I’m getting used to little omelet for breakfast ! Not that I need food today. It’s cooking school day!

Our pick up by tuk tuk was arranged by the cooking school and right on 10 our lovely man arrived and we set off for a 45 min ride. The best part was arriving in the countryside. Bumping down the dusty red lanes looking out of the Cambodian countryside was a treat. Come along……

 It was as though the people here have more skills and pride in their surroundings than those poorer people in the bigger towns. The fields were green and productive growing Durians, rice, corn all types of vegetable with cows wandering and a few pigs sitting under a tree.

We eventually turned off at a lake know as the secret lake. It was man made during the Khmer Rouge time , hand dug by the Cambodians they had taken captive. It looks lovely now surrounded by trees and hills in the background. It doesn’t even hint at the blood that was shed in its making. We had to get out of the tuk to get up the hill at the end of the causeway and then continued along the road past fields with workers toiling in the heat.

  
We arrived at the farm and walked in from the parking area. We crossed a creek on a 2 plank bridge and went past newly planted corn, papaya trees, banana trees, basil, eggplant, pumpkin, lemongrass, galangal, chilli, kaffir lime….. All ingredients we were to use later.

Our host and chef, Sok Lin greeted us wearing a cute little peaked cap. He told us to make ourselves at home before the tour of the farm to collect our vegetable for today’s dishes. There was a blackboard menu leaning against a tree with about 8 dishes. We could each choose one to cook later.

We relaxed in hammocks slung from the open walls of the kitchen.

Then Sok came back and with an  offsider his young neighbour – a boy 14 who looked about 10. He was so cute.  They walked us around the small but very productive farm. He used to have a restaurant in Kampot but decided he wanted to use his own ingredients so moved here with his English wife and they live very simply and run a cooking school with very basic amenities.

  
 There is an open kitchen, their house next door is just a room and verandah up off the ground. Another thatched area for their things. Then a short distance away 3 thatched huts on stilts,  a toilet and shower area – thatched with tiled floors. No electricity. Powered by cow dung ! Garden fertilizer from the toilet. Self sustaining and clean and neat.

The cooking started and we all were given our ingredients , told what to do then just went ahead with Sok watching and guiding.

 

 

 

Results were delicious. Peter did pepper chicken, Steve masaman  curry, El a yellow curry and I did smoky eggplant with chicken.

It seemed easy! But I think if you have the right ingredients it is easy to make good, tasty nutritious meals. And here they do it so cheaply and not in large amounts.

Now I’m writing this lying in a hammock relaxing until our hour tuk tuk ride home.

Back into the tuk for a bumpy but very pleasant ride home through the country side. Some great sights!

 

 

Tonight a sunset cruise.