We love Thai cuisine and consider it one of the best in the world. Healthy, complex, and full of exciting dishes – simply wonderful. That’s why we first discovered the small and rather unassuming cookbook “Cooking with Pooh” several years ago. This cookbook is a true treasure because Pooh brilliantly describes the well-known and some lesser-known Thai recipes, just as they are, without any added nonsense. This cookbook was perpetually out of print in Europe and could only be purchased secondhand for a very high price – but new editions are available! So this article begins with a clear recommendation to buy one (for which, of course, we get nothing).
Who is Pooh? Pooh is the nickname of the impressive and charismatic chef Khun Saiyuud Diwong. The name comes from “Chompoo,” which means “rose apple,” a fruit well-known in Thailand.
Pooh lives in Klong Toey, a slum in Bangkok. Like many women there, Pooh says she’s “always” had a street food stall. Anyone who has not yet been to Bangkok must know that street kitchens practically keep the city alive in culinary terms. Throughout Thailand, people eat outdoors, on the street, and the dishes from street food stalls are so good that quite a few even earn Michelin recommendations. This is an example from Chinatown:
When rice prices doubled in 2007, Pooh could no longer make ends meet with her street food stall alone. With the help of an Australian supporter (Anji Barker, from Urban Neighbours of Hope), she founded a cooking school, which also resulted in the wonderful cookbook. And the rest is history. Jamie Oliver was also involved in some way in promoting Pooh’s cooking school, but strictly speaking, it hardly needed that. Here’s a short video.
Recently, we were fortunate enough to be able to learn Thai cooking from Pooh in person, live and in color. Booking is easy via this link, but appointments often sell out early. There is further practical information on Pooh’s website.
The day starts early at 8:30 a.m. We meet at the BTS station “Sukhumvit Road,” right in the center of a luxury shopping district in front of the Gucci Emporium. The contrast to what we’re about to see couldn’t be starker. The small group of cooking enthusiasts is picked up by a minibus, which takes us a few minutes to begin our day with a tour of the largest of Bangkok’s wet markets.
We cross a klong, a canal typical of Bangkok, over a small pedestrian bridge and find ourselves right in the middle of the poultry market.
This market is so incredibly intense with its smells, colors, and sounds of all kinds – a true sensory overload for Europeans. Only six members of our group are visiting with one guide, and a larger group would be almost unthinkable in this hustle and bustle, with mopeds and small vans racing through the market. With Pooh, we buy a variety of fruits and vegetables, some of which we’ve never eaten before, including mangosteen and the same rose apple. Thailand’s abundance of fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish is simply overwhelming. We see stalls selling fried maggots, grasshoppers, and other insects. And they taste excellent.
Even though some of the things available Europeans will find difficult, we notice at the market how incredibly neat and clean everything and especially food is handled in Thailand. Compared to other countries with such markets – including those around the Mediterranean – Thailand is the land of pleasant smells.
With our purchases in tow, Pooh leads us through the equally clean, tiny boardwalks in the slum. Here, too, it is noticeable how much value even the poorest people in this country place on cleanliness, order and beauty. Potted plants in all kinds of containers grow in every conceivable place, with chickens and people working on the street or in their huts in between. Incredible poverty, just a few hundred meters from luxury boutiques. And our respect for the way people in this country deal with it could not be greater.
In Pooh’s cooking school, everything is also wonderfully and neatly prepared for the cooking session.
We begin with a classic papaya salad, which is available everywhere in Thailand, a true national dish.
Pooh shows us how to slice green papaya into the thinnest strips and how to adjust the spiciness of the salad by pounding ultra-hot chili peppers more or less vigorously in a mortar and pestle.
Not so easy. My salad turned out “a bit” too spicy…
We made an incredibly delicious Tom Yum, one of Thailand’s most famous soups, in no time at all. We would never have guessed that you could create such a good Tom Yum in just 10 minutes with such ingredients. Interestingly, the classic version is made with unsweetened condensed milk, which enhances the flavours of the other ingredients even better.
Pooh also shared some great tips for Pad Thai, THE stir-fried noodle dish, showing us how to achieve the perfect noodle consistency without using much oil. This is fantastic in its simplicity, too.
To finish, we had juicy fresh mango with sticky rice, but above all, a gigantic buffet with all these fruits from the market. Sensational.
Conclusion: If you ever have a day in Bangkok, you definitely shouldn’t miss this one. And the small amount paid benefits people who not only really need the money, but also make the most of it. The experience will give you invaluably more.
