After our morning exploring the market, we headed out to the village where Kanha grew up to have lunch with her mom — loaded up with our newly-purchased pork, vegetables, pineapple and spices.

Kanha’s family was delightful.  And cooking lunch was a full family effort, with Kanha’s mom leading and Kanha, her niece, nephew, aunt and a family friend helping out.  They let me do a couple things, but to be honest, they had that total rhythm thing going of people who run a kitchen together, so I pretty much sat and chatted and relaxed!

The result was delicious, and I wasn’t being gratuitous when I said it was the best Khmer meal I’ve had — pork soup with pineapple, tomatoes and coconut milk, plus vegetables, rice and some grilled pork. And, for dessert, dried pressed mango slices that ran circles around the ones I’d bought at the store the week before!

Having gotten to know Kanha, I already kinda knew that her mom must be a pretty strong and impressive woman to have raised her and her two sisters.  On top of that, after raising them largely on her own and supporting them with a business selling at the market, she joined a charitable order (that is why she shaved her head) so that she could go work with and help the poor.  Another kindred spirit off on her own “next chapter”!