Khmer Food

I suppose many are worried about whether I'm adjusting to the food here.  While the sanitary conditions are not even nearly close to the standards of the US or Japan, fear not, I have been acclimating very well. So far I've only gotten sick once and I think it's because I was adjusting to the water here rather than the food. It usually takes a couple of days to adjust and sure enough I was back to normal by my third day here.   

Other than that, I've been loving the food. To put it into simple comparison, Cambodian food is generally less spicier than Thai food and less “herb”-al than Vietnamese cuisine. It’s a lot of rice, fish and vegetables..which are all my favorite foods so needless to say, I've been enjoying it.  It’s a such a shame that Khmer (Cambodian) food has not been as pervasive as other Southeast Asian cuisines in the West! Another perk is that food prices are the cheapeast than in any other country I've been in. A nice three course meal at a proper restaurant is $5-10 per dish. An expat/tourist diner is usually $3-5 per dish.

 fresh spring rolls, Angkor draft beer, rice, and Khmer soup for about $7 at a nice restaurant

For locals and miserly souls like me on a serious budget, local restaurants and food stalls will cost you no more than $1.50. My currently favorite stand is located along my commute where they sell a set of rice, choice of dried meat (I usually get fish. It tastes exactly like 干物, absolutely love it), and Khmer style soup for a mere $1.50. One caveat is that I do not recommend this to the meticulously sanitary or even to those with weak stomachs as they just leave out pots of soups in the open all days to scoop into a double plastic bag. I have not gotten sick yet from this stall (knock on wood) so all is well. But then again, I have eaten at food stalls in India and survived through food in Bhutan so my stomach has been well trained.

 

 

For those curious sweet tooths, my favorite dessert from a food stand is the ice cream sandwiches. And they are literally, ice cream sandwiched between two pieces of bread:

 

Taro and Coconut ice cream are mounted on to a baguette (Cambodia was a French colony so they actually have pretty good bread here) and drizzled with condensed milk. I love how the sweet condensed milk seeps into the bread by the time you finish the ice cream. You can then scrape off the softened sweetened bread.  Not to mention it's a heavenly treat on a hot humid day. Best part: 50 cents!

 

 

Visitor

What a wonderful surprise to have a familiar face pop in!  Thanks for visiting Dring J

 

 

 

Heartmelting Waves



People really like to wave here. My guesthouse staff wave to me when I leave for work, the tuktuk drivers wave to me to get my attention, and even random people smile as they wave.

 

Not to be bias, but the most heartmelting one are from kids.



That just makes my day. And it happens quite often so you can imagine how much of a constant euphoric state I'm in!

New Office

 

A lot of people have been asking me what exactly I am doing in Cambodia. My specific tasks are still in talks so I will talk about that in a future post but I can show you around my new workplace: 

 

 



 

I work at Wat Damnuk which is just across the Siem Reap River. It lacks the grandeur of say Wat Bo as it's a very local community based pagoda rather than a tourist attraction. Nevertheless it's a huge compound complete with a huge main temple, Khmer studies library, monk and nun's quarters, and elementary school. And the gates are very intricately embellished with, um bling. Lot's of it.  From what I hear it used to be the Royal Palace for the King so I suppose that makes sense.

 

 

 

It's a stark contrast from the lavish builsing I used to work in in the heart of Roppongi (for those of you that recognize it - yes, the building was in the helicopter scene from the movie Inception)

 

But I've already fallen in love with my new "office". I mean what workplace is on historic temple grounds with having monks as your supervisors and you can hear sacred chanting on the loudspeaker all day long?  I don't think it can get any authentic than that.

 

 

 

Introduction

Hi!

It’s been about a week since I’ve arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia and I will be living here for 3-6 months. I have no idea which lies ahead of me; which is very scary yet exciting at the same time. I thank you for taking your timing and taking a glimpse of my ineffable journey I am about take on! 

I have contemplated whether or not to start a blog and have it in writing; afterall who wants to hear a bunch of byzantine ramblings of someone that's going through a major life changing crisis?  And frankly the past few months everything had been so unclear and fast-moving so it was quite difficult to put it into words.

But now that I am here and have somewhat of more clear vision of what I am doing here, I can slowly unravel some of my thoughts that I’ve had on my mind in the form of a blog. Also by posting them, I can lessen the worries of my parents who were flabbergasted by the announcement of their daughter quitting her exclusive finance career and moving to a developing country. Regular postings will at least let them (and also of course all my friends) know that I am alive and well. And hopefully I can convey my certainty about the life choices I have made in the past few months.  If anyone is considering changing their career or thinking of moving to Cambodia, I do hope that this will be somewhat helpful.