Telepan Take Two (Dining With Supermodels)
When the girls (Ling, Sally and Sonny) met Bill Telepan at Mai House, they were all sufficiently charmed by him to want to go check out his restaurant. So, after a few rounds of emails, on a cold Thursday evening Ling and Sally arrived at Telepan in full regalia-Ling in her Helmut Lang mini dress with high heel shoes and make-up, and Sally in a multi-layered Karl Lagerfeld mini chiffon dress with Chanel necklace. There were miles of legs on both girls. They were joined later by Rikha, who is blonde, tanned, in a pink baby doll short enough to skim the table tops, and death defying heels.
For one thing, dining with the supermodels have its perks, Bill actually offered to cook. which he’s never done for mere mortals like me. And, we didn’t have to pick anything from the menu. In addition, the servers are extra attentive, doubtlessly incentivized Rikha’s tanned long legs.
The amuse is a trio of mini cheese pastry, beets tartar and carrot soup. Then there was that extremely sinful foie gras doughnuts that was just heaven. Ling doesn’t eat cheese so I get to have her cheese pastry although we did got her to try one foie gras doughnut that she was glad to have tried. The next round of food contain a simple but hearty vegetable fritata that Rikha did not find too impressive, but I love the perfect seasoning and simplicity of it. There was a fresh marinated yellow tail that I get to have double portions of too as Ling does not eat raw anything.
Did I say dining with the supermodels have its perks?
But, we didn’t have too much time to ponder over the food, as Ling was panicking next to me:
“Look,” she held up her fork, obviously in a state of agitation. “What is it? Is it a bug?”
I looked at the offending item on that fork. “Oh, that’s a fiddle head fern.”
“What’s that?”
“A plant.”
That seemed to calm her down as she resumed eating with gusto.
At the other end of the table Rikha gravely announced that she didn’t believing in organic chicken. “I saw on American TV that chicken here gets big in three weeks and they live in very small crowded cages and they never turn the light off for them so they cannot sleep or move. They eat all day.”
I explained to her that the chicken at Telepan are probably free range chicken have been treated quite well. They sleep under duvet covers and gets regular messages and oxygen facials.
“How did you know?” she asked incredulously.
“Well, well known chefs like Bill develop close relationships with their suppliers, and they usually visit the farms where their produce and food came from.” I added that they can ask Bill about it later.
Before the conversation can go further, Ling was in panic mode again. “Oh no, this is not cooked!” She stabbed at a cube of meat on her plate.
“I think it is.” It was a piece of pork belly that must have been braised for the past two hours.
“But, it’s pink!”
“I think that’s how it looks when it’s cooked.’
“So I won’t get a tummy ache?”
“No. No. I guaranteed you, “ I assured her. The pork belly was demolished in one bite, and she seemed to approved of it that way.
By then the restaurant had emptied out and Bill came to sat with us.
“Bill, can we visit the farms that your vegetables came from?” She pounced before Bill even realize the length of the conversation.
“Well, there are a few that we can go to...” Bill started to say, wondering what was going on. Then he realized what had happened as Ling chimed in: “Yes,I want to go see chicken getting oxygen facial!.”
Sunday, May 20, 2007
