By the time we all left La Boqueria market we were frozen to the bone. It was a cold morning in Barcelona and being in amongst all the fresh fish on ice really didn’t help! Teresa, our guide from Cook & Taste (the little place where we were going to get Catalonian cookery classes) led us out into the sunshine of Les Rambles and back to Plaça de Sant Jaume,, then up another shady alley – everything in Barcelona seems to be up a little alley of some sort.

Cook & Taste is a small, modern studio with a large kitchen inside. The walls are bare stone, the kitchen is clean and simple and the whole place felt earthy and WARM! We were there for a reason though and that reason was thus: To cook up a storm like never before! We had our local produce and next it was time to roll up our sleeves and get a cookery lesson Catalan style.

We were handed a glass of wine and a menu… I was thinking -
“This is my kind of cookery class…. I’ll have the beef”
But no, on closer inspection it was indeed not a menu but a recipe – three recipes in fact.
To start – Pumpkin cream with crispy leek and cream cheese quenelle.
For main – Noodle Paella.
Dessert – Crema Catalana…

It was such a cosy little place and all the bloggers huddled round the kitchen listening attentively to Teresa as she told us a little about herself and her 20 years of experience in the cooking world… I don’t know if it was just me reacting to the warmth after being so cold but Teresa seemed to glow with a motherly assertiveness, a calmness that seemed contagious almost… Down to business, she put an apron on Keith (Velvet Escape) and got him chopping up pumpkins and veg while also getting other people started on other parts of other dishes… I must stress now that I am useless in a kitchen – in the cooking sense, when I’m in a kitchen I become bewildered and confused … Literally nothing makes sense. Luckily I have Georgie to take a bullet for me and when she looked down our end of the table for a frying volunteer I lurched back and Georgie got her pinnie on – her task: Fry prawns and noodles.
Once they were fried the rest of the ingredients were added to finish the Paella, somehow Georgie managed to take her eye off it and the unmistakable smell of burning food filled the air… At this point I would have broken down but Teresa (with her motherly glow and super cooking powers) stepped in and fixed it. She even managed to bring the Crema Catalana (I’ll mention no names) back after it had been turned to scrambled eggs!

After a good stroll around the market looking at all the fresh produce I for one was getting hungry and the great thing about cookery classes is the food has to be eaten afterwards. It was served up with yet another glass of wine and silence fell in the kitchen as we all got stuck in… It was awesome, I’m sure if Teresa had cooked it herself it would’ve been divine but for a bunch of bloggers we did alright!

Like I said I’m no cook but something about Barcelona brings out the foodie in even me, I do always enjoy cookery classes when I’m in a country that has good food though and ones teamed with a local market visit can’t be beaten – it’s a top way to learn a lot about a place and see things you might otherwise miss.

By the time we all left La Boqueria market we were frozen to the bone. It was a cold morning in Barcelona and being in amongst all the fresh fish on ice really didn’t help! Teresa, our guide from Cook & Taste (the little place where we were going to get Catalonian cookery classes) led us out into the sunshine of Les Rambles and back to Plaça de Sant Jaume,, then up another shady alley – everything in Barcelona seems to be up a little alley of some sort.

Cook & Taste is a small, modern studio with a large kitchen inside. The walls are bare stone, the kitchen is clean and simple and the whole place felt earthy and WARM! We were there for a reason though and that reason was thus: To cook up a storm like never before! We had our local produce and next it was time to roll up our sleeves and get a cookery lesson Catalan style.

We were handed a glass of wine and a menu… I was thinking -
“This is my kind of cookery class…. I’ll have the beef”
But no, on closer inspection it was indeed not a menu but a recipe – three recipes in fact.
To start – Pumpkin cream with crispy leek and cream cheese quenelle.
For main – Noodle Paella.
Dessert – Crema Catalana…

It was such a cosy little place and all the bloggers huddled round the kitchen listening attentively to Teresa as she told us a little about herself and her 20 years of experience in the cooking world… I don’t know if it was just me reacting to the warmth after being so cold but Teresa seemed to glow with a motherly assertiveness, a calmness that seemed contagious almost… Down to business, she put an apron on Keith (Velvet Escape) and got him chopping up pumpkins and veg while also getting other people started on other parts of other dishes… I must stress now that I am useless in a kitchen – in the cooking sense, when I’m in a kitchen I become bewildered and confused … Literally nothing makes sense. Luckily I have Georgie to take a bullet for me and when she looked down our end of the table for a frying volunteer I lurched back and Georgie got her pinnie on – her task: Fry prawns and noodles.
Once they were fried the rest of the ingredients were added to finish the Paella, somehow Georgie managed to take her eye off it and the unmistakable smell of burning food filled the air… At this point I would have broken down but Teresa (with her motherly glow and super cooking powers) stepped in and fixed it. She even managed to bring the Crema Catalana (I’ll mention no names) back after it had been turned to scrambled eggs!

After a good stroll around the market looking at all the fresh produce I for one was getting hungry and the great thing about cookery classes is the food has to be eaten afterwards. It was served up with yet another glass of wine and silence fell in the kitchen as we all got stuck in… It was awesome, I’m sure if Teresa had cooked it herself it would’ve been divine but for a bunch of bloggers we did alright!

Like I said I’m no cook but something about Barcelona brings out the foodie in even me, I do always enjoy cookery classes when I’m in a country that has good food though and ones teamed with a local market visit can’t be beaten – it’s a top way to learn a lot about a place and see things you might otherwise miss.

Watch more of our Travel Videos.

Watch more of our Travel Videos.

So far so good… As you may or may not, but should know, Georgie, I and a bunch of other travel bloggers are discovering Catalonia thanks to the Catalonia Experience and Catalonia’s tourist board. We haven’t stopped since we landed yesterday in Barcelona and there are no real signs of it happening any time soon. The itinerary that was kept hush hush until everyone had arrived and sat down for dinner has turned out to be crammed and a spare minute to tickle the keys has yet eluded me. But just to wet your whistle, below is all the Tweets from the hashtag #catexp which is what everyone here is using to Tweet from road.
What’s more there’s also a picture gallery from our morning at La Boqueria Market in Barcelona and our cookery class misadventures at Cook and Taste.

Barcelona

More to follow soon but for now we need to get our heads down in preparation for the snowy hike in the morning…

Tweets from all the bloggers here and those using the hastag #catexp:

Some things never change and the Khao San road is one of them, just as chaotic and vibrant as ever. It was still early when we arrived in Bangkok but we both felt tip top, maybe it was because we managed some sleep on the night bus or maybe it was because we were so excited to be back here either way we new one thing for sure… We both urgently needed coffee and a shower – in that order, so we slipped off down a side alley just off the Khao San road and got ourselves the best little room we’ve ever had in Bangkok. Apart from the usual amenities our guest house also has two of the fluffiest little dogs I’ve ever seen, Georgie almost shits herself every time they’re out!

It doesn’t matter how many times we come to Bangkok and how many times we stroll down the Khao San road there is always so much going on it always takes a while to get our bearings… And the best way to get our bearings… Over a frosty pint at a kirb-side bar!

We took a walk up and down so Georgie could check out the stalls and see what’s hot and what’s not with this seasons hippy bums, earmark any good stalls for when Sarah arrives so they can hit them up and get a few essentials. I desperately needed a new pair of flip-flops because mine have worn down to a fine point at the front and are a good inch shorter than they used to be so my toes drag across the floor, also the second there is a dribble of water on the road I aquaplane all over the place which causes me to swing my arms about like a crazy monkey… Not a good look!

We found a really good food stall round the back of the KSR where the locals eat and pulled up a chair, I went for spicy chicken and Georgie had medium spicy fish… I shit you not it was like eating the sun! It was super tasty and delicious but it was the most intensely spicy thing that we have ever eaten, I sat sucking on ice cubes to try to cool off but in the end I had to dash into a shop and get a bottle of milk to douse the flames.

Feeling properly reacquainted with Bangers we started yesterday with purpose, Georgie needed a haircut and I needed some shorts so we made tracks to the MBK centre… Five shiny floors of shopping madness where almost everything is fake and cheap!!!

Georgie got an appointment straight away for her hair left me wandering about looking for some shorts. After half an hour or so I started to feel the strain of my new flip flops, I hadn’t yet worn them in properly and they had progressed from “rubbing” to “blister” and were in the final stages of “rubbed the blister and off going for bone.” Luckily I’d found somewhere that could sort me out some shorts and offer respite from my uber blister, I wanted cut off jean shorts and although they didn’t have any they did have a resident tailor who took the jeans I liked, the measurements I wanted and altered them for no extra cost, in less than an hour! We didn’t stay long after Georgie’s haircut because Sarah is coming tomorrow and I know full well that when I’m outnumbered I won’t stand a chance of avoiding hours and hours of shopping “fun.”

Again somehow I managed to balls up the flight info Sarah had given us and instead of her arriving today as I thought she arrives tomorrow, so with no need to get up early we decided to go out for a few drinks down the KSR… Georgie hadn’t even finished her first long island ice tea before she was pissed and by the time I’d helped her finish her second she was hammered and rowdy. We had a great night, just us two sitting in the rooftop bar, looking down on all the action and a live band playing behind us. By the time we left it was pissing with rain and the walk up to the falafel stand was nothing short of death defying, due to my new flip flops trying to kill me from the feet up I had opted for my old ones and it was like trying to walk on ice… Pissed! I must have looked like I was doing the funky chicken all the way up the road. We got back to our room with the same slip-sliding funky chicken walk and I got Georgie right where she needed to be… Bed!

We arrived here in Tanah Rata in the super luxury bus feeling very relaxed, in fact I slipped off to sleep and fell out of my armchair like seat and into the aisle at one point… But regardless of that the weather had taken a turn for the better and the winding roads leading here were made all the more spectacular dripping with sunshine and framed by clear blue skies.

The bus dropped us off at a tourist info centre in the middle of the small town and we were greeted by a few pretty laid back touts, when Georgie asked one what the view was like from their guest house the reply that followed was, “well what do you want to see, we’re in the rainforest!” we instantly took a shine to this ballsy fellow and hopped eagerly into his minibus. We ended up taking a room at Daniel’s Lodge, we have a small but clean, if not a little stark, room but the guest house has great common areas and is buzzing with other travellers chilling out.

Excited about being in a new place we headed off into town to get a feel for the place. It’s a small but busy town that’s clearly geared up for tourism international and domestic, due to its many local tea plantations there are many places offering tea and scones… We couldn’t resist a bit of that! Slightly bizarre but none the less delicious.

The town itself somehow fell a little  short of what we were expecting, maybe it was all the pictures of sprawling tea covered hills we’ve seen, but we thought that maybe that’s what the views would be like but it turns out that Tanah Rata is just a hub for all the nearby highland attractions. It’s still dripping with that Malaysian flair, culturally diverse and amazing places to eat offering food from every corner of the world.

We went back to our guest house and got chatting to some other bums about what’s good to do and decided to go for a little jungle stroll, this turned out a little disappointing too, the watchtower we were trying to get to turned out to be closed and the path there somewhat neglected but undeterred we saw the whole exercise as a good way of working up a mammoth appetite… Then promptly quashed that hunger with another amazing curry… A banana leaf Tali to be exact!

Again gut busted and aching we went back to our guest house to let things settle. I was still feeling tired from my sporadic sleeping of late so once the evening rolled in I necked some sleeping tablets in the hope of normalising it… But this was all in vain as the other travellers (a lovely bunch of coconuts) had all pitched in for some cheap booze and asked if we were up for it, as you know this was an offer that we always have trouble refusing and before long we were getting messy with a game of ring of fire… For those who don’t know what ring of fire is, it’s a game that has no winners and always ends up (far too quickly) in everyone being absolutely sh*tfaced!

At some unearthly hour when all the booze was long gone we staggered off to bed and finally I was out like a light… Not Georgie though, bless her, she was up at 6am having a good old chat down the big white telephone…

Before we left for our jungle fun we booked up a Thai cooking course, although we have already done one in Koh Phagnan we wanted to do another where you go to the market and get all your ingredients and even go as far as to make the curry paste. So we sorted everything out for the day after we returned to Chang Mai, We all woke up good and sore still from the trekking and to be honest I was less enthusiastic than I probably should have been, but like the trooper I am I soldiered on… Luckily its not far from where we were staying so by 9:30 we were at the Baan Thai cookery school. We all had a choice of dishes we wanted to knock up and then complete with a little shopping bag each headed out to the local market. It was a really nice, clean market and after the chaotic markets of Vietnam and the questionable ones in Cambodia it was a breath of fresh air and quite fun to learn what all the fruits and vegetables are from the expert direction of our super camp guide. None of us were in particularly good shape and the heat of the day started to kick in which didn’t help matters, but baskets laden with all sorts of goodies we strolled back to our school like a line of school children out on a field trip. We got a chance to try a fruit plate of things that we probably wouldn’t normally try before donning our pinnies and getting stuck in to our first dish, I think Kat, Georgie and I all made the same dish first and that was stir fried shrimp in curry paste, a really quick and tasty little number. After each dish we all went back to our tables and got to enjoy the fruits of our labour before starting the next. Dish two was soup I think and Georgie and I went for spicy Tom Yum soup while Kat opted for a coconut milk and chicken, both lipsmackingly tasty and even if I say so myself… A piece of piss. Next was spring rolls for Kat and I and shrimp cakes for Georgie, I opted for this one because I had made them when we had a cooking class before and frankly, I wanted to be top of the class… Not sure if I achieved it but they were still good anyway. We had a short break from cooking for an hour and sat chatting to the others in our group, unfortunately I was still feeling the trekking and all I could think about was the massage place opposite. Back to the grind stone and we started preparations for dessert, mango and sticky rice. Preparations and timing is definitely where my cooking abilities fall short but with the expert help of our teachers it was a breeze. Lastly was to make the curry pastes and curries, Kat and I hit up the super spicy green curry while Georgie went for the red curry and ended up putting half of their years supply of chillies in it… It was a pretty big job knocking up the curry paste and it took everyone in the group so unless when we get home there are 10 people to help us we won’t be making that! But both curries turned out well, Georgie’s was so spicy it could probably have been used for rocket fuel but despite the gripping and fiery heat it was damn tasty! By this time we were all gut busted and when the dessert came out it became a struggle, full of fine cuisine and armed with culinary knowledge we said goodbye to our group and headed back to our guest-house… Well to the massage place opposite at least.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING KOH PHAGAN…
The morning after the half moon party, its 6:20pm and after a semi productive afternoon we headed back to “the shack” and toby and laura are just about crawling around… very well earned hangover i say!..
yesterday Laura, Georgie and I went for our cooking thai class, wwhich was awesome! the menu was as follows:
spring rolls
phad tai
ma sa man curry
pumking balls in coconut milk…
none of us had much lunch and were STARVING!!! we all sat around a table with a really nice cook whose name ive forgotton (probably because of the buckets of whiskey that followed later). we went through all the the ingredients for each dish and chopped and prepared them, it turns out we are all pretty damn good at cooking thai style. then when we all had neat plates full of fresh and freshly chopped piles of stuff we were lead into the kitchen, which was a little rough around the edges but ample none the less. thats when the fun started! under expert guidance we tossed and fryed and boiled like a gaggle of sunkissed witches until we each had a 4 course meal in front of us that looks just as good as anything we have bought here.
we took our fantastic thai fare into the resturant, loosened our belts and tucked the fuck in! of course none of us could manage all of what we had made so laura ran off to get toby to come and help out, our tactic was to take the spring rolls away for later and try and tackle whats left, and we did a mighty fine job of it!
we staggered back to the shack and started getting ready for the half moon party with the help of georgies crazy make up and several pots of uv paint. our neighbours, friends and tobys poi teachers bobby, jo and thomas came over and we got our paint on! i managed to create a masterpiece of an under water scene onmy left arm and masterful floral number on georgies back, and a handlebar moustache on toby. the girls then attacked thomas as he had just woke up and didnt have a drop of paint on him, and promptly covered the poor bugger in all sorts, i dont think he minded though. we then went to the beach to have a quick bucket which we got from sannys fuck buckets! met sanny! who was a legend! no, a FUCKING legend! thomas did a fire poi show for one of the bars which we all sat and watched while cooling ourselves with our sweet bucket “o” fuck, then got into a baht bus headed for Half Moon Party.
the driver managed to squeeze a good 10 people in the back but 2 of them had to hang onto the back, which after a while must have bored them or something so armed with litterally bags of australian bravado the climed onto the roof (while we were doing a good 50mph along some fucking extreme roads) and started whooping, it has to be said it was nothing short of hilarious and although at points it was easy to hear the terror of what they had actually done behind the whoops, in a word “fun” in another “dickheads”.
the party itself was immense!!! but ill save that for next time you sexy people xxxxx love you … miss you…

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING KOH PHAGAN…
The morning after the half moon party, its 6:20pm and after a semi productive afternoon we headed back to “the shack” and toby and laura are just about crawling around… very well earned hangover i say!..
yesterday Laura, Georgie and I went for our cooking thai class, wwhich was awesome! the menu was as follows:
spring rolls
phad tai
ma sa man curry
pumking balls in coconut milk…
none of us had much lunch and were STARVING!!! we all sat around a table with a really nice cook whose name ive forgotton (probably because of the buckets of whiskey that followed later). we went through all the the ingredients for each dish and chopped and prepared them, it turns out we are all pretty damn good at cooking thai style. then when we all had neat plates full of fresh and freshly chopped piles of stuff we were lead into the kitchen, which was a little rough around the edges but ample none the less. thats when the fun started! under expert guidance we tossed and fryed and boiled like a gaggle of sunkissed witches until we each had a 4 course meal in front of us that looks just as good as anything we have bought here.
we took our fantastic thai fare into the resturant, loosened our belts and tucked the fuck in! of course none of us could manage all of what we had made so laura ran off to get toby to come and help out, our tactic was to take the spring rolls away for later and try and tackle whats left, and we did a mighty fine job of it!
we staggered back to the shack and started getting ready for the half moon party with the help of georgies crazy make up and several pots of uv paint. our neighbours, friends and tobys poi teachers bobby, jo and thomas came over and we got our paint on! i managed to create a masterpiece of an under water scene onmy left arm and masterful floral number on georgies back, and a handlebar moustache on toby. the girls then attacked thomas as he had just woke up and didnt have a drop of paint on him, and promptly covered the poor bugger in all sorts, i dont think he minded though. we then went to the beach to have a quick bucket which we got from sannys fuck buckets! met sanny! who was a legend! no, a FUCKING legend! thomas did a fire poi show for one of the bars which we all sat and watched while cooling ourselves with our sweet bucket “o” fuck, then got into a baht bus headed for Half Moon Party.
the driver managed to squeeze a good 10 people in the back but 2 of them had to hang onto the back, which after a while must have bored them or something so armed with litterally bags of australian bravado the climed onto the roof (while we were doing a good 50mph along some fucking extreme roads) and started whooping, it has to be said it was nothing short of hilarious and although at points it was easy to hear the terror of what they had actually done behind the whoops, in a word “fun” in another “dickheads”.
the party itself was immense!!! but ill save that for next time you sexy people xxxxx love you … miss you…