CLASSICAL DINNER at the 1926 Heritage Hotel

REGULAR READERS WILL KNOW THAT although I am not exactly a culture vulture, I do like a bit of entertainment with my food (or is it the other way round) and last night was a typical example of the sort of thing that I love.

It was the finale to the month-long George Town Festival, during which there were many things happening in town. We opted for the small-scale High Winds Ensemble performance at the 1926 Heritage Hotel in Burmah Road, where the orchestra from KL performed movements from fairly well known pieces, including a rather cheeky one from Beethoven's 5th Symphony (or rather 4 1/2, as Mac puts it).

We were also served with a 6-course dinner whilst the music was going on, starting with Oyster Rockefeller, which was nothing to shout about, but the Cream of Broccoli Soup was good if a tad underheated.

After that e had Roast Prim Rib of Beef which again although it tasted quite good, was lukewarm again. As there were nearly 70 pax that evening, I think the kitchen struggled a bit to cope with the numbers, as they also had a function going on in the garden at the back. For dessert there was Trifle, although not a hint of sherry really, coffee and Petit Fours (we didn't get that either!).

HOWEVER for RM80 pp, it was really quite reasonable, and as it was their first time, they are still learning. However, the orchestra more than made up for it - they were really excellent although seating was not good as where we were we couldn't really see a thing nor hear the Conductor speak as he introduced each session. Usually with "youth" orchestras they tend to be slightly "pitchy" (this is of course Randy-Yo-Dawg's way of saying "out of tune") but this wasn't at all.

They were extremely professional, and very very smooth. And no wonder, as High Winds is the first classical ensemble in Malaysia whose 11 members are all Malaysians, founded in 2004 by Mr Joost C Flach, Co-Principal Oboist of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Makes you proud, doesn't it. Most of the soloists are professional or wannabe professional musicians. When you think I just about made it to Grade 5 on the piano (albeit with a DISTINCTION ahem ... ) I can tell you these people are seriously GOOD.


J P WONG of the 1926 Hotel assures me he intends to do this on a regular basis, and I will be more than happy to support him. A bit of koolcha combined with good food in Penang is only to be supported, and I hope to see you there. Watch this space for more news.

FOOD FORUM

YESTERDAY was my birthday proper, so had dinner with family members at a place I have not frequented for a while, partly because the last time we were there the food was, if I'm frank, not that brill.

THE FORUM CHINESE RESTAURANT on the 3rd floor of Island Plaza in Tg Tokong was full that night because they had a wedding on. That made it quite lau juak but rather noisy, even despite the fact that we had a private room. But as it was mainly because of the fact that we were able to book a private room, as you will understand from my previous oft-heard lament, that we were there in the first place. However, it actually added a bit of free background music except for a few terrible moments when some young kids had appropriated the mike and were hollering "Dancing Queen" and other songs into it at the top of their voices. Thankfully, the professional singer (I think anyway, she was quite good but maybe it was only in comparison to the god-awful kids) managed to grab it back.

ANYWAY I digress. This time round, I was delighted to say, the food was mostly very good - and despite having to cater for a wedding dinner outside, they delivered it hot. BUT I had to go out and throw a bit of a wobbly cos I'd told them to HOLD the food halfway through as we wanted to play a game (that's another reason I like having a private room) and they said, "Yes, yes, yes," and continued serving the food. They soon stopped, and only served up when I gave them the nod. One of my biggest problems about dining in Malaysia is dinner can start at 730pm and finish by 8.30 - hey! I'm paying all this money and I'd like to enjoy it slowly and at my leisure! We're also with friends and family we may not have seen for a while so it's nice to be able to chat to them and not have our mouths stuffed full all the time as they keep bringing course after course before we've even finished what's on the table!!

THE Four Seasons was very tasty, great Salad Prawns, Kerabu and Taufu but I didn't actually try the Spring Rolls.

The Tau Tay was cooked two ways: fins and other extremities including the head deep-fried to such crispiness not one bit remained, and the flesh stir-fried: very fresh. I also liked the Spare Ribs and Mixed Veg which was sort of in a soup there was so much gravy! Of course being a BIRTHDAY dinner had to have LAM MEE which was OK - but have to say it was not as good as MINE as I would have used a lot more crab meat and pee hu (dried plaice). Still, the sambal was delish.

Finally we each had a piece of Strawberry and Mandarin Cheesecake from Traders Hotel - it was very good, but I could only have a teeny piece cos much much too full by then!

It was an excellent night; thanks everyone for coming. One of course has a reputation to upkeep, so the place I choose to not just eat at but invite others to partake of food with me must really live up to a standard, so thank you too to The Forum for doing me proud. Citibank cardholders get a 10% discount btw - although sadly this did not apply to the drinks which cost an arm and a leg!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ... to ME!

HOPE YOU HAD AS GOOD A NEW YEAR AS I DID ... in fact, it was so good I didn't really feel like getting back to work at all bar the COMPULSORY articles I had to write ie my fortnightly column for Star Sunday Metro and The Expat's monthly article about Penang.

So that's why there's been not much posting done - humble apologies - but I didn't think you wanted to read yet more about the partying and drinking ... except for the fact that last weekend we were in KL and celebrated my birthday about ten days early with my family there. Yes you may well ask how old are you? Well that's for me to know and for you to find out!

The dinner was held at Imperial Gardens, a fairly new classy Chinese restaurant in PJ. The food was served a la modern style ie in small helpings per person, so it was a good time to start my diet, especially with my new year's resolution! Although I was the birthday gal, I wasn't hosting the dinner - that was left to my bro and partner who very generously paid for the whole thing. Thank goodness, is all I can say, because at about RM80 for a small bowl of Shark's Fin Soup (which I didn't have btw cos I don't approve of it - just had Double-Boiled Old Cucumber Soup with scallops which was excellent) the bill for just 8 of us must have come to four figures. We tight-fisted Penangites aren't used to that kind of money, especially poor food writers!

It's back to earth with a bang though as I get into the swing of work once more, with preparation for the next edition of my book which is due out mid this year. Wish me luck everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

LAST WEEKEND was a very busy and enjoyable, but rather pig-out time.

First of all bro-in-law and his wife are still here, and it's been EAT EAT EAT all the way - believe me when I say in the 2.5 weeks they've been here we've only eaten at home ONCE. Either we've been invited out or there are so many places to take them to try! And we have NO WAY been to all the places we were planning to take them to! God alone knows how much extra weight I've put on - I daren't step on the scales!! And don't even start me on how much we've been drinking cos I only drink when I go OUT ... and we've been GOING OUT every night ... so it doesn't take a genius to work out that ergo I've been DRINKING EVERY NIGHT!!

Have to say I think they've enjoyed themselves here, and who knows, we may persuade them to come out more often yet.

It was full house cos my own bro was up here as well to celebrate our mom's birthday, so we popped along to try the new Maple Gold Chinese Restaurant - now called Maple Palace. We had a private room with two tables of Mom's nearest and dearest .. including moi of course!

The place has been revamped and now gone upmarket, and it's all a bit more classy - including the food, which is served in individual helpings rather than the traditional plate-in-the-middle-and-everyone-helps-themselves way. No more fighting over who gets the last bit!

The starter was quite dinky and tasty: four seasons but served in individual plates. Luckily more and more people are getting eco and there's no more "hoo chee" (shark's fin) so it was mostly tang hoon - which is probably what they used to use before anyway! (Which makes one wonder why we bothered to kill those poor sharks just for their fins if we can eat tang hoon and it tastes exactly the same!)

There was also a very fresh steamed fish, and the roast duck was quite succulent, but by the time the birthday noodles (also individually served) arrived everyone was much too full to eat more than a token bite!

The final course, apart from birthday cake, was the steamed buns shaped like peaches ... but my Sar Ee (aunt) nearly collapsed cos she was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes: she said they looked just like nipples on boobs. They do rather, don't they!

Happy Birthday anyway Mom!

PS I am now also writing a Restaurant Review for the Visit Penang website (www.visitpenang.gov.my) every fortnightly so do have a look and tell all your friends about it please - the first one was the Rasa Sayang Spice Market Cafe. And if you are a restaurateur yourself and would like me to feature your place in it please get in touch me with as I am slotting them in now. It's free!