Tasty Thai Cooking and 20% Off Sintra Tableware

All things Thai

A few months ago, Bryony Dyer came to see me with a number of new lines that her company, Dexam, had brought out this year.

But before I tell you about what she had to show me, I’m reminded that last Friday, Jeanne* and I took ourselves off to a Thai cookery course, run by Katharine Eldridge at her Quince House Cookery School,  at Limpsfield Chart, just the other side of Oxted.

She runs it from her home and has a well appointed and attractive kitchen, easily large enough to accommodate us (5 students in the class). Her house is quite high up and the views over her garden and out over the Surrey countryside, were really quite stunning.

Under her watchful eye we somehow managed to create a delicious “Green Thai Chicken Curry” and “Fried Rice with Crab”, to go with it. 

Both required fried onions, which we did in the ceramic non-stick (good for the planet!) Greenpan 28cm Venice Frying Pans (since superseded by the Greenpan Barcelona range).

This was followed by “Pad Thai Noodles” with a wonderful fresh zing and crunch to it and even “Spring Rolls”, and all in about three hours!

I learnt, or rather began to learn, some useful knife skills as well (using her Global G2 Cook’s Knife 20cm, where the extra length meant I could get the rocking action going comfortably), and can now peel and slice onions at about twice the speed that I could before …..still a bit of a way to go to keep up with Jeanne, who as a trained chef, can despatch a brace of onions in the time it takes me to finish peeling my first one.

There were some quite different skill levels present, which Katherine managed with kindness and patience (I never felt that my questions were silly or stupid, which allowed me to feel relaxed throughout our time there).  We took all our creations home with us, which meant that, in our case, we had between us, enough to feed 6 people for a couple of meals.

A very comfortable learning experience, highly recommended, and I say that with no hidden agenda, just as a happy customer.

*If you are new to us and don’t know Jeanne, she is my daughter and a director. She runs the Cobham shop, and, along with Emma Hay (Reigate Manager) helps me with the buying.

Dexam Sintra NEW Colours (and additions to the range).

Back to Bryony and her wares. Sintra (a largely terracotta range of rustic style tableware) has been in the Dexam portfolio for about a year (I think?) and we’ve been stocking it in all three of the original colours, “Ink”, “Ochre” and “Green”, pretty well since its inception.

Dexam have now added two lovely and subtle colours, “Stone” and a gorgeous “Duck Egg Blue”. Both contrast very attractively against terracotta and come in the form of a Jug, an Oil Drizzler, a Wine Cooler (doubles as a Utensil Pot), two sizes of Tapas Dishes and an Olive Dish.  

The additions are the Mango Wood Salad Bowl £35.00 and matching Salad Servers £15.95. And a much asked for Bread Basket £8.95 in both colours.  

A really lovely range that is both stylish and somehow warm and comfortable.

This weekend you may buy two or more pieces at 20% off, just tell us who you are if coming into Cobham or Reigate, or use code SINTRA24 if shopping on the website.

Shop The Dexam Sintra Collection

I was listening to a journalist called Johann Hari talking about Ozempic, the drug that has been routinely given to diabetes sufferers for the past 18 years.

In the last few years though, it’s beginning to be taken to combat obesity (the condition that now kills more people in the world than starvation) but also, more worryingly, being prescribed for general weight loss.

It is a drug that is both amazing in it’s potential for eradicating obesity, but disturbing how this could affect people with eating-disorders and how little we know about its possible long-term effects.

Hari believes that this will have a huge impact on people across the world and its economy, with companies like Nestle becoming concerned at the anticipated marked reduction in demand for its type of product, and even airlines believing that they’ll need less fuel in the future. 

If these things interest you, then you may find one, or both, of these interviews with Hari quite eye opening.  Johann Hari talking in depth to Steven Bartlett or Johann Hari summarising his thoughts on Ozempic with CNBC 

I hope you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend

Warm regards

Andrew

Andrew Bluett-Duncan

Director