Siem Reap, Cambodia; Day 3

We took a break from temples today to explore some other aspects of local culture. After a satisfying hot breakfast from the hotel, we started by visiting a local spot called Artisans d’Angkor.

This business was started in 1992 with a dual purpose: provide job opportunities to rural youth and revive traditional Khmer craftmaking. They have workshops that produce goods to sell around Siem Reap and guides to provide free tours of the workshops. There were only a few workers since it was Sunday but we got to see some examples of each of the crafts they do there. We saw wood carving, stone carving, lacquer gold leaf painting, silver work/plating and silk weaving.

The kids tried their hand at stone carving and promptly declared it difficult. It gave them a much greater appreciation of the 3-4 days work that went into the stone owl souvenir we are bringing home.

After the artisans shop we went to the local craft market. There we found row upon row of craft stalls selling silk shawls and tablecloths, wood and stone statues and silver plated jewelry galore. It sure seems the traditional Khmer craftmaking is alive and well. We didn’t take any photos (sorry, we’re out of practice) but we did grab some goodies to bring home.

Next we hopped in our first tuk tuk ride of the trip and headed to our afternoon adventure, chosen by the kids. We wanted to make sure they got input to the trip. When we asked them what they wanted to do in Cambodia, of course their top request was ‘15 hours of ancient temple tours’.

Just kidding. It was a cooking class. So this afternoon we headed out to ‘Khmer Cooking Class in a Local’s Home’ which sounds like a web search but is actually the name of a lovely cooking experience hosted by Sorya.

From about 15 options we each got to pick four dishes to prepare. Among us we chose beef salad, green papaya salad, Tom Yam Seafood, bar fish amok, crispy sweet and sour stir fried chicken, vegetable curry, and pineapple fried rice. For dessert we had banana in coconut milk and sweet potato with palm sugar.

First we spent a little time in the garden smelling the ingredients we would use – lemongrass, basil, something similar to ginger but not ginger, that kind of thing.

Then we checked out the mushroom garden which is several shelves of plastic bags, each filled with mushroom spores, sawdust and some other mystery ingredients. Every few days they spit out some mushrooms. Cool and sort of weird at the same time.

This cooking experience was the best kind – most of the prep and all of the clean up was taken care of. We did just enough chopping, shredding, measuring and stirring to have fun cooking the meal and feel justified taking credit for the great taste. Yum!

After we ate (and ate and ate), our host took us to the local market to check out the offerings. Suaram and Tiffany saw the live version of the bar fish they’d just eaten and learned that some people store the fish in baskets of water at home for a few days if they aren’t going to use them right away. Not a bad way to get fresh fish at home.

After that we said goodbye to the market and rode the tuk tuk back to our hotel where we enjoyed food comas, swimming and leftovers for the rest of the evening.