Pattaya vacation - Sep 2016 (part 2)

Fearing there might be rain, a beautiful day greeted us instead. And after a nice breakfast at Elements, we decided to go around the hotel area to experience. There are three big pools in the hotel, clean and with plenty of beach chairs for sunbathing.

We also went down to the beach, which is private and only open to the resort guests. However, the sea was dirty and rocky, certainly not suitable for swimming. No wonder there was no one in the area. So we decided to go for a swim in the pool, which was relaxing as we had the pool all by ourselves, with only two other people sunbathing. Coming during the slack season certainly has its advantage.

Instead of going to the restaurant for lunch, why not cook it ourselves? As a result we had booked a culinary class at the hotel, taught by their famous chef. The three course we prepared including Green Curry Chicken, Phad Thai and Tom Yum Goong. With the chef first demonstrating each dish, we then each prepared our own version, with the chef overseeing our every steps and giving guidance.

The Green Curry with Chicken is fairly easy to make, with the most important thing being to cook the eggplant and pea eggplant to the right texture, not overcooking to make it soft to remain crunchy. The green curry paste is made from fresh herbs but to simplify matters for us, we were using ready-made ones. Of course, coconut milk plays a key role in the overall taste too.

Phad Thai is one of the most signature dish of Thai food and got quite a number of steps to prepare. Not something easy and a test of the culinary skills, the most important thing is to get the tamarind juice to give the right sourness and then balancing it with fish sauce for savory, and then having a bit of stock added to the rice noodle, then stir-fry under the right heat to not burning but giving sufficient 'wok-heat' to make it fragrant.

Tom Yum Goong is not difficult to make, but of course getting fresh ingredients is the key. The different herbs have to be available, and interestingly evaporated milk is used also. But the trick to make it tasty is to add the lime juice only after the heat is removed.

Frankly even though Ivy is not experienced in cooking, under the guidance of the chef and the encouragement of the full restaurant team (they came to see how we were doing, which was also fun), she did a good job. The chef sampled all the dishes and made some adjustments too, so that at the end all our servings were very tasty and nice. It was one of the best culinary class I had ever attended and one of my recommendations if you come to this resort.

In late afternoon we decided to go out to downtown to experience more of Pattaya, riding the free shuttle to Central Festival Hall. Doing a store visit to the Starbucks there, we spent some time shopping before going to Flare in Hilton Hotel for their Thai food, as we had no idea where to go for dinner and the restaurants in the mall doesn't seem too appealing to us.

A contemporary Thai restaurant, Flare certainly had a nice decoration and atmosphere, but the food was not up to my expectation. We ordered a Chicken Skewer, a Scallops with Mushroom, a Deep-Fried Sea Bass with Pepper and Garlic Sauce, and a Mango and Sticky Rice. Quality of food was only so-so and not impressive at all and quite a disappointment.

Returning to the resort by the shuttle, we really thought the Thai food we prepared on the day was so good that it beat the one from the five-star hotel. Maybe we should try again in HK and share with our friends. Would you like to try?