Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

Cambodia

How to catch sparrows

by 2 Comments

A little bit of life in Phnom Penh…. I was sitting at a cafe overlooking Sisowath Quay (riverside), when I watched how they catch what’s nicknamed in the birding world as LBJs (Little Brown Jobbies), or the ubiquitous common sparrows. Keith told me how he’d watch them do this but it seemed like such a tediously unrewarding way to catch birds so I didn’t believe him.

Small Khmer kids with long thin bamboo sticks patiently waited at some short bushes by the river. When a sparrow came along, they poked it with their stick. On the end of the stick is a blob of glue which, when it gets onto the bird’s feathers, effectively renders them incapable of flying. As the bird hops away trying to get the glue off, the kids would poke it again with the glue, and again and again. Eventually the bird’s fate is sealed.


Fried, one can eat every single part of this little bird. It looks horrible, but for a country that doesn’t have many choices as far as food, especially the poor, anything that moves is fair game. Thus it became part of the culinary repertoire.


Along the river, in between all the fancy restaurants, bars and cafes catering to expatriates, are a smattering of food stalls with plastic chairs and tables. On any given night scores of young Khmers either on dates or just out with friends have this for dinner. A can of Black Panther (stout) was 3000Riel, or $0.75, in 2007. The plate of about 5 fried sparrows was 5000Riel, or $1.25, served with a pepper and lime juice sauce and a salad of green herbs and vegetables. (There is also another bird in there, a quail, cut in half).

Tourists would walk past the tables and the horrified look on their faces as they caught a glimpse of what was frying or served up were really funny to watch. Even funnier is their double-take and attempt to look non-chalant when they saw fellow foreigner Keith at one of the tables with his camera, putting away one of these delicacies.


This contraption is their barbecue grill. It’s essentially what we would have back home as a clay planter except ten times thicker, with a hole cut out of the base to stick in the charcoal, and set inside an aluminum casing. Shown here steaming are fertilised duck eggs. They are usually sold 3 for 4000Riel or $1.00.

5 Ways to Eat a Mango!

by 1 Comment


Typically existing in two races, the mango finds its roots in Burma and South India, and in Southeast Asia particularly the Philippines.

Mango season is one of my favorite things about living in Asia! All the charm and sensuous sweetness that is the essence of the tropics– in one fruit. Mangoes signal a reprieve from the hot season, heralding the summer monsoons. It kicks off the festive Khmer New Year and launches the summer fruit bounty: rambutan, lychee, mangosteen and durian. Long bamboo sticks with a cage-like trap at the end ensure reach into the highest cluster (these evergreen trees grow to 60 feet tall).

Street vendors now walk their bicycle-loads of mangoes, and market sellers pile them on mats and in baskets. National roads are lined with stands stacked high, selling for as little as 1000Riel or $0.25 per kg. Because techniques to increase mango yields are so successful, and growers don’t have the capacity to export the fruit, its prices are largely insulated from inflation and the depreciating dollar.

So what to do with all those mangoes?

1. Eat it raw, it’s packed with nutrients! Khmer taste buds are inclined towards bitter and salty flavors, so a popular way to eat it here is unripe, sliced and dipped into a mixture of salt and chili. But many of us prefer it melt-in-your-mouth golden sweet and custardy!

2. Toss cubes of ripe sweet mango into your favorite curry for a smack of fresh tropical sweetness.

3. Make a Mango Chutney and serve with brie on a cheese platter or with grilled chicken or fish. From the Food Network:

2 1/2 cups diced mangos
1 (1-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger
1 Scotch bonnet pepper, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
Freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until thick, about 25 minutes, stirring often to keep from sticking. Let cool, and store in an airtight container.

4. For a sumptuous dessert pair it with the decadent richness of coconut by making Sticky Rice and Mango (Recipe by Sophat). This combination of the fresh sweetness of mango with the rich creaminess of coconut milk is really a fabulous treat. Sticky rice is a staple to Laos and Thailand. Sticky Rice and Mango is credited generally to southern Thailand where sticky rice is served with mango as a dessert, with condensed or coconut milk poured over it.

1 1/2 cups sticky rice
1 1/2 cups canned coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
2 to 4 ripe mangoes, depending on size, peeled, pitted, sliced.

(To make your own coconut milk: Take a cup of unsweetened shredded dried coconut and stir in two cups of boiling water. Let sit for a few minutes then strain with a cheesecloth to extract all the liquid. Sweeten to taste ~around 3Tbsp~ with white sugar. This is much better than canned coconut, but the latter can be substituted. Set aside.)

Steam the rice (this needs less water than regular rice) and set aside to cool for half an hour or so.

In a pan, gently warm coconut milk with sugar and salt until they dissolve. Stir in half the coconut milk mixture over the warm sticky rice. Divide sweetened rice to individual serving bowls. Add mango slices. Pour the rest of the coconut milk over the mango. Serve.

5. Whip up a Mango Lassi (Recipe by K Kelly). Lassis are a tasty shake, good as a filling snack on those hot days. It’s a traditional North Indian beverage, and it’s found in ancient Indian texts. Yogurt sweetened with honey is still used in Hindu rituals.

2 cups milk
1 individual container plain yogurt
2 mangoes, diced
2 tsp honey

Mix all in a blender. Serves 2.

And if you have an event coming up that requires a cake, mango complements chocolate very nicely. It’s also excellent paired with coconut, passion fruit or taro in a moist layered cake, with mango incorporated into the icing. I unfortunately am not a good baker and have only had cakes professionaly catered, so can’t offer a recipe. If anyone has a good one I’m game to try!


There are over 1000 varieties, ranging from a deep golden yellow to green to red. Svay teethai and svay kailchun in Cambodia are known to be sweet.


One of many fruit sellers at Psar Toul Tumpung (Russian Market), with pre-season harvests.

Is that an IV drip on an Angkor bas relief?

by Leave a Comment


Photos courtesy of K. Estela

Ha– no wonder there’s such a problem with IV use here LOL!

Without regulatory standards and mechanisms such as licensing or accreditation, quality of care is partly determined by consumer demand. People more often than not believe the more invasive or expensive a treatment, the more effective. This means treating simple fatigue with an intravenous drip instead of coconut juice ($10 vs $0.25)! IV drips are VERY popular; fishermen coming in from a long night out on the water will often seek IV treatment. Some pharmacists even color it (food coloring usually) because people associate the color with increased potency! Patients hooked up to their IV drips while riding on the back of a moto is a common sight on the streets (I just wish I can grab a picture of that!)

Hmm.. that sure looks like an IV drip…

Khmer Proverbs

by Leave a Comment

Another activity for our team retreat aimed at cross-cultural issues is to come up with the most-recalled proverbs from growing up. Though many sayings cross boundaries, the ones best remembered by each group curiously was very telling of their cultural norms and tendencies.

The Germans came up with a list of sayings that depicted a society which valued order, regulation, and punctuality. The Filipino sayings depicted a god-fearing, eternally positive, and family-oriented people. Growing up in the US, adages and mottos which had most to do with taking advantage of opportunity and making money came easily to mind.

Here are some Khmer proverbs, which explain very many things which those of us from the West often frustratingly misunderstand. One which struck me in particular ran along the lines of “the egg cannot fight with or break a rock”, which translated into “might is right”. This explains the submissive nature of our Khmer colleagues to their superiors. They seem frequently impressed when subordinates argue with the boss.


Physical death is better than the death of your reputation (also “family’s reputation”). This explains the collectivist mindset in Asia. Dishonor to your name or your family/group results in being cast off, and that is worse than death.


Dual Translation: (1) Anger begets error; anger begets injury; anger begets waste; and (2) Anger is wrong; anger is wicked; anger is wasteful. This explains the vexing SE Asian trait of never showing emotion, and always smiling even through crises.


The immature rice stock stands erect; the mature stock hangs heavy with seeds.
Those lacking accomplishments (seeds) prop themselves up and boast of themselves (standing erect – a trait of the young). Those heavy with accomplishments have no need for boasting as they have already proven their worth and instead behave with humility (being hunched over – a trait of the elderly). Many sayings show the value of elderly people to society.


Willing to lose is divine; wanting to win is evil. Several beliefs and large-scale tendencies point to the Buddhist belief in accepting fate, so that aiming for achievement is futile.

. . . more proverbs on the Khmer Institute website.

Streetlife: A Man’s World?

by 1 Comment

Finding a dependable, safe motorbike driver (motodup) is a difficult feat, even in Phnom Penh where an excess of drivers roam the streets, ranging from the unemployed college graduate to new migrants from the provinces. Oum Chanton, a familiar face in Boeng Keng Kang, has been getting her passengers safely to their destination for seven years.

It is an unusual choice of vocation for a woman, but motodup-ing suits Oum Chanton just fine. Occasionally driving a moto as a side job in the year 2000, Chanton discovered that it offered steady wages and flexibility. As a single mother who is also supporting a younger sister and mother, it gradually became the main source of income for her family. She soon found herself driving even up to the day that she gave birth to her youngest son, Chandy, now 5.

Safety issues
This line of work is not without hardship. Chanton’s 14-hour days start at around 6am, seven days a week. Besides full-time exposure to the elements, reckless drivers share the streets. She has to be on constant alert of bag snatchers targeting her passengers. When hired for the night she sometimes waits on dark secluded streets until late.

She often overhears unkind comments from the hordes of territorial male drivers on her routes. They feel she is stealing potential customers from them. There is little regard for her from both her peers and the general population because people are unaccustomed to women having such a job.

At first the difficulties intimidated her, particularly safety issues on the farther routes or late in the night. Now she concentrates on doing her work well, taking care of her passengers by driving carefully. In this way she is able to support her family.

The helmeted Chanton also takes her own safety seriously. “Everyone should use one for safety while riding on a moto,” she says.

No job for a woman?
Asked to describe herself, Chanton replies that she is a strong woman. While the more “appropriate” jobs for women of her skill level, such as waiting or cleaning, have their own hardships, she found them dull. Her earning potential was also greater as a motodup. Experience as a single mother and the difficulties she overcame in her career as a motodup have made her critical of the typical views of women. Strength and independence are assets she feels are not yet appreciated by the more traditional mindsets.

This is the reason for her preference to work in the popular expat district of Boeng Keng Kang. Chanton began driving passengers around when she lived there. Soon it became difficult to keep pace with the escalating cost of living in Phnom Penh, and she was forced to move her family across the Japanese bridge to a small space in Chruy Chungvar.

When she attempted to work in the nearby areas she found that fellow Khmers – even the women – were more comfortable taking the traditional male motodup than going with her. Because foreigners are open to the idea of a female driving a mototaxi she is able to get more business there.

Determined that her two sons, Kunthy and Chandy, have better opportunities, this motivates her through her days. One day when she retires from motodup-ing, she wants to run a breakfast shop or sell items from her house. But this is far in the future as her family often lives from day to day.

Ultimately her goal is very simple. “I want to earn enough to feed my family every day, and to make sure that my sons never have to work as a motodup.”
AsiaLIFE Phnom Penh, March 2008

P.S.
Without a functioning public transportation system, many rely on motobike transportation.