Day 18 - We are now Khmer Chefs!

This morning we had our first buffet breakfast at the hotel. No more bread sticks with jam! After breakfast we started our first debrief session. We made a timeline of the trip. It was surprising to see how much we have done! Then we met with our tour guide and he took us to our Khmer cooking class!

First we met one of the chefs at a food market and he went around and showed us some different vegetables and meats. When we got to the place, we were surprised to see that we were having the class outside in a paddock! They had an unstable bamboo walkway that went to a rotunda and there was also a shaded area where we cooked our meals. It was a lovely and peaceful setup. We split into three groups and each worked together in preparing and making the food. For entree we made green mango salad with smoked fish, for mains we made Khmer chicken curry and for dessert we made sticky rice dumplings with palm sugar. It was actually so fun! The only hard part was that we had to be patient and wait till we had made all of it before we could start eating. The food tasted incredible (because we are all incredible chefs now), and extremely filling! They even presented us with certificates after the class!

In the afternoon we took a rest and some went for a swim in the pool at the hotel. Then just before dinner we went and got a foot massage by fish! We put our feet in big fish tanks and all the fish came and nibbled at our feet. It was such a weird feeling and many of us were very ticklish!

After dinner we then had our next debrief session.

- Jess