For the Spice Spoons cooking class, it started out at 8am with shopping at the local fish and produce markets with the chef. We hopped in a tuk tuk in front of the hotel to head into town.
Soon enough we arrived at the Tangalle fish market.
It was great to see the hustle and bustle going on.
It's amazing to see the different sanitary standards compared to what we are used to.
Even dogs getting in on the action.
Yellow and blue fin tuna.
Squid as well.
Chef buying some calamari for us to cook up.
Chef explained more about which ships fish daily and which will go out to deep sea for weeks at a time.
Seeing the smaller boats on shore.
After we finished our fish shopping, it was time to head to the produce markets.
The first market we checked out quickly on our way to the bigger market.
Avocados, definitely different breed than the ones we have in CA.
A big tennant of Sri Lankan cuisine is using ceramics to cook in, several vendors.
The bigger market was awesome to see all the vendors selling their goods.
Really fresh produce.
And some stuff that I didn't totally recognize like the long beans.
Chef buying different bits of produce for us to cook with later.
Dried fish, cinnamon and other spices.
Different types of dried fish used to add umami to dishes.
In the middle was a really interesting vegetable that I didn't get the name of, but we ended up cooking with. Eating it raw is super bitter, but if lightly fried, it's crunchy, fresh and with only a slight bitter after-taste.
I loved how weighing things is super old school.
Fresh coconuts being husked.
Then back to the hotel where chef had his team prepare the ingredients and I killed a couple hours before the actual cooking class. Check out the cooking class part here.
Trip links:
- Colombo
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