Executive chef Steven

Our hotel offers the opportunity to cook a meal with the chef, so Steven jumped at the chance.. I tagged along as the official photographer and food tester.

 At 7:00 a.m. we strolled down the street to the morning market. Wow! It was packed with locals buying their fresh food for the day. Block after block of vendors selling produce, fresh fish, meat, poultry, spices, rice, noodles, lots of things I didn't recognize and other things like live crickets, live frogs, bees, snakes and other slimy things that I didn't even want to look at, let alone think about eating..

Steven and the chef check out the noodle selection

A section of the market

I hung back taking photos as Steven and the chef made their selections and the chef explained to Steven what things were and what you do with them. Among the things Steven bought for our dinner was bees - yes bees- dead ones pulled from the honey combs before they morph into full grown bees that buzz around and sting you.  these were white and look like slugs. You steam these before eating them, as opposed to deep frying the bigger ones (in case you were wondering)!

A selection of spices and water buffalo skin...yummmm

Live crabs wrapped in bamboo and packed in a basket ready to carry home

Fresh fish anyone?!?

The white slimy things are bees, plucked out of the combs.

Live crickets for eating. 

Pink eggs.  Apparently inside the yoke is black.

Grubs (from inside bamboo trees), snakes and frogs.

See you at dinner..

At 6:00 p.m. Chef Steve donned his apron and funny hat and began to cook. With the chef guiding him, me filming and the staff looking on, he made pad Thai, red chicken curry, Laotion salad and Asian noodle soup (pho).  

Nice hat!

Chef and chef

Every once in a while, they would stop, take a sip of wine and pop a steamed bee into their mouth. The chef said the bees give you stamina.  Yuck! I'm sure the faces I made were priceless.  I know the look on Steven's face was. He loved the novelty and outrageousness of it! He said they gave him a buzz!!!! Groan....

About to pop a bee in his mouth

It was obvious that Steven was having a great time and so was everyone else.  Once the meal was complete, the bartender showed Steven how to make a mojhito...except here Steven has lots of experience! He kept telling the bartender that it needed more rum..more rum!

Then we sat down to eat.. It was delicious! Be sure that we will be eating lots of Asian food when we get home...but no bees!