Honeymoon Part 3 – In search of the illusive ‘Penang’ Curry!

Firstly I need to apologies for such an overdue post – unfortunately I lost the notes I wrote on my honeymoon so I had to start from scratch again. (In fact, who am I kidding, my new wife ‘tidied up’ and it somehow magically ended up in the bin!) Oh well, water under the bridge….!

After such an amazing time the week before, Penang was always going to struggle to match Thailand in terms of luxury accommodation and service – but that wasn’t the attraction for me. I’m massively into geography and history, and was really excited to discover the cultural history of Penang; both from it’s more local influences to European influences from the British & Portuguese. I think it almost goes without saying that I was excited about the food, but there were two things in particular I was looking to discover.

1) Sample as much hawker food as I could get my hands on (and my stomach could take)!

2) Find (and I’ll come back to this point later!) and try the famous ‘Penang curry’ that I always seem to come across in just about ANY Malaysian / Thai restaurant in the UK

Before I got straight into trying some local food, I was keen to get out onto the streets of Georgetown sightseeing…. although it ended up being quite different to what you would expect! When we arrived at our hotel we were told that we could have a free trishaw ride around Georgetown, showcasing the local sites and culture history. Now this all sounds great – what the hotel didn’t tell us was that it was only a trishaw for 1 person (either that or we had both eaten far too much curry!). You could practically hear the driver groan as we both squeezed onto this thing! Despite it being a bit of a squash, it was an excellent experience and it was great to really learn something about where we were staying.

There is only so much sightseeing a man can do…. so next on our to do list was to eat. We were so tired that we literally went to the nearest place we could find, a little soup shack (is that the right word?) just around the corner from our hotel – I wish we could get soups this easily in the UK!

That evening we thought we would visit Gurney Drive as we’d been told by numerous people (both in Penang & elsewhere in Malaysia and Thailand) that it is the best place to sample local food…. and we weren’t disappointed! The thing that surprised me most about the stalls was the variety of food available – I think I (rather niavely) assumed there would only be variations of soup, rice and noodles…. what an idiot! 
 

One of the best things I ate all holiday was some chicken served on pandanus leaves, although I was really suprised by the variety of the snacks, and they were pretty damn tasty too! I wasn’t surprised when I heard that many Malaysians actually travel to Penang  just for the wonderful street food!  As far as I was concerned – task 1 complete.

Task 2 was much harder to accomplish – by the last night I still hadn’t found the famous Penang curry that I was so desperate to try. So the search began… and I really did search everywhere! I asked locals, taxi drivers and hotel staff – they all suggested that we tried little India! We jumped in a taxi and looked at a few menu’s and none of them seemed to have the curry I was looking for, although coming from Bradford I can tell a good curry when I see one, and they were good! After over 30 minutes of searching we went for a fantastic curry – but couldn’t help leaving slightly disapointed.

Susie did rather smuggly make the point that a Penang curry in Penang would probably just be called a ‘curry’ but I wasn’t convinced. It was only when I got home and I searched on Google that I realised that the curry I was looking for was the ‘Panang curry’ – a favourite from Thailand! No I’ve had a look on the internet and can’t establish whether or not this Thai curry originates from Penang or not? I’d really appreciate it if any of you reading could shed some light on this?

Anyway, that’s all for now – in the next post I’ll be blogging about our time in the Perhentian Islands and ‘drinking tea’ in the Cameron Highlands.

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice

Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice – Serves 2

This weekend was an extremely exciting time. Why?

Well… today was the day that our wedding gifts got delivered from John Lewis! The van pulled up nice and early and by 9am there were 6 boxes stacked in my front room ready for opening. There were plenty of presents that I was excited about; roasting trays, Jamie Oliver pans, towels and bedding – but none of them got me quite as excited as my new fruit juicer!

The Magimix Le Due XL was the first out of the box and I was a little like a kid at Christmas wanting to play with his new toy! I figured I would start simple and make a freshly squeezed orange juice. The great thing about fresh OJ is that you know that absolutely nothing else has gone in it – drinks like Sunny Delight or Tropicana are laced with additives and sugar – defeats the point of a fresh juice if you ask me.

I think that the quality of the juice will drastically depend on the taste and juiciness of the oranges you use – mine tasted good but they were a few days old so were perhaps not as juicy as they could have been. I think because of that it took around 3 oranges (6 halves) to make 1 glass of juice, but it was well worth it (As that’s about it I won’t bother writing a recipe) although you can make it look nice and pretty by adding a cocktail umbrella…. )

Look out for my 3rd installment of my honeymoon – it’s been a bit of a delay but hopefully it will be worth it.

Honeymoon Part 2 – Paradise at the Sarojin

Probably the most stressful part of the wedding for me was organising the honeymoon! It was one of the few ‘real’ jobs I was given (note the word given) besides choosing the food menu, sorting mine and the best mens suits, and, erm…. turning up.

I figured I could look at the honeymoon two ways; 1) that I was organising a regular (all be it pricey) holiday, or 2) that I was organising probably the most expensive holiday we will ever go on, after the most memorable day we will ever have, with a new wife who will expect the most amazing place she has ever seen. I chose the 2nd train of thought…. no pressure then Andrew!

The first thing I noticed is that anything even slightly related to a wedding and you need to add an extra 50% to the price! Everything is so expensive; some places I saw in Mauritius and the Seychelles were just astronomical. Luckily I found a real bargain at the Sarojin resort in Khoa Lak, Thailand (Buy 3 nights, get free nights free). It certainly sounded too good to be true….but it wasn’t!

The resort is located on a stretch of beach in Khoa Lak (Just North of Phuket) in Thailand and has won numerous awards over the last few years… it’s easy to see how.

The service that we received at the Sarojin was just out of this world – from the second we arrived everything was just perfect. On arrival we were greeted by the amazing staff who had pre prepared a pot of ginger tea, cool towels for our face and even had a bouquet of flowers ready for Susie.

We were showed to our room and things just got better and better! The staff had written the words ‘happy honeymoon’ in petals on the bed sheets, prepared a fresh petal bath, and the piece de résistance – a chilled bottle of champagne!

We were lucky enough to have a ’pool residence’ so we were quickly dipping into our beautiful PRIVATE pool, and ordering in room service on our pavilion. I have to admit, the beef carpacchio certainly wasn’t the most traditional food we would eat in Thailand, but it was bloody good!

Thai Cooking Class

One of the highlights of the week was when we took a Thai cooking class in the resort. I had taken a Thai cooking class back in 2006 on Koh Phi Phi, but this turned out to be much more interesting AND we cooked in a fantastic venue over looking the beach.

The class started with a guided tour of a local Thai market by our chef (called Gog), who talked us through all the weird and wonderful ingredients that are used in Thai cooking…. many of which I confess to never having seen before.

After we had bought the ingredients for our menu (chosen the night before) we arrived at the venue to see all our ingredients and cooking equipment nicely laid out for us. Now I’m not going to go into too much detail as I will be posting these recipes in future posts, but here were the dishes we cooked (and ate!!!) with some photo’s below:

• Spring Rolls with Sweet Chilli Dip
• Corn Cakes
• Thai Red Chicken Curry
• Massaman Beef Curry
• Seafood Soup
• Prawn Soup

There was far too much food to eat – we ended up giving half of it away to the waitresses behind the bar!

Finally, on our last night we had a private meal set up on a platform in the middle of the gorgeous infinity swimming pool. It was a fantastic evening, and having a private waiter for the night made it all the more special! I finally got chance to have my seafood dinner, and Susie went for her staple meal in Thailand – Thai Green Curry!

That’s all from Thailand – next post I’ll be sharing some of my experiences from Penang, including some of the fantastic hawker street food!

Honeymoon Part 1 – Kuala Lumpur

I was really surprised by how much I loved KL. The way I would describe KL is kind of a mix of the ‘hustle and bustle’ of Bangkok mixed with the ‘business like’ feel of Singapore. Certainly the business feel could have come from the fact that we were staying in the Shangri-La Traders hotel (clearly suited to both business and leisure travellers), although I think we would have struggled to have found a better view from our window anywhere in KL (below!).

We’ve come away with such fond memories from the hotel – not just for the fantastic views, but the service was excellent too. Once the staff got wind of the fact it was our honeymoon, they delivered a complimentary chocolate fondue and bottle of wine to our room. It’s like they knew that my wife is a chocoholic!

Our stay in KL was only brief, so we decided to eat in style at the Gobo Chit Chat restaurant - an all you can eat buffet serving many different types of cuisine. Now call me a typical Yorkshire man, but in my mind ‘all you can eat’ usually means stuff your face until you feel ill…. and I was soon clearing them out of oysters, king prawns, crab claws, mussels, razor clams, octopus and sushi! A really enjoyable evening was topped off by a visit to the Sky Bar. This is definitely one of the coolest bars I’ve ever seen – chilled music, cocktails served around a pool, and … oh yes, private booths overlooking those famous towers.

We did manage to get out and do a some sight seeing! We explored the famous Petaling Street market in China Town; Merdaka Square (where Malaysia gained it’s independence); numerous shopping malls (Central Market & Bintang Walk in particular) and finally, a delightful walk around Kuala Lumpur’s Orchard Park. As you can see I went a little crazy taking photo’s of the flowers, but with my new macro lens I was getting some pretty impressive shots!

We certainly set off to Thailand on a high after a thoroughly enjoyable 2 days in the capital! On our last evening I took the camera out and got a close up shot of one of the towers – it really is quite an amazing building!

Next post – Thailand and the Sarojin!

 

Wedding (Part 2)

As we arrived at our venue (Sandhole Farm), we were greeted with glasses of champagne and so many happy faces! The venue looked absolutely stunning – it’s hard to picture what things are going to look like when your planning the day, but Susie and the ‘mums’ did a great job!

One of my only regrets of the day is that I didn’t really get any photos of the food – luckily our  photographer managed to get photos of two of the appetizers before she left; grilled halloumi wrapped in parma ham, and smoked salmon and cream cheese on rye bread.

One of the most satisfying things was that we were told by so many people that the food was the best that they had ever eaten at a wedding – and some of our guests were pretty old, so have presumably been to quite a few!!! Here is our menu:

Andrew and Susie’s Wedding Breakfast 31^st July 2009  

Caramelised Shallot, Roasted Pepper & Brie Tart

Topped with Homemade Red Onion Chutney on Baby Leaves drizzled with Rocket

Pesto & Balsamic Syrup

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Fillet of English Lamb Served on Dauphinoise Potatoes With a Delicate Port & Red Currant Sauce

Accompanied by Fresh Seasonal Vegetables

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Trio of Miniature Desserts 

Andrew’s Nan’s Cheesecake

Milk Chocolate Mousse Encased in Dark Chocolate Drizzled with an Orange Syrup

Fresh Raspberry Chardonnay Jelly Shot

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Fresh Ground Coffee with Chocolate Mints

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Wine 

Reuilly Sauvignon 2007

Reuilly Pinot Gris 2007

Reuilly Pinot Noir 2006 

The menu didn’t just taste great, but it really meant something to us both too. The wine was selected from a small vineyard close to my Parents house in France, and the fact that we had my Nan’s cheesecake recipe on the menu really meant the world to me, as unfortunately she wasn’t well enough to be at the wedding.

After the main course was cleared away it was time for the dreaded speeches. In line with tradition the father of the bride stepped up first, followed by myself and then the two best men. Despite our nerves, I think all of the speeches were a real success and I even managed to get a few laughs myself (I knew there was a reason why we bought so much wine….!)

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur but the highlights were definitely the first dance and the cutting of the ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL cake. The cake was made by one of the bridesmaids and her mother and alternate layers of chocolate and fruit cake, with the top layer being saved for the christening of our first child…. certainly a little while yet!!!!

All in all it was a fantastic day and I couldn’t help but feeling a little disappointed that the whole day went by so quickly…. but after a quick ’slightly hung over’ breakfast the morning after, we were ready for our 16 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and bursting with excitement!

Kuala Lumpur here we come!