A PARADISE FAREWELL ...

IT'S ALL GO GO GO AS USUAL, with preparations for impending European/American trip going gung-ho. SOOoo much to do and so little time to do it, which is about par for the course. There's the making (you've seen my show-off Aran jumper) or buying of gifts and presents for friends and relatives over there, including some curry powder and belacan.

I also have a good (English) friend who LOVES Asian food, and every time we visit with them, I bring along some of my home-made chilli sauce which he adores, and polishes off the whole jar within a matter of days. He eats it with absolutely EVERYTHING: roast beef, pizza, fried rice and even cheese on toast. His (English) wife always jokes that he should have married ME instead! LOL. So there's that to cook still.

Mealwise, we have had lots of invitations to eat out, therefore lots of dinners to repay, and last night we went to a mate's farewell party as they leave Penang for a few months' assignment to Beijing.

Interestingly enough, she had it somewhere I wouldn't have thought of doing myself, but that's the thing. Everyone thinks as a food writer I should know everywhere but I don't - I have to learn from friends and other people as well!

Anyway I digress ... it was held at the Paradise Sandy Beach Hotel, a cosy friendly resort in Tg Bungah. At first I was a bit wary, thinking it might be quite hot but it turned out to be in their coffee house which was air conditioned. We had an impressive long table, beautifully laid out, set up for the 15 of us, tucked away in the corner, which was quite nice and fairly private - anyway the place was empty!

The food was what their chefs do best - typical Malay food served "Hidang" style. There was Beef Rendang (which was, if truth be told, more like a Beef Curry); Chicken Curry, Mutton Korma, and a few other dishes served with some flavoured rice which was probably Nasi Tomato but I couldn't really tell.

It was all quite delicious though, and a very convivial evening which started off with some bubbly wine so you can imagine how the rest of the evening went! Really not a bad place to hold a private dinner, with good service and food.

What a wonderful send off. See you in China, guys!

QUICK RENDANG PIZZA

As I've mentioned before, my boys love curry (which is strange as No2 wouldn't touch it as a child; then one day whilst on an Outward Bound course in Lumut, he had no choice but to eat it as the only meal available was tinned Chicken Curry - he's been hooked ever since!); in particular BEEF RENDANG.

Last week, whilst researching my (to be written) article for Star Sunday Metro's 2nd Anniversary in May, I was speaking to Eurasian cook Cora Capell whom I had featured before previously. Apparently after my article on her (and Lina) their business boomed (catch her at Little Penang Street Market last Sunday of every month). Anyway I digress - she was telling me her most popular dishes are Salt Fish Pickle (deaf coot that I am I thought she said "Sausage Pickle" and thought, "Hmm, sounds rather interesting. My kids may go for that!) and Beef Rendang. You know one of those occasions when a bell rings in your head? Well, it did in mine so I thought, "Why not save yourself some bother Helen - instead of cooking it, ORDER some from her?" So I did - two sort of 300-400gm containers for RM40. Not too cheap but not expensive either, considering the trouble of making the rempah, frying it then simmering it etc.

We had that for dinner last night after returning from Taiping, and No.1 Son cooked the rice (ya, it is after all just using rice cooker - but it does take some knack to add just the right amount of water!) and we all tucked in. Not bad at all, but not Malay Beef Rendang - after all, it's Eurasian! But delicious.

There was some left-over this morning and guess what No.2 son did? Toasted some sliced muffins, lined each with cheddar and piled the rendang on top. It doesn't look that great, but he absolutely adores the stuff, and in fact, it's really just like a quick Rendang Pizza! (Make it even more so by giving it a quick zap in the microwave oven.)