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).