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ContactLara Dunston2020-12-04T12:58:20+07:00

Contact Me

To contact me, please send an email to:

laradunston @ icloud.com

Brief Bio

Lara Dunston is a Cambodia based Travel & Food Writer and has regular gigs with:
The Guardian, CNN, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, The Independent, Telegraph, National Geographic Traveler / Traveller, Get Lost, Wanderlust, Travel+Leisure SEA, DestinAsian, AFAR. Read more here.

RELATED WEBSITES

Our travel website:
GRANTOURISMO TRAVELS

Our full service digital media agency:
GRANTOURISMO MEDIA

Our Cambodian retreats site:
SIEM REAP RETREATS

Partner Phtography Site:
TERENCE CARTER PHOTOGRAPHY

LATEST ON INSTAGRAM

I guess we’re having noodles for dinner... #pep

I guess we’re having noodles for dinner...

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

Sacrifice versus freedom. If there’s one thing t

Sacrifice versus freedom. If there’s one thing that T and I have learnt from the pandemic — there are actually many things — it’s that we’re on the side of sacrifice for the common good rather than freedom for the sake of... um... individual freedom.

While staying at home during Siem Reap’s recent hard lockdown was tough at times, it becomes less painful when you think that all you’re sacrificing is a little time in the big scheme of things so that less people get sick and more people stay alive. I don’t think that’s too much of a leader or government to ask of people, and it’s the least that individuals can do for their community and society.

Reflecting on 18 months of staying at home, self isolating, quarantine, and the recent hard lockdown for a story. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Pictured: Siem Reap’s usually busy riverside road, deserted during the recent hard lockdown, when most of the city’s residents were confined to their homes. While they can be tough at times, I’m now a great believer in the short hard lockdown. They work when they’re tough and everyone follows the rules. The road is humming with life again and things are returning to normal.

#siemreap #siemreapcambodia #cambodia #pandemic #pandemic2021 #covid19 #lockdown #hardlockdown #stayingathome #isolating #socialdistancing #extremesocialdistancing #monsoon #urbanphotography #photography #grantourismotravels #writing #writer #travelwriter #story #storyinprogress

We’ve undoubtedly cooked our way through the pan

We’ve undoubtedly cooked our way through the pandemic. I don’t know how we would have survived if we hadn’t. Cooking has kept us focused and sane. If we weren’t cooking Cambodian food for our cookbooks, we were cooking dishes from neighbouring countries, my Russian family recipes, and the food of places we’ve travelled, lived in and loved, to transport us back to those places...

Just reflecting as I browse pics of recipes @terence_carter_photography has given me that I’ve not shared with you yet. Sometimes we share recipes for dishes we’ve been cooking for years, sometimes we develop new recipes, at other times we share recipes from books we love and cook from regularly, sometimes as printed, sometimes tweaked. And that’s the case with this one...

This tasty Thai larb gai recipe makes a classic spicy minced chicken salad that is super easy to cook, comes together in minutes, and is versatile. Also spelt larp, laab, laap, lab and lap, depending on the language and transliteration, it’s not unique to Thailand. It’s also found in neighbouring countries — the Laos have a great fondness for the dish — and was probably made in Cambodia first. (You’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history to be published to see how I came to that conclusion).

Adapted from chef David Thompson’s chicken larb recipe from his Thai Street Food cookbook, this is a gently-spiced ground chicken salad, however, you can easily heat things up with more chillies.

Made with minced chicken quickly stir-fried in chicken stock, fish sauce, lime juice, salt, sugar, garlic, and shallots, it boasts loads of fresh fragrant herbs, is sprinkled with chilli flakes and toasted rice, served with crunchy vegetables such as cabbage, cucumbers, and snake beans, and eaten with steamed jasmine rice or sticky rice. Yum.

Link here and in bio: https://grantourismotravels.com/thai-larb-gai-recipe/

#thaifood #thaifoodstagram #thaicooking #thaihomecooking #thailand #cambodia #laos #cambodianfood #khmerfood #laofood #larb #larp #lap #lab #laap #laab #larbgai #chicken #salad #chickensalad #recipe #recipes #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #food #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodporn

We may be quiet here on social media but we’ve b

We may be quiet here on social media but we’ve been super busy in our home studio, researching and writing, re-working book proposals, testing recipes and developing new recipes, shooting recipes for Grantourismo, and developing two new books and websites.

If you haven’t visited Grantourismo in a while, please drop by and check out our new recipes and recipe collections, and please share the link to our site with your friends. https://grantourismotravels.com/

We’ve got a super easy red dragon fruit smoothie recipe for a creamy dragon fruit shake that’s not only a feast for the eyes but is as delicious as it is healthy and nutritious. And that really is the natural colour!

Red dragon fruit is a superfood — rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, low in calories, and high in fibre. When dragon fruit is in season, freeze the flesh to make these healthy smoothies.

The result of freezing the dragonfruit, as with banana, results in the creamiest smoothie that almost tastes like a dessert — and yet it’s healthy. It’s a great way to get kids to eat more fruit.

Link here and in bio: https://grantourismotravels.com/dragon-fruit-smoothie-recipe/

#smoothie #smoothierecipes #smoothierecipe #shake #fruitshake #fruit #tropicalfruit #dragonfruit #reddragonfruit #recipe #recipes #drinks #drinkstagram #drinkstime #breakfast #healthybreakfast #healthy #healthyfood #nutritious #superfood #superfoods #ighealth #healthyrecipes #kidswilllovethis #superfoodsmoothie #picoftheday #grantourismotravels

Our dear friend @sokinnnou and her uncle drove fro

Our dear friend @sokinnnou and her uncle drove from Battambang to Siem Reap with a car filled with fresh farm and market produce to deliver to family and these two lucky people.

Our bounty included these organic oranges grown on Sokin’s uncle’s farm. We have so many, I’m going to make some marmalade, though not sure about the skin... wondering if I should try lime skin instead?

Aside from eating them as is, what else should we do/make with oranges?

#siemreap #cambodia #cambodianproduce #cambodianfood #cambodianfruit
#oranges #battambang #fruit #battambangoranges #tropicalfruit #freshproduce #produce #organic #organicfood #organicfarming #marketfresh #cookingproject #marmalade #recipeideas #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catlovers #catlife #catoftheday #catphoto

If you haven’t dropped by Grantourismo in a whil

If you haven’t dropped by Grantourismo in a while, we’ve been staying sane by keeping ourselves busy and cooking our way through this latest hard lockdown, which is to say we have loads of new recipes and compilations of recipes on the site, such as...

This comforting Cape Malay chicken curry recipe, which makes a richly spiced curry from Cape Town, South Africa. Eaten with aromatic Cape Malay yellow rice, buttery roti, and simple tomato and onion and cucumber sambals, it’s an incredibly delicious curry that you’ll be sorry to finish.

Our advice: make double the amount, as it tastes even better as leftovers the next day.

It’s inspired by the aromatic curry we learnt to make as we cooked with beautiful human beings and learnt about ‘ubuntu’ in a brilliant Cape Malay cooking class in colourful Bo-Kaap, the heart of Cape Malay culture, over ten years ago. The recipe we were given is probably packed in a suitcase at mum’s in Australia, but we reckon this is pretty close.

Please make it and let us know what you think and please share the link with your loved ones xx

Recipe here: https://grantourismotravels.com/cape-malay-chicken-curry-recipe/ + link in bio or go to the homepage of Grantourismo and browse ‘latest articles’ or ‘recipes’.

Pic by @terence_carter_photography

#recipe #recipes #recipeoftheday #recipeshare #curry #currychicken #chickencurry #capemalaycurry #capemalaychickencurry #capemalayfood #food #cooking #capemalaycooking #capetown #southafrica #southafricanfood #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #foodphotographer #grantourismotravels #igfood #instafood #cookingathome #cookingram #cookingtime #comfortfood #homecooking #pandemiccooking #lockdowncooking

ALL MEDIA (WORDS AND IMAGES) COPYRIGHT © 2007– LARA DUNSTON AND TERENCE CARTER | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
DESIGNED IN APARTMENT RENTALS, HOTELS AND RESORTS AROUND THE WORLD BY GRANTOURISMO MEDIA. ASSEMBLED IN SOUTH-EAST-ASIA.

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