We had a few things to pick up at the market. Both my lenses were constantly popping out of my sunglasses, so that was on the list for me. Rebecca wanted to pick up a travel book on Borneo for our upcoming trip this April.
Off to the market we went one late Saturday morning. Not all open air markets are the same here in Cambodia. Some are dark, dingy and nauseating. Others can be bright, bustling and interesting. And today's trip was just that.
The highlight for me? Squid on a stick. I've seen a whole fish or a few frogs on a stick but never a large squid. Isn't it fun? Can you imagine walking around a county fair in the U.S. noshing on one of these?
Rebecca was a good sport about holding this up for its photo shoot. She's a vegetarian, but she sacrificed for the sake of the blog.
There's always lots of fish of all varieties.
I never get tired of looking at all the beautiful textiles they sell here. Scarves make great gifts for folks back home.
Also on the list was fresh coconut milk. The stuff you can only get in a can in the U.S. We've seen them make it in the markets before, so we were keeping our eyes peeled for the coconut milk-maker. As it turns out, no one sold fresh coconut milk so we had to do a jog around town. We found one very close to home and school actually. Right next door to Mr. Sato's family shop!
We knew we were in the right place when we saw a stack of these unattractive brown beauties.
We ordered up two kilos of coconut milk. (Yes kilos. Even though it's liquid you order it in kilos not liters). The man gave them a thwack and a crack and broke open these bristly nuggets.
He dumped the water into a bucket then began to grind the white flesh out of each one.
Here's an up-close of his grinding machine.
After scraping every last bit of glistening white flesh out with his grinder, this is what it looked like.
The shredded coconut is then placed in this coconut milking machine. I'm sure there's a technical term in Khmer for it, but since I'll probably never know what that is I'm going to use my own name. I like the coco-cow.
The milk came out in a bucket below, just as if farmer John was milking the coconuts himself!
We ended up with an enormous amount of coconut milk for $4. What does one do with heaps of freshly extracted coconut milk?
This brings me to the purpose of this post. Why was fresh coconut milk on the list? To make this warm cup of homemade spiced chai tea, of course.
I simmered a big pot of black tea, cinnamon, anise, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and orange zest.
After that steeped and stewed for a bit, I strained out all those goodies and added brown sugar, a drizzle of honey and a splash of vanilla.
Fill your favorite mug halfway with the spicy dark chai. Then top with your choice of milk, mine being market-fresh coconut milk.
Enjoy.
Then imagine as you gaze into the spicy depths:
It's the holiday season and I'm warm from a fireplace, not because of my close proximity to the equator.
I'm at a ski lodge in the alps enjoying this deep, warm spicy beverage in between runs.
I'm in India tasting authentic chai... Rudyard Kipling... The Jungle Book. My childhood. Children, school.
Oh yes, I am a teacher of small children here in Cambodia. It's all coming back now.
This is the recipe I used, if you'd like to make it at home. It will be fantastic, even if you don't have fresh coconut milk. I shared some with a colleague who's from India. She loved it. We shared with the kitchen staff who were preparing lunch and others who came trickling into the kitchen. Everyone liked it, so I'm sure you will too.
Happy sipping!
