cooking with Lek

Lek is a 25 year old Thai woman we met through Jack, the bar owner who took Nir and I to get our traditional tattoos from the ex-monk.  She had come along with us to get our tattoos and had offered to teach us how to cook some traditional Thai dishes.  This is exactly what we were looking for; we had been dying to cook with a family in their home.  She lived behind Jack’s bar in an apartment located in a kind of alleyway.  It was slummy, I’m not going to sugarcoat or glamorize it.  It was basically two rows of about 6 apartments with a ‘courtyard’ between them.  Lek’s apartment had two rooms with a bathroom for her and her three small children and all cooking was done outside with tanks of gas.  At first glance you would think Lek was a much sadder case than I later realized.  She had four children, one living with another family in another city so all in all one boy and three girls.  The youngest was a girl and was half Danish.  The father lives in Thailand but didn’t want to have anything to do with Lek or the baby.  Lek said she had a 65-year-old boyfriend who was from The Netherlands and was coming to visit her the next week.  The apartment itself was kept clean, but it was very old and run-down.  I had the feeling no matter how much you cleaned it; it would still look like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages.  Nir, Lek and I went to the market to choose ingredients for the dinner.  The market was crazy but not huge. There were all types of vegetables, exotic fruits, cuts of pork and salted fish.  Whole chickens laid there, their necks lifelessly hanging over the counter.  The smell wasn’t as bad as some markets I have been to here in Thailand, but still the area could have used a giant sized douse of Febreeze.  The smell of sewer and swine should never be mixed.  Never.  So we chose some ingredients like Kefir lime leaves, chilies, chicken thighs, minced pork, soft tofu, fresh shrimp, fresh squid, pork sausage, cabbage, cucumbers, tomato, bean sprouts, and bamboo shoots.  We were ready to cook.  We headed back to Lek’s house and organized the ingredients according to dish.  We were making a tofu, and cabbage soup with minced pork balls; a shrimp, calamari salad with red onion, cucumber, white seaweed, pork sausage and fresh chilies; and lastly a chicken stir-fry with bamboo shoots.  To my disappointment every household seems to keep a healthy amount of good ‘ol MSG lying around to boost the already pungent Thai flavor and Lek’s kitchen was no exception.  We started with the soup; boiling the water, putting some sort of powdered salad seasoning and MSG into the pot along with cabbage and the minced pork balls.  The pork was flavored with oyster sauce and the tofu was added last.  She set it aside and started on the salad.  We cut up the squid into rings, sliced the sausage and cleaned the shrimp, and trimmed the lime leaves, boiling all lightly.  We then made the dressing from limes, sugar, MSG, fish sauce and dried chilies.  Adding them all together plus the tomato and cucumber the salad was done.  Lastly we made the stir-fry.  We cut up the chicken, right through the bones and marinated them in a heavy soy sauce- looking sauce that was labeled seasoning.  A bit suspicious, but it tasted good.  Lek stir-fried the bamboo first and separately cooked the chicken, then added them together with chilies.  While the food was cooking I was flashing away with the camera and entertaining the children who were running wild down the alley.  I thought we would all eat together, being about 6 adults and 4 children in total, but Lek and another Thai woman were the only ones to eat with us.  The food turned out to be good, Lek had also fried pieces of pork that somewhat reminded me of bulgogi (a Korean dish of marinated, broiled meats) in flavor, it may have been my favorite of the dishes.  I am grateful to Lek, her family and friends for letting us into her home and taking the time to cook with us.  She was a kind and strong woman, a good mother and does her best to provide for her family.  Although her situation is sad and difficult, she has four beautiful children and is close with her friends and family.  It gave me a close up look into a world I do not know much about and I feel appreciative of the life I have.