Headed to a local restaurant called Tamarind to try out our cooking skills - Laos style. We were part of a group of 13 & everyone seemed friendly. After brief introductions we piled into 2 Tuk-Tuks and headed for a local 'does everything' market. The chef & his trainee took us around the fresh herb & veg stalls explaining what all the weird & wonderful produce was.....they have 3 different types of coriander! Followed by dry stuff.....We sampled bamboo & chilli crisps, there is nothing they don't do with bamboo and some 'magic' mushrooms......didn't seem to work though! Last area we visited was the fish & meat.....kept my eyes down & kept on walking....they had every part of buffalo, chicken and pigs you could imagine, heard that rats and other animals are on offer at times too 😖. They had live fish in buckets with oxygen bubbling through a pipe to keep them alive for days. When the trauma was over we headed to the cooking school. It was a lovely place just outside town with the cooking platform overlooking a pond filled with water lotus and mountain tops all around. We were shown how to make 4 savoury dishes and finally a dessert....my favourite sticky rice with coconut and fruit yummy. We made a salsa style sauce to be eaten with very sticky rice. Fish/tofu marinated with herbs and wrapped in a bannana leaf, stuffed lemon grass and a buffalo mince salad (I had tofu again) it was all delicious and great fun cooking over hot coals with fresh ingredients.
