I’ve always been a lover of Thai food, and there are times moi just can’t seem to get enough of it. So when chef Cecile Chang (Ysmael) invited me to her new restaurant, Simply Thai, I had to accept.

Simply Thai is a winner, dahlings. Cecile has given a new twist to old Thai favorites.

Cecile’s passion for everything Thai is seen in her highly successful Thai at Silk resto in Serendra.

Now Cecile wants to share more dishes that will contain favorite—and divine—flavors of Thailand, palanggas. Simply Thai has amazing ambience, with hand-painted walls, and hanging bird cage lamps. It has become a top dining destination at Greenbelt 5.

Naturellement, her new dishes have become my favorites, such as the new resto’s bestseller, North Thai Steak in jim-jaew sauce, a sweet Thai chilli sauce. Flavored with coconut milk, cinnamon, cloves and fish sauce is the Lamb Shank Mussaman Curry, one of Simply Thai’s early favorites, due to its bold flavor.

Pork Stew comes in a whole new light with coconut juice.

You may also try the Choo chee Roti, minced prawns with red curry sauce, plus the must-have Dungeness Crab, especially flown in from Thailand. It comes in three sauces with spiciness adjusted to your liking. Wow, exquisite, dahlings.

Despite having opened only recently, the restaurant has become a celebrity overnight with food bloggers, foreigners and our local community’s eating-out crowd praising it to high heavens.

Hotshot namedroppables who graced the opening included Sen. Bong Revilla, Wendy Puyat and Ching Cruz; Thai Embassy’s Suree Jirattikankul, Dr. Elenita Binay, spouse of Vice President Jejomar Binay; designers Hindy Tantoco, Jun Escario and Ito Curata; Ayala Malls’ AC Ocampo; Tetchie Hagedorn and Philip Hagedorn; Thai Ambassador Vorathep Bundhuratana and Louie Ysmael, no less, dahlings.

Guests are recommended to make reservations, especially during Sunday.

For reservations and more info, palanggas, call 7290860/7296860.

Smart and HTC partnership

Opus Bar and Lounge at Resorts World has really become the “in” place for birthdays bashes, special family celebrations, or just for a great night out, which was exactly what that popular wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) and HTC Corporation (HTC) did when they launched their partnership, dahlings, with a lavish happening hosted by model Sarah Meier.

Aprés all the social chit-chat and cocktail drinking, it was time for the highlight of the event—the signing of the electronic contract led by Danilo Mojica, head of Smart’s Wireless Consumer Division, and Lennard Hoornik, HTC’s president for South Asia.

The signing was done on HTC’s first Android-powered tablet called the Flyer, a device featuring natural pen interaction for a smooth writing experience.

HTC has introduced the Facebook phone, known as HTC’s ChaCha, with a unique Facebook button allowing instant uploads of photos, videos, status updates and sharing of music. You punch it, you get it, dahling.

Toward the end, HTC ChaCha and HTC Sensation units were raffled off to the guests, palanggas.

Okay, run, don’t walk, for the HTC phones available for free at Smart Postpaid Data Plans: HTC Sensation at Plan 3000, HTC Desire S at Plan 2000, HTC Wildfire S at Plan 1500 and HTC ChaCha at Plan 1000. Get it, dahlings.

Legal eagle

Iloilo sugar baron Judgee Lopez Peña and his wife, Sarah Opelencia, gave a thanksgiving bash for their eldest daughter, Rita Fernandina O. Peña, who’s now a full-fledged lawyer. A product of the Ateneo Law School, she took the bar last September and passed it.

Rita, as she is fondly called, descends from a family of lawyers and state men. Her paternal grandparents were the late Judge Remegio Montilla Peña and Yolanda “Bobbie” Lopez Peña, daughter of the late Vice President Fernando H. Lopez and the late Mariquit Javellana-Lopez, no less.

Held at the posh Makati Golf Club’s watering hole, Charlie’s Wine & Tapas Bar, the thanksgiving dinner gathered the Lopez and Peña families and Rita’s Ateneo classmates, with celebrity crooner Erik Santos performing.

A live jazz band got everyone on a roll.

The proud parents and their two equally brilliant other daughters, Risa and Rica, provided renowned southern hospitality to the guests.

Here’s to a bright dazzling future for our palangga, lawyer Rita L.O. Peña!