morning out at the farmer's market

so how lucky can we get? we woke up saturday early morning to walk around san francisco, so that rhoni gets a glimpse of san francisco before she leaves... and we walked into a farmer's market just by the pier. it was so fun!

before i get into that... we went on the tram ride from fisherman's wharf to downtown.







and to the market we went....

we found organic coconut!


and the most interesting organic mushrooms....




so many interesting exotic fruits/veg.... at least they're exotic to me!....



ok, i will upload more tomorrow, falling asleep!.... :-)

san francisco here i come!!

graduation day came & went... it was the day i have been looking forward to for the longest time! haha.. and yet i was sad to leave the new friends i made. we had such a great time together, maybe its comrades in crime! washing the dishes, mopping the floor, doing the laundry. i wonder how the feeling is like when someone is on parole, coz that's how i felt! my arms are still aching (and it's sunday evening!) we left fort bragg for san francisco as soon as we could. after a to-die-for almond torte that matt made for us as a going away sweetener.. everyone said their goodbyes. it was a strange feeling...


san francisco here i come..... we drove 4+hrs to arrive in san francisco at around 7pm. after checking in at the hotel, of course we headed for cafe gratitude for dinner....

student demo day

so i've been slacking... its been a a couple of days since i have posted... my course is finished!!! i actually graduated as an associate chef! i've had to read quite a bit about tomatoes. did you know that eating a tablespoon of tomato paste a day is supposed to help prevent prostate cancer for men? and tomatoes have the highest level of lycopene, a vital anti-oxidant that helps to fight against cancerous cell formation. they do that by flushing away the free radicals in the body. Lycopene is not produced by the human body and tomatoes are your best bet. of course i am talking about organic tomatoes and eating them raw! anyway, i dun think i will be posting the videos, dunno if my course mates will be so happy about that!

anyway... here are some nice pics on the class demos...


giselle just before her presentation... she did a fabulous job. a natural in front of the screen :-)

ok there's more for updates... coming soon!

whole food day

today was whole food day, which essentially means "starvation" for some of us. there was a buffet spread of fruits, apples, bananas, blueberries, raspberries and figs. we are expected to last the day eating fruits! i woke up with a splitting headache and had my yoga class cut short. dunno if its the organic wine last night or the toll of classes for two weeks. its been a tough two weeks, with only yesterday off! i rented a car out and the girls & i headed north looking for sand dunes... was told that its supposed to be quite impressive.


we got to the start of the "ten miles dunes preserve" but sure din see no sand dunes! but we did see the pacific ocean which was really very relaxing and so beautiful.

ok i am feeling lazy... i'll just post the beautiful pics today....






i have lots more pics but my eyes are closing.... so till next time!

beautiful sunset in fort bragg on a saturday evening

after a very disappointing knife skills advanced level class, we headed out to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sunset. a really relaxing experience to enjoy the beauty of God's creation.







the start of the spectacular view of sunset....

party of the week?

school started at 915am friday morning coz we had a small catering event on friday evening. it was interesting since i've never done anything like that before.

we've had the busiest day ever! so martine was the event director, linda the event manager and four group leaders were picked out of volunteers. they were mukullikaa for the italian almond torte, rhoni for the caesar salad, penny for gazpacho and yoko for the french vanilla ice cream dessert topped with strawberries.

here's martine giving the briefing for the event.


we had brunch today, which was good coz it gives me an idea of what could become our breakfast at home if we were on a raw food diet and experience it. brunch was a buffet spread of fresh fruits, scones, almond bread, granola and banana nut brittle. stuff we made over the last couple of days which have been in the dehydrator. there was raspberry spread (i think) and coconut butter to go with the scones. hot chai tea was served with vanilla nut creme and it was divine.

penny was our group leader (the gazpacho team!). she's very organized, I think it comes as a package being a mother of 5, she probably has plenty of training! plus she home schools her kids! i think she's an angel sent to me to teach me patience and seeing the good in everyone, and plus of course it helps that she's an effective leader who works very hard! it was interesting for me to work with other members in the class. we had to dice 72 tomatoes between myself, stas and dr. C. not much picture taking went on today coz we were just so busy! but i still managed to sneak in some.. penny and rosie polishing the "silverware" for the banquet. day doing a little dance for me as she decorates the tables....

the dessert team doing a wonderful job putting the flowers together.





closer to 6pm, we had to bring out the gazpacho from the chiller to plate them. penny doing the final touches.







sebastian doing a wonderful job plating the italian almond torte which turned out absolutely fabulous!










finally the chefs get to eat!




for our dessert, we had a very beautifully plated french vanilla ice cream....




the evening went well. we had to stay back to clean up the place. i've never done so many dishes in my life! it's one thing to train a chef to do the clean up after preparing food, it's another to expect the chef to do it everyday! we had to clean dishes, MOP the floor, clear the rubbish, basically doing all the chores, even doing the laundry! unbelievable! and i paid money to do this.... !!!