Someday, I’d like to be able to say I’ve cooked the world.

I imagine a curiosity about world cuisine is common for a lot of people who love to cook. For me, though, it’s a deep-seated fascination simply because it’s an ingredient in my very own immigrant experience. Living in Los Angeles has exposed me to a rich tapestry of different cultures—something I didn’t grow up with in the 25 years I lived in the Philippines.

When I first came out here, one of the ways I knew to explore my new life was to acquaint myself with the food my new friends grew up with. I would talk about my Lola’s adobo, and they would have me taste the Lubia Polo (a Persian rice dish with ground beef and green beans) their nanny had made for them for years. Nothing was more delicious than exchanging memories about food. All this started my now ever-growing love affair with world cuisine. I guess I felt that I could somehow distill part of my often-crazy immigrant experience…in a pot.

This was what prompted me to take a two-hour Moroccan Cooking class at Surfa’s in Culver City. Surfas is a restaurant/culinary supply warehouse and is, in itself, a sort of mecca for me. It’s where I bought my first honest-to-goodness bottle of (pricey) vanilla extract with my first paycheck. I go back to it time to time each year to explore, wide-eyed, its wondrous shelves and shelves of food things: from European butter, to cake decorating thingamajigs…

…and pots and pans and pastas.

And don’t get me started about their tubs of chocolate. TUBS. Valhrona, help me.

Now, back to Morocco. I’d always thought that if I were to take a cooking class, it would be for something I’d never done before. I’ve had many chances to try my hand at Italian and American food, and was on the lookout for something more exotic (exotic for me, at least). I found Chef Amanda Cushman’s cooking class by patient online sleuthing, and when I discovered it was in Surfa’s (very near my house), I signed up without so much as a blink.

I didn’t know what to expect, because I’d never taken a cooking class before. And frankly, I’m a very solitary cook, just like my grandma. I was worried other people in the class would annoy me, but I actually loved every minute of it. There were two girlfriends, one of who was a new transplant from Australia, a married couple (the husband cooked the meals in their home, and the wife made dessert!), two mothers and myself. Chef Amanda had us all chip in doing parts of all the dishes we prepared over the course of two hours.

Our mindblowingly delicious menu:
- Chicken Tagine With Prunes
- Stuffed Flatbread with Mint and Feta
- Couscous Pilaf with Roasted Vegetables
- Phyllo Bundles with Fig, Apricot and Almonds, served with hand-whipped cream

We each had our own chopping board and apron, and ironically, one of the tasks I was assigned to do was chop the cilantro, which I have a categorical hatred for!

I tried to snap as many pictures as I could, when my hands were free.

After two hours of happily chopping, and stirring and roasting, we sat down to our feast. If you’re familiar with couscous, we used Israeli couscous in the pilaf below, hence the larger grains—a first for me!

Nom…

…nom…

…nom!

How do you say, “I’m hungry” in Moroccan?

All yummy noises aside, I had an inspiring, awesome time at my class (so much that I forgot all about the cilantro!) I was heady with giddy cookinghappiness when I came out of it. I’m excited to recreate this meal at home, hoping to someday do it in a traditional tagine (we made ours with a regular pot—it came out extremely juicy and mouthwatering nonetheless).

And yes, I hope to see many more days of learning to cook the world, one strange, exotic, delicious dish at a time.