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| • Dear Food Lover |
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Eye of the dragon is a cooling aperitif using Lao kokam sweet rice wine - reputed to be the best in Southeast Asia - |
| plus banana liqueur and fresh lime on ice. These dishes, plus Thai and Vietnamese street foods and archaeological digs are just a few highlights from our recent Mekong Feasts & Festivals food tour. View pictures... |
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| Also globetrotting through America's Western mountains last fall, Robert and Morrison first headed to chichi Aspen high on the Colorado Rockies, then to the southern Cascades to view beautiful Crater Lake. Fortuitously, autumn's first snowfall graced this former volcano our morning of arrival. One couldn't ask for a more poetic setting -- not to mention the delicious berry pies. |
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| Our next Asian food tour group begins on 2 October '05, starting in Singapore and ending in Thailand. We include three nights in the Lion City, plus another two on the tropical island of Koh Samui in southern Thailand. Gracing the luxurious Gulf of Siam, this area was unscathed by the recent tsunami, and we've included some delicious cooking classes in the line up. Then we fly to Bangkok, the far northern city of Chiang Mai, and the 800 year old historical monuments of Sukhothai. We finish up again in Bangkok for a gala dinner on the Chao Phraya River. |
| Immediately afterwards, we're offering a second tour to Laos for the more adventurous traveller - although you can still expect our unique focus on food and the same great luxury hotel standards. First fly to remote Northeastern Thailand for the famed fireboat festival of Nakhorn Phanom, then onto Vientiane in Laos for Buddhist lent. Continue to Luang Prabang, Lao's former imperial capital tucked in the hinterlands along the Mekong, and return flight to Bangkok. For every reservation, we make a donation to a non-profit cooking and hotel school for disadvantaged youth in Cambodia. |
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| For those heading to London: Until August there is an extraordinary collection of avant-garde Soviet revolutionary porcelain at the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House. Entitled Circling the Square, these strident propaganda designs in Futurist and Cubist style, depict themes such as agrarian reform, industrialization, even the Red Army. (A Tea service seems to stand at attention!). While the imperial factory ran from 1744 to 1917, the glory days of this revolutionary style stopped by 1924. www.hermitagerooms.com or www.somerset-house.org.uk We're always keen to explore European influences on Asia, so we were even more excited to hear London's Victoria & Albert museum exploring Asia's influence on the West. "This is the first time there was a real world trade, "co-curator Amin Jaffer boasts, perhaps forgetting the ancient Spice Road. "This was the first globalisation." Alas, trade here deals preponderantly with India, China and Japan to the West, while Southeast Asia rates relatively little. For those who missed Encounters, which closed in early December, there is a book to accompany the exhibit: Encounters: the meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800. Edited by Jaffer and Anna Jackson, we were able to locate it both on the V&A website, and more cheaply through Amazon |
| Transitions: Time magazine's Asia edition profiled the "Best of Asia" in late November. Singapore's 1929 rated "Best Budget Hotel", which we featured last year. Remember, you read it here first! Alas, manager Mariana Tan has since left the hotel, after bringing it to such high standards. Likewise, we bemoan the departure next month of Vittorio Bertini of the Sofitel Central Plaza hotel in Bangkok. Vittorio presides over the largest array of foreign chefs in Thailand, which is a tribute to his own expertise. We'll keep you posted on both of their movements... |
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| Our Mekong Feasts & Festivals group also indulged in another Time Best of Asia listing: Bia Lao, or Laotian beer, while visiting the old imperial capital of Luang Prabang. As Alex Perry writes "It's an arresting crisp brew and also the universal accompaniment to the local cuisine - a cooking style that blends the raw textures of Vietnamese food with the piquancy of Thai spices. There's no stinting on quality..." |
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| Touring southern Oregon was one of the unexpected highlights this past autumn, while we conducted cooking classes at the very new and swish The Willows in the Ashland-Medford area. Run by Joe and Sandy Dowling, classes are held in a purpose-built demonstration kitchen of the restored mansion's carriage house. We prepared Vietnamese appetizers and salads, then on day two tackled Thai curry pastes. We've been invited back, when Morrison will conduct a separate trimmings and tassels seminar. www.thewillowsbedandbreakfast.com |
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| This region is a great spot to visit, not only for its wealth of restored turn-of-the-century mansions, but also the delicious produce (it's home to Harry and David fruit fame), and the nearby Shakespeare festival. Also within an hour's drive, or so, are the glories of Crater Lake - incandescent blue waters nestled in an extinct volcano; the Oregon Caves; and mammoth Redwoods. We also fell in love with the Valley View "pure native wine" Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 with its commemorative 25 th anniversary label. www.valleyviewwinery.com |
| Making our trip even more fulfilling (literally) was the road-side Beckie's Cafe, at Union Creek Resort. The menu groans with hearty two-crust berry pies. Obviously, a small roadside diner can't possibly bake all these pies daily, so we asked how they manage: Bake ahead and freeze, or prepare and freeze, then bake later? The advice: bake and freeze. read on... We can't say that Beckie's pies are perfect: although the huckleberry was golden crusty and delicious, the "Very Berry" pastry looked anaemic, and the marrionberry filling was positively gluggy. But considering that home-cooked roadside dining is becoming ever rarer in the US, this place is well worth a detour. |
| Nothing prepared us for the lack of baking nous in sky-high Aspen. Although leavened baking is notoriously difficult above 1000 metres/3000 ft, Aspen's 2135 metres/7000 ft elevation seems too much for two of that cities more well known breakfast stops. A misshapen pecan roll served at Main Street Bakery & Cafe was positively doughy, to which the waitress replied: "It's supposed to be like that." Raw? Likewise, at popular Poppycock's, we played with the gluey porridge-like interior of their oatmeal buttermilk pancakes. "We're famous for our pancakes" huffed the waitress. Poppycock's: 665 E. Cooper Tel (970) 925-1245 Main Street Bakery & Cafe: 201 E. Main. Tel (970) 925-6446. We had better luck at the Saturday street markets, which alas, do not run in the winter months. Here, we chanced upon delicious apple cider, colourful hens' eggs, and gorgeous, giant zinnias in full bloom. |
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On the press front, Robert was profiled in Angela Allen's column in the Vancouver Columbian. Robert's book, Vietnamese Home Cooking is reviewed by Lisa Messinger in her US national syndicated column read it here... The verdict: "Make this your official notification to try the perfectly balanced pungent/mild cuisine with influences from both France and China." Robert also rounded out an extremely busy weekend in southern Oregon by filming a series of five-minute cooking demonstrations for West Coast Flavors on
KTVL News 10 with Michael Thornicroft. Recipes can be sourced here. Our visit to Cambodia in November was also mentioned in the latest Paul
DuBrule newsletter. This is a non-profit hotel and cooking school, providing job skills to disadvantaged and at-risk Khmer youth. We are proud to make a donation to the Paul duBrule school with each reservation on our next food tour in October. |
| Best wishes to Helen Bauch and Richard McHargue who tied the knot in 2004. Helen is an alumnus from two of our previous tours -- to Thailand, and an earlier trip to Bali; and Richard on our first Bali food tour as well. Hearty congratulations to both. |
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| Finally, thank you to all our concerned friends who wrote to us following the disastrous tsunami on Boxing Day, 26 December. We remained safe and secure in Sydney throughout the ordeal, although we do have many friends in the affected areas, especially Phuket. Our prayers and affirmations go out not only to them, but to the entire region. |
If you wish to help, we have links to various charities. After the initial clean up, you can continue aiding most by visiting these countries. In Thailand, for example, there are concerns that 70% of the nation's tourist guides risk looking their jobs. |
Cheers,
Robert & Morrison |
| View highlights of our latest FoodTOUR through Southeast Asia. |
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