Traditional food in Cambodia exploration is a seven weeks project which basically focuses on Khmer food and helps to promoted Khmer food back. In this exploration, I’ve learned a lot such as skills, to know my goals clearer, interview skills, etc….. In the first few weeks we research and find a restaurant that serves Khmer food and we try to contact them and go visit their restaurant. We’ve sent email to a lot of restaurants but there is only three restaurant that response us back which are Mahob restaurant, Cuisine Wat Domnak, and Sugar Palm. All of those restaurants are located in Siem Reap. Then, we decided to take a trip to Siem Reap for 4 days. On the first day, we stop at Skun market which is on the way to Siem Reap and stop there to interview some the seller in that market. One of my favorite seller in the market was the sticky rice with coconut milk seller which is Cambodian snack that was created the seller’s creative ideas.
On the second day, we went to two places which we went to a house that make Khmer rice noodle and we went to Mahob restaurant which is the first restaurant that we went to. I’ve learned a lot about how to make Khmer rice noodle it has a lot of step of making that Khmer rice noodle. Also, I’m happy to see people making it and conserve because it is a very traditional food in Cambodia. After I see people making it I feel that it’s very hard to make to earn money from that. After that, we went to Mahob restaurant which Mahob mean Food in English. When we went we have talked to two chef which is the chef Sothea, the owner of the restaurant and the chef Seav Inh, the sous chef. Chef Sothea had share very inspirational stories to us before eh becoming the owner of the restaurant. Chef Seav Inh has a very inspirational story as well. After I talk to them I feel that the chef is very important to the country because if the chef cooks the food without their love or like to cook the food won’t be delicious. Also if the chef cooks the vegetable that is unclean that could also make customers sick. So being a chef is hard so we shouldn’t look down at them.
On the third day, we went to Cuisine Wat Domnak which the owner of the restaurant is French. Chef Joannès Rivière is French but he decided to open the restaurant in Cambodia because he loves this country. Also even though he came from French but the taste of the food in the restaurant is all in Cambodian Flavor. When I went to his restaurant I learned that in his opinion the Cambodian food and Khmer food is different which Cambodian food means not the originally Khmer food but it comes from other countries since a long time and for Khmer food is an traditional food that found by Cambodian and all the flavor was Khmer flavor.
On the fourth day, we went to sugar palm which is the last day and the last restaurant that we went to. The owner of the restaurant was chef Kethana. In her restaurant was decorate most from palm tree such as the table, bowl, plate, door and more. In this restaurant also serve the food. The most special menu or food in her restaurant is Fish Amok. Chef Kethana also has a very inspirational life story which is a lucky girl who escapes from the Khmer Rouge period and went to live in New Zeland. She loves being a chef so she decided to open the restaurant serve Khmer food because she wants to help to promote Cambodian culture and food.
Overall, I feel that I have learned a lot from this exploration and it teach me to feel in love with my country more and more. Especially, I have changed my mindset that being chef is easy. A chef is really important to the country and if we don’t give value to the chef the country won’t be developed because when the visitor comes to the country the first thing they look for is food. So, if the food is unclean the visitor wouldn’t want to come to visit and that makes the country has low tourist site. I encourage everyone to stop looking down the chef. We also create a website that has all of our work which of my and my team. Here is the link