Île de Ré...fabulous island of the French Atlantic Coast

Île de Ré is a fabulous island during spring to summer. Rest of the year, the wind is too strong and there's simply too much rain mixed with cold wind from the Atlantic. I first visited the island back in spring 2004 during a university trip for foreign students to 'learn' about French culture. The best way to explore is of course sans bus and car. If you're an amateur trekker...by foot. Bicycle is also an interesting option. Visit in mid spring and the fields will be flowering, especially the wild patches where the field poppies grow. I saw them from the bus's window so no chance to photograph any.

Reflecting back, I realized I never capitalized from the proximity of where I stayed (town center of La Rochelle) to the island (only about 10 km plus or so) because I was so busy trying on other things...if you're ever so lucky enough to get there, don't miss the wonderful salt marshes where fabulous sea salt is still hand-collected during the warm and long summer nights. The best, called fleur de sel, is a must for the dinner table. French uses this to flavour food and salads. Île de Ré and the neighbouring Ile d'Oleron are also producers of magnificent new potatoes of irregular shapes. These are fantastic lightly steamed or boiled and eaten with salted butter. In the salt marshes, a strange succulent plant resembling an algae called salicorne is a must-try. Lightly coat with a vinaigrette without salt (the plant is naturally salty) is the best way to taste this unusual delicacy.

Picture of the salicorne from les-vegetaliseurs.com.

If you're a fan of seafood, especially oysters, this IS the place to be as there is a bewildering choice. I tasted one of the strangest yet delicious ice-cream near the light house - caramel au fleur de sel: Butterscotch with salt flower. A must-try also. This flavour is also made into candies, a speciality of the salt-making regions of the French Atlantic Coast.

For a virtual visit, go to the island's official website at: www.holiday-iledere.co.uk

A promenade in the village, through beautifully planted pathways called venelle.

Quiet Sunday morning.

The foreshore, as they are called in English...during low tide.

Quaint restaurant by the sea...restaurants, houses and buildings in general adhere to a uniformed colour code at Ile de Re: white for body and green or sea blue for doors and windows.

A yacht at the foreshore, waiting for the returning tide.

Entrance to the prison: despite its current splendour and romantisme, La Rochelle and Ile de Re shared a violent history in slave trading.


An extremely picturesque little house at the salt marsh, fenced by nature - in this case flowering wild mustards.

At the salt marsh.

The salt pans where the famous "fleur de sel" (salt flower), crystallized salt on the surface of the salt pan is formed at the height of summer. People who collect the salt (they're all hand collected) is called sauniers.

An inlet that direct fresh sea water into the salt marshes.

The light house.

View from the light house.

Dinner at Sage

Some time back, I read in some restaurant review that Sage is one of the top choice restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. I tried on a few occasions to book a dinner table but the place seemed to be fully booked until tonight, when I finally got a table for 2 (go figure - it's Monday night). My ex-housemate wanted to try the restaurant too...and so off to Sage we went....

The reception was quite warm and nice. We were seated in the waiting lounge while our table was being prepared and were served water and Japanese snacks -boiled and salted soya beans (Edamame or something like that). We were also given the menu to decide before the seating. I chose a standard dinner set menu at RM150 nett while my friend chose the Gourmet set menu at RM170 nett exclusive of drinks. The menu offers a glimpse into the restaurant's philosophies and I for one think that great restaurants should never offer too many choices but rather stick to seasonal offerings that reflect the change of time. Sage shows some of these promising traits...

However, the setting I find a tad too sparse and sterile (they should at least have a bouquet of fresh flowers at the Maitre d's station and a slightly more sumptuous table setting) but the portioning and willingness of the chef to cater to finicky diners like myself made up for the price of dinning here (I can be very exacting in restaurants as I often have specific demands on how the meat and veges be cooked). I even managed to chat up the chef (Daniel) and started exchanging ideas on food!

Something to nibble on while waiting for the table.

A tiny amuse-gueule before the starters. This is good to keep us occupied before the real thing.

Bread with herb dressing. Like it.

Seared foie gras served with caramelized fresh fig. Troppo bene...mi piace! This dish really made my day and IS the best foie gras yet in Malaysia.

Rack of herbed lamb served with aubergine and confit of garlic. The meat was just tender and nice but unfortunately, the garlic could use a bit more time in the oven and if the fatty parts of the lamb were shaven off just before serving, it will do the dish some justice.

Strawberry Romanoff with mascarpone cheese ice-cream. A slightly stronger presence of the cheese might be even better but it's still a nice finish to the meal.

Finish off with English tea. Personally, I would prefer French infusions like verveine and tilleul but then again, we are not in France...

Check out Sage at: http://www.sagekl.com

The Smoke house at Fraser's Hills

Back in July, I had the pleasure of revisiting Fraser's Hills for just a day trip with my wife and I got to see a bit of the Fraser's Hills of my childhood days, minus of course the noise and people pollution of today. The Smoke House is everything that was once British and even though the present Smoke House is just a replica of bygone days, it still is interesting.

We had our afternoon tea and decided to stay for dinner before going home to Raub for the night as we had not planned any overnight visit - also because we had no toiletries. A walk around Fraser's is refreshing in the evening when most day trippers had descended the station and things started calming down. A marked improvement these days at Fraser's Hills is the fact that the management had finally come to their senses in term of public landscaping. Hope they will keep it up...

Cakes and scones just like the Brits...

Having a cuppa on the terrace...

English-themed interiors of the Smoke House.

Azaleas do grow here in the tropics...

A mock Tudor-styled prisoner holder outside the Smoke house.

A signage to the Abu Suradi Trail.

An open air terrace for tea and snacks next to the mosque.

A marked improvement since the last visit. The walkways are now well planted with choice of plants reminiscing of its past life as a colonial hill station.

A changeable rose hibiscus, the nearest thing to a full-bloom tree peony in the tropics. This delicate hibiscus is pristine white in the morning and rose pink towards evening.

A Day lily in banana yellow.

Black-eye Susan...wild flowers from the yonder years...

Pine Grove - an apt name for this plot of Pinus carribea.

At the lotus pond

Some time back at the lotus pond in a public park in Raub, I saw these tiny snakeheads (locally called Haruan, Channa striatus) playing near the shades of a lotus leaf at the edge of the pond...just like old times when I was a child...