Small, Small

Alright. I really need to be better about this whole posting thing. Since it's so blazing hot here, I'm just exhausted at the end of everyday and all I want to do is take a cold shower and go to bed. But I'm just making excuses. I shall improve.

Anyhow! I have yet to say pretty much ANYTHING about the food here in Cambodia so I thought that I would give you a run down of a cooking class that all of us did a few days ago. I feel that will give you a satisfactory look into some of the food here but I'll admit, this post will appeal most to all of my food connoisseur readers. I hope it'll be interesting despite the fact! So go grab a snack and eat while you read; because this is bound to make you hungry.

So the day started early around nine at a nice little restaurant where we met our teacher named Son (pronounced 'Sone'). Son explained to us in heavily accented (but adorable) English the events of the day before ushering us towards some tuk-tuks and leaving for the market.

I kinda have a hard time explaining the market.... so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. A picture is worth a thousand words right?

It's Son! The pink fruit to her left is dragonfruit and it tastes a bit like kiwi. I quite enjoy it.

Various array of cooked meats.

I have NO idea what that is...

Would you rather.... have a bra or some dried shrimp? Only in Cambodia.

Cambodia's version of Bubba-Gump Shrimp Co.

Yup. The chicken head is still on there.

Those fish were still alive and floppin' around. They were so excited to see us. How cute.

Then this.

Okay. Maaaaaybe that part wouldn't make you very hungry. But I promise the rest will! Promise. After departing the market, we took a short tuk-tuk ride to Son's house where we first learned how to make Cambodian egg rolls filled with taro, carrots, and peanuts. We even make our own sweet and sour sauce. I was dumb and didn't take a picture of the finish product, but here's a glance of our cooking stations and the cooking egg rolls.

They were pretty darn good, and since the wrappers were potato based the skin tasted like a potato chip. The main base for the sauce (and most other Cambodian sauces) was a fish sauce so it was definitely the fishiest sweet and sour sauce I've ever had. But it was good.

Onto the next course! This dish is called Amok and since we were each making our own, we dispersed to our individual cooking stations. We threw lots of inredients into a mortar and pestel such as lemongrass, galangal (looks like ginger), garlic, and chili peppers, and then pounded the daylights out of it. See picture below.

Please excuse the grossness that is me. I was super hot and sweaty and my hair was on the fritz. It drove me so crazy that I got it cut right after the class was over.

We then added ingredients like coconut milk, egg yolk, fish sauce, lime, chili paste, and fish to the mortar and pestel, mixed it all up, and put it in a rockin' banana leaf boat Son showed us how to make. When Son came around to put in the chili paste, she would ask us how much we wanted by asking either "Small, small?" or "Big, big?" It was hilarious and she's pretty much my favorite. The host mom that feeds me, Om, also says "Small, small" a lot so we interns have taken a liking to the phrase. Anyways, afterwards the banana boats quickly went into a pot for steaming.

How red the sauce is determines how much chili and chili paste we put in our mixture, and therefore determining how spicy it will be. Mine is the one at the very top with only one toothpick in it. 

Definitely small, small chili paste.

Here is the finished product! It was super rich, creamy, and delicious.

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This picture isn't as hideous as the other... I can accept it.

The next course was just a simple salad with shredded chicken, banana flower, chilis, basil, mint, and sweet and sour sauce. Take a look see.

And finally for dessert, we had fresh mango (which btw, Cambodia has THE BEST mangos I've ever had in my life. I'm terrified I'll hate all other mangos when I get home) with sticky rice, coconut coated with palm sugar and coconut milk sauce, and then we drizzled the whole dessert with the same sauce. It was so delicious it was flat out inappropriate. That's all I can say.

We got to design our plating, but I was tired and just wanting to eat it. Hence the hodge-podge look. 

But hey, it all ends up in the same place right?

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed my introduction to Cambodian cuisine. But on a more serious note, our group could use some prayers of support as of now. We went to RACHA on Monday, the NGO we're supposed to work with, and discovered that they weren't nearly as prepared for us as they hoped they'd be. They kinda lied to Dan our student facilitator about a lot of things when it came to interning with them. So our actual internship work is comepletely up in the air as of now. Dan is spending a lot of time right now looking at other NGO's to open options for other work places. Cambodia has the more NGO's than any other country in the world so we really should be okay. But prayers are nonetheless appreciated.

And so the adventure continues. Until next time.