rawfoodhaven: day one 105 degrees

i arrived in oklahoma city on saturday evening, flight delayed by 2 hrs. it's taken me till thursday to attempt to update my blog coz i've just been busy settling down. i'm staying at this motel extended stay america, well it certainly isnt a four seasons hotel. reminds me of the time when i was in hangzhou for the "internship". its a studio apartment within a building, so you have your own little kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom. first night i was too tired for anything... and just slept right through. woke up with rashes on my legs, i think its an allergy reaction to the bedsheet. anyway i was too excited to bother, went down to 105degree to meet with my instructor for the month, russell james who comes from brighton, UK. met with some of my coursemates and we all had a pleasant lunch. my first meal at 105.... green monkey smoothie - absolutely addictive. made from banana, spinach, agave, vanilla, young coconut and spirulina

for my appetizer, i had a smoked maitake soup, chickpea miso, cilantro, avocado. being a soup person, i have high expectations... this was ok,

and for the main course i had pizza bianco with creamed spinach, nice combination but the portion leaves one wanting for more...

collected my chef uniform. i like the jacket, very stylish but the pants is way too big. it's only in the USA that i can wear a size S and feel that it's too big!

fast forward...

first day in class, there's only five of us which is a big difference from LL. it's great to have a small group though, we learn so much more!

i love the design of the "classroom", what a treat to be working in a brand new kitchen with the state of the art equipment. you feel good just being there!

first day in class and i am already learning new things... having come from LL, i would have thought that it would be dejavu, but i was pleasantly surprised that i was introduced to new equipments, different methods of doing things.

well for one, we are expected to do hands-on and complete a whole recipe by ourselves. in LL, we worked in groups of four, so you don't actually get to do a full recipe by yourself all the time.

russell started off the class by giving us an overview and introduction to the whole place, we walked through the kitchen, cafe and store. it's such a cool setup. its like nyc in okc.... i love it!

we had lunch at the cafe today. its really nice that there's student discount. as it is, the food is very reasonably priced so the student discount is a bonus!

i had the mexican salad, which is nice. i always love mexican. i didnt manage to have a mexican when i was in LA so this is good...

and for my main course i had a thai curry noodle, made with kelp noodle. the kelp noodle was a bit crunchy for my liking... i think i'm spoilt by my raw food friend linda's kelp pasta which she made at LL (i'm hungry just remembering the dish she made which was sooo yummy!)

my classmate had the kimchi vegetable dumplings with sesame ginger foam. it's so pretty, don't you think??

and another had the blue corn nachos, salsa guacamole, red pepper cheese micro cilantro. i just love the way they plate... makes the food too pretty to eat!

and the open faced portobello burger, basil aioli, sesame bun, chessy kale chops... yummy!

and the canneloni, pignoli ricotta, sun dried tomato marinara, pistachop pesto... (are you hungry yet???)

and the sprouted grain VLT, winter vegetables, bibb lettuce, sun dried tomato tapenade...

and all that before we had our first hands-on session!!!..... spicy tuber handroll. being a big time fan of japanese food, this is definitely a delightful start to the month-long raw food affair i am having!

we learnt to make sushi roll at LL, but this opened my eyes to new ways of doing a handroll, with a new kitchen toy!