Raw ingredients

Dr. Cracknell first gave us a lesson in the nature of food; why we eat the way we do, and how to eat healthier. “Look at your teeth. It’s been noted that only 12% of our teeth are meant for meat. Humans are omnivores. We’re meant to eat everything, but meat just isn’t healthy for us.” The 64-year old triathlete told us how he first stopped eating all meat, except for chicken and fish. Then, he took out fish. He then became a full on vegetarian, then a raw vegan. The process spanned about four years.

“Food today is heavily modified. Vegetables and fruits are injected with pesticides, and animals are full of hormones and painkillers. When you eat a steak, you’re also eating everything that cow was poisoned with. An animal in a farm dies in pain and anguish. That energy flows into the food, and you eat it. I think that’s quite harmful.” After spending time doing research, he decided he would take the challenge: going vegan. Four years later, the results of his experiments are in his shop, for everyone’s benefit and enjoyment.

We followed five recipes; pesto sauce, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, combined them into a lasagna and then made chocolate brownies. We made each sauce from scratch with ingredients that Dr. Cracknell provided. With each step, he asked us for the next ingredient, helping us to remember the recipes. As we finished each sauce, we took a taste test. The verdict was unanimous: we made the best pesto, tomato and ricotta cheese sauces we had ever tasted.

Impressed with our saucy creations, we moved to the lasagna. We peeled strips of raw zucchini and layered them with each of the sauces, as you would with regular lasagna. After the addition of garnish, the finished product was on the plate.

We were all surprised. It was the quickest lunch we had ever made. After eating it, we concluded that it was also the tastiest. We learned that the best part about raw food isn’t just its health benefits, it is also the ease and convenience of preparing it. Our entire view of vegan cooking changed, and the transition started with our taste buds. Oh, and our committed carnivore isn’t so committed anymore.

In addition to the wellness house, Dr. Cracknell runs a shop and restaurant where he sells vegan cookies, power bars and breakfast bars; all made on site using natural ingredients and homemade dehydrators.

As of December 1st, his restaurant will become fully organic, which provides the people of Phuket even more incentive to go and try the food. The class goes from 9:00 A.M. until noon, and costs 2,500 Baht. If you can spare a Thursday morning from the beach to go learn from Dr. Cracknell, you should do it, the experience is worth it.

Living right and raw: a not-so-cooking lesson with Dr. Richard Cracknell is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

A hanging sculpture at Brush Restaurant and Lounge

Phuket’s art scene is often described as vibrant, but the exhibits at Brush Restaurant & Lounge in Kalim this month actually do vibrate… they also twist, twirl, roll and rotate.

The Kalim Kinetic Art Fair is the brainchild of Brush’s owners, the family Underwood, and has the aim of drawing together young local artists and designers to create art that moves – both emotionally and literally.

A month in the making, the father-son team of John and Zac Underwood opened up the doors of the Underwood Art Factory to help aspiring “Kineticians” create their mobile masterpieces. All the best entries to the project will be on show at the closing party at Brush Restaurant on 25 June, including two pieces by the Underwoods; a wave sculpture John worked on with Zac, and a perpetual motion machine.

“Kinetic art is interactive, not-so-mainstream, alternative art,” Zac explains. “It doesn’t have a definition, which is why it’s so flexible. But it excites the imagination, incites curiosity.”

Bringing new artists to this dynamic medium was only the first part of the plan, John hopes that the Art Fair will become an annual attraction for Kalim – the quiet beach just to the north of big, bright, brash Patong.

A home for art in Kalim at Brush Restaurant & Lounge

“My family is very attached to Kalim,” John says. “We think Kalim needs something that sets it apart – an ideal that allows people to come here and enjoy it year after year. So I’m hoping [the Kinetic Art Fair] is something we can do in June every year”

Brush was once, in fact, the Underwoods’ home. After the 2004 tsunami, John rebuilt it as a restaurant, incorporating some of the visual wildness that has become his trademark.

Underwood’s signature style incorporates materials at their most elemental level. Rust is relished and the abandoned is brought back to serve an active role in the imagination.

“I work as much as I can with recycled materials,” he explains. “To me, this century is about how we do things with fewer resources. It’s the simple end, not the technical end of the environmental side. Every time we do a project we try to incorporate recycling into it. I know now that’s becoming more and more popular.”

He is possibly best known locally for his work on the stunning Indigo Pearl Resort at Nai Yang Beach, where the tin mining theme gave John the opportunity to delve deep into the junk pile to create stunning visuals all around the resort.

The Underwood factory, on the bypass road, could easily be described as a giant kinetic art exhibit. Grinders send arcs of sparks leaping into the air, lathes and lasers dance a flickering jig and dedicated workers busy themselves, heads down, amidst the shifting piles of strange and often scary inventions, art in progress and ongoing projects for hotels and resorts around the world.

It is here that the ideas of the young artists have been brought to life for the Kinetic Art Fair; from on-paper proposals to perpetual motions.

“We think Phuket really needs a platform for kids, for everyone, to express their creative identity, so basically it’s just about getting people involved,” Zac says. “It’s going to be wicked!”

The best of the kinetic artworks exhibited during the Fair will be auctioned off at Brush Restaurant and Lounge during the closing party on 25 June, with proceeds going to local charity. Call 076 340 348 or email info@awpr-phuket.com or info@underwood-phuket.com for details.

Brush Restaurant is out to create a Kinetic Kalim is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

It's Hot!

FLAME in name and flame in cooking. Phuket’s first garden rotisserie from the stylish Twin Palms Phuket Resort, FLAME, will open in June next to its highly popular BAKE bakery in Cherng Talay, just outside Laguna resort.

The open style building will enable diners to see the chefs in action and food can be eaten either on the FLAME patio, or in BAKE’s air condition building next door.

FLAME will open daily from 10am to 10pm with take-aways and home delivery available. Details of a grand opening will be available in coming months.

Twin Palms is one of Phuket’s iconic hotels, set on stylish Surin Beach with Catch Beach Club very popular with locals and patrons alike. Its BAKE bakeries in three locations around Phuket are very popular for their fresh baked goods, cool environment and excellent service. BAKE is open fro9m 7am to 7pm daily. The boutique hotel itself established a new level in Sunday brunch which remains popular.

FLAME – Great New Twin Palms Garden Rotisserie is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Try this. You won't regret it.

Thais are very inventive and creative when it comes to their famous cuisine. Krua Thammachart [Natural Kitchen] restaurant in Soi Phuthorn in Phuket Town is indicative of this…it is a tree house restaurant that grew out of one of Thailand’s famous food stalls 18 years ago.

Specialising in Thai dishes, the restaurant is spread over three or four levels of timber structure surrounded by spreading green branches and leaves. It is a very Thai experience.

Good Thai food at an affordable price. Try the fish cakes, hot but not too spicy; the tofu seaweed soup and, the great Thai specialty, mango with sticky rice in fine coconut milk.

Prices range from B80-B150 for most Thai dishes and B200-B300 for Western dishes.

Somjet Jaiyen, the owner, and his wife Sirijit work the crowd.

Worth a try.

Natural Kitchen – Phuket Restaurant In The Trees is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Don't try this at home

IndoChine Group, an established Singapore based restaurant and bar company, is renowned for making a splash with its parties.

At its relatively new, four storey high bar and restaurant building on Phuket’s Kalim Beach on Saturday, 12 March IndoChine turned up the heat with the opening of its new Saint Tropez Beach Club, a rooftop bar set around a small swimming pool with spectacular views across Patong Bay.

Leading the party was IndoChine’s charismatic founder and CEO, Michael Ma and his sister, Executive Director Sue Ma. Since 1999 Michael Ma and his family have built IndoChine Group into a 15 venue, four country [ Singapore,  Phuket, Thailand, Jakarta, Indonesia and Hamburg, Germany ] arbiter of so-called fusion cuisine set around food from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

They are also famous for running a good party. The Saint Tropez event was a kaleidoscope of funky DJ sound, searchlights, exotic dancing and flashing lights that attracted the local glitterati.

The iconic, round, glass walled building also houses the Waterfront fine dining restaurant, Bar Opiume, a ground floor Deli Cafe and the IndoChine Surin Beach Club:Stereolab at nearby Surin Beach.

IndoChine Saint Tropez Club Brings Party Attitude To Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Anyone for tapas?

You don’t have to be a party animal to enjoy the eclectic atmosphere of the new Tapas Tree supper club/nightclub at Laguna, but it helps.

The former Kargo Indian restaurant still retains the giant [not real] palm tree in the middle, but the bar has been shifted to one side to make way for the enthusiastic dance club that Tapas Tree morphs into as the night wears on.

The opening on Friday, 25 February set the tone of things to come with some excellent ladyboy dancers and singers followed by a band with DJ, “The Biggest Loser” personality Garry Holden making a welcome return to the turntable after his magnificent double Triathlon/70.3 Ironman feats last year.

Tapas Tree is a welcome addition to the myriad of bars, pubs, spas and restaurants lining the entrance way to the Laguna Phuket complex. It is a supper club first, then as the evening wears on the tables are cleared and the dancing begins.

Very much in the mode of Phuket Town’s famous Ka Jok See, probably its most popular late night dance and entertainment venue.

The tapas are tasty, the music loud and the dancing pretty good. Worth a visit.

Tapas Tree Restaurant and Nightclub – Something Different at Laguna Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Brush will be an artistic centre on Phuket

John Underwood, an understated, almost 60 Australian, has a vision for Phuket’s art scene: create a centre of excellence where artists of every hue can gather and display their works.

That place is Brush, Underwood’s new restaurant on Kalim Beach with fantastic sunset views, a eclectic tapas menu from an award winning chef and with the potential to become the focal point for the Phuket artist community.

Sculpture, painting and other forms of conventicle art are on the “menu” at Brush. But Underwood also has other, more creative ideas.

“Why not do an exhibition of those crazy mudflaps on Thai trucks with pictures of movies stars, such as Silvester Stallone? Or why not tattoos? They are now universally accepted all over the world by everyone. Why not an exhibition of the best tattoos on Phuket?”

Such creativity is expected from John Underwood by those who know him. After 19 years on Phuket he has developed a reputation for producing works of art out of every conceivable type of material, much of it recycled, at his Underwood factory on Phuket’s by-pass road.

He has worked with most of the large hotels on Phuket, including doing the design for Indigo Pearl, a northern island resort noted for its unusual look and feel.

Brush is his latest project, very much aimed at bringing the island’s highly varied artist community to the public–and together.

The restaurant will stage exhibitions, fashion shows, kinetic art [moving art] shows. In fact, anything that has an artistic bent to it, Underwood is willing to give it a go.

A model might be Bangkok’s now famous Bed Restaurant, where patrons lie back on comfortable “beds” to eat food while watching artists at work.

Patrons at Brush won’t be lying down, but the restaurant is laid out in such a way that a fashion show, or a sculpture beavering away while other eat and drink, could carry on in front of appreciative eyes.

Brush Restaurant To Paint New Art Scene On Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Succulent dishes every night.

Tuesday night is Indian night. On Monday it’s Italian and on Saturday its Thai streetfood.

Banyan Tree Phuket, flagship of the worldwide Banyan Tree group, is offering themed cuisine evenings until March, 2011.

Chef Benoj Pother, from India, which has a history with the Banyan Tree through several large scale weddings at the hotel, is the man who prepares food such as an Indian starter with a slight Thai twist of marinated pumpkin and cashew nuts.

Another is a goat’s cheese salad with yellow curry, Pilau or basmati rice with a varietty of curries, including lamb dopizaa, chicken korma and fish curry.

But that is just the Indian fare. Apart from the Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights already mentioned, on Wednesday Thai food, Thursday Chinese, Friday Seafood and Sunday a Sunday BBQ.

Banyan Tree is probably better equipped than most Phuket based hotel chains to mount an “around the world” cuisine night. Already it has hotels in China, Korea, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mexico, the Seychelles and United Arab Emirates with other planned for India, Vietnam, Portugal, Greece, Morocco and Oman.

Eat Your Way Around the World Banyan Tree Style is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Sukij "Em" Thipatima with wheat beer, dark beer and lager and, behind him, the copper brew kettle and lautertank of his brewery.

Remember we told you about Carlsberg coming back to the island? Now there’s more good news for lovers of brews: Patong’s first microbrewery is up and running, and the beer’s lovely.

The Full Moon brewery, bar and restaurant is in Jungceylon. Just find the big junk (not hard) and you’ll find Full Moon under its stern, serving an American-style lager (note: much better than Schlitz or Bud); a British-style dark beer, not far off a good bitter; and a Belgian-style wheat beer – all brewed on the premises.

The man behind this is 30-year-old Bangkokian Sukij Thipatima, better known as Em. He comes from a trading family who specialised in glassware. After an education at the University of North Carolina, he spent four years with Heineken in their marketing department and then joined the UK’s Diageo, the world’s biggest premium booze company, as brand manager for Smirnoff.

Always fascinated by the idea of making alcohol (as opposed to drinking and marketing it) he set about educating himself in the art of beer-making,  including taking a short course at the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei (Research and Teaching Institute for Brewing) in Berlin, which is affiliated with the University of Berlin. Then he came to Phuket and, with a partner, set up Full Moon. It opened about a month ago.

This new career move was not entirely popular initially with his family, who are all teetotal. Em’s the only drinker in three generations. He used to sneak out with a friend of his brother to educate himself. And now he doesn’t just drink it. He makes it, too. “It was a bit tough for me. My parents, my brother, they all said, ‘What are you doing?’ Even my grandmother.

Being in Patong has one big advantage for a brewer, he says. “It comes from the Bang Wad reservoir [in Kathu]. It’s rainwater. I was thinking I would have to put in a lot of filtration equipment, but I had the water tested and it’s really very clean. We’re so lucky.”

The beers he’s making, Em says, are utterly unique. The hops and yeast have to be imported, he says, “but I’ve tried to combine Western and Thai ingredients. The challenge was to make a Thai-style beer.” Two years of research put him on the right track.

Ingredients, from left: Coriander, wheat, chocolate malt, caramel malt and crystal malt.

All three beers have Australian crystal malt as the main ingredient but the lager includes an infusion of malted Thai Gaba rice from the Royal Projects, which is high in sugar and minerals. “This makes the lager more approachable with a slightly sweeter aroma. For the dark ale I use the crystal malt as a base, then caramel malt and then chocolate malt. Finally, I add a little bit of Thai black sticky rice from the northeast of Thailand, which gives a more balanced finish with less bitter aftertaste.”

As for the wheat beer, the brew includes imported wheat and oatmeal, but with addition of tangerine peel from Bangmod, outside Bangkok, and coriander, “to raise the spice to complement the citrus taste of the tangerine. It’s quite different from the Belgian style.”

Em is very serious about the subtlety of taste in his beers. “I want people to try approaching it in a more sophisticated frame of mind, as you would a good wine,” he says.

At the moment only the lower floor of Full Moon is open. It’s smart and spacious, with big-screen TVs for sports fans. Upstairs will be more laid back, with, Em promises, “dueling pianos” – yup, two pianos.

All the beers cost B140 a pint or B80 for a half. Or go between 4 and 7pm when the happy hours price is B100 a pint.

Phuket Observer was given generous amounts to taste and wanted more. Our opinion: these are all excellent  beers. If you think wheat beer is a bit of a girlie drink, try some. You’re likely to change your opinion. And Em says that because no sugar is added, there’s no hangover to speak of. “You can drink 10 pints and you won’t suffer.” Naturally, we’ll drink to that.

Full Moon Brewery: More good news for Phuket beer drinkers is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

In a tap near you: Carlsberg is back in Phuket.

Good news for lovers of Carlsberg beer: the seven-year drought has come to an end.

Carlsberg, which pulled out of Thailand in  2003 after a row with partner Thai Beverage plc (a breakup that eventually cost Carlsberg US$120 million) is back in Phuket. The Danish brewer started reintroducing its beer into Thailand in August this year, starting with Bangkok and then Pattaya. Now distributor Fluid Asia Pacific has begun putting taps in bars and restaurants in Phuket.

According to an announcement from the company, the beer will not be available through retail outlets. There will be no bottled Carlsberg – at least, not yet. It will all be in kegs, imported from the company’s brewery in Malaysia.

But don’t expect it to be as cheap as before. The company says that this time around it is positioning Carlsberg as an “international premium import beer … with very high quality”. The brand, it says, “has … undergone some changes, in terms of positioning, since it was last available in Thailand. As we are just returning … focus is on product quality, not volume.”

Here’s the current list of places that Fluid Asia Pacific says have Carlsberg on tap in Phuket: Phuket Palazzo (Kathu), Australian Bar, Freedom Bar, Happy Days Bar, Icon Nightclub, Little Mermaid, Malibu Bar, Monkey House, Nanai Sports Bar, Nikitas, Peppers, Sharky’s, Soccer Bar, Soho Bar, The Tavern and the Yorkshire Inn.

On Phi Phi it is available at the Sports Bar, Breakers and Jordans.

Carlsberg back in Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.