Tag Archives: Cooking

Amazing Thailand – Dubai to Koh Klang – a Krabi experience

Posted on April 14, 2013 | 9 Comments

It’s 3.30 pm and I’m relaxing by the side of the pool overlooking the Andaman sea and some lush tropical gardens. I’ve got an Ice cold beer in my hand which is quenching my thirst, the waiter has happily agreed to bring me a further cold one in thirty minutes time and I can hear nothing but the sound of the waves lapping the shore and birds chirping in the background whilst I relax in the temperature controlled infinity pool and jacuzzi.  Bliss. My only agenda for the rest of the day is to relax and have dinner.  I pause a moment, take a sip of the cold beer and plan to add an unplanned event into the days’ agenda, to enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail and maybe a post dinner one too, after all this is a great p

lace to put the bar staff to the test and to sample some amazing cocktails too :-)

 
AMAZING, Beautiful, Relaxing, Tranquil, Peaceful, Busy, Vibrant, Bustling, Inspirational, Flavoursome, Spicy, Fun, Fantastic, Awesome, Tasty, Green, Tropical, Lush, James Bond, 007 – just some of the words that spring to mind when I think back to my recent trip to Thailand in particular to Krabi and Bangkok.
 

But lets pause for a moment, let me virtually leave the peace  and comfort of my sun lounger and go back to the beginning of the journey.  I had been invited by the Thailand Tourism Authority to go on a 5 day trip entitled “Breezy, Being a Fisherman’s Friend” to visit the beautiful island of Krabi followed by a short stop over in Bangkok before heading back to Dubai.   I’ve visited Thailand before, with my first trip being back in my backpacking days when I enjoyed the delights of travelling by Song Tau, Tuk Tuk, local buses and trains as an international group of backpacking travellers we meandered our way from Bangkok to Surat Thani and back again some three weeks later via Ko Phangan and An Tong National Park,  this was when my love affair with Thailand started.   As the years passed and my tastes grew more expensive and my travels became more extensive yet I continually returned to different parts of Thailand mainly to the islands of Koh Samui, Phuket and also to the coastal resort of Hua Hin.  Each time I  remained in love with the country, the scenery, the food, the people – it’s such a great place to visit and explore.  A place full of contrasts from adventure to relaxation, a place to shop, to experience a whole host of culinary treats, a place to chill on the beach, to party on the beach, to go fishing, to explore, to get in touch with your inner self,  a place full of action packed travel adventure, cultural adventure and exploration or just a place to recharge and people watch, pick your theme, or multiple themes for Thailand has something for everyone.

So back to the start of the journey, and the first few days of the trip.  According to the itinerary, today, which is officially day one of the tour, although Team Dubai started last night.  Our journey started in Dubai airport where a fellow foodie Ishita who writes at IshitaUnblogged and I met the rest of our Middle East travel companions who were six top Emirati university students.  When we reached Krabi we were going to meet up with other members of the Breezy Group who comprised of a team from London and Frankfurt.

The TAT had provided us with an itinerary which was packed full of activities and experiences to showcase some of the delights of this small part of Thailand.

After an overnight flight to Bangkok (courtesy of Thai Airways) which arrived early morning Bangkok time, we quickly moved to transit for a short internal flight to Krabi International Airport where we were then transported to Ruen Mai Restaurant in Amphoe Mueang, Krabi for a brief by TAT staff and our local guide.  Following a really tasty thai lunch and some refreshing juices and sweet fresh coconut water in this newly opened restaurant,  we were transported from Chaofa Pier to Thara Pier on the island of Koh Klang which is a short ten minutes transfer by long tail boat from Krabi mainland.  After disembarking from our long tail boat, which is one of my favourite methods of transport in Thailand, we took a 7k Skylab (tuk tuk) exhilarating yet fun trip across the the island.  Here we were quickly ensconced in our rooms at the beautiful  Islanda Eco Village Resort where the rest of the days agenda including nothing more strenuous then relaxing in the hotels pool and grounds and partaking in dinner.

And so, here you find me, relaxed on my sun lounger in the beautiful and relaxing Island Eco Resort on Koh Klang on Klang Island feeling as if I’d left Dubai a long time ago, quickly acclimatised to Thai time, soaking up the radiance of the warm sunny climate and basking in the full knowledge that today’s agenda is one of relaxation and nothing more social than sharing good food with fellow travelers, a few friendly and not so friendly games of cards (if you are reading you know you you are LOL)  with the rest of Team Dubai with the biggest challenge of the day being which cocktail to select from the cocktail menu.

Much later, after indulging in the above activities,  Day one ended with the best nights sleep I have had for a very long time.  Maybe it was the peace and quiet of the resort, the chirping of the cicadas, the waves lapping against the beach, maybe the after dinner cocktails which were superb, or the hearty buffet dinner, or maybe the really comfortable bed which was calling my name and hugged me tight, or maybe a combination of all of the above, but in the morning it felt like I had been away from Dubai for a long time and that I was already fully relaxed and ready to explore and enjoy the rest of the Thailand Itinerary ahead of us.

More in my next post where we get to explore local village life in Koh Klang and where Ishita and I take a thai cooking class where the words ‘from river to wok in less than five minutes’ have true meaning.

Thanks for reading :-)

Disclaimer : This is part 1 in a series of posts about my recent trip to Krabi and Bangkok as a guest of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Middle East and Aviareps Group.  All opinions are my own based on my experiences of the trip in April 2013.

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Antonio Carluccio Book Signing – Carluccio’s Dubai Mall

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 5 Comments

I was recently invited to cookery demonstration and book signing by Antonio Carluccio which was held in Carluccio’s in Dubai Mall.  I’m a fan of Antonio having watched him cook on many a TV show in the UK and here in Dubai and having eaten in his restaurants both in Dubai Mall often whilst watching the fountains with visitors or in the Marina Mall where I need no other excuse than a visit for a good cup of coffee and breakfast.

Affectionately known as ‘The Mushroom Man’ for his love of mushrooms, Antonio was in Dubai to launch his new Book – A Recipe for Life which is a memoir and also contains a recipe at the end of each chapter.

The cooking demo started off with Antonio cooking up a simple treat of stuffed hard boiled eggs.  The eggs were stuffed with a combination of egg yolk, freshly made mayonnaise, tuna, capers and anchovies.  Presented simply they were a tasty treat which were quite easy to make but tasted great.    When asked if you could pipe the filling into the eggs (Antonio was simply rolling the filling in his hands) Antonio responded that yes you could but that he preferred a Mof Mof approach – Maxiumum of Fuss, Minimum of Flavour and this certainly comes through in the recipes within the book and his general cooking style.

Having sampled the eggs, which were delicious.  Antonio then went on to make pasta with wild mushrooms.  Again, simplicity seemed to be the key to the dish as well as the use of good quality fresh ingredients and more than a liberal use of butter and garlic.  I’m a not a pasta fan, but the smell coming from the kitchen was amazing and the sample I tried of the mushrooms and the sauce surrounding the pasta was amazing – fresh and garlicky whilst rich with butter and indulgent in the use of the variety of beautiful mushrooms it was great.

At the age of 75 Antonio is a very charismatic chef, he was entertaining and fun when cooking, sharing an anecdote or two (age appropriate for the audience) and always showing his true passion for cooking.  He was really charming, entertaining the audience in a natural way and signing books in a very relaxed and non rushed manner even though I  was told that he had a busy schedule ahead.

I am now the proud owner of a signed copy of A Recipe for Life, after having a quick chat with the ever charming Antonio, and it’s full of amusing stories of how he came from a self taught chef through to the opening of his restaurants, his marriage to his wife Priscilla and finally the writing of his memoirs.  Throughout the book there some great family pictures as well as fourteen of his favourite recipes some of which I’m going to try to cook including : Pears in Vin Santo, Focaccia and Ricotta and lemon tart.  Watch my site for info as I’ll write about them as I cook :-)

Wandering around the shop part of the Caffe you will find plenty of Italian products, gifts, books and food items to take home and enjoy or as inspiration for a some foodie gifts :-)   As well as copies of Carluccio’s books.

Carluccio’s can be found on their Website, Facebook Page and you can follow them on Twitter. or call on Tel: +971 (0) 4 4341320

The book A Recipe for Life is available in Carluccio’s shops and leading bookstores.

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Treat – A Culinary Celebration at Burjuman – Cooking Masterclass – Zaatar Lamb

Posted on September 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

I was recently invited to take part in a Masterclass cooking event at Treat.  Treat -  is a foodie event taking place  the 11th to 22nd September 2012 providing opportunities for aspiring chefs, enthusiasts and families to take part in a wide variety of demonstrations on various aspects of food from leading industry experts and best of all it’s FREE to attend and participate !!

I was lucky enough to be invited to take place in a Masterclass with Executive Chef Ron Pietruszka from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel which took place in the Chef’s Theatre on the second day of the Treat event.  The cuisine for the day was Arabic & French which sounded interesting.

After having a quick dash through Dubai traffic, so not like me,  I arrived slightly late and was whisked straight to my cooking station to join five other foodies who were also taking the Masterclass.  Quickly donning my Treat apron and obligatory chefs hat I was pleased to find out that we were cooking a dish of Zaatar marinated lamb with crushed lemon potatoes.  Lamb is one of my favourite foods and as I’ve never cooked with zaatar this sounded interesting.

Thankfully all of the prep had been done for us and our workstation contained everything that we needed for the cooking class to take place.  I was also lucky enough to be ably assisted by a junior chef who was great at making sure the stove ceramic hob was switched on and off when I needed it and he was also great at delving in the cupboards to find me my cooking implements just as I needed them – he also acted as my unofficial photographer whilst I managed to take pictures and tweet occasionally too :-) – it had to be done !

During the Masterclass Chef Ron demonstrated what we were supposed to be doing and we were able to follow the majority of his instructions effortlessly as we could also see him working on the large TV screen.  All the time we were being watched by the audience who were keen to see how our meal was going to turn out compared to the professionals.

We started off our dish by pan frying the rack of lamb which had been pre-marinaded, this was then coated in a thin layer of tahini before being encrusted with breadcrumbs and zaatar.  The lamb was then popped in the oven whilst we worked on our lemon potatoes and a sauce.

The potatoes had been pre-cooked for us – so we just had to chop these and then pan fry them in a little olive oil before crushing them and adding the garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice which we had cooked in a separate pan.  When crispy, we seasoning our potatoes with zaatar, salt & pepper where needed and to our taste, we also added some butter towards the end to add the final taste and crunch to the dish.

We then made a sauce using a pre prepared jus which we heated up and added some fresh pomegranate to.

The final part of our cooking involved plating up our meal – first the potatoes, then the lamb and finally the jus.  Decoration was simple, just a few pomegranate seeds on the plate.  The final decoration part of the dish was the addition of a pomegranate foam which Chef Mohammed added to our dish – personally I preferred my dish without the foam as I am not a foam fan.

All of this was achieved in about 30 minutes or so, leaving us plenty of time at the end to taste our meal and swop cooking stories with the other cooks of the day.   The lamb was amazing, juicy, succulent and cooked perfectly pink whilst the potatoes were crunchy and had a nice level of zaatar  -  next time I will add some chili too as I like my food spicy.

Thanks to Chef Ron and Chef Muhammed I now have a dish to impress my guests using good food and great flavours and (hush now don’t tell anyone !) it was relatively easy to make but would impress – surely that’s the beauty of good food cooked well :-)

Thanks to the team at Treat for giving me the opportunity to learn how to cook a great new recipe under the watchful eyes of Chef Ron and Chef Muhammed.

Full details about the event can be found HERE

But in the meantime here’s a quick summary of the types of activities that are going on :

Cooking Masterclasses take place daily from 4pm – 5pm.  This is then followed by three cooking demonstrations each an hour long at 5.30pm, 6.45pm and 8.15pm.

On the 17th September there is a special series of masterclasses on Hot & Cold Canapes by the International Culinary Arts Dubai with six half hourly masterclasses starting from 4pm until 8.30pm.

There is a kids corner from 5-9pm on Thursdays – Saturday where kids can learn creative cupcake decorations which they can decorate their own cupcake

Table Setting & Culinary Etiquette Workshops take place daily

Daily prizes & product Sampling and purchasing

Burjuman Junior Chef 2012 Competition – takes place from 18th – 22nd with 300 participants from 40 hotels battling it out in a series of creative challenges.

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