The Bangalow Food Festival

30/11/201730/11/2017

Bangalow is a funky town twenty minutes inland from Byron Bay. It’s also reasonably close to the Gold Coast and a day trip is easy.

Bangalow has a many festivals, markets and events and is worth visiting.

Last minute we decide to head to the Bangalow Food Festival. With no expectations of the festival, we were stoked to be heading Byron way.

The kids are a little older now and I am happy to give them a little bit of freedom and money to buy their own food.

My friend’s children are there aswell so they hang out together.,eating plates of dumplings, to pulled pork to home made ice cream.

There are a few scattered cooking segments, a chief cook-off and food tasting. But missed most of it.

It would have been good to have more entertainment, music or comedians… and the prices were quite expensive.

However the winter’s sun, the happy vibe, make for a good day out.

Cooking Class Ubud, Bali

09/09/201609/09/2016

Any opportunity to learn new cooking styles (and get to eat the produce) is a big green light for me so I was keen to get involved at Ketut’s Bali Cooking School.

I actually chose this cooking school off the internet but was not disappointed.

We were collected from our hotel then taken around the food markets – the ones the locals go to for produce. It was really good travelling around with Made. His funny sense of humour and wicked laugh had me smiling from ear to ear.

After our walk through the markets, I felt I knew a whole lot more about a subject I am passionate about, food and nourishment.

Made taught us about different foods, how they are grown, what they are used for and more. It was like a short cultural tour.

Back into the airconditioned van we headed out to the cooking school. It was a short drive outside Ubud, which was really nice. Set in a rice field, the atmosphere was relaxed, open and cool. We all had our chef’s apron, we prepared and made 7 dishes.

There were a few people present but plenty of stove tops and lots of helping hands that cleaned dishes so that things never back logged and flowed really well.

Made explained all the spices and bases to be used in traditional Balinese dishes which we proceeded to make.

It was really good, efficient, funny and comfortable. Much better than what I was expecting. Check out the menu that you cook here.

After we cooked for a few hours, we sat down to a banquet. To come on a retreat with me to Ubud, click here.

The Gili Island Cooking School

07/06/201607/06/2016

For a bit of fun I thought I would try the cooking school on Gili Trawangan at Sweet and Spicy.

As I said it was a bit of fun.

You get to cook five dishes but eat six.

It was good for me being a nutritionist seeing how food has been bastardised to suit the Western Palate. Loads of MSG (salt) and loads of other things that just are not healthy but it was fun and for two girls in the group it looked like their first cooking experience. Including stirring something in a pot!

Green sticky rice balls – the green dye was banana flavoured!

We made some green sugar balls in sticky rice…. I think they call this food but I could debate that.

We also made gado gado (frozen vegetables with a chilli peanut sauce).

My favorites were definitely the chicken Lai (recipe from a Lombok village) and the steamed fish.

For all the herbs we used it lacked the same dynamic taste sensations that other countries have in their foods – that or the herbs were old and had lost their kick.

Flaming the chicken for a curry — Flaming HOT!

The most fun by far was flaming the chicken.

I had a scary kitchen incident growing up and we accidently torched my friends kitchen when cooking popcorn. The fat caught on fire, then exploded. I ended up with stitches in my leg (after diving through a window to escape) one girl ended up in hospital with concussion and the girl closest ended up with nothing as the flame died down pretty quick! Oh that’s right. She threw water on the burning fat. An absolute no-no.

Anyway getting comfortable with flames in the kitchen was cathartic and fun.

Would I recommend it – sure. It was only 350,000 (35USD) and you got to eat the food. Times were at 11am, 4pm and 9pm.