yet, which was a shame cos Mac was quite keen on trying the "Palm Beach" - smoked chicken with pineapple chunks. Sounds delish.

SO we ended up both ordering their signature dish JUICY STEAKS: the tenderloin for me and the sirloin for him; they really were quite exquisite, tender and tasty.

Although I had the Crab Salad as a starter, zapped up with a few slices of smoked salmon, it could almost be a main course. However there are pastas and salads and some local too: Penang Hokkien Char amongst other perennial favourites.

The Tarte au Citrone was excellent: tart and creamy at the same time - desserts are, after all, his forte - as was the Shortbread; softly crunchy.

SGB will be officially opened on 10 March - I can't wait to come back and try some of the other dishes.

Penang's Fisherman Wharf

THE ANNUAL BUILD-UP IS ALREADY HAPPENING ... cars with outstation number plates are starting to appear in Penang traffic, as the Chinese community (and everyone else in Malaysia, it seems like) congregate on the island. Many are holidaymakers just eager to get out of KL and the Klang Valley who come for some R&R - sun, sea and good food; others are old Penangites making their usual start-of-year pilgrimage back to their roots.

That being the case, it was with great trepidation that we made our way to dinner at the Penang Fisherman Wharf, in the Industrial Free Trade Zone, last night but our fears were unfounded: we sailed right through, and were there in under 30 mins - the traffic was as light as can be (in fact it was heavier going home!). We'd been invited to an early Chinese New Year dinner, and there were two tables on their large patio, right next to the sea.

The pork-free food was quite tasty, typically Cantonese-style dishes starting with Four Seasons (the host complained about the lack of lobster in the au gratin but the cheese sauce was pretty good actually). Everyone seems to be doing the prawns wrapped in greek bee hoon-like pastry (kataiffi) now; it's becoming quite a trend but they've got to be careful not to overcook the prawns as they were a bit hard. Prawns are much nicer crunchy with a bite to it.

The last course was Fried Udon noodles which wasn't bad although everyone had had too much to eat by then and as they didn't look that appetising I think quite a lot of it was wasted. Shame.

It's quite a nice place to go but rather far, and here's a tip: check with the host where the table will be before you dress cos despite the electric fans it was BOILING (this is, after all, February), and there were many red faces there and not just from the wine. Some of the guests had come prepared for air conditioning and they were sweltering.

I'm going a bit manic now cos my family arrives from KL tomorrow and I've done practically NOTHING to prepare - no decorations, no rooms ready etc. DID however do most of the grocery shopping but tomorrow I have to brave the crowds and get some fresh vegetables in. Oh crumbs, I don't look forward to it - will be like Christmas Eve in the UK where it's a free-for-all - run over anyone with your trolley if they happen to be in your way!!

Ho Hum, Kiong Hee Huat Chai everyone!

DID D'LISH D'LIGHT?

I'VE JUST COME BACK FROM a quick trip to KL, where I had a few people to meet up with and a few chores to complete, including sending No2 Son off to Oz where he's gone on a working holiday for six months. Now that he's safely there, Mama can concentrate on things she hasn't been able to - like life and work!

One of the meeting I had was with Joan Lau, Managing Editor of the Malaysian Insider, the online newspaper which was started a couple of years ago by a group of people who thought there should be a more balanced view in the news reporting (www.themalaysianinsider). Although I am not and in no way pretend to be a hard-hitting journalist, I'm very proud to say that they've asked me to write a weekly Penang food column for them, starting with their revamped website at the end of this month. I'm delighted, of course. It's a great privilege and I hope to start soon.

Having said that, it will definitely add to my workload, which is already pretty hectic. But as I spend a fair amount of time playing online Bejewelled whilst waiting for my muse to strike, I think it's still do-able. After all, the other publications I write for don't really take up too much of my time: The Expat is just monthly, and my column with Star Sunday Metro is just fortnightly. That really does rather leave a lot of gaps if you look at it that way!

HOWEVER that's not the point of today's blog. What I wanted to say was we had dinner with my cousin and her husband whilst we were there, and I've looked at the blackboard menu in D'lish for the past year or so and always wanted to try it but never got round to it, so this time round decided to definitely go for it.

It’s in Bangsar Village Grocer in Bangsar Village (the old one), friendly, clean and bright, and a good solid menu of mainly popular western dishes, well-thought out for the . The Set Dinner Menu is just RM33++ for a 3-course meal: starter, mains and dessert, which Cuz and her husband decided on.

I went for the a la carte Spaghetti Marinara but asked them to omit the squid - it LOOKED very tasty as there was plenty of home-made slightly too oily but tomato concasse) but the sauce was just short of good: it was a bit too tart (the way to get round this is to add a pinch of sugar) and it wasn't quite salty enough; more garlic, herbs and a dash of chilli flakes would have been great too.

Hubby however declared the Carbonara with beef bacon "delicious" - it looked a bit TOO creamy to me - but to be honest, he'll eat anything (by the same token if he says something is not good you can imagine how bad it is!).

The Mr Stronay (Minestrone) Soup was, perversely, was FAR too salty; they took it away and brought it back ... diluted with hot water. Not a brilliant solution. And anyway real Minestrone has lots of veg including celery and beans.

Their mains of Salmon with Thai Sauce was good, and the "Flourless Orange Cake" was OK too - it was made with ground almond instead - not too sweet and quite a large slice.

Overall quite good value, but let down by the soup, but not bad considering they are just a cafe in a supermarket - if more places even aspired to be like them we would have better food all round. What I liked best is their statement in the first photo (for some reason I can't move them - the pictures - around so they are lumped together).