Cooking With Poo

This is a special guest post by my mom, Kim Desrosiers. I asked her if she would be interested in writing about the cooking class that we took together during her recent visit to Thailand.

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Meeting the famous Poo!

Knowing my love for cooking and eating good food, one Christmas, Michael brought me a Thai cookbook. I enjoy perusing cookbooks, and in my collection, I have a few international ones.  I have fun looking at the beautifully staged pictures and imaging the taste of whatever dish I am reading about, and later, preparing the dish myself.

After our market tour, we went to Poo's house for the cooking class.

Michael had been living in Bangkok for a few years when he brought me this particular book, "Cooking with Poo".  Not the "poo" that we mean in American or British English! The name of the author is Khun Saiyuud Diwong, affectionately known as "Poo" (her nickname is short for Chompoo, which means "rose apple" in Thai). 

Poo would demonstrate a dish...

... then we would replicate her techniques.

Having met Poo on my latest visit to Bangkok, I know she enjoys this little play on words, and employs it in her advertising and merchandise! (Of course, I bought the “I cooked with Poo and liked it” apron!)

Kyle making tom yum. We learned the best way to squeeze a lime using the side of a spoon.

Poo has a very interesting story.  She is a long-time resident of Klong Toey, the largest slum in Bangkok. 

Just a little dab of fish sauce!

For many years, she had been making food to sell to her neighbors, but in 2007 with the encouragement of her friends, she opened a cooking school for the many tourists that come to Bangkok who want to learn about Thai food. 

Learning to make Tom Yum!

Through her enterprise, she has helped raise the socioeconomics of her family, as well as her community by bringing money and attention to her neighborhood. She is very proud of the fact that one of her sons has already graduated from university and the other will be starting university this year.

We made three dishes during our cooking class. We started by making tom yum gai, a spicy and sour Thai chicken soup filled with lots of fresh herbs.

Delicious tom yum soup!

Next, we learned how to toast and grind rise in order to make larb. 

Poo taught us how to make "larb ped", or spicy Thai minced salad with duck meat.

Duck larb, a spicy "meat salad". Very tasty!

The final dish we made was chicken with garlic and black pepper. This simple but filling dish is a Thai staple, and something that many Thai people make at home for a quick and easy meal.

Chicken with garlic and black pepper. So good!

We ended our cooking class by sampling an array of delicious Thai fruit finished with a serving of "khao niao mamuang", or mango sticky rice.

Clockwise from top left: mangosteen, monkey apple, pink dragonfruit, white dragonfruit, pomelo, lamyai, snakefruit, young mango, longon, pineapple, and rambutan.

Mango sticky rice is my favorite!

Our final dish was mango with sticky rice, one of the most delicious Thai desserts!

Between courses we had butterfly pea tea. It's a blue flower that makes a mild, sweet tea when steeped in hot water. 

When you add lime juice to the tea, something magical happens and it changes color! It's really amazing.

Between courses, we sampled color-changing butterfly pea tea.