Thai Cooking School, THAILAND
Airing Date: Jun 10th, 2002
Combine these idyllic conditions with traditional Thai food and you have the perfect recipe to put some spice into your holiday.
Mom Tri's Boathouse on the island of Phuket is a boutique hotel with 36 rooms, two pools and all the mod cons of a luxury resort.
What distinguishes this hotel from most of the others on the island is the Thai cooking workshop that it runs every weekend. Lessons go for two hours each day and are conducted by Tummanoon, one of Thailand's top chefs.
First on the cooking menu is the entre and as you might expect it is a traditional Thai favourite fish cakes.
Next is the main dish of red beef curry with sweet eggplant and long bean. A tip from the master of the kitchen is to add a little water to the pan during cooking this reduces the cooking heat and keeps the beef tender. For maximum flavour the fresh herbs are added last.
The Boathouse has three restaurants and an award winning wine cellar in which there are about 440 different labels to choose from.
If you believe that holidays are about the finer things in life then you may want to splurge out and stay a few nights in the Boathouse's new villa complex. Villa Royale is built on the edge of a cliff to blend in with the environment and even comes equipped with its own inbuilt cellar.
If food really is your passion then while you are in Phuket make sure you visit Baan Rim Pa, one of the best restaurants on the island. With the restaurant's nightly fruit and vegetable carving demonstration food becomes art right in front of your eyes. Pumpkin for example is carved into dragons and turnips become roses. And out the front there are some pretty amazing ice carvings as well.
The facts
Thai Airways International flies to Phuket via Bangkok 24 times a week. Prices start from $1187 from the east coast and $1022 from Perth. Excludes government taxes and other surcharges.
Thai Airways International
Tel: 1300 651 960
Standard rooms at Mom Tri's Boathouse start from $150 per night in the low season and $279 in the high season. Villas range from $364 to $558 per night. Two day cooking workshops start from $107 per person. Hotel guests receive a $9 discount.
Mom Tri's Boathouse
Tel: 0011 66 76 330 015 (international)
Tourism Authority of Thailand
Tel: 02 9247 7549
