Explorations at a Local Market: Travel Tuesday

Happy Tuesday Y'all. 

While in Cambodia, Matt and I decided to take a day off from the temples and take a cooking class. From what I've heard, there are many places around Siem Reap that offers classes, but we decided to go with the class our hotel offered. 

Our class included a trip to a local market, instruction on how to make four different dishes, a recipe book, eating our food in the restaurant, and a certificate of course completion. 

Today for Travel Tuesday, I wanted to share some of the photos we took while exploring the market. At 8:00 am we got in our TukTuk with the Sous Chef and Kitchen Manager and headed out to the market. The market was a section of street just jammed pack with stall after stall of vendors. It was so crowded with motorbikes and people milling around- I couldn't believe it. I have been in tight spaces with a lot of people, but this felt a whole lot different. The market consists of the outdoor food stalls (which is where my pictures are taken) and a indoor maze of stalls that sell anything from jewelry to shampoo. 

I think the cooking class just threw in this market trip as more of a tourist gimmick than an actual need for ingredients, but I'm glad we went. It was a whole different side of Siem Reap than we had seen at the temples and on Pub Street. 

*Note: Some of these pictures may be considered a little graphic (i.e. pictures of raw meat and the like) So if you don't like looking at this kinda stuff, I would recommend clicking away.* 

{I was really excited about seeing a picture of these because on season 23 of Amazing Race they had to make these fishing baskets. It was cool to see them in person.} 

{These black fish were still somewhat alive and every once in a while they would jump. Some made it all the way out of the basket. I may or may not have yelped and made the women behind the stall laugh. And if you were wondering, the basket on the left is filled with skinned frogs.} 

{After the market, we stopped and the manger picked us up some sugar cane juice. It was delicious. In fact, I'm craving it right now. It was fun because it was just juice and ice served in this little plastic baggie with a straw. Simple, but delicious.} 

I loved walking through the market. All the veggies looked so fresh. It was a little weird to see just slabs of meat hanging at the different stalls. The rules of meat temperature and such seem to not be as strict as back in the states, but we ate some of the meat and we lived. :) 

And it was cool to see stuff we had picked up at the market in the prep food for our class. I am going to go into more detail about our cooking class in another post, but I thought these pictures deserved their own post. 

I really would recommend a cooking class for anyone traveling to Siem Reap, especially if a market trip is thrown in. 

Would you take a cooking class on one of your travels? Have you have done this before? I'd love to hear from y'all! 

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