Pchum Ben is a Buddhist (and therefore, national) holiday in Cambodia. While it technically lasts much longer than the three days that it is mainly celebrated, the last three days are the ones where schools and businesses are closed and families gather.
One of my favorite parts about Pchum Ben is the making of the traditional cakes. Families around the country prepare nom onsam. Fillings vary, but my favorites are packed with yellow beans and pork. Lucky for me, because that's exactly what our host family prepared for the celebration.
Our host sister, mother and our mother's older sister began the preparations for cakes the days before, stripping banana leaves and cutting them into squares, soaking the rice in coconut water, and buying all the needed ingredients.
When our host mom told us she was planning to make between 40 and 50 of these cakes, we told them that we had learned how to prepare them last year during Pchum Ben. So she told us we could help when they began to make them at eight AM on Saturday.
Of course we couldn't help though- but we were told we should watch. So watch we did.
Which is mainly code for sit on the rice mat and joke around with the adults while the kids crawl all over us.
After a few hours, the cakes were beginning to pile up and our host mother explained the process to Chris.
Cakes is a funny word for an American like me to call these yummy treats. They are delectables made up of rice made sticky through coconut water, stuffed with beans and pork, then wrapped in banana leaves, tied with string from the leaves, and then boiled for a few hours until it all melts into a delicious sticky cake.
But, mainly, here's how they're made:
When that's all done, you get these:
Those strings form perfect indentations for cutting the cakes into individual servings. After boiled and cut, they are so yummy, even if they look a bit strange and green to the novice!
Our host family delivered two for us piping hot late Saturday night, and I quickly cut into one and ate half!
Our host mom promised us a few for our plane ride back next year. I got quite excited until I realized that I'm still not quite ready to think about heading back yet.
How can we be ready to leave this beautiful country and it's beautiful people?
Especially this love:
I'll be back tomorrow with more information about Pchum Ben and our trip to the Buddhist temple (wat)!
How was your weekend?
Yay for Pchum Ben. I hate those cakes so much! Actually, I like the triangle ones with coconut and peanuts and honey. I also love when you said of course, we weren't allowed to help. Man Cambodians are awesome. My neighbor made a Cambodian salad that they serve at weddings a lot. Oh it was legit and I hated how it tasted, just like in Cambodia, but it was legit so I ate it anyway.
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