Cooking in Cambodia - Cambodia blog entry #20

After a full – and I mean FULL – day of touring three ancient temples, we rode our tuk tuk back to Siem Reap. It blew my mind that there were still other temple ruins just along the sides of the road. 

Or in the middle of the road. 

We had a quick rest at our hotel, and I took my second shower of the day. Then it was off to Alley West, above the restaurant Crep’Italy, for our Khmer cuisine cooking class. 

After we met with our chef for the evening, Narong, we picked out what we wanted to make from the menu. While her assistant started putting together the food we needed for our recipes, Narong took us to the local food market to educate us on Cambodian produce and seasonings.

Some of the vegetables looked very familiar and some not so much. I wish I could remember it all.

After we got back to the restaurant, I started to work on my appetizer of spring rolls, main course of beef lok lak, and finally sticky rice for dessert. 

Denise had to make the bananas flambe, just to make this happen.  

It was a lot of fun but very hot and tiring. And after cooking it all for two hours, none of us were hungry. 

We all tried a bite of each of our dishes, and it was all very good. But I was too exhausted by then to think of eating more than that. We gave our leftovers to our tuk tuk driver, Sam, and he was very appreciative. Then we took a quick look around the Night Market; I think I bought a coin purse and a skirt there.

Then back to the hotel, where I took my third shower of the day!