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.

US author and restaurateur, Su-Mei Yu.

Banana, orange, yogurt and honey may sound like a tasty snack, but in the hands of author and restaurateur, Su-Mei Yu, they also make for a refreshing face scrub.

Yu – who runs a pair of award-winning restaurants in San Diego – is on Phuket to demonstrate century-old healing techniques at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale on 21 June.

The acclaimed restaurateur and author returns to Thailand often to gather new recipes and in the process she has also learned how many of the great Thai ingredients can be as beneficial to skin as they are tasty.

The free afternoon seminar at Villa Royale will give Yu an opportunity to show off some of the healing methods she has collected for her new book, The Elements of Life, A Contemporary Guide to Thai Recipes and Traditions for Healthier Living.

Born in Bangkok, Su-Mei Yu moved to America when she was still a teenager. It was not until many years later that she would discover a passion for cooking and open her first restaurant, Saffron Thai Grilled Chicken in San Diego’s India Street. The speciality of the house is a dish that Yu recreated from her memories of the grilled chicken that vendors near her childhood home in Bangkok would sell.

Such was the popularity of the Thai restaurant among San Diegans that Yu was soon encouraged to put together a cookbook. Cracking the Coconut: Classic Thai Home Cooking came out to rave reviews in 2000 – the same year that she opened her second restaurant on India Street, Saffron Noodles and Saté.

Cracking the Coconut was a huge hit, named one of the “10 Best Cookbooks of the Year.” by both The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. Yu also received The Julia Child Award for Best First Time Author from The International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Su-Mei Yu's new book, The Elements of Life.

For her latest book, The Elements of Life, Yu again dug into her childhood memories of life in Bangkok and supplemented those recollections with recipes picked up during her many return visits to Thailand. This time the set out to create a collection of recipes that did more than sate the appetite.

As I child, she remembers neighbours cooking yah nang greens to cure the fever. Her mother’s remedy for fever was a rich soup made with chicken, ginger, scallions, and sesame oil. Coconut milk with cassia leaves stewed together relieved insomnia and a potion brewed from red beans and Chinese dates calmed the nerves.

During her visits Yu has also learned how the flavour and taste of different ingredients can influence well-being: the bitter taste in bitter melon, for example, reduces fever and sugar palm increases the body’s heat with its sweetness. Spicy chillies enhance the appetite, while the pungent flavours in ginger and shallots reduce bloating.

For her demonstration at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale, Su-Mei Yu will be focusing on the revitalizing effects of different ingredients. She will show how lime can cure dandruff, lemongrass restore lustre and how coconut can eradicate split-ends. She will also reveal how to use tomato to relieve acne and papaya, honey and the radish-like daikon can take years off your face.

Su-Mei Yu’s Beauty-Spa Kitchen, a demonstration of alternative uses for ingredients easily found in the kitchen or garden to make natural beauty and health treatments, will take place at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale, Kata, on 21 June, 2.30pm. Admission is free. Call 076 333 569 for details.

A facial feast at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale 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.

Experience Sino-Portuguese luxury

The Andaman Embrace Resort & Spa, due to open in December, will be Patong’s new Sino-Portuguese resort.

It will be the four-star Club Anadaman Beach Resort revitalised. The Resort closed on 30 April after 20 years for major renovations to transform it into a more traditional style in keeping with Phuket’s colourful past.

Phuket Town, the capital, features many Sino-Portuguese style buildings, reflecting early settlement by the Chinese and the subsequent arrival of the Portuguese on Phuket to exploit the tin mining industry of those days.

But Patong, the tourist centre of Phuket, is more modern, so the new resort will bring a little of that history closer to the sea and expose its architecture to guests. Phuket T.

Renovations to the 200 guest room resort will include addition of a 570 sq.m. swimming, an independently operated spa and a new restaurant. Remaining will be the old resort’s tropical garden dotted with 18 “lotus cottages” surrounding an ornamental pond, but they will be revamped to reflect the Sino-Portuguese architectural theme.

According to the resort Managing Director Salisa Limsakul the new resort will have new staff and offer “five star services at four star prices” with low season rates through out the 2011-2012 peak season.

The resort will also feature a Sino-Portuguese style shopping arcade–a modern version of Phuket Town–with 13 boutique shops.

Ms Salisa expects 78 guest rooms on the lower floors to be operational in time for peak season guests.

Andaman Embrace – new Sino-Portuguese style resort for Patong is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Zipline to earth

No roller coaster, ferris wheel or other hair raising rides here. It’s all do-it-yourself.

Located on a hillside beside Wat Luang Poo Supah at Chalong , Xtremeadventures will give you up to three hours–more if you like– of challenging fun for B1900, children half price.

For example there is a climbing wall, rope-loop walks with three different levels of difficulty high up in the trees. The high wire that sways as you get to the middle–scary–is one of more than 60 activities.

Built and owned by Frenchman Gilles Bassi with French equipment and installed by professional riggers from France, Xtremeadventures offers tourists something completely different from the usual on Phuket.

All activities are built for safety with everyone wearing a harness if you are required to leave the ground. For smaller children there is even an area suspended entirely above a safety net so no harnesses are required.

A bit like being a trapeze artist in the circus.

Extreme Adventure Sports Comes to Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Light rail could be the answer

Phuket’s infrastructure, such as road and air transport and telephone lines, are about to get short and long-term improvements.

Complaints about the lack of cheap, efficient transport on the island are one of the biggest criticisms from tourists, who find taxis and tuk tuks more expensive on Phuket than they would be used to in a place like Bangkok.

Patong’s one-way system, which has been through more changes than most people care to remember, can be baffling

The sight of unsightly overhanging telephone lines everywhere on the island are a blot on the landscape, often competing with stellar sea views, and winning.

Road transport between the West and East of the island is more difficult as increasing numbers of vehicles traverse a large hill between each coast.

Phuket International Airport, which processed a record 7.5 million arriving and departing passengers in 2010, is groaning under the pressure.

Now the local authorities are getting serious about building a light-rail between important points on Phuket to improve transportantion of large numbers of people and take pressure of the increased road transport traffic.

No longer up the pole

In Phuket Town, home to some of the island’s most stunning Sino-Portuguese architecture and steeped in history, municipal workers have started pulling down power poles lining several major streets to replace them with underground cabling.

The authorities have also held meetings on building a tunnel beneath the large hill running between Patong and Kathu, which is now subject to vastly increased traffic. If this was to become a reality it would improve traffic flow from West to East of the island enormously.

A major upgrade of the airport is under way to have it ready for the 2011-2012 high season.

And the one-way system in Patong is finally going to change to be more tourist friendly. Some of these projects are works in progress and the others on the drawing board. All of them are needed for Phuket to keep pace with its own growth.

Phuket infrastructure improvements on the way is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

More than just ice cream

Swiss hotel operator Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts will open a second hotel on Phuket’s Bang Tao Beach West Coast at the resort formerly known as The Palm Beach Club.

The rebranded Mövenpick Residences Bang Tao Beach Phuket property will join the Movenpick Resort & Spa Karon Beach Phuket.

Mövenpick has plans to increase its Thailand portfolio to six hotels by 2014. It operates 69 hotels in 26 countries with 19 new properties under construction.

The new resort has 39 suites and penthouses with a small number of units having private swimming pools or a Jacuzzi. There is a large communal swimming pool, restaurant, fitness centre and spa.

The Mövenpick at Karon Beach comprises 159 suites with sundecks, outdoor rain showers and some have plunge pools. It also has 175 renovated rooms.

Mövenpick Group was founded in Switzerland in 1948. It is also famous for its  food, Mövenpick particularly ice cream.

Mövenpick to open second Phuket hotel is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

There's no business like the education business

We are here to educate you.

Phuket is rapidly becoming a mecca for international schools to set up on with two new schools announcing they will open on the island.

Kajonkiet International School Phuket [KISP], which also has a campus in Bangkok, will open in Kathu on 22 August, 2011 and Huaqiao Phuket Thaihua International School, Phuket town announced construction was to begin on its site in May, 2011.

The decision by Kajonkiet to build a school on Phuket was based around the ASEAN Economic Community Plan, expected to start in 2015. Under the plan there will be a free flow of goods, services, investments, capital and skilled labour amongst the 10 ASEAN countries.

Once this starts happening Phuket is expected to attract many more permanent residents so preparing students in English language and other global skills becomes more important.

Kajonkiestsuksa offers opportunities through Thai, ESC [Thai and English] and English programmes, which are popular with expat. residents.

Phuket already has the well established British International School [BIS] and the new Phuket International Academy Day School [PIADS], which is a nursery to grade school aspiring to become a three programme International Baccalaureate World School. BIS is an English medium, co-educational day and boarding school.

Phuket attracting more international schools is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

I give up. I'm confused!

Help may be in sight for those tourists wanting an early glimpse of Patong Bay when arriving in the city from the airport as city fathers debate changing its controversial one-way system…again.

At present Patong visitors coming from the north, for example the airport or Phuket Town, are essentially forced under the existing clockwise, one-way system onto Rat-U-Tit 200 Pi Road, the so called “second road,” a block back from the bustling beachfront, lined with numerous shops and including the huge Jungceylon Shopping centre and an excellent market.

Which way to Bang La road?

But for most Patong visitors this means having to go right to the end of the long road and turn right to come back along the beach, where much of the more upmarket restaurants, hotels and bars are located directly across from the beach on Taweewong Road, the so called “front” road.

So what to do? Patong authorities are now seriously contemplating reversing the one-way system to an anti-clockwise route that would take visitors along Taweewong Road as a first option, thus enabling them to get a better feel and picture of the beach and what Patong offers.

The debate rages about whether a round-about should be put at one crucial intersection leading north along beautiful and upmarket Kalim Beach. Also in the equation is whether several roads linking the front and second road should be two way. About two years ago the authorities changed these but, instead of requiring motorists to remain on the prevailing left had side of the road ?they switched to the right.

[ Thailand retains left hand road driving, reportedly because the first king of Thailand to obtain a car had a British made Rolls Royce, which, of course had the steering wheel on the right, thus requiring the driver to drive on the left for safety]

The change by Patong authorities looked a bit confusing but when considering the difficulties of turning in Patong traffic on the two main roads, it made a bit of sense–and certainly would have let those from countries who drive on the right feel right at home!

The jury is still out on a final decision on whether to go anti-clockwise, but it is looking more certain.

Patong One Way Road System Would Favour Tourists is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Landing at new hub: Phuket?

Strategic Airlines To Take Off In Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.