Cooking Class

I decided to do something a bit different this Sunday so I booked myself into a cooking class.

I have already found myself a trusty travel agent and have been there numerous times already - booking bus tickets, a taxi to Poipet and now a cooking class.

The morning began with me arriving a little early to my pick up point, which I decided to make the travel agents as it is too hard to be picked up from home. I got chatting to the lovely K'mai lady who works for 'Beyond. Unique Escapes' and she gave me a history of herself and the organisations that she works for.

We got on to the 'I'm not pretty because I don't have white skin, therefore no one will ever marry me' topic. I seem to be having this conversation ALOT! She was a lovely girl and really liked a chat which was good because we were sat there chatting for awhile (I think the driver was running a little late to pick me up).

The cooking class was to be held about 10 minutes out of the town center in a little village. Siem Reap is funny like that, you can do this in any direction, just drive for between 10 to 15 minutes and you are in the middle of rice paddies and a rural setting.

We arrived at Sojourn where the class was to be held, and boy was it an oasis in the middle of poverty! As part of the class, we were invited to drop in on a local family to see what their kitchen looks like and how they go about cooking their meals. The family that were visited were a young couple (the wife was my age), and they have three children, the youngest being five and a half months old. From an outsiders perspective without doing any research into it, it appears that the families surrounding Sojourn get a reasonable amount of assistance from them. For example, for a five minute visit to this family, they received two kilograms of rice. They also had a water filtration system that had been set up by Trailblazer. The tour guide told us that the families are not imposed upon, they are only visited by the cooking classes about once a week. The living conditions of this family were quite similar to one of the families that I visited from Anjali House, where I am working.

We spent the day cooking six different dishes, all of which were very tasty. I will post some recipes for those of you that are interested. The dishes included;

Fish Amok
Fresh Spring Rolls
Sticky Rice Flour Balls with Palm Sugar
Mango Salad
Nom Tong Noun
Cambodian Curry