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Thai green papaya salad (Som Tam or Pok Pok)
One of my favourite Thai dishes of all time, but to make it in the UK you've got to find where they might sell green papaya and dried shrimps. Asian supermarkets will, but charging 10 times the few baht you'd buy them for in South East Asia - I just bought one green papaya for £4.80! AND it's flown by air so food miles and carbon footprint are huge, but just once in a while it's nice to have a treat. I guess you could replace the green papaya with rice noodles and prawns, but that makes it a different salad..
I learned this in Cambodia but I've changed the recipe since the Thais make it better I think. (The Cambodians were getting carried away adding oyster sauce and tomato ketchup into the mix, sorry but yuk!) There are loads of variations on this recipe, just fiddle around with the ingredients till it tastes how you like it.
You need a pestle and mortar if you want to do this properly really! Everything, even the shredded papaya, needs bruising in it. You'll also need a julienne stripper to shred the papaya, and v useful for other veg like carrot too.
Ingredients (serving 1)
A large handful of shredded green papaya A small handful of dried shrimps, chopped 1 small Thai red chilli, chopped Some green beans, chopped into 2cm lengths - can be lightly steamed or raw, in fact if you have a tendency to over-boil veg then don't go anywhere NEAR the saucepan with these! Half a clove of garlic, peeled and chopped 1 large handful of cherry tomatoes, halved 2 small handfuls of roasted peanuts (it’s fine if they’re salted) 1 tablespoon of palm sugar - ordinary sugar if you have none, but try and always buy unrefined 1 tablespoon of fish sauce lime juice - at least 1 lime if not two or 3 Thai basilMethod
peel the papaya, and shred with a julienne shredder into thin strips. Pound the green beans, red chilli and garlic in the mortar. Throw in the peanuts and dried shrimp and pound again, then add the palm sugar and tomatoes and pound again, lightly. Now introduce the lime juice, fish sauce and a large handful of shredded papaya. Give one last quick bruise and mix.Day 8, Detox and fast on Koh Samui: BREAKING THE FAST
Jeez, can't eat till like midday as still have special flora-gro "insertion" put inside me to replenish all the good bacteria. Will NOT miss the smell of coffee I can tell you.
Weight check: 135 lbs! (lost in total, 7lbs, half a stone) (the 4lbs I put on 2 days ago must have been water, but it went the next morning)
12: 30 yuuuuuuummmmmmmyyyy papaya and mango and goat's yoghurt and bee pollen for brek. In a small bowl, but I felt stuffed!
3pm: was a bit naughty as supposed to eat only veg but spotted someone eating delicious raw vietnamese uncooked spring rolls with chilli sauce so ordered them too. Ate them in restuarant on the beach. YUMMY! Stuffed. Was only 7 mouthfuls!
8pm; another raw salad but only ate 3 mouthfuls as felt no need for food at all. (Highly unlike me!!)
UPDATE: Straight after this detox/fast, I was able to cycle across from Northern Thailand to Laos for 11 days - sometimes doing 70 miles in a day! Didn't suffer at all. Was eating normally (but Thai food is healthy generally) - and drinking a beer a night. When I got back to England, I was still the same weight I was on the last day of the fast. I think this 7lbs was the weight of the GUT GUNK that is sitting in all of our intestines.
It's now about 12 weeks later, and I am STILL the same weight - (it goes up and down a little), and I haven't been neuroticly sticking to a raw food diet in the slightest. However, I have invented loads of new salad combinations and find that I get very excited by these. You can see these on my other blog Zizzie's Tahini. (eventually!)
Day 6, Detox and Fast on Koh Samui
I just want to write this to myself and make sure I never forget it. What IS this stuff??? I can't believe it's coming out of my body!?! How long has it been there? Will it all have come out by tomorrow? (when the fasting ends). It's like pondweed. And that's the more palatable description...and some of it is really quite hard. And it definitely takes on the form of a sheath - I can put a stick right through it. It's just like Rich Anderson's book says!
The fact it is coming out of its own accord - this morning before the enema as well - is a good thing I suppose. Those herbs must be doing their job. Dying to find out what the white bits are. Definitely fatty deposits. So odd.
Anyway - I feel really weak now. Looking forward to eating again in 2 days time. My body is beginning to ache , especially my legs - I have been walking a LOT - like miles up and down the beach and climbing the mountain to my hut 8 times a day. My body feels as if I have done a really intense gym or heavyweight lifting session and not cooled down afterwards.It's not surprising as I haven't eaten for 6 days. But in another sense I feel SO much lighter and clearer. I can see why people might get addicted to this. It is a spiritual experience as well as a physical one!
I can't quite picture myself giving up alcohol, eating a raw food diet, and giving up all acid-forming foods though. But knowing i can do this makes me feel a great weight has been off my shoulders!
Click here for Day 7
PS: Watched the Secret - had read it 3 yrs ago but had nothing else to do so watched the film: click here for notes on it!
Day 4 Fast and detox in Koh Samui
So it's Day 4 and I'm wondering why I feel fine - you're supposed to feel a bit sick by this point. I am going to have to show you a photo of what's been coming out of me because otherwise you are missing the point.
Look away now if you don't want to see!
Actually no, I've chickened out. I'll tell you what, I'll upload them to a - post, and you can ask me for the password - or guess it! Here it is!>>
Meanwhile, I'm realising that my nails are stronger and whiter and growing really fast. And every night I'm going crazy for all their instructive videos - some of which I've seen before, some not - you can see a list of films here>> . But I'm learning about how the colon really works, and why I've had the ailments I've had. And it makes sense, reading Dr Jenson's book and reading Rich Anderson's book - that 90% of human diseases would come from a dirty colon. There'll be more on this later.
so day 4, and getting used to this yellowy brown mucoid plaque come out...and wierd white bits are coming out of me too- the size of baby's teeth, and the twisted patterns of presumably the intestine wall on one side, with smooth surfaces on the other. You can see photos here, if you want to ask me for the password, (or guess it). After much discussion with various expert fasters and cleansers, we think these are made of cholesterol. This is I think proved later - 3 weeks later - when the white bits that I have stored in a little plastic bag, seemed to have melted into fats. Later, I find out that they look very like polyps. Did I have polyps in my colon??Are there more?
By the way, I have lost a pound a day so far on this fast. Doesn't sound like much compared to my companions, and TV presenter Jessica from Real Hustle who says she's lost 9 lbs, but it's promising! Down from 142 lbs on wednesday to 138 lbs today - hurrah!
Day 3, Fast and Detox at Koh Samui
Day 3, morning colema.
Kind of beginning to get the hang of it, finding it fascinating. Here's how it works.
You MUST put a kitchen colander in the loo, with the seat up.This is because you want to SEE what's coming out of you! You rig up your bucket to a hook on the ceiling.
Make sure the tube is at the bottom of the bucket, fill the rest of the bucket with some filtered warm water to the top. Not too warm. Then put the colema board - basically a fibreglass board with a whole in it - over the loo and balanced on a chair. Make sure all hoses attached correctly ( a level of detail I can't be bothered with here, sorry) and lie down, with towels and ipod. You put the pipe up yer bum, take the clamp off, and the water starts flowing in. Sooner or later (sooner, in my case) the water wants to burst out again, but you have to massage it up the colon and try to hold it in for a bit. After practice, you should be able to get about a 6th of the bucket inside you without letting any out. Reattach the clamp to stop water flowing in, and wait. Once it does come out, squirting around the sides of the little hose that's that bringing the water in, then you'll feel rather a sense of release, to put it mildly, and you release the clamp and let it flow in again.
here's a rather satisfying animation:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JBLcH_pXSE&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Here's an instructive video on what happens when you swallow food:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTaPUdWAEnE&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
We can see from this video that we are supposed to have somewhat of a mucus lining in our small intestine.
Click here for Day 4
Day 1, Fast and Detox at Koh Samui
This is a much shortened amended version of an account of the fast I'm doing in Koh Samui Thailand. If you are only reading one post, read here.
Day 1
Arrived 9am from Bangkok. Feeling coldy, ill and run down, cross that the receptionist wasn't particularly friendly and that the taxi driver charged 4 times more than usual. Had a chocolate muffin and my last cup of tea - with condensed milk, since they have no normal milk here - on the plane, so feeling a little guilty.
Was advised to start with a liver flush drink, consisting of lots of olive oil and ginger and cayenne pepper - recipe here>
The Liver Flush recipe:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil – anywhere from 2 Tbsp. to 1/3 cup, as you prefer
- Freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice, 1/3 cup
- Fresh garlic, 3-5 cloves
- Fresh ginger, 1/2″
- Cayenne Pepper, dash to taste
- Freshly squeezed orange juice, 2 cups
Nicaraguan charity work
In 2003 I spent time working for a charity in Nicaragua. In this very poor village in the North, we toiled in heat and dust to create a community centre with the villagers. Their village is part of a Cooperative which used to produce sesame oil for The Body Shop, so they all asked me if I was friends with Anita Roddick. A year later, I met her to get a vox pop from her about plastic bags, and was able to convey their messages personally..
I had planned to make a film about them - but in the end I could not get a good enough camera, plus I was working far too hard to have spare time. Pity..but I did take 3000 photos.
More photos of Nicaragua here:
Why Bikram is best
Well, other forms of yoga are fantastic too, but it's been really interesting to watch how Bikram yoga has appealed to men and other groups that wouldn't normally have been interested. There's something about Bikram yoga that means you feel the benefits immediately. If I ever have backache, only a Bikram yoga session will fix it. Immediately.
It's the heat and the sweat and the detoxing. And the fact that you know what to expect because it's always the same set of postures in the same order, but somehow you experience them differently depending on your physical and mental state.
I just wish I had the time and money to do it everyday. But I need variety, so that would never happen..let's be realistic here. Sometimes I just can't balance in a posture because my brain is off assessing all the other people in the room, or I just don't feel like looking at myself in the mirror very much. Other times, the focus and concentration is exemplary and I am proud of myself. Except, it's all about letting go of judgment really innit.
Anyway, it's fun being pretty flexible and getting into positions I wouldn't have been anywhere near 10 years ago when I first went. www.bikramyoga.co.uk
Chanting like a Hare-krishna
Kirtan chanting is such fun. Well perhaps fun isn't quite the word for it . You feel a bit like a Hare-krishna devotee but the tunes are great and you sometimes get to play instruments - even if you can't play them! Somehow the instrument (rattle, tamborine etc) plays itself. There's a leader who sings the line and then the group repeat it, so you don't need to read music or know the songs. It's very meditational, and it helps when you are in a low emotional state - perhaps in the same way as exercise does, but more spiritually...
Of course, the words you are singing are mantras, and they are repeated either softly to yourself (japa) or out loud (kirtan) in order to channel divine energy. And you know what, you feel you really are!
You can do it here at Triyoga in Primrose Hill (http://www.freetheinnervoice.com/chanting.html) or you can do it at my fave place, Innergy yoga centre in Kensal Road every month on a saturday night and have a delish indian meal afterwards. http://www.innergy-yoga.com/chantingnews.htm. Innergy is great because it's a lovely carpeted old hall and there are fairy lights everywhere...
To find out what sort of stuff you might be singing, listen to Krishna Das (double cd Live on Earth, try songs Namah Shivaya or Devi Puja) or JayaLakshmi (try song Ocean of Mercy) ... I often find myself singing along to these at top volume whilst doing the housework.You find that some of them have a great beat and I often wish I was a cool funky DJ that knows how to technically take these tunes to another level by transforming them into some sort of Deep trance house rave mix. If you know of DJs out there already doing this, lemme know.
Anyone who's recently taken up kirtan chanting, would love to hear your comments.




