Cooking with Poo

I got your attention, right? Well, Poo is a well-known cooking instructor and philanthropist in Bangkok, and I was fortunate enough to take her class. Sadly, Poo was sick that day, but her assistant Moi was lovely, jovial and helpful.

After literally running to arrive on time, despite leaving "home" nearly two hours earlier, we were whisked away in a nice van with Moi, another assistant, an older couple from Australia and a father and daughter from Cleveland. Our first stop was the wet market, and well, it was.

The market was an overload to the senses. The air was pungent, full of the smell of creatures soon to become a meal to the locals. There were cages of live chickens and ducks, which I avoided at looking too closely at in case I saw something I did not want to see. There were squirming fish and eel eagerly trying their best to escape their inevitable end. There were large iced trays of shrimp, scallop, mollusks, prawns and other sea creatures I'm  unsure of. A most surprising find was the large mesh bags full of large, live frogs moving haphazardly around one another. Interesting parts of familiar creatures such as chicken feet and pig faces were rare, but still present in the large market. And of course, there were the local delicacies of insects! There were crickets, ants, ant eggs, large water bugs that resembled giant cockroaches and other bugs unidentifiable to us. But alongside these sights and smells were stalls full of tropical fruits like durian, pineapple, green oranges and mangosteens. Colors galore as fruits both familiar and unfamiliar to me captivated the senses. Peppers of vibrant red and green, ginger, onions and vast bowls of garlic cloves were amongst the things I recognized.  A well fed cat lounged on a counter, seemingly pleased with his lot in life. Other creatures such as cats, small lizards, a few dogs and even a rat scampered about, scurrying between stalls hoping to find treats dropped by stall owners.

 

 

Ant and Ant Eggs

 

Mangosteens

While the sights and smells were interesting to see, our olfactory senses were ready for a new environment.

We left the market and drove over to one of the worst slums of Bangkok where Poo's kitchen is, down a narrow alley, where she first cooked, outside. We saw the two places where her kitchen has been and just steps further down the alley, we saw her current and largest kitchen.

 

Our first coarse was a soup, Tom Yum Soup with Chicken. It contained a relative to ginger, lemon grass, mushrooms, lime leaves, chili oil, lime juice, cilantro, chicken and fish sauce (in the soy family). The flavor was similar to a miso soup, but had more of a kick to it. I'm not a big mushroom fan, but the ones we used were small and tender.

 

Next up was a "salad," that was delicious but did not match my definition of salad. It was a minced meat (duck) with herbs. We chopped a small onion, lemon grass, mint leaves, chives and cilantro before adding rice powder, chili powder, fish sauce and fresh lime juice. This one had a delightful kick that helped to clear the sinuses.

 

 

The last one that we prepared was garlic and pepper chicken with rice. Quick, simple and marvelously delicious. The ingredients were basically in the title, plus a little soy and oyster sauces.

 

While our preparing was done, the dining was not. Moi chopped up a dozen local fruits, arranged them in order of sweetness and let us sample them. They were scrumptious! My favorite were the snake fruit that reminded me of a candy and the mangosteen, a sweet bite with a grape-like texture.

 

Then, came our new favorite dessert, mango sticky rice. Unfortunately, we did not get to make this because the rice must be soaked for 4-5 hours, but the sample from the market was refreshing and so very sweet.

 

The cooking class was a wonderful experience and a great way to get some local flavor. It was not at all difficult as they washed all the produce and chopped all the meat ahead of time. We really just put ingredients in a pot and stirred, but the end result made us feel like wizards in the kitchen.

To finish off our stay in Poo's kitchen, we went across the alleyway to a shop Poo has supporting fair wages for women in the slum. The crafts in the shop are created by women in the slum using up-cycling of old materials. We found several great treasures and felt good purchasing them.

If you ever find yourself in Bangkok, I highly recommend Cooking with Poo for an experience that went far beyond the kitchen.