Although Phnom Penh, owing to its distinct lack of girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, may not be Maria Von Trapp’s first choice in holiday destinations, I wish to share with you some of my “favourite things” from Cambodia.
Mangoes
Living here is absolute heaven for mango lovers. Mangoes have always been one of my favourite fruits. Think how pleased I was when I first heard that mangoes are available all year round! And right now it is the height of mango season (can you even use that term if they are available all year?). Really nice mangoes can cost as little as 75c per kilo (with some bargaining involved). Even Toby gets into the whole mango thing. He loves mango and can devour almost an entire mango by himself. Mmmmmm mangoes.
Mangoes
Living here is absolute heaven for mango lovers. Mangoes have always been one of my favourite fruits. Think how pleased I was when I first heard that mangoes are available all year round! And right now it is the height of mango season (can you even use that term if they are available all year?). Really nice mangoes can cost as little as 75c per kilo (with some bargaining involved). Even Toby gets into the whole mango thing. He loves mango and can devour almost an entire mango by himself. Mmmmmm mangoes.Nom
Nom is an interesting phenomenon here in Cambodia. Nom is a very generic term. Nom refers to almost anything that is fried or baked with a biscuit or cake-like consistency. Bread, biscuits, pastries with beancurd, weird sticky-rice and banana “rolls”…. It’s all called nom. If you try and ask what some strange food-like item at the market is… chances are it’s called nom. Sweet, savoury… doesn’t matter... it’s nom. They translate it into English as “cake”, but there is something disturbing about calling a food item “cake” when it lists “pork floss” as one of its major ingredients. Some nom tastes downright disgusting, but on the whole, most of the nom I have had the privilege to sample has been quite edible and even tasty. My favourites so far consist of “nom doung”, a nice sweet round pastry thing with a yummy coconut filling. Also on my list of favourites is the Nom Lady’s wares. Nom Lady (not her real name I may add – I just can’t remember her real name) runs a little cart on the corner and sells, you guessed it…. Nom! Her nom are more like doughnuts – the sweet ones covered in sesame seeds and the savoury ones are filled with a delicious vegetable mixture - all deep fried in oil, but oh so tasty. Nom lady loves Toby… every time we walk past, she comes up and pinches Toby’s cheeks and if she doesn’t feel too oily, will ask for a cuddle. She will sometimes try and force nom upon us for no cost... not that she can afford it... she only sells them for about 10c each. Lovely lady though. We have tried to help her out by using her to make nom in bulk for our seminar tea breaks.
Not all nom is so delicious. I stay clear of the savoury jellyesque nom. And the sticky rice with dried banana and bean curd. And I’ve never quite brought myself to buy the nom with pork floss. But if someone offers me nom, I am more than happy to sample it... and pretend to like it even if I don’t.
Markets
Most people who know me well would know that I am no great shopper. But, as you have no doubt gathered from my previous posts, I really like going to the markets here. It’s not the money spending aspect... because I don’t like spend a lot of money. I think it’s more because the market places are like nothing you experience in Australia. I love going to see what’s available, to watch the people and soak in the atmosphere. It’s a great experience that I recommend to anyone who comes here… mind you, virtually everyone who comes here wants to do some shopping, and why not, everything is so cheap!
Silk
I love silk. It’s a beautiful fabric. I’m a bit of a sucker for natural fabrics and silk is one of my favourites. It’s not quite an obsession, but not far off it. I won’t bore you all with the details of why I love silk… needless to say, silk is produced in Cambodia and often to a very high quality. Perhaps that is why I like going to the markets – to drool over the huge range of silk products available for purchase. Maybe it is just as well I don’t like to spend money.
TukTuks
Miranda is with me on this one. We love Tuk tuk rides. Tuk tuks (for those who don’t know) are little open “carriages” attached to the back of a motorbike – although we have seen one carry as many as 15 people, they are pretty much designed for 4 westerners (or 6 Khmers). We take Tuk tuks quite frequently, as we consider the handlebars of a motorcycle a little too dangerous for Toby to travel around on. Being so open allows for a great all-round view of what’s passing by. It’s particularly good in the evening, as all the young people head down on their motos to the riverside and everyone is out and about. Toby loves a tuk tuk ride. He can be really ratty at home, but take him out on a tuk tuk and he turns into a perfect angel, chatting, chuckling and charming the passers by.
Khmer
Twice a week, all four of us (plus Toby) pile into Dike’s tuk tuk and travel to the Khmer School of Language. We arrive there (invariable 5 minutes late), hand the baby over to the admin staff who are waiting with open arms for “toBee”, and troop into the classroom where our teacher, Pida is waiting for us with her usual question “Musselmine nair-ak twer avai?” (what did you do yesterday?). I feel we are progressing quite well. We have all developed our own strengths in the language. James is pretty good at the sentence structure. Miranda and I have passable pronunciation and Michael is really good at getting the Khmer word for “monkey” into every possible conversational topic. It’s a good language for beginners, as in many cases, you don’t have to worry about past, present and future tenses. For instance I went to market, I go to market and I am going to market are all the same. The pronunciation is a little more difficult, as Khmer uses vowel sounds never before used in the English language. Poor Pida sometimes has difficulty understanding what we are saying. If we are not careful, the word for “delicious” becomes the word “pot” or the word “father” becomes “alcoholic”. Great potential for embarrassment or insult in any case. Classes are always entertaining, with Michael’s monkeys making a regular appearance and Pida having an equally amusing comeback to any of his inane comments. We are also getting better at using our Khmer with the locals – although sometimes I am convinced they smile politely having no clue about what we have just said. Still... it is all useful. We know enough vocab to be able to tell if students have turned up the correct bible verse during our many classes.
I could go on about many more “favourite” things, but for the sake of your sanity I’ll leave it at that.
Take care everyone.
Nom is an interesting phenomenon here in Cambodia. Nom is a very generic term. Nom refers to almost anything that is fried or baked with a biscuit or cake-like consistency. Bread, biscuits, pastries with beancurd, weird sticky-rice and banana “rolls”…. It’s all called nom. If you try and ask what some strange food-like item at the market is… chances are it’s called nom. Sweet, savoury… doesn’t matter... it’s nom. They translate it into English as “cake”, but there is something disturbing about calling a food item “cake” when it lists “pork floss” as one of its major ingredients. Some nom tastes downright disgusting, but on the whole, most of the nom I have had the privilege to sample has been quite edible and even tasty. My favourites so far consist of “nom doung”, a nice sweet round pastry thing with a yummy coconut filling. Also on my list of favourites is the Nom Lady’s wares. Nom Lady (not her real name I may add – I just can’t remember her real name) runs a little cart on the corner and sells, you guessed it…. Nom! Her nom are more like doughnuts – the sweet ones covered in sesame seeds and the savoury ones are filled with a delicious vegetable mixture - all deep fried in oil, but oh so tasty. Nom lady loves Toby… every time we walk past, she comes up and pinches Toby’s cheeks and if she doesn’t feel too oily, will ask for a cuddle. She will sometimes try and force nom upon us for no cost... not that she can afford it... she only sells them for about 10c each. Lovely lady though. We have tried to help her out by using her to make nom in bulk for our seminar tea breaks.
Not all nom is so delicious. I stay clear of the savoury jellyesque nom. And the sticky rice with dried banana and bean curd. And I’ve never quite brought myself to buy the nom with pork floss. But if someone offers me nom, I am more than happy to sample it... and pretend to like it even if I don’t.
Markets
Most people who know me well would know that I am no great shopper. But, as you have no doubt gathered from my previous posts, I really like going to the markets here. It’s not the money spending aspect... because I don’t like spend a lot of money. I think it’s more because the market places are like nothing you experience in Australia. I love going to see what’s available, to watch the people and soak in the atmosphere. It’s a great experience that I recommend to anyone who comes here… mind you, virtually everyone who comes here wants to do some shopping, and why not, everything is so cheap!Silk
I love silk. It’s a beautiful fabric. I’m a bit of a sucker for natural fabrics and silk is one of my favourites. It’s not quite an obsession, but not far off it. I won’t bore you all with the details of why I love silk… needless to say, silk is produced in Cambodia and often to a very high quality. Perhaps that is why I like going to the markets – to drool over the huge range of silk products available for purchase. Maybe it is just as well I don’t like to spend money.
TukTuks
Miranda is with me on this one. We love Tuk tuk rides. Tuk tuks (for those who don’t know) are little open “carriages” attached to the back of a motorbike – although we have seen one carry as many as 15 people, they are pretty much designed for 4 westerners (or 6 Khmers). We take Tuk tuks quite frequently, as we consider the handlebars of a motorcycle a little too dangerous for Toby to travel around on. Being so open allows for a great all-round view of what’s passing by. It’s particularly good in the evening, as all the young people head down on their motos to the riverside and everyone is out and about. Toby loves a tuk tuk ride. He can be really ratty at home, but take him out on a tuk tuk and he turns into a perfect angel, chatting, chuckling and charming the passers by.Khmer
Twice a week, all four of us (plus Toby) pile into Dike’s tuk tuk and travel to the Khmer School of Language. We arrive there (invariable 5 minutes late), hand the baby over to the admin staff who are waiting with open arms for “toBee”, and troop into the classroom where our teacher, Pida is waiting for us with her usual question “Musselmine nair-ak twer avai?” (what did you do yesterday?). I feel we are progressing quite well. We have all developed our own strengths in the language. James is pretty good at the sentence structure. Miranda and I have passable pronunciation and Michael is really good at getting the Khmer word for “monkey” into every possible conversational topic. It’s a good language for beginners, as in many cases, you don’t have to worry about past, present and future tenses. For instance I went to market, I go to market and I am going to market are all the same. The pronunciation is a little more difficult, as Khmer uses vowel sounds never before used in the English language. Poor Pida sometimes has difficulty understanding what we are saying. If we are not careful, the word for “delicious” becomes the word “pot” or the word “father” becomes “alcoholic”. Great potential for embarrassment or insult in any case. Classes are always entertaining, with Michael’s monkeys making a regular appearance and Pida having an equally amusing comeback to any of his inane comments. We are also getting better at using our Khmer with the locals – although sometimes I am convinced they smile politely having no clue about what we have just said. Still... it is all useful. We know enough vocab to be able to tell if students have turned up the correct bible verse during our many classes.
I could go on about many more “favourite” things, but for the sake of your sanity I’ll leave it at that.
Take care everyone.
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