Bangkok Market Trip and Cooking Class

Only in Bangkok for a very short time, besides hanging out with Mr. Ben and Erin and eating lots of good food, I made another stop on my unofficial quest to take a cooking lesson and/or market tour in every Southeast Asian country.

I took the course offered through the Blue Elephant restaurant, which is in a pretty cool old building (above).  From there we jumped on the MRT (Bangkok's elevated train system, the ease and cleanliness of which made me further lament Jakarta's lack of quality public transportation) to the Bang Rak Market, which was across from these old-school shophouses:

Lots of pretty fruits and veggies, as usual:

Some flower offerings:

A glare from a lady working a sweet old sewing machine:

Iced coffee or tea for everyone, served as I remember it from my last time in Bangkok, mixed in a mug and then poured in a bag to go:

When I went to Bangkok in college, we were so enthralled with the drinks-in-a-bag served all around the city that we decided that we would have a drinks-in-a-bag themed party at our apartment when we returned to St. Louis.  Luckily we saw the error in our thinking and nixed that idea... what happens when someone has to use the restroom or set their drink down?  Host's worst nightmare.

Eggses and meat hooks galore (looks like the scene of a bad '90s era teen slasher movie):

This guy was scraping the scales off this fish with such a fervor, they were flying everywhere:

Weighing greens:

Banana flowers, the world's tinest eggplants, and other wonders:

Garlic galore and all the chilies you can eat:

Strangely, these light-colored pomegranates were everywhere on the streets of Bangkok... seemed a little bit out of place, but people seemed to be snatching them up:

I'm not sure what this fried stuff was, but it was freshly fried and looked tasty:

This jello stand was the most popular one in the market when we were there... particularly among the ladies?:

After the market, we headed back to the restaurant for our cooking demo and chance to take a stab at some Thai dishes ourselves:

We made Pad Thai and Tod Man Plaa Grai (fish cakes) with Naam A-Jard (sweet and sour cucumber salad):

Yum Ma-Khua Yao Koong Sod (grilled long eggplant salad with prawns) and Kaeng Phed Kai Nor Mai (red curry with chicken and bamboo shoots):