Cooking Cambodian Curry

Thursday February 6th

Having no morning plans today, we were able to have a bit of a sleep in to recharge the batteries from yesterday’s temple visits.  John then went off for a walk while I sorted through the hundreds of temple photos.

At 12.15 our tuk tuk driver arrived to take us to a cooking course in a nearby village.  The village was down a dusty dirt road and, after passing some very basic rustic homes, we were surprised to find a very fancy hotel resort with a beautiful swimming pool.  We waited for a six participants to arrive and then we were all taken to a nearby home where we met a family, looked at their kitchen and the garden where we were shown some of the common ingredients used in Cambodian cooking.

Kitchen in local village

Little village resident handing out basil leaves from the garden

We then went to our open-air cooking area.  The chef took us through the preparation of a Cambodian curry, cold rolls and crispy crepes.

Our guide and our chef

Chopping ingredients to make curry paste

Great setting for a cooking class!

Making crepes

John's cold rolls

When the meal was nearly ready, a couple of young men arrived with a table.  They took it out to the deck on the lake and promptly turned it into a beautiful restaurant table.

The best part!

We all ordered a drink and then sat down to enjoy our meals.  It was all delicious and fortunately we also received a recipe book so we can recreate our masterpieces at home.

Delivering eggs

We then went back to our hotel and rested for a while before setting out again into the shopping/dining area for dinner.  John had found a nice little outdoor café/restaurant which was more of a local eatery rather than one that was aimed at tourists.  Our meals were fantastic and the total price for two dinners and four drinks was $9.

Girls singing Carpenters song on the rooftop

We did a bit of shopping (“Rayban” sunglasses for John, two tops and handbag for me and a set of placemats and coasters for home) wandered around a bit more, then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep before another day of temples.