(Pause)

A bit too late for an explanation, but I've been on a holiday break from writing here and on Gardencore. This season in the Philippines stretches out particularly long, and it's always a flurry of parties and trips out of town.

Have a happy new year, you all.

Skewered and Strung

An offering of flowers on sticks in Cambodia.



And the same stuff, only strung on abaca fiber and hanging on a Manila rearview mirror:

Floor (Look Down)

Some cultures are more comfortable setting food stuff (and other things) on the ground. Their stools and beds are lower, and they live closer to the earth, literally. In those places, looking down is a very interesting activity.


Pretty lemongrass bunches tied together, waiting to get chopped.


Lotus and paper waste.

Fried Rice and Fried Rice

Garnish! Yes, they like to garnish with lettuce, which I eat.

Off to a rocky start as a vegetarian in Cambodia, I resorted to fried rice of all sorts. Not being able to explain ulam (or a savory viand, which we have with boiled rice three times a day) to my Cambodian companions, I was happy enough with what was generally rice cooked with lots of oil, chopped carrots, chives, and usually, MSG.


Closer shot of the one with so much MSG it gave me a headache.

While I would not say I was overjoyed, it definitely beat eating bread and a tomato piece or something like that. I tried to cut the extreme oil experience with vinegar and chilis, which they always have on hand, and remind me of home.


Super hot kaasiman

Genocide

Tears.

Victims of a bizarre attempt to engineer society, remembered at S-21. The photos will make you wince-- tiny children, mothers, tearful men.


Black eyes.

But those that gave most pain were the smiling ones.



Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Street 113
Phnom Penh 12210
Cambodia
(+855) 23 30 0698
Hours: 7:30 AM- 11:30 AM, 2:00 PM- 5:30 PM

Chop Chop

Sniffing around.

This grandma in Siem Reap is preparing one of the many mysterious (to me) pastes (or paste-like food thingies) of Khmer cuisine.


One of the few old women with long hair, I observe.

There are loud sounds made by the heavy knife coming down on the chopping block, punctuated by the thud of pat-pat-patting. She also makes steady conversation with the people around her, and dotes on any of the curious dogs who hop on the bamboo slats.


Chop,


Chop,


Pat.

Steamed Buns

Kept warm in the colored bun farm.

Every morning, I walk a few blocks down where I am in Phnom Penh. There is a Chinese-looking woman there (she may be Vietnamese) who sells steamed buns of many colors. I buy several everyday for breakfast, each time trying a new color (thus, a new filling). Generally, I have no idea what is happening, and the filling is a surprise. But that's part of the Mystery of the East.


The green one, the league leader in terms of number of times eaten.


Side view.

I've found that the round ones are filled with mashed beans or unidentified sweet pleasant pastes. The dough itself is fragrant, with scents of maybe pandan? I'm not sure.


The paste is the same color as the bun. That is weird.

Here is a yellow one. I fantasized it to be filled with mango, but I was wrong. It's an idea, though.


Oh!

Squat Toilets

No funny smells here.

Nothing says "I'm in an Asian province" like a squat toilet. I find that I quite like using them. In Cambodia, there is widespread use of a "tub" built beside the toilet, filled with water for flushing, by pouring a tabo-full inside.


With a tabo.

Khmer Suman

She sold me a whole bunch for 500 riel or 12 US cents.

I was famished, and therefore pretty lucky to chance upon a woman selling Cambodian suman-like kakanin, wrapped in palm leaves, during a bike trip. It was a bit salty, cooked in coconut milk with some munggo or mung beans. The simple taste and "lightness" (not as unctuous as the ones in the Philippines), as well as the presence of some grated coconut, made it a perfect 2-minute snack before I went another 10 km. I still don't know what it is called, but I haven't seen it around the city at all.


Unfurling the thing, wrapped vertically in palm leaves, see the red mung beans too.

Fruit Stands

Fruit cross-section displays are beautiful and everywhere. They sell various juices and shakes.