Holiday travelers can be divided into two categories: The “Tick-mark Taras” of the world and the ‘Experience’ seekers.
(Sorry Tara, but “Tick-mark Thiruloganathan” doesn’t have a zing, does it?)
A lot goes into these categories but from personal experience, we tend to gravitate from one to the other based on the type of holiday, our companions on the trip and the all-important ‘mood’.
For the Tick-mark Taras, it’s all about the tourist locations and the ‘patel’ shots – and I’ve had my share of that. More than enough I should say!
And then the experience seekers – to get into the skin of the place being visited and do that ‘out of the ordinary’ trips. Scuba, Cooking, Gliding, Home-stays et al.
Now, to our trip to Cambodia; which got extended due to the political problems in Thailand!
This time around, we decided to get into another ‘experience’ – that of Khmer cooking. Now, my better half does experiment a lot at home and yours truly is the proverbial guinea pig – so, taking all that cooking to an international ‘lab’ was a natural extension.
We registered for a Khmer cooking class at ‘La Papier de Tiger’ – let me redefine that – she did and I tagged along as a photographer. This was done the previous night where we had to finalize the menu. We, but of course, went in for a previously non-existent veggie combination.
The day started with a trip to the market to pick up veggies, spices and other items required for the day’s menu. Quite an experience! The market was pretty similar to Koyambedu market (or Kothal chaavadi or Thaneethora!!!), except for the addition of live fish, pig-heads, crabs and other sea creatures! And the crowd! The head-chef/instructor of the day was Jenny and she went around guiding us through.
Back to base and was pleasantly surprised at how organized the training area was. There were five in the group, two from France, one each from the US and Australia and Anu from India. All washed pans and cutting blocks covered in cellophane. The ingredients/veggies were given to the ‘cookers’ and it started off. The focus was not just on cooking but also presentation and quite some tips were shared. Tomato flowers, Mango sickles and fancy carrots.
Anu made pumpkin soup, tofu and veg curry with rice and finished off with sticky rice with mango for dessert.
The entire jing-bang got over by 1PM after which we got down to lunch, actually the best part of the day. Food turned out quite good and each of them was handed a certificate.
(Don’t we Indians love certificates – whatever we do, we want that extra – whether it adds resume value or not….) J
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