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Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside

We’re doing a morning market walk, followed by a Lao cooking course on an organic farm in the Luang Prabang countryside, with sous-chef Anousith from the beautiful Amantaka resort. When I ask Anousith where he’s from, he responds “Luang Prabang,” and grins. “But my home is the morning market.”

It’s early morning in Luang Prabang and while the sleepy town is just starting to come to life, the bustling morning market has been busy since 3am, when vendors started arriving from rural villages and the Mekong river. For many of them, there was a couple of hours of travel to get here.

The open-air, fresh food market is essentially comprised of two long skinny, perpendicular lanes forming a ‘t’, in the heart of historic Luang Prabang. The vendors are mostly women and they kneel or crouch behind the plastic tarpaulins upon which they display their produce, chatting to their neighbours between sales.

The women take great pride in displaying their beautiful but often meagre amount of produce. It’s one of the most photogenic markets I’ve ever been to and it immediately makes me want to cook.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Anousith has been cooking in Luang Prabang for 10 years and has worked at the Amantaka resort for two years and the experience shows. As we stroll, Anousith introduces us to the different vegetables, fruit, roots, leaves, and herbs for sale and explains its use. He also introduces us to his mother and aunts, who sell fermented fish at the market.

There is a great variety of produce on offer (perhaps even more than at Phousi market, which we visited the day before and were impressed with) and each ingredient we’re introduced to has a specific role to play in the oeuvre of local dishes: sugar cane is “only for dessert,” Anouisth reveals. Bamboo shoots are important to soups. River-weed (like seaweed but from the river) is used with pork, and chilli wood for stews, the chef explains. The fresh greens are amazing: different lettuces, spinaches, mint, basil, coriander, dill, spring onion, and several types of eggplant.

As the vendors have been here for hours, many are tucking into their street food breakfasts, which they have bought from roaming street food vendors who wander through the market, or from nearby street food stalls that have set up for market shoppers.

Rice porridge, sticky rice with chilli paste, and the rice noodle soup with a ragu Bolognese-like meat sauce, Lao khao soi, are the most popular dishes to start the day. We’re starting to get hungry.

We let Anousith get back to sourcing some ingredients for our Lao cooking course and we do another lap of the market on our own to get more photos before returning to the Amantaka for our own breakfast.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

A short while later we’re being driven out to the organic farm in the bucolic Luang Prabang countryside where the Amantaka offers their Lao cooking course. Lush and green, surrounded by mountains, it’s an idyllic spot. But it’s more than just a farm, it’s a sustainable community enterprise.

Called ‘The Living Land’, the 10-hectare farm is owned and worked by the local community and is entirely organic — that means absolutely no chemicals, fertilisers, fungicides or pesticides. They use tobacco as their main insecticide, and the farm manager Mr Sai tells us with pride that they’re trying a mix of tobacco, garlic, chilli, lime powder, lemongrass, and rhubarb leaf, which has a natural poison, as an insecticide. There is a well on site for water and they create their own compost.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

As Mr Sai takes us on a stroll of the farm, we see that some of the crops growing aren’t Asian, but are European. This is because they are destined for the kitchen at Amantaka. The hotel buys the food from the farm to supply its kitchens, and the farm grows according to the needs of the hotel.

Mr Sai shows us beautiful fragrant mint, dill, lemongrass, basil, lettuces, bell peppers (capsicum), eggplants, and tomatoes, carrots used for Asian cooking, as well as sage, parsley, tarragon, thyme, aubergine, leaks, radish, silverbeet, beetroots, and Italian-style rocket used for the hotel’s more European dishes.

We return to the open-sided pavilion to begin our Lao cooking course. There are a few burners and a big wooden bench for prep, but, unlike the Tamarind cooking school, it’s a small area, because all the classes are private, for an individual family, friends travelling together, or a couple.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Today, Anousith says, I’m learning how to make a clear soup with chicken (Keng Som Kai), steamed fish with banana leaf (Mok Pa), braised pork with coconut milk and lemongrass (Moo Phak Sikai), and green papaya salad (Tam Mak Hoong).

As with most Lao meals, the cooking starts with steaming sticky rice and then we work our way though the prep for the rest of the dishes. My knife skills are pretty good so we make great time working through the ingredients. While this is a ‘luxury’ cooking course, Anousith insists that the guests do the prep themselves, as they learn more than they would from just watching. And he’s right.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

I learn to prep the papaya the traditional way, making small cuts into the papaya lengthways, like you see women doing all over Thailand. I also learn to use the mortar and pestle properly, Anousith teaching me to how to pound and stir at the same time for the salad.

Chilli goes in, which you pound, then papaya, then fish sauce and lime juice, and you taste it to test the level of spiciness. I always notice cooks constantly tasting their papaya salad in between pounding and now I find myself doing the same. Anousith says that Laos love fermented anchovy with their papaya salad (as Northern Thais do) as they like it salty and sour, but guests don’t usually like it.

 

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

We prep a tray of tiny dishes for each of the four courses, and then we cook them, one by one. Everything goes in the pot for the soup. We wrap our fish mixtures in leaves, which I’d already learnt to do, and the stir-fry takes seconds in the wok. It’s all timed perfectly so that everything is simultaneously ready so it can be served at once family-style.

There are no real tricky techniques. What I’ve found is that when cuisines, such as the food of Laos and Thailand, use fresh quality ingredients, simplicity tends to win out. Even though there are often myriad ingredients in many Lao dishes, they are all there for a reason, whether they are the star of the dish or just the supporting cast. Flavour and balance is key.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Once we’re done cooking, Lara and I are instructed to head over to a lovely open-sided pavilion, covered in cushions and the small traditional tables that Laos eat their meals from, and relax. Gazing out over a tranquil lotus pond with the mountains in the distance, we’re back to being guests again as Hack, the waiter and chef’s assistant, brings over the dishes, accompanied by a chilled, crisp white wine.

The cooking course has only taken us an hour and a half (Anousith says we made great time, working much faster than most) and we’ve made four amazing dishes. This is the second cooking course I’ve done here in Luang Prabang and finally I’m starting to get a ‘feel’ for Lao cuisine, something I knew little about until we hopped on our boat for our Mekong River cruise a week earlier. Aside from getting to work with such beautiful fresh produce, I have loved the fact that cooks in Laos still use the steaming baskets, the mortar and pestle, and charcoal burners.

Lao Cooking Course on an Organic Farm in the Luang Prabang Countryside. Amantaka cooking course, Luang Prabang, Laos. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Compared to the Tamarind cooking course, undertaken by groups, and therefore more of a social experience (it’s a great way to make new friends of other travellers), the Amantaka’s class is more for couples and families who want alone-time. The market walks — one touring Phousi Market, the other Luang Prabang market — are each different, and both are great. I thoroughly recommended both courses — although it’s hard to beat lounging in a sala and sipping wine at the end of the cooking.

Lao cooking course

Amantaka Resort, Laos

www.amanresorts.com

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About Terence Carter

Terence Carter is an editorial food and travel photographer and infrequent travel writer with a love of photographing people, places and plates of food. After living in the Middle East for a dozen years, he settled in South-East Asia a dozen years ago with his wife, travel and food writer and sometime magazine editor Lara Dunston.

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  1. Terence Carter says

    February 21, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    Cheers, thank you!

  2. John says

    February 21, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    I love your photos, they are beautiful. The fish on the skewers is my favorite.

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About Grantourismo

Lara and Terence are an Australian-born, Southeast Asia-based travel and food writers and photographers who have authored scores of guidebooks, produced countless travel and food stories, are currently developing cookbooks and guidebooks, and host culinary tours and writing and photography retreats in Southeast Asia.
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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

#recipe #recipes #vietnamesefood #cambodianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #ricenoodles #rice #noodlebowl #meatballs #igfood #igfoodie #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #writingacookbook #writingacambodiancookbook #patreon #patreoncreator #grantourismo
It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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