Cambodia a la Gordon Ramsay
On Monday 9th May Channel 4 are showing Gordon Ramsay’s recent culinary expedition in Cambodia as part of the Gordon’s Great Escape series, where the famous TV chef travels around Asia learning about the culture and the food.
Using their unrivalled connections and knowledge of Cambodia, Far East experts Bamboo Travel have created a new foodie tour which follows in Gordon’s footsteps to some of the less visited corners of this amazing country to experience their exotic cuisine.
The 2 week ‘Culinary Delights of Cambodia’ tour includes a cooking class at “Friends” restaurant in Phnom Penh, a very successful project that focuses on teaching former street kids how to run a restaurant.
The next leg of the trip is a “Mekong Safari”, an overnight adventure with portable African safari style tents, on the white sands of an uninhabited Mekong island.This location has been carefully chosen as the best place to see rare Irawaddy dolphins at close quarters, along with the diverse birdlife that thrives along the banks of the Mekong.In this area of central Cambodia, just as Gordon did, you have the opportunity to hunt for and taste one of the Cambodian kitchen’s most popular delicacies, the tarantula spider!
The tour continues east, to the wilds of Mondulkiri, the largest and yet most sparsely populated province in Cambodia, where Gordon joined the local ethnic minorities harvesting honey. In Mondulkiri, the tour includes a day visiting the local minority villages and a visit to the Elephant Valley Project, which, with the support of the local Pnong villagers, rescues and treats domestic elephants who have suffered illness or injury. Here it is possible to really get to know more about elephants and their behaviour, their body language and to learn to direct and control them.
The tour finishes in Siem Reap, to learn more about Cambodian cooking with a private class from one of the country’s most respected chefs and of course take time to look around the magical temples of Angkor. After an early morning visit to Angkor Wat, a freshly cooked breakfast can be arranged for you in a private location surrounded by the jungle and the Ancient temple ruins. Of all the places to enjoy an al fresco breakfast, a private serving next to the 190 metre wide moat that surrounds Angkor Wat has to be one of the most memorable.
Also in this area is a visit to the rare bird sanctuary at Prek Toal, on the northern tip of the huge Lake Tonle Sap which provides over half of the fish consumed in Cambodia. On the lake there are floating villages, cosmic fish traps and local fisherman, who constantly adapt to dramatic seasonal changes in water levels.
For more information on the ‘Culinary Delights of Cambodia’, other mouth-watering itineraries and useful tips on planning your holiday visit the Bamboo travel website.
Bon appétit!
For more information, visit: bambootravel.co.uk