After my first night out in Siem Reap, and a full day off from sight-seeing spent resting in my hotel room, I got back into the game, and had signed myself up for a morning cooking class at the Angkor Palm Restaurant just down the street to learn how to make Khmer (Cambodian) food, which so far in the four countries I have traveled to, has been my FAVORITE! So deliciously spiced and tasty and special!
Anyhow, the class was AWESOME! I was able to call in the morning and schedule a class for one hour later. Since I was the only one who signed up, it was just me, a private cooking class with 3 Cambodian Chefs all to myself, each of them taking turns showing me different parts of the preparation and cooking process. I am so lucky!! This sort of thing has happened to me a lot on this trip - one of many benefits of traveling solo.
For the first half hour, one of the chefs named 'Hak' took me to the local market to describe and explain all of the local produce and goods that are bought and sold on a daily basis to the locals, (most of which I was quite familiar with by now, due to the many cooking classes I have taken along the way during my SE Asia travels) including massive baskets brimming with red ants, as well as bowls filled with their eggs! Protein! :)
When we returned to the restaurant from the market, there was an immaculate room set up upstairs with all of the vegetables and spices that we were going to use that morning (see photos on facebook) and three mini-gas-stove burners. That day, I learned to make (at my request) Fish Amok (a traditional and DELICIOUS Khmer/Cambodian dish), Beef LocLac (Cambodian but not traditional), Stir-fried Morning Glory (traditional and common), as well as a most excellent dessert, made up of bananas, tapioca, mung bean seeds, coconut milk, and sugar, carefully boiled and prepared to create a perfect pudding-like consistency. This dessert actually took as long to make as all three of the othe savory dishes I wound up preparing, so we startd with dessert and I managed to coordinate successfully the cooking of 3 meals and a dessert all in the same 20 minute period (with, of course, the constant help and guidance of the chefs).
The three Cambodian Chefs who were teaching and assisting me were AWESOME! They were very friendly and encouraging and enthusiastic, and offered to take photos of me while I was cooking since I was on my own. It was a really fun time, and I always feel so happy after these cooking classes- so satisfied and accomplished!
When I was done preparing all 3 meals and the dessert, they set me up downstairs in the restaurant to eat all that I had made. It was all delicious and fantastic, and I couldn't have been happier. I had to take half of the food to go of course, (and gave the rest of the banana-tapioca dessert to the front-desk guy at my hotel) as even with my often insatiable appetite, it was too much food to eat all at once. When I was done eating my self-made cuisine, I asked one of the chefs if he would show me how to make the special banana-leaf bowl that they serve Amok and other foods in out here in Cambodia, so, he did! It is easy! Hopefully, I can find banana-leaves in the Asian Markets in Colorado so I can re-create these natural bowls back home- I will definitely be making these dishes when I return!
This cooking class was an excellent experience- I was really quite impressed. It was a great deal as well- not only did I have 3 private chefs teaching me, and learned how to make 4 dishes, but I got to eat all of the food as well- all of this for $20! The food alone would have cost $10-15 if I had ordered it in their restaurant as a customer, so basically for a few more dollars I got a 3-hour private cooking lesson AND the food- wow! I highly recommend this particular cooking class at the Angkor Palm restaurant in Siem Reap, as well as cooking classes as a whole in SE Asia. Usually, they are even cheaper than this! :)
When I was done with this wonderful cooking extravaganza, it was only 1pm, and I still had a 3-hour horseback ride in the countryside to look forward to later that afternoon! I felt like the luckiest girl in the world! (And, was quite pleased with myself for signing up for such excellent stuff!)
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