• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • ABOUT
    • All About Grantourismo
    • Work With Us
    • Meet Lara and Terence
    • Itineraries, Tours & Retreats
    • Media Coverage
    • Contacts
  • SLOW
  • LOCAL
  • EXPERIENTIAL
  • RECIPES
Grantourismo Travels Logo

Grantourismo Travels

The website of globetrotting professional travel writing and photography team Lara Dunston and Terence Carter

Grantourismo Travels Logo
  • AFRICA
        • KENYA
          • Masai Mara
          • Mombasa
          • Tsavo West
        • MOROCCO
          • Essaouira
          • Marrakech
        • SOUTH AFRICA
          • Cape Town
  • ASIA
        • CAMBODIA
          • Battambang
          • Phnom Penh
          • Siem Reap
        • INDONESIA
          • Bali
        • JAPAN
          • Tokyo
        • LAOS
          • Luang Prabang
        • MALAYSIA
          • Borneo
          • Kuala Lumpur
          • Penang
        • MEKONG RIVER
        • SINGAPORE
        • MYANMAR
        • THAILAND
          • Bangkok
          • Chiang Mai
          • Isaan
          • Phuket
        • VIETNAM
          • Dalat
          • Hanoi
          • Hoi An
          • Saigon
          • Sapa
  • AMERICAS
        • ARGENTINA
          • Buenos Aires
        • BRAZIL
          • Rio de Janeiro
        • COSTA RICA
          • Manuel Antonio
        • MEXICO
          • Mexico City
          • San Miguel de Allende
        • UNITED STATES
          • Austin
          • New York City
  • AUSTRALASIA
        • AUSTRALIA
          • Adelaide
          • Darwin
          • Gold Coast
          • Melbourne
          • Perth
          • Sydney
  • EUROPE
        • AUSTRIA
          • Vienna
          • Zell Am See
        • ENGLAND
          • London
        • FRANCE
          • Céret
          • Paris
          • Perpignan
        • GERMANY
          • Berlin
        • HUNGARY
          • Budapest
        • ITALY
          • Alberobello
          • Calabria
          • Italian Lakes
          • Sardinia
          • Venice
        • MONTENEGRO
          • Kotor
        • POLAND
          • Krakow
          • Zakopane
        • PORTUGAL
          • Porto
          • Portugal Wine Regions
        • SCOTLAND
          • Edinburgh
        • SPAIN
          • Barcelona
          • Jerez
          • Mallorca
        • TURKEY
          • Istanbul
  • MIDDLE EAST
        • JORDAN
          • Desert Areas
        • QATAR
          • Doha
        • UAE
          • Dubai
Want to be a better home cook? Work in a real kitchen. Photographer and food and travel writer, Terence Carter, in the kitchen at Reflets by Pierre Gagnaire. Dubai, UAE. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Want to be a better home cook? Work in a real kitchen

Watching Rene Redzepi’s chefs from Noma work in the kitchen at Nahm restaurant in Bangkok over a couple of days recently, reminded me how my professional kitchen experience completely changed the way I cook.

Even if you’re a keen home cook who has no intention of going on a reality TV cooking show like MasterChef, or My Kitchen Rules, favourites in Australia, your best investment isn’t necessarily that fancy set of kitchen knives or a sous-vide machine. Just being in a professional kitchen for a day or a week will change your cooking habits for the better.

Life in a Professional Kitchen Vs being a Home Cook

“They’re here to eat my food, not your hair,” said my chef, taking the kitchen towel I had slung over my shoulder and tucking it into my chef’s apron. When Lara went off to Latin America to do research for her first Master’s degree some years ago, I decided to stage (intern) at my friend’s casual Italian café-restaurant in Sydney to keep me out of trouble on Friday and Saturday nights.

Little did Lara know that a restaurant kitchen can be just as debauched a place as a band rehearsal room or a live music venue, which were my other out-of-office hang-outs as a musician when I wasn’t wearing a suit and managing a busy publishing design department, with dozens of staff.

That the chef happened to be the drummer in the band that I had just disbanded didn’t really prove to be a problem. The fact that we both had a penchant for living life to the fullest perhaps was. Because I worked ridiculously long hours in the publishing industry under immense pressure, I relished the opportunity to leave work right on time on Friday afternoon to do my mise en place (preparation) before guests arrived for dinner at my mate’s restaurant. I absolutely loved it.

At that stage of my life I was a reasonable home cook, able to whip up some weekend scrambled eggs or a week night pasta, but I wasn’t really an accomplished ‘hot station’ cook. Oddly enough, I was proficient at pastry and could bake croissants, profiteroles, cakes, tarts, and so on, but I always thought that when making dinner for friends that I should be ‘creative’ with the hot stuff and not have to measure everything to the gram. I was wrong to a great degree.

Lara would agree that my idea of cooking ‘creative’ at that stage of my life was leaving the shopping too late, not prepping early enough, making a total mess of the kitchen, and being overly-ambitious with the menu so that when guests arrived I was a sweaty, usually half-drunk mess, almost ready to surrender to ordering take-out pizza. While the dinner parties were fun, I never really spent much time at the table apart from actually eating.

Around the same time that I was considering changing careers and becoming a chef, Lara met a fascinating travelling American chef, in Australia for a few months, who had enrolled as a student in her scriptwriting class.

He invited us over to dinner and he was a machine in the kitchen. The meal was flawless and the food delicious and imaginative. But what I can remember so clearly to this day was that when I peeked into the kitchen after first course and before the main course I saw that the kitchen was spotless.

The prepped ingredients for the main course were all in small bowls and the dishes we had just eaten from were already washed up. My dreams of being a ‘creative’ chef were brought back to earth pretty quickly. It was time to get back to basics to even be a better home cook, let alone a restaurant cook…

Things I Learnt Working In a Professional Kitchen

Make Shopping Lists

One of the first things I learnt early on was the need for daily and weekly shopping lists. It seems pretty straightforward, but noting that you only have a few portions of risotto rice left means the difference between buying it at the wholesalers or having to – heaven forbid – buy it from a local supermarket at a huge markup. The note that ‘we’re out of basil’ can be fixed at the next morning market visit. To this day, I still keep a daily and weekly shopping list in the kitchen and fill it religiously.

Calculate Food Costs and Portioning

This home cook literally had no idea about how many ‘grams of protein’ I would need per person for the main course of a three-course meal before I started working in the restaurant. I would just go up to the counter at the butcher and say “two of those”. I also didn’t know that buying protein that still needed prep – say a whole chicken verses pre-portioned chicken breasts – affected your costs.

So, if you were making a dish with chicken breasts, buying whole chickens, using the breasts, making another dish with the wings and thighs, and making stock with everything else makes far more economical sense. I still do this with chicken to this day. Nothing gets thrown out. I’d rather debone chicken thighs myself and have the bones to throw into stock.

Always be prepared

The most important lesson I learnt was to have your mise en place ready at least an hour before anyone walks through the door – either at a restaurant or cooking for a dinner party. You can then relax and have a drink. While we never had anything stronger than a shot of espresso before service at the restaurant, I will have a quick tipple before guests arrive when I’m cooking at home – but only after the mise en place is done.

Want to be a better home cook? Work in a real kitchen. Photographer and food and travel writer, Terence Carter, in the kitchen at Reflets by Pierre Gagnaire. Dubai, UAE. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Portioning your garnish, side vegetables or salad in advance leaves you time to concentrate on cooking the key ingredient of your dishes to perfection. Chef Joannès Rivière of Cuisine Wat Damnak here in Siem Reap wipes down the whole kitchen and goes home and changes into clean chef’s whites after prep so he feels fresh for service.

Use Leftovers

My chef in Sydney hated throwing food out. He didn’t just despise the food costs that accrued but he loathed seeing good produce go to waste. Keeping track and labeling everything in the fridges kept things under control (I still label leftovers to this day at home), but it also gave us the opportunity to use leftovers wisely. Risotto gets used for arancini, ragù Bolognese becomes lasagne and ravioli, yesterday’s leftover bread (house-made) becomes today’s bruschetta.

The other thing I learnt about leftovers is that poorly stored leftovers are wasted money. There’s a reason why, to this day, I have an industrial-sized roll of cling-film on my bench. And while ‘Ziploc’ bags don’t get used as often in restaurants as they do in a home kitchen, they really do save money by not letting ingredients spoil.

They’re also great for storing stock in the freezer in handy portions. I often distribute stock between 250ml, 500ml and 1litre bags, as quite often in Asian cooking you just want a few tablespoons of stock and don’t want to resort to Knorr® Homestyle Stock™!

Practice Good Hygiene

After the most obvious first lesson about people not wanting to come to the restaurant to eat my hair, there were many other lessons I learnt while staging at my friend’s restaurant. Things that are quite obvious to me now, but were altogether new notions back then, such as cooked and raw food not having contact in the fridge (my friend stored them in different fridges), the use of different-coloured cutting boards for different proteins (particularly chicken), and cooling cooked foods down to the right temperature before refrigeration.

However, one of the things that stuck with me is the simple routine of continually washing my hands. The same way that when I’m working on the computer and I finish an edit or a sentence, I sit back and hit save, the same rule applies with washing your hands in-between tasks in a kitchen. I noticed that the boys from Noma had a routine: finish a task, wipe down the bench, wash your hands – this ia good routine to get used to – even as a home cook..

The Long-Term Benefits of Cooking in a Professional Kitchen

When Lara returned from South America at the end of the year, she could see immediately that my cooking habits had changed. My time in a professional kitchen made me more confident when shopping, particularly if we were buying something expensive like Wagyu steak.

I knew exactly how much we needed for four people as a main course within a six-course menu. I was also much better at cleaning up during and after prep. No longer was there a pile of dirty utensils in the sink when guests arrived and every dish had either been cooked or was ready to be fired.

The adrenaline rush of a service is why many cooks choose to stay in the industry so long, for such shitty pay and long hours. The half hour before guests start to arrive, when you have your prep done completely, you have a fresh side towel used to handle the hot pans that have all been cleaned and are ready, and you’re waiting for that first ticket to arrive.

It’s a mix of nervousness, excitement and anticipation, like no other job on earth, besides, I guess, being a rock star living for that one hour on stage. While you won’t get that at home, being on top of your game can make prepping dinner parties for groups of friends lots of fun, and a little exciting.

In the restaurant kitchen, the three or four hours of service – once the tickets come in – generally go by in a blur and the next thing you know you’re cracking open a beer, cling-wrapping and labelling food, cleaning your station, and anticipating sitting in a local bar with your colleagues having a casual debrief of the night.

If you like to cook and you watch those cooking shows, you’re not getting any idea of how a real kitchen works. Putting on an apron and getting stuck into it in a real restaurant kitchen will change how you cook – even as a home cook – for the better.

Pictured above: Myself with Chef de Cuisine Olivier Biles discussing service at Reflets by Pierre Gagnaire in Dubai, just before I cooked a couple of dishes for he and Chef Gagnaire — no pressure! Photo by Lara.

Support our Cambodia Cookbook & Culinary History Book with a donation or monthly pledge on Patreon.

SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Share42
Tweet433
Pin
Yum
475 Shares

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GRANTOURISMO TRAVELS NEWSLETTER

Sign up below to receive our monthly newsletter to your In Box for special subscriber-only content, travel deals, tips, recipes, and inspiration.

100% Privacy. We hate spam too and will never give your email address away.

Share42
Tweet433
Pin
Yum
475 Shares

Related Posts You Might Like

Shop for related products

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.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Felicia says

    August 31, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    I’m now using all of these tips in the kitchen and already feel the cooking experience is easier, less stressful and more productive.

  2. Lara Dunston says

    September 1, 2015 at 6:57 pm

    That’s what we like to hear! So pleased to hear you found the advice helpful. Prepping well in advance, sensible portioning, using leftovers – lots of good stuff to be learnt from restaurants. Thanks for dropping by!

  3. Danielle says

    January 27, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    What a great post! In the past, I have also been a “creative” cook. And you’re right, its a huge mess. I was always rushing and stressed and messy. Now that I prep in advance, the whole cooking process is actually much easier, and I have significantly less stress! Chopping and slicing and measuring in the beginning saves so much time.

  4. Lara Dunston says

    January 30, 2017 at 5:39 pm

    Not sure if Terence will agree but when you prep in advance you’re a lot more organised so that means you can drink more wine – that always makes cooking fun ;) Nice to see you here again, Danielle. I need to go spend some time on your blog when I get through this massive workload. Thanks for dropping by! Always appreciated.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

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.
READ MORE…

Featured Posts

Mallorcan Monasteries, Mountaintop Retreats – Rustic Rooms With a View. Lluc Monastery, Lluc, Mallorca, Spain. Traditional Mallorcan Crafts, Mallorca, Spain. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Mallorcan Monasteries, Mountaintop Retreats – Rustic Rooms With a View

Sydney on a Budget – Our Guide to How to Experience Sydney on a Budget. Korean food and a classic meat pie and gravy, Sydney, Australia. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Sydney on a Budget – Our Guide to How to Experience Sydney on a Budget

Lucha Libre, Mexico’s Wild World of Wrestling, Mexico City, Mexico. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Long Live the Lucha Libre, Mexico’s Wild World of Wrestling

Footer

ABOUT GRANTOURISMO

  • All About Grantourismo
  • Meet Lara and Terence
  • Work With Us
  • Itineraries, Tours & Retreats
  • Media & Advertising
  • Media Coverage
  • Contacts

THE GRANTOURISMO SHOP ON SOCIETY6

The Grantourismo Shop on Society6

GET THE BEST MANAGED WORDPRESS HOSTING

Get the Best Managed Wordpress Website Hosting with Flywheel

IMPORTANT DETAILS

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Editorial Policy
  • Comments Policy
  • Advertising
  • Privacy Policy

AMAZON AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE

Grantourismo Travels is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, audible.com, and any other website that may be affiliated with Amazon Service LLC Associates Program.

GRANTOURISMO AFFILIATES/SUPPORT

Grantourismo is reader-supported. Posts contain various affiliate links. If you click through and purchase something, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That income supports the work we do to create content. Here are more ways to support Grantourismo.

SUBSCRIBE

SOCIALLY CONNECTED

  • 6,048 Followers
  • 2,580 Likes
  • 1,841 followers
  • 19,055 Followers

INSTAGRAM FEED

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

SAFETY WING INSURANCE

Safety Wing Insurance

Images Protected By Pixsy

Protected By Pixsy

Footer Widget Header

WEB LOVE

As Seen in The Guardian As Seen on NineMSN As Seen on Tnooz
As Seen In The Independent As Seen on Frommers As seen on Viator
As Seen in Afar As seen on Gadling As seen on Context
As Seen in Fathom As Seen on Matador As seen on Inspirato with American Express
As seen on the Daily Mail website As seen on the Forbes website Grantourismo on the SilverKris website

ALL MEDIA COPYRIGHT © 2009–2023 GRANTOURISMO | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DESIGNED IN APARTMENT RENTALS, HOTELS AND RESORTS AROUND THE WORLD BY GRANTOURISMO MEDIA.
ASSEMBLED IN SOUTH-EAST-ASIA.
GRANTOURISMO TRAVELS AND ‘MAKING TRAVEL MORE MEANINGFUL AND MEMORABLE’ ARE ™ TO GRANTOURISMO MEDIA.