Amok and Lok Lak (?)
Just call me Jamie Oliver, Barefoot Contessa, Julia Child... you pick the chef, I'll wear the hat.
After arriving here in Battembang I met Jo's friends, Tony and Apres. They're both also nurses (men) from Melbourne, Australia. Yesterday we had a great, low-key day sleeping in (until almost 7am for me!), exploring the city, and dining out. The riverfront is nothing spectacular, but the city is nice and the second largest in Cambodia. Unfortunately Jo was still under the weather a bit.
This morning Apres and I went to the Smokin' Pot Restaurant for a cooking class together! Our teacher, Vannek, owns the restaurant/guesthouse and runs it with his family. The class of six collectively decided on three dishes to prepare: Chicken Amok, Pork Lok Lak, and a Fish Soup with Lime.
After the menu was sorted out we went to the local market and picked up the produce and meat we'd need for our dishes. Vannek does two cooking classes every day and has for the past four years - so he know everyone there. He was so informative about the spices, vegetables and other sights surrounding us. We watched as the fresh coconut was ground for us, as the fish were killed, descaled, and innards removed, and picked out the best Kaffir Lime Leaves (which were great to smell as we passed through the fish section of the market. I should further clarify and say that the "fish market" consisted of plastic buckets of very alive fish, eels, turtles (no, not for pets), skinned frogs, and all sorts of guts and unexplainables. The chicken had it's head and feet on it, but not for long - in one deft movement with a HUGE cleaver, they were gone and interesting things were falling out of the inner cavity.
On the way back Vannek even stopped at the fruit stand and made me brave to try yet MORE new fruit. There's this thing that looks like a prickly, well, I dunno. It's brown and prickly and really resembles a spore, I guess. I would never think to eat this thing, but when you open it up it reveals itself as two segments of brown and yellow flesh with two small pits. What does it taste like? A SWEET TART! MMM!
Okay, we had small work stations set up when we got back... this is Apres at his. We chopped and chopped - making deft work of it and then whipping up a curry paste in a mortar and pestle. It was great, great fun. The workstation consisted of six gas burners and woks... and we sauteed with the best of em.
This is the Chicken Amok made with eggplant, onion, mushroom, long beans, chicken, coconut milk (that we made ourselves!), lemongrass, chili, garlic, and this other thing I can't recall. It looked like ginger and I do have it written... don't you worry.
After we made the Pork Lok Lak with fresh lime, lots of pepper, oyster sauce, chili sauce, and garlic. It was heaven! Aren't I a master chef? C'mon, now!
The soup was also really good, but by this time I was SO VERY FULL and soup, even good soup, doesn't look all that exciting. No picture for you.
I had a little down time and then Apres and Tony headed to a local monestary to hang out with the monks and Jo and I headed to the bamboo train. It was a ride about 10km out of town and we piled on to the back of one motor bike. Although you may think it was fu
nny with three, w
e've seen as many as SIX on one bike. The countryside was amazing and we passed fruit plantations, acres of ricefields, and small villages. Everywhere we went, again, the children ran to the street (dirt path) and yelled "hello hello!". Beautiful. --As a side note, the dirt here is reddish and gets everywhere. When we got to the train, Jo had a crazy looking fake tan... my skin color doesn't show it.-- The bamboo train was nothing really spectacular. It was started ages ago as a way to get materials to and from the small towns outside of Battembang and now is a tourist site only. The funniest part? When two cars meet on the tracks, one stops and disassembles. I'm serious. They take it completely apart and remove the axles from the tracks... and reassemble once the other has passed. It was a riot, but hard to take a picture of, or I would have. Here are some pictures of Jo and I being funny though. (By the way, you don't need a helmet, we were playing with our motorbike driver's). We were laughing so very hard that the man controlling the train and our motorbike driver were laughing, too. I haven't had a belly laugh like that in a while... we were rolling!
That's the day, folks... and now I've changed plans for tomorrow. I was going to head back into Bangkok, but instead the crew wanted me to join them heading south - so I will. We're going back to Phnom Penh tomorrow and on to Shianouville the next day... and after two nights there, I'm taking a boat with Apres to Trat (which is in Southern Thailand) and heading back up to Bangkok that way. I'm glad to get to spend more than one week here in this country. From there I will take a train to Northern Thailand. Love to everyone - and I can't wait to cook something fun for you! Janice ***8:01P Friday, Internet Cafe, Battembang, Cambodia
After arriving here in Battembang I met Jo's friends, Tony and Apres. They're both also nurses (men) from Melbourne, Australia. Yesterday we had a great, low-key day sleeping in (until almost 7am for me!), exploring the city, and dining out. The riverfront is nothing spectacular, but the city is nice and the second largest in Cambodia. Unfortunately Jo was still under the weather a bit.
This morning Apres and I went to the Smokin' Pot Restaurant for a cooking class together! Our teacher, Vannek, owns the restaurant/guesthouse and runs it with his family. The class of six collectively decided on three dishes to prepare: Chicken Amok, Pork Lok Lak, and a Fish Soup with Lime.
After the menu was sorted out we went to the local market and picked up the produce and meat we'd need for our dishes. Vannek does two cooking classes every day and has for the past four years - so he know everyone there. He was so informative about the spices, vegetables and other sights surrounding us. We watched as the fresh coconut was ground for us, as the fish were killed, descaled, and innards removed, and picked out the best Kaffir Lime Leaves (which were great to smell as we passed through the fish section of the market. I should further clarify and say that the "fish market" consisted of plastic buckets of very alive fish, eels, turtles (no, not for pets), skinned frogs, and all sorts of guts and unexplainables. The chicken had it's head and feet on it, but not for long - in one deft movement with a HUGE cleaver, they were gone and interesting things were falling out of the inner cavity.
On the way back Vannek even stopped at the fruit stand and made me brave to try yet MORE new fruit. There's this thing that looks like a prickly, well, I dunno. It's brown and prickly and really resembles a spore, I guess. I would never think to eat this thing, but when you open it up it reveals itself as two segments of brown and yellow flesh with two small pits. What does it taste like? A SWEET TART! MMM!
Okay, we had small work stations set up when we got back... this is Apres at his. We chopped and chopped - making deft work of it and then whipping up a curry paste in a mortar and pestle. It was great, great fun. The workstation consisted of six gas burners and woks... and we sauteed with the best of em.
This is the Chicken Amok made with eggplant, onion, mushroom, long beans, chicken, coconut milk (that we made ourselves!), lemongrass, chili, garlic, and this other thing I can't recall. It looked like ginger and I do have it written... don't you worry. 
After we made the Pork Lok Lak with fresh lime, lots of pepper, oyster sauce, chili sauce, and garlic. It was heaven! Aren't I a master chef? C'mon, now! The soup was also really good, but by this time I was SO VERY FULL and soup, even good soup, doesn't look all that exciting. No picture for you.
I had a little down time and then Apres and Tony headed to a local monestary to hang out with the monks and Jo and I headed to the bamboo train. It was a ride about 10km out of town and we piled on to the back of one motor bike. Although you may think it was fu
nny with three, w
e've seen as many as SIX on one bike. The countryside was amazing and we passed fruit plantations, acres of ricefields, and small villages. Everywhere we went, again, the children ran to the street (dirt path) and yelled "hello hello!". Beautiful. --As a side note, the dirt here is reddish and gets everywhere. When we got to the train, Jo had a crazy looking fake tan... my skin color doesn't show it.-- The bamboo train was nothing really spectacular. It was started ages ago as a way to get materials to and from the small towns outside of Battembang and now is a tourist site only. The funniest part? When two cars meet on the tracks, one stops and disassembles. I'm serious. They take it completely apart and remove the axles from the tracks... and reassemble once the other has passed. It was a riot, but hard to take a picture of, or I would have. Here are some pictures of Jo and I being funny though. (By the way, you don't need a helmet, we were playing with our motorbike driver's). We were laughing so very hard that the man controlling the train and our motorbike driver were laughing, too. I haven't had a belly laugh like that in a while... we were rolling! That's the day, folks... and now I've changed plans for tomorrow. I was going to head back into Bangkok, but instead the crew wanted me to join them heading south - so I will. We're going back to Phnom Penh tomorrow and on to Shianouville the next day... and after two nights there, I'm taking a boat with Apres to Trat (which is in Southern Thailand) and heading back up to Bangkok that way. I'm glad to get to spend more than one week here in this country. From there I will take a train to Northern Thailand. Love to everyone - and I can't wait to cook something fun for you! Janice ***8:01P Friday, Internet Cafe, Battembang, Cambodia
posted by Janice at 7:35 AM
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