This birthday was absolutely lovely, and it was fantastic to share it with some great people I've met here. Some highlights included a delicious chocolate cake prepared by my roommate, a fantastic (vegan!) khmer dinner with friends, watching a friend who works in water-sanitation present on parasites at "Nerd Night" (a event in Phnom Penh where nerdy, curious people come together to watch peers giv
As a birthday gift to myself, I enrolled in an all-day cooking course, to master the art of cooking khmer (or to at least understand some basics). Bright and early at 9am on a Saturday, two friends and I began the day with a market tour; our cooking instructor lead us through the maze of stalls, stopping here and there to introduce us to all the leafy greens, bright fruits, edible flowers, tubers, chilies, noodles, dried/smoked/fermented meats, and more. At one stop, we tried more than 3 types of basil (each tasting distinctly different) and one unique herb, fishwort, that actually tasted.... fishy.
After our market introduction, we gathered all the necessary provisions for our lesson, and headed to the cooking school: a rooftop classroom equipped with stove top stations, cutting boards and gigantic wooden mortars and pestles. For the next 5 hours, we chopped, gr
Second up: fish amok. This is one of the first dishes I had in Phnom Penh, and is a Cambodian classic. Essentially, it is a coconut-milk based curry with fish, and prepared by steaming everything inside a banana leaf cup. Making every part of this dish by scratch involved grinding up kaffir lime rind, galangal (looks like ginger, but a more mellow biting flavor), lemongrass, garlic, turmeric, shallot, and red chilies in a mortar and pestle until smooth, adding coconut milk to this kroeung (a traditional herb paste made of these 7 ingredients), and marinating tiny chunks of fish fillet in this curry sauce so the flavors are absorbed. Next, yo
Third up: banana bud salad with chicken. This delectable, raw salad's main ingredient is the bud of a banana tree, which is sort of like a tender husk. We finely julienned a few leaves of the bud, along with red pepper, coriander, mint, and basil, and added shredded poached chicken breast. We topped it off with crushed peanuts, lime juice, and a dressing of fish sauce, red chili,
Last up: sticky rice and mango. This has long been a favorite food of mine, and for some reason I held fast to the belief that sticky rice is difficult to make. I assumed it involved at least 1-2 special piece of kitchen equipment that I would never own, involved a long and arduous cooking process, included coconut milk and perhaps other ingredients not readily available in North America, and a very special type of rice. I was only correct on one of these assumptions, and only partly. Cooking sticky rice does require a certain type of rice, but I wouldn't necessarily call it special; it's simply a m
OMG, I love Cambodian food. You're so lucky that you got to take this class! Thanks for sharing the secrets!
ReplyDeleteAlissa, forgive me for missing your birthday. Clearly, you had a wonderful day. Send me your address please. LOVE your blog.
ReplyDeleteHUGS, Kathleen (mclewismp@comcast.net)