• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

  • Home
  • Public Health Portfolio
  • Work Posts
  • Contact

Rising Sun

late night soup messenger clak-clak-claking down the street

15 March 2010 by Nathalie Abejero 3 Comments

So Keith and I were the other night having a few drinks at Rising Sun by the river when the Soup Messenger came by. Here’s what it sounded like:
[audio:https://www.abejero.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Sound-clip-clak-clak1.mp3|titles=Sound clip clak clak|righticon=0x0000ff]

It’s a relic of the olden days, when food carts roamed the city streets and a little boy was sent ahead to let people know the food is coming. The kid taps a stick against a piece of bamboo, the sound of which the dead of night really carries– especially back when houses were mostly wooden. (The concrete shophouses along the river also bounce a healthy bit of noise). The sequence and rhythm of the clak-clak-clak is code for what kind of food they sold – bohboh (rice soup), nom ban chok (white noodle soup), etc. If you want some, the kid will run back to the cart and bring a bowl of soup to you. The cart pusher will wait until you finish eating (cuz s/he wants his bowl and chopsticks back), and the boy will go on ahead looking for more customers.

When we heard the familiar clak-clak-claks, Keith chased the kid down for a photo (we’ve been trying to catch a picture of him for months!). But it just doesn’t really do it justice. So when the kid came back around to go into the opposite direction I chased after him for a sound clip. It was dark and hardly a soul was out on the streets, so he was probably thinking how loony foreigners are.

[Read more…] about late night soup messenger clak-clak-claking down the street

Filed Under: Travels Tagged With: bamboo, Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Rising Sun, soup

Primary Sidebar

Those little feet pitter-pattering about rule our lives lately. But on the occasional free moment I get to tap out scatterbrained bursts of consciousness about raising toddlers in Cambodia, traveling with them and working abroad. These posts are my personal updates to friends and family. But since you’re here, have a look around. Thanks for stopping by…

Read More…

Tweets by nabejero

Blog Post Categories

  • Interests
  • Life
  • Travels
  • Work

Latest posts

  • Kids project: Micro-loans to women entrepreneurs
  • I ran the 50th NYC Marathon!
  • Bok l’hong with Margaritas or, memories from the Mekong
  • Getting the kids to like ampalaya (bitter gourd)
  • Gender differences in athletic training
  • Commuting and office work in the time of Covid
  • Until Covid-19 messaging improves, who do you turn to?
  • Filipino snack

Tags

aid baby Bangkok bush Cambodia christmas coconut covid-19 cuisine delivery development expat expatriate Filipino food food foreign aid holiday hurricane inauguration katrina Khmer Khmer cuisine Khmer food Khmer New Year kids levy louisiana mango Manila medical tourism mekong new orleans nola nyc obama parenthood parenting Philippines Phnom Penh Poipet running Thailand travel US xmas
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in