Cooking in Cambodia

We still had another full day in Siem Reap, which was really our last free day together as a group. Most of us had been travelling together since Hanoi, three weeks earlier, and the end was near.

I got up around nine o’clock and my roommate told me that the cooking class had been moved up from eleven to ten o’clock. This left me time to either shower or get some breakfast. I went with the breakfast option because coffee sounded like it would cause me more good than the smells emanating from me would cause harm. I think I made the right decision.

All of us who were taking the cooking class, seven in all, gradually found each other in a restaurant across the street from where the cooking class was taking place. The meal was okay and the coffee was sufficient. We wandered across the street to the restaurant in which the class was taking place and we were handed menus. We were instructed to pick an appetizer and a main course in which to cook. Going along with what had been working for me in Cambodia thus far, I went with fresh shrimp spring rolls and fish amok.

Like the other cooking classes that I took in Asia, there was a lot of chopping. I’m starting to get the hang of it, though I can’t cut a tomato into a rose to save my life. We rolled up the spring rolls, made the sauce, and then it was time for the main courses. As I mentioned, mine was the fish amok. Unlike the class in Vietnam, we actually got to cook our meals in this class. The hot plates came out and we went to work.

When I took the cooking class in China, the meal I had was one of the better meals that I had the entire time I was in China. I’m sure that was due in large part to the ingredients and my instructor. I can’t say that this was the case in Cambodia. I’ll put all of the blame on myself, but I can easily say that I had had much better fish amok during my time in Cambodia. The spring rolls were good, though. And the dessert – sticky rice with coconut and mango – kicked some serious butt. I still don’t have the recipes for what I cooked, but they are supposed to be e-mailed to me. At this point, I’m doubting if that will happen.

After class, I returned to my hotel room and this time I think I actually got to take a little nap. Afterwards, I went walking around the small, touristy town for a final look. I went to the local market, but I had bought pretty much all of the Cambodian souvenirs that I wanted at the Russian Market in Phnom Penh, so I didn’t get anything.

At night, we had time for one final meal in Cambodia. Coming to the realization that if I chose Cambodian food for my final meal, I likely was going to get something that I had already tried at this point, I joined some friends at a Mexican restaurant for some chimichangas and margaritas. It wasn’t the best Mexican food I had ever had, but it was the first I had eaten in quite a while, and it was good enough for me.

It turned out to be an early night because some of us were still a little hungover and we had an early-morning bus – our last one for the trip – to Bangkok in the morning. We’ll turn to the commute in the next entry.