soup, soup glorious soup.... :-)

yesterday turned out well. it was a surprise, considering how lousy i felt the day before. i had totally forgotten it was 9/9/09. so when we went in to class yesterday, we had this "interesting" experience where cherie tried to gather us together to lead us in a meditation at 9/9/09 at 9am for a 9min meditation. i must confess, i was thinking about my food planning menu through it all, and about all the things i need to do! haha.... i think its rather imposing on students belief and rights to ask the students to go into meditation mode. whether i believe or not its not the issue here!

anyway... so after this so-called meditation, the morning session started with a discussion on menu planning, taste, etc... i've discovered that i get bored when its not a proactive session with the lecturer doing all the talking. some of the stuff mentioned sounded like common sense to me, even though i am not a chef.


we had a brief on making dressings, very enlightening and we had to decide as a group what we want to make. so everyone was supposed to write on a piece of paper their choice and martine (the instructor) would come around and pick one. i didnt know any better so i didnt bother to write any. my closest idea of a salad dressing is my favourite japanese dressing from meidiya which had sesame and roasted nuts so obviously that's not going to work in the raw vegan menu (roasted doesnt work!) and i have no clue what the recipe is anyway. it really is quite easy to pick it off the shelf at meidiya at $7+ a bottle rather than buying the ingredients and figuring it out in the kitchen! anyway was an interesting experience making the dressing (which took an hour!) and the more hardworking serious students in our group made the effort to come up with the perfect citrus miso dressing. my favourite in the end was a mexican dressing, really nice. i did learn something interesting from a classmate though! did you know that to make salad dressing with olive oil, its always 3-1 part for the oil, so for every 3 parts of oil, you have 1 part of the other portions. (i think that's what she said anyway! i'm not very good at picking such things up yet!)

so fast forward, after making the salad dressing, i think i can do it! haha... its really not rocket science. i will definitely try when i go home.

today was a mexican theme. we had a demo with martine and matt on making mexican salsa and the "rice" that you put into the shells. as per routine, we had to replicate the same within our group.


lunch was mexican, surprised? ... YES! the girls made the tortilla shells yesterday afternoon when i was in dreamland so i missed out on that one but it doesn't look impossibly difficult. i think i am starting to figure out how the stuff are made. the question now is, will i do it? hehe..


after lunch, we had a debriefing session on the salad dressings. i must say its quite interesting to look around the group and each group come up with very different colours and tastes, really very interesting. cherie and martine gave what i am sure are very constructive feedback to the themes, but for some reason, i find it so easy to switch off during such sessions, haha....

then came soups! again we are supposed to put in our recipes for soups for martine to pick. ours turned out to be apple almond cream curry soup (i think that was the name!)

this was the bucket of shredded apple that went onto the garnishing. i shredded it with the cusinart.

it's quite nice learning and applying the different methods of doing preparing stuff, like making the almond milk by blending it and using the bag to squeeze the milk out. (almost like the way we make soya bean milk but much easier!) and it taste so delicious! I think I'm going to start doing it as a replacement for the cow's milk which is so bad for health...

so our soup turned out very nicely. apples have never been my favourite fruit so obviously i was not too excited by the prospect of an apple based soup, and of course interestingly, the last thing i would even consider is apple mixed with curry powder & almond milk! how exotic is that? but it worked. someone mentioned its a nice summertime soup. i guess hard for me to relate since we have summertime all year round plus i still like my soup hot!

our testers for everyone...











concoctions from other teams....



there were more... dunno what happened to my pics! anyway got to run. will talk abt my menu next.....

nutrition and detox

who would think that after 7 days of healthy living, i would go to class feeling under the weather? yes, it finally happened. went to class yesterday morning, didn't feel great. was wondering if it was the terrible ventilation in the training room or was it the very nice dinner i had with coursemates yesterday? or was it just me, jetlagged and lack of sleep?

the morning started off with an extremely boring lecture on nutrition... which didnt help! oh well, some people seem very interested and fascinated with the facts and figures presented! halfway through lecture, i just about had it and went to the locker room to struggle with opening the combination of the locker to get my $2/- for my double shot espresso from the cafe downstairs. just as i was about to give up on ever figuring out the lock combination, the troupe came in with our morning break buffet of fruits! so i relented and did not succumb to the caffeine boost.

anyway, will write more later... didnt stay for afternoon session coz i wasnt feeling great. went back to sleep! hehe...

apple pies and everything nice :-)

so we started off today with the smoothie and the E3Live (http://www.e3live.com/) it taste really weird at first, but once you get used to it, it's good. it sure helped in digestion and bowel movement... the interesting thing about E3Live is that when you buy it, its frozen! was so strange when i first saw it. basically it's like semi thawed in the container (something like the vitamin containers) and you basically pour a shot out to drink!

the morning lecture with cherie. she talked about tastes, texture, combinations of different flavours, etc...

then she went on to drop the bomb on me! we have homework, to do menu planning... aiyoh... we have to plan a menu for a party, group that we will see ourselves hosting when we go back home! of course this is not rocket science to some of my coursemates who are professional chefs!

anyway, just in case you didnt know... i was told by my coursemates that this is the best raw food cullinary institute in the world! is that cool or what?

we had a session of flavour testing... really interesting... will talk more later



i'm getting tired so just gonna make this real quick! we made apple pie, pasta marinara, pesto...

went out for dinner with my group mates (they are really fun and nice people with very interesting lives) we had a wonderful vegetarian and WINE!!!! haha.. well 3 of us did.

anyway.. going to sleep after i post the pictures! you can imagine how much fun we had looking at the pics!



our ingredients for making the most yummy salad dressing... it is so good! to die for!

and the end result....
















my lunch today

















and the apple pies we made :-)




our team's pie :



our pastas..this one was made by our instructor chef..

i made cheese!

yesterday was the beginning of a new course - essentials of raw culinary arts. this series of classes is more hands-on, we get to actually make the stuff that we saw in the fundamentals class. i had to get a chef coat! a nice coursemate offered to sell me her spare coat but she is of a small built so that didnt work out. i eventually bought mine at the marketplace. i chose turquoise, so much like me to be against the norm of wearing a white coat. its cute but as the day went on, it is so hot! i dunno know those conventional chefs can wear their thick chef coat in the hot kitchen. thank goodness we don't deal with hot stoves here!

we started the day early, registration for those who were not here earlier... and breakfast is provided in the form of a very green smoothie called green giant, celery and raw almonds. we had this shot of E3live (http://www.e3live.com/) to me, the most awful tasting dark green algae which i discovered eventually, worked very well for my digestive system!

as i drank the very yummy smoothie, i was thinking i should really do this for breakfast every morning when i go home coz it really is very filling and extremely healthy but then... some people cannot handle green very well (aka the men in my house!) i think i'll have to be more creative with my colours management in serving green giants at home. tell you what, the green giant is so very filling, you literally don't feel hungry at all the whole morning. amazing! i think it must be the wholesome fruity (bananas???) taste that provides the palate a full flavour that satisfy the hunger pangs?

after a long orientation lecture by cherie and we also met her husband who is also her business partner (more involved in the back end administrative work i suppose coz he doesnt teach) we started a full day of hands-on

so today we were divided into groups of 4/5. there's 6 workstations that we work from in teams. each set of 2 workstations provide the equipment and raw ingredients that allows us to transform into what would eventually become our lunch. tell you what, it seems like we eat all day!!!!

first hands-on was making almond cheese. when i attended the raw food class in singapore, we did have a demo on the making of the almond cheese so this was easy for me. it's so easy to make almond cheese, it makes me think its ridiculous how much we pay for it! all you need is to soak the raw nuts for a couple of hours, blend it in the food processor together with the nutritional yeast. make sure its in a nice paste and then transfer it into small berry containers in cheese cloth (i remember when i first learnt how to make this, i had to ring my friend to ask her what is cheese cloth! haha!) and let it sit and ferment! email me if you want the recipe. the only thing that i am concerned about is the weather in singapore and how it will impact the process, the humidity and bacteria etc.... if you do want to try, it seriously taste so yummy!

then we made pizza chips... which is soooo good i could eat it all day! great healthy snack to have around the home. i think this will definitely be something i will make. makes a lovely unique gift, and much better than the junk we get at the supermarket!

sauerkraut - the easiest recipe on earth, so easy its almost too good to be true. and i'm just thinking of the times i paid too much for a bottle of it from nature's glory which ended up not eaten coz its way too sour even if its organic! this recipe we made, all we did was shred the cabbage on the mandoline, put in a huge salad bowl with some himalayan sea salt and massage it preferably with bare hands till it starts shrinking and juicing. pack it off in a bottle and let it ferment for 3-6 days and voila! i think with our extremely hot weather in singapore, 2 days should be more than enough. this is really easy! a course mate recommends that i try using those juicers that juices by mastication. makes more sense to me! trust me, my arm was aching when i finished with massaging the cabbage. (i need a massage myself!) its so funny, the instructor said we should massage the cabbage with love and care when all i am thinking in my mind is, i can't believe i am massaging a bunch of shrivelled cabbage, for a minute the $20- or so i pay for a bottle sounds more palatable...! haha...

then we made brownies! the brownies were too dry and chocolately for me. i dun think it will go down so well at home. but its easy to make though. nuts with cacao or carob (no caffeine - but give me caffeine anytime!!!), dates and blend them together, chill it in the fridge! it's that easy!

next on the list was the garden vegetable soup. its served cold like gazpacho or room temperature. if you think the rest was easy, this was just a matter of dumping everything into the blender, blend at high speed and thats it! great easy to make comfort food and so very yummy.

and this was only the morning session! everything we prepared eventually became our lunch.

the lunch ritual was quite nice. we gather in a circle around the buffet spread holding hands and give thanks in a non denomination prayer.

the buffet spread just looks so great. promise i will take picture today, if i remember!


this was my lunch! it really is amazingly good!







with so much packed in a day, i cannot quite remember when we made the granola bars but i think that is something that is definitely worth the effort, knowing how lazy i am! definitely one of the first i will teach yani. she's gonna be going back home to be a raw food chef by the time i finish training her! it really isn't that expensive to adopt this diet and i think its very doable. it's like playdoh! you mix everything together and mash it up! then we spread it on the tray and put it in the dehydrator to dry. this is another very nice snack to have around the house. the nice thing about this is that its all so natural with no added sugar and preservatives, you can be sure that you are not eating junk food!

after lunch, things got easier. we practised our knife skills with our chef knife. dicing, julienne cuts in preparation for the sushi rolls.

this was my creation ->

one of the girls in my group is allergic to nori so she used salad to wrap instead. both tasted as yummy!



of course the more hardworking and creative ones in class made some nice decorations out of their sushi...











we ended the day with facility management. and what is that you may ask? basically cleaning up lah! boy do i miss yani here! we had to clean the equipment, wash the dishes, cups, put away the rubbish, sweep the floor, etc... i couldnt believe it! apparently this is the norm in all cullinary institutes. you have to clean up! luckily this is a raw food place, waste doesn't smell like it would in a joint that prepares meat i guess! i think i'll die if i have to clean up a fish market! they take recycling so very seriously here, each dumping area has four buckets to collect the different types of rubbish.

food is packed in recycleable packaging made with corn. we should adopt that at home instead of the foam packs which are disgusting!

anyway, time to get ready for another day of fun! i'm enjoying this....

the story about knives

today was knives class. each time i'm at the department store and see the wide range of knives, i've always wondered why is there such a range. of course i never did make any effort to find out! well, it finally happened... knives class today, and its actually knive 101 & 102, that's the name of the class.

class was tiring today, we had to stand for half a day! we learnt how to dice, chiffonade, make julienne cuts. julienne cuts sound so nice, its just basically making strips like french fries! we started off cutting kale (our equivalent of kai lan but its so different from our version!) shredding it to make a think slices to make a salad. then we did different variations of carrots which was quite interesting.... says me who doesnt even slice an apple at home! then came the onions, which really made me tear.

in the afternoon knives 102 session, was a lecture instead of hands-on. interesting though. we learnt how to cut and present various vegetables, like how the avocado and mangoes looked so yummy when the instructor was finished with it! i even learnt the elegant way to open a coconut, if that is possible :-)

serious lessons start tomorrow... my path to becoming a raw food chef! so be nice, you might just get to try my gourmet raw cuisine!

goto go study now, prep for class tomorrow.... go raw, be healthy!

almond nut milk, cashew cheese and more....

and the day comes.... woke up late at 755am with my coursemate knocking at my door at 8am to get to class. people here (course mates!) are very nice. i think its the vegan diet. makes people very calm and pleasant.

we had a full day demo class today. Fundamentals. was very hectic, a lot of information to process. started off the day with an introduction by cherie, the founder of the institute. i want to look like she does when i am her age!! its sure a motivating factor for going vegan!

so fundamentals,... learnt how to make almond nut milk which taste so wholesome and wonderful. i can see myself making that. cashew cheese was just fabulous with the pizza cracker made from tomatoes, flax seed and raisins i think... pecan nut pate, absolutely to die for. vege sushi which i learnt before, although we learnt the alternative to use romaine leaves. vegetables here is so fresh and organic! did u know in fort bragg that its gmo free? nobody is allowed to sell gmo products, which i think is wonderful. no wonder people here are so calm and look so healthy.

the place is a bit small and quiet though. maybe i arrived on a weekend, and to top it all its labour day weekend. everything is closed. the highlight yesterday evening was heading for the supermarket! bought a bottle of organic sauvignon blanc bonterra (www.bonterra.com) , from mendocino grapes. excellent if i may add... made a conscious effort to sneak it in to room, its hard when you are surrounded with people so conscious about heathy food and healthy living.

so we had 3 instructor chefs besides cherie. one of them a pastry specialist. she made brownies which was surprisingly easy to make. sprouting was interesting, seems like everyone in class sprouts except me! i was clueless, really need to read up. did you know you sprout wheatgrass from organic soil and it takes 3 days. well it was really enlightening.

got to go class now... i'm beginning to like this. will try to post some pictures of the stuff we make!

touch down

long plane ride, a testing wait at immigration, finally got through to meet my car pool mates. after a couple of hours driving by one of the girls, we finally stopped at cafe gratitude for a wonderful vegan late lunch/early dinner. highly recommended, it'll make you wanna convert to be a vegan! the appetizer was great starter to taste the excellent variety of appetizers, loved it. will write a detailed writeup on the experience...

class tomorrow 8am should really try to sleep now.. slept in the car for most of the way....