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April Heat Brings Juicy Treat

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April is here and that means it’s Mango Season! This is a great chance to try famous Khmer mangos which are known for their sweet taste and juiciness. The mango harvest season is typically during March to April and from October to November. Mango trees have been cultivated in Cambodia thousands of years ago. It is a popular fruit usually eaten green or ripe with salt and chilli as a snack, shredded in a salad or with fish, and ripen with sticky rice as a dessert in Khmer cuisine. Eat it green, try them ripe, these stone fruits are packed with nutrients and are perfect for the tropical heat of April. Here are nine healthy reasons why you should go out and get some mangoes right now! Healthy Heart Mangoes contain magnesium and potassium, two nutrients associated with lower blood pressure and regular heartbeat. In addition, they contain a compound known as mangiferin, which early studies suggest may help reduce inflammation in the heart. Extensive studies reveal that mangiferin reduces cholesterol, triglycerides, and free fatty acids, as well as protects heart tissue. This powerful antioxidant also keeps cells healthy by fighting against oxidative stress. Improved Digestive Health The fiber in mangoes stimulates your digestive system and helps regulate your blood sugar levels. One cup of mango contains 3 grams of fiber, which is roughly 10 percent of what you need. Fiber slows down sugar absorption and helps regulate blood sugar levels. Dietary fiber has been an important factor for digestive health for years. Mangoes have been found to help alleviate constipation and maintain regularity. People who consume the daily recommended amount of fiber have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, GERD, obesity, and hypertension. Support Immune System. Mangoes contains 20 valuable nutrients, including 50 percent of your daily recommended value of vitamin C, and 35 percent of your daily recommended value of vitamin A. Vitamin C not only protects your body against oxidative stress, but it also protects your skin from sun damage. A single cup of mango also contains about 10% of our daily dose of vitamin A, another essential nutrient that supports the immune system. Protect Eyes Carrots aren’t the only thing to help eyesight. If you are craving something sweet or sour, try a mango. Like carrots, this yellow orangish tropical fruit also has carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, vitamin A, and beta carotene. These all help prevent eye damage and maintain eyesight, so you can see how green mangoes can ripen into their beautiful warm color. Fight Diabetes and Cancer The stone fruit is also a great source of protection from free radical damage. Free radicals are associated with many chronic diseases and aging in general. Mangoes contain high amounts of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamin C, which can protect cells from free radical damage. Mangoes have phenolic acids, mangiferin, carotenoids, and gallotannins, which are anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and anti-cancer benefits. Great for Skin Eating mango is a great way to improve your skin from the inside out. Mangoes are rich in vitamin C, which plays a role in skin health and may even help reduce the signs of aging. Keeping Fit Mango is low in fat and only has about 100 calories per serving. One of the benefits of eating a green mango is that the energy to eat the fruit is more than the calories it contains. A one-cup serving of mango also has 2.6 grams of fiber, which can help you stay feeling full longer and can substitute for junk food! Remember, ripe mango is high in sugar, so stick to the green ones. Pregnant Cravings Craving mangoes while eating for two? Perfect! A serving of mango has many nutrients to support the healthy development of your baby. One cup of this fruit has significant amounts of vital vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, A, B6, and folate to help support the development of a baby and can keep mama happy too. Sleeping Beauty Feeling sleepless? Mango can help! The juicy fruit contains vitamin B6, which is known for producing serotonin – a chemical that helps with sleep and regulates our mood. Three-quarters of a cup of mango typically provides 8 percent of your daily B6 needs for a snooze. Written by Sotheavy Nou

Topaz makes Asia top-100 eatery list

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The pandemic has not been kind to the restaurant industry as a whole. Thousands of good eateries have been forced to close over the past couple of years, many of which would no doubt have otherwise been thriving businesses today and Cambodia has suffered its share of culinary losses during the downturn. Despite the challenges in recent years, one of Cambodia’s long-time fine dining establishments has managed to not only survive but do so with award-winning distinction having made the “Asia’s Best Restaurants” list, which was announced on March 23. Although the official name of the awards is “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants”, their rankings actually extend out to the 100 best restaurants in Asia and Phnom Penh’s own Topaz was listed at 90 – the first time any Cambodian restaurant has cracked the Asia top 100 list. Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants was launched in 2013 to celebrate gastronomy across the region and to provide local insight and culinary recommendations. There is no candidate list or online poll, rather the restaurants are nominated by a panel of more than 300 culinary experts through a structured and audited voting procedure. This year Topaz debuted on the list at 90 amongst such prestigious restaurants as The Chairman in Hong Kong, Gaggan Annam in Thailand, Odette in Singapore and Den in Tokyo. It is the first time in the celebrated list’s history that a Cambodian restaurant has been voted in. Pov Sopheak, Topaz’s executive chef who has been with the restaurant since 2002, was overjoyed at the news. “Honestly, my heart is bursting with joy. This is my second time in my over 20 year career as a chef that I’ve won an award like this. The first time was in 2011 when I placed 4th at the MLA Black Box culinary challenge in Australia. “I’m so proud of the work that my teammates and I did in order to make this list. I can’t thank them enough – each and every person who works at Topaz – because I know that this could only have happened with everyone’s efforts,” Sopheak tells The Post. Lina Hak, who joined Topaz in 2005 as a part time secretary and then became the general manager and director of operations a few years later, was also thrilled to have earned international recognition. “We are extremely honoured and I believe it’s a testament to Cambodia and what we can do. We see ourselves as ambassadors for Cambodian tourism. This award serves as a foundation for our pursuit of excellence through constant improvement,” says Hak. Hak continues, noting that the hospitality industry continues to deal with huge challenges wrought by the pandemic. The ban on dining out and the lockdown regulations impacted them greatly just like they did the entire restaurant sector and it was tough to stay positive at times with very few customers and no real idea about when it was all going to go back to normal. One thing they were not willing to compromise, Hak says – despite the added challenges – was the standard of quality of their food and dining experience and she sees a lesson for others in their commitment to high standards paying off for them in the end. “What I think is very exciting is that the younger crop of Cambodian chefs and restaurateurs can look at what we have accomplished and know it is possible – with the right commitment, with the right vision, with the right people on board,” Hak says. Hak says she thinks the biggest contributing factor for Topaz to making the list is the mentality and drive for excellence from every staff member when everyone has the same goal and puts in 110 per cent to try to achieve it and they are always trying to improve on every aspect of the dining experience. “Nothing is ever perfect. We can always do better. Even when we are riding high in the reviews and ratings, there is never settling for good enough. The belief here at Topaz is that things can always be improved upon. “Everyone who works here has the same mentality, which is to make the restaurant as good as it can possibly be. I am incredibly proud of the team for their unwavering dedication to Topaz and what we offer our guests,” the 37-year-old general manager says. Topaz first opened its doors in 1997, so making this list now in 2022 has been a nice 25th anniversary present for them and a recognition of their status as the top destination for French fine dining in the heart of Phnom Penh. Topaz aims to offer a genuine French fine-dining experience with authentic tastes and combinations of fresh ingredients sourced from the Marché Rungis in Paris or from carefully selected suppliers in France and Cambodia. However, though Topaz has a strong focus on French cuisine, Sopheak says he often adapts dishes to customers’ tastes and they do have some Asian dishes on their menu because. “We aren’t strictly just a French restaurant so much as we are really a French-Cambodian restaurant and we take pride in the work we do building up the skills of the next generation of young chefs, managers and other hospitality workers who learn how to do things the right way by working with us,” Sopheak says. Sopheak recounts how he made his own debut at Topaz at the bottom rung of the career ladder as a kitchen boy in October, 2002. He says he applied himself and gradually climbed the ladder in the restaurant’s kitchen until he was finally offered the position of chef de cuisine in 2010. “I first studied cooking with the NGO Friends International, which is known in particular for its restaurants Friends and Romdeng in Phnom Penh and Marum in Siem Reap. But then at Topaz my training was taken to the next level. Sopheak’s climb wasn’t easy because Alain Darc – the master chef who he trained under – is someone whose demands for quality … Read more

Chapter 265

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A list of the requirements to live a happy life: Freedom Self Sufficiency Friendship Thought Wine Bread & Cheese -Epicurus, (#Note: Epicurus was an avowed teetotal, the author here has substituted water with wine) Epicurus The famous Greek philosopher Epicurus reminds us that we replace emotional needs with commercial wants. “Why then, if expensive things cannot bring us remarkable joy, are we so powerfully drawn to them? Because of an error similar to that of a migraine sufferer who drills a whole in the side of their skull: because expensive objects can feel like plausible solutions to needs that we don’t fully understand. Objects mimic in a material dimension what we require in a psychological one. We need to rearrange our minds but are lured to new shelves. We buy a cashmere cardigan as a substitute for the counsel of friends. We are not solely to blame for our confusions. Our weak understanding of our needs is aggravated by what Epicurus termed the ‘idle opinions’ of those around us, which do not reflect the natural hierarchy of our needs, emphasizing luxury and riches, seldom friendship, freedom and thought. The prevalence of idle opinion is no coincidence. It is in the interests of commercial enterprises to skew the hierarchy of our needs, to promote a material vision of the good and downplay an unsaleable one. And the way we are enticed is through the sly association of superfluous objects with our own forgotten needs. It may be a ‘Jeep’ we end up buying but it was –for Epicurus- freedom we were looking for. It may be the aperitif we purchase but it was –for Epicurus- friendship we were after. It may be the new bathing salts and oils we acquire but it was –for Epicurus- thought that would have brought us calm.” Alain de Botton –The Consolations of Philosophy Commensality For most of us in the developed world, eating is no longer a question of survival it is something that has transcended mere sustenance. Food is traditional, cultural, emotional, it is part of who we are, where we come from, and how we wish to live. As the French critic, epicurean and gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, (1755-826) once said: “Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are”. What people eat can inform us about where they come from geographically, socio-economically, religiously, or even philosophically. We come together over food, and often it is the very act of sharing food itself that brings us together; eating is communal and community, we commune with family and with friends at meal time, we talk about our lives, we foment ideas, participate in society; we come to appreciate and at times celebrate the food, the wine and the company in front of us. Breaking bread, eating with someone is intimate, it is sharing that which sustains us, it is caring about the person you are with, it is a moment to be cherished and to take into your heart. We choose what we eat, how much we eat, and who we eat it with, and this, in turn, creates who we are in both a physical, (health) and a spiritual, (psychological and emotional) sense. Australia Post War Australia saw a nation rattled by the prospects of invasion, a once introspective country -now it was ready and willing to be more heuristic and open-minded. Although a federation since 1901, Australia’s non-indigenous population was almost exclusively British and for all intents and purposes the young nation considered itself to be merely no more than to be part of the ‘Empire’, an extension of the mother country. Two world wars in only 25 years and an all-conquering invader on its doorstep, one that had bombed a city on Australian soil and sent submarines into the largest harbor of its most populist city, soon changed its approach to nationhood. Immigration was seen as vital to the future defense of the country and was radically opened up for the very first time, ‘Populate or Perish’ was the political catchphrase. At the beginning of the second world war, the official Australian population stood at just seven million people and just 7.4 million six years later at the end of the war, by the end of the 1960s that figure had reached over 12.6 million, and by 1976 the population had double from post-war figures. This brought a dramatic change in the population mix, in its thinking, its culture, habits, and, along with a booming economy, a dramatic change in the national diet. Australian Culinaria was about to embark on a journey of great discovery and transformation, that began with southern European migration in the 50s and 60s, followed by Asian migration in the 70s and 80s, and evolved into a sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and wholly adventurous outlook on food by the turn of the century. Today, Australia has a population of just under 26 million people. Lunches at the Imperial In the early 1950s, a few members of the South Australian wine industry would gather regularly on a Friday for lunch. It soon became custom to bring a bottle of wine ‘masked’ in a paper bag and served ‘blind’ to get some honest feedback from one’s industry peers. Of course, this was not meant to be too rigorous an examination and for decades many recalled with great mirth the time Tom Hardy put on the same wine, masked as ‘Red Number 1’ and ‘Red Number 2’ and then listened straight-faced glee as his colleagues expended a great deal of oxygen and vocabulary pointing out the many differences in the two wines! Ray Drew was chief accountant at Hardy’s winery at the time, and one of the original members of the informal ‘lunch group’. In an ‘oral history’ interview donated to the State Library of South Australia, Drew recalled the camaraderie and conviviality of the time: “I would say that nearly everybody at Hardys—the management team—would go out and have their bottle of table wine for lunch. … Read more

Small Fish in a Big Pond

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Kek Soon’s Cambodian Kitchen is an exciting story, a foodie story unique from the regular crop of cooking shows. It tells how Kek Soon and her young chefs are building their own futures and doing this by visiting high-end resorts, hotels and hospitality ventures, through to traveling to remote villages, coastal fish markets, and indigenous communities in the highlands. None of our young team of chefs has ever been to the city before. Each of Soon’s students are daughters of fishermen and have rarely had the opportunity to travel much beyond their small village communities. Needless to say the Thalias offer to host this group is incredibly exciting but still, parents would need to understand more about the project and learn for themselves and the sake of their kids, why such an experience is so important for young ones striving for a future. Arriving at the splendid Arunreas Hotel was an eye-popping experience for all as we rolled out the mini-van door. It’s a wonderfully appointed storied Hotel and a place that was once upon a time the US Embassy in Phnom Penh. Flash cars surround the entrance and once inside, you are in a sanctuary and a real escape from the bustling city outside. We were immediately welcomed and felt very much at home. Wonderful rooms and super-size bathtubs, a couple of the kids thought these might actually be little swimming pools! Not only was it their first time in the city but first time experiencing a luxury hotel and a place where they were made to feel very welcome as guests, not just a group of aspiring young students. First and perhaps the most important stop was Malis Restaurant. This is a legendary part of the Cambodian cuisine story and of course, it’s the restaurant right at the heart of the Thalias story. Malis was the first step in an incredible, 26-year partnership between founders Arnaud Darc and chef Luu Meng. It’s a journey that really mirrors Cambodia’s own remarkable development story and is very much at the centre of the Kingdom’s return to a sophistication and a quality of hospitality that had all but vanished during the decades long civil war in Cambodia. Today, Thalias Hospitality Group’s famed restaurants, delis and bakeries and luxurious Arunreas hotel are jewels in the crown of the hospitality industry in Cambodia. Malis is at the centre of the contemporary Cambodian cuisine story and a must-do dinning experience for any gourmand visiting Cambodia, so it’s no surprise it’s seen long list of famous and distinguished guests. But today we were all made to feel like VIP’s and our young chefs loved this experience, especially Luu Hong’s launch example, taking typical rice noodle dish found everywhere across Cambodia and explaining how Malis has pioneered contemporary Cambodian cuisine through carefully considered and highly creative rewordings of traditional flavours and ingredients. Through sitting down to a delicious lunch of steaming hot noodle soup and an in person explanation from Sous Chef Luu Hong, our young team understood they were on a trip like no other, a really exceptional chance to learn. Day two provided an action packed tour of Khéma Pasteur exceptionally organized all-in-one bakery, café, deli and gourmet restaurant. This was especially exciting for our young team as many have already spent the last year learning to bake at FICAC’s little countryside kitchen. Now to see a fully professional French bakery in action was a real eye-opener. Trays of delicious French pastry classics flying out of ovens while baking staff, worked dough into delicious fresh bread and a front of house worked a well-stocked delicatessen, and showed how Khéma’s free flow breakfast makes it one of the cities most popular dinning experiences. Next stop was Topaz and a chance to see a high-class Phnom Penh restaurant the genuine French fine dining experience its renowned for in action. The feel of Topaz and it’s vast open space in the middle of a bustling city is the first experiential effect that meets you on arrival but then it’s also the professionalism of staff and management. On this occasional we were met with founder Arnaud Darc alongside Topaz general manager Lina Hak and Sous Chef Sopheak Pov who each took time to introduce the story behind Topaz and show how a dedication to staff training and the working environment makes this a place where Michelin-starred chefs have come to visit and share their own experience with local staff. We also came to see and understand more and more how local NGO PSE – Pour un Sourire d’Enfant underscores everything in the Cambodian hospitality industry. Not only at the Thalias group but also at other leading resorts, we found that most of the staff had started out at PSE and had moved into real careers. We also learned that part of this story includes a rather remarkable individual know simply at Papa Chef – a larger than life character whom we’d had a wonderful encounter with early that morning. Alain Darc, affectionately known as Papa Chef loams large in the story of Cambodian hospitality. Alain, father of Arnaud Darc, has spent a lifetime in kitchens and comes from a long line of cooks and cuisine heritage going way back to French Royalty. In Cambodia Papa Chef is best known for his years of voluntary teaching at PSE as well as commercial kitchens where he is both revered and loved for this contribution to training many young Cambodian who have literally come from nothing to achieve real success and to build their own careers. Overall this has been an essential part of the success of today’s hospitality industry success in Cambodia. I think our young group of cooks may have caught Papa Chef by surprise but together they made for a great picture as Alain Darc recounted his own experience from an early age “it’s good you kids are starting early… you must start learning young… I was already cooking the French Fries at just 8 years old!” French Fries was certainly popular with our kids from Fish Island during their … Read more

Dressed to Slay and Here to Stay

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Dressed to Slay and Here to Stay Every morning, Nov Meansambo routinely wakes up at 4 am, prepares a hot espresso, and starts her workout routine. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while establishing herself as a career woman, has recently become Nov’s goal as she enters her 40s. Armed with a perfect ensemble of tailored outfits and careful makeup, Nov represents the modern cosmopolitan woman and an iconic figure in Thalias Hospitality as its General Manager. Born in Phnom Penh, Nov has spent much time in Siem Reap and has over 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry. Nov has been working with Thalias for 5 years after starting out as General Manager at Khema La Poste and then was transferred into management over the restaurant, Malis, for 2 years. She learned early at a young age that she had to work hard to get far in life. She recalls the responsibility she bore as a child, waking at sunrise to prepare meals for taxi drivers and vendors in front of Phsar Depo Market as part of her family duties. Her upbringing for community and family has followed her to adulthood, as she would often spend her free time donating blood to the local children’s hospital or reading to the local school children. “Never put boundary to yourself no matter where you came from,” Nov advised. “Regardless of how bad(suffering) of your past —you will get through it when you put your heart into what you do.” Nov is not only is fluent in English and Japanese as well as her native tongue, Khmer; but she has also made it her goal to travel as much as she can. She has visited Japan 7 times for business. “I would love to bring my parents to see Cherry Blossom when Japan opens its doors after Covid,“ Nov confined. The earlier days of the pandemic travel restrictions pushed her to put her responsibilities into overdrive. “I did come to work every day regardless,” Nov said grimly. “I keep motivating my team despite the difficult time.” Nov donated to families who were struck hard by the pandemic, supporting her staff and managing the team during health emergencies and difficulties with the availability of supplies. Fearing burnout, Nov tries to keep her life balanced with physical activities, watching movies and cooking shows on Netflix and daydreaming of travelling. Loyalty and Commitment — to the Job After two decades in the hospitality industry, Nov feels at home with Thalias. “ Thalias has been always empowering each and every women team member,” Nov stated. “Especially (by) the strong motivation to women, showing and guiding us (in) how to build self-confidence and the capability to grow stronger and bolder by keeping sharing and training us in skills, knowledges and life experiences.” Nov explained that there are good opportunities for women to pursue a career in hospitality, with the soft skills of human interactions, being professional, and having a strong commitment to the job. Although she has faced some challenges based on her gender along the way, her commitment to her job and career has given her the strength to overcome any obstacle. Some of the best tips she can offer are to invest in teamwork, to pursue the commitment to the job, and that there are no shortcuts to success. “Team work is the most valuable asset and in treating them as the first customers,” Nov advised. “The more you share in knowledge and skills, the better they are. So we have a strong team to grow and succeed altogether.” “Hospitality is one of the most fragile service industries, yet it provides lots of opportunities and challenges to grow,” she added. “Perseverance always pays and never give up. A difficult road often leads to a beautiful destination.” Thirdly, “never underestimate the thickness of iceberg, what we can see just a small top, which means we can see other people’s success easily,” Nov pointed out. “But we don’t know how much effort, hard works, stresses, commitment, persistence, failure, sacrifice that (the person) puts in order to achieve their goal.” Written by Sotheavy Nou

An independent woman

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Enjoying the Fruit Success Its been two years since the start of the pandemic and life has changed drastically for Cham Reoun Pok. Now the general manager of the renowned Malis restaurant in Phnom Penh, Pok is enjoying her 40s as an independent woman overseeing the pride of Cambodian cuisine. Born in Battambang province, Pok spent most of her youth in Takeo province. She worked her way up in various venues in the hospitality industry — from restaurant manager in 2012 to operation manager in 2017, and now she is celebrating her latest promotion to general management. Supervising the daily operations, she recruits and trains the staff as well as inspects the accounting and marketing of Malis. Mothering Autonomy As a mother of two daughters, Pok wants to set a good example for them and hopes to provide as many opportunities as she can for other women who are looking to have a strong career and who would like to live self-sufficiently. At the age of 21 and 18, both daughters live in their own apartment in the city, a process Pok encourages more families to arrange. Although many young adults often travel to the city to work and live on their own, most daughters live with their parents until they get engaged or married. It’s an unconventional path, Pok agreed, but she thinks it’s important for her daughters to learn how to be adults on their own. “I want my daughters to be independent when they make wrong decisions,” Pok explained. “They’ll learn better.” She still meets with her daughters and continues to give advice as they pursue their education and careers, but she also gives them the freedom to find their identities as adults without feeling the need to control their every choice. Pruning Expectations Looking back on her life, Pok often wonders where she would have been now if she had listened to every critic or to the expectations placed on her as a woman. Under Khmer culture, she was expected to put any career aside for the sake of the family. She sees many women who think they can only look after children or the elderly without even considering a career of their own. She was told many times that she could not do a job because she was a woman and that she would be expected to be devoted to her family rather than her career. Pok proved them wrong. Not only did she put in extra hours to complete the tasks in her job, but she pushed for her daughters to do the same. Invest in themselves, aspire for more, and seek opportunities in their careers. Seeing her daughter thrive in their own spaces brings joy to Pok. In her eyes, they represent a shift for women in Cambodia. “Nowadays, the young generation changes their mind a lot, for example, they can move out from their family’s countryside home to the city to continue their study and at the same time get part time job,” Pok stated. “It means that they trying to live independent lives, without their family support.” Pok believes that breaking the rules of an outdated concept is part of every generation’s legacy. Smiling over a cup of coffee and a signature Malis rice cracker, she smiles. It was now her turn to enjoy the fruit of her own labours.

An Ode to Brunch

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Brunch, (noun) a late morning meal eaten instead of breakfast and lunch. Origin: late 19th century, a blend of breakfast and lunch. The 1896 supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary cites Punch magazine which wrote that the term was coined in Britain in 1895 to describe a Sunday meal for “Saturday-night carousers” in the writer Guy Beringer’s article “Brunch: A Plea” in Hunter’s Weekly’. Instead of England’s early Sunday dinner, a post church ordeal of heavy meats and savoury pies, why not a new meal, served around noon, that starts with tea or coffee, marmalade and other breakfast fixtures before moving along to the heavier fare? By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday-night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well. “Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting.” Beringer wrote. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” – William Grimes, “At Brunch, The More Bizarre the Better” New York Times, 1998 It is sometimes credited to reporter Frank Ward O’Malley who wrote for the New York newspaper The Sun from 1906 until 1919, allegedly based on the typical mid-day eating habits of a newspaper reporter. Brunch is Genius Never wake up too late for a meal, Brunch, Hung-over, Brunch, early glass of booze with your bacon and eggs, Brunch, hang with friends to reconstruct the night before, Brunch, want eggs late or steak early, Brunch. If there is anything more intimate, pleasurable and enjoyable than a long, lazy Brunch with friends then you simply wouldn’t be able to do it outdoors, (although you might all talk about it later say, whilst masticating over Brunch!) An Ode to Brunch “Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are.” Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin: ‘The Physiology of Taste’ (1825) Brunch is without question the most civilized of all concepts of eating, yet it is culinary, social rebellion personified. Brunch will not rise early for a morning jog and some roughage with the breaking day, brunch will not wait for the sun to go over the yard arm and announce a respectable hour to commune with liquor. Brunch will not be hurried, nor conform to a particular appointment, no one ever raced to a quick Brunch appointment before heading off to their next meeting. Brunch is a semi-formed concept where you straggle in when you are physically able, graze as slowly and for as long as you like and leave when you are sated, quenched, when you feel absolved of your sins, once dear friends have warmed your heart, when your mind is at peace with the world and you feel cleansed in your soul. Brunch is reflection, repair and resurrection. Brunch is communion; with family or friends, gone are the formalities and expectations that come with dinner, or the awkward and impossible notion that is an informal lunch, Brunch says, just come if you want and arrive when you like, wear whatever you can lay your hands on, eat whatever you feel like, drink whatever takes your fancy, sate your allotriophagy and take your time about it. Brunch says, relax and perhaps, if you feel like it, let’s talk about whatever we like, whimsical and silly, philosophical and epic, there is no family crisis or broken heart that cannot be solved or resolved over a good, long Brunch. Brunch is an oasis; breakfast, lunch and dinner are part of our daily routine but Brunch exists somewhere beyond these parameters, it Brunch is the meal of the Lotophagi, a languid, indolent and dreamy grazing. It is a portal to another dimension, one that lies beyond the stresses and hustle of our worldly samsara, where we can escape to a form of gastronomical meditation that transcends the nausea of daily existence. Brunch is where time stops for us and nothing exists beyond the boundaries of our little garden of nirvana, our table setting, the fluffy, bitter/sweet consistency of the hollandaise sauce, drizzled lovingly over the perfectly poached eggs and Canadian bacon of our Benedictine viands, the creamy, frothy truth of a strong café latte and the spa like absolution that is a glass of morning prosecco. Brunch as an antidote for frustration: Seneca was the father of Stoicism and an advisor to the insane Roman emperor Nero, he was deeply interested in the source of anger and frustration and concluded that the source of all frustration was the collision between the real world and our expectations of it. The world and all of its phenomena go on being and acting as they are but, when they do not act in accordance with our belief in the way they should act, we become frustrated and at times, even angry. Seneca felt that the wise should start each day with the thought: Fortune gives us nothing which we can really own. Nothing, whether public or private, is stable; the destinies of people, no less than those of cities are in a whirl…We live in the middle of things…Reckon on everything, expect everything. The sanctuary of a contemplative Brunch, alone in a tranquil garden or a quiet corner in a café can give us the time and space to look back at the world and reflect on its nature, allowing us, from this calm inlet amidst the turbulent swell of life’s ocean, to reconcile within ourselves the world as it is and the world as we see it: We may be powerless to alter certain events, but we remain free to choose our attitude towards them. It is in our spontaneous acceptance of necessity that we find our distinctive freedom. Brunch is freedom. Brunch is glossophagine; we eat brunch lovingly, we eat with our tongues, not as reptiles but as sensual creatures, as Eve licked the apple in such a manner as to convince Adam to forgo eternal life for … Read more

Dover Sole the ‘Rolls Royce of fish’

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Solea Solea (The Life of a Common Sole) The Solea solea species of the Soleidae, (flat fish) family, gets its name from the Latin word for sandals. It is sometimes called Common Sole but, most famously it is known as Dover Sole. The Dover Sole takes its name from the fact that the British fishing fleet out of Dover supplied more of this highly desirable fish to the Billingsgate fish markets than any other. The Dover Sole likes the warmer waters south of the British Isles, the English Channel, Irish Sea and southern parts of the North Sea. Some claim the best quality are caught off the Bay of Biscay. A right eyed flat fish with its mouth on the left, Dover Sole lives in shallow sea beds of sand and shingle. Interestingly, this unusual delicacy is born as a normal fish, with an eye on each side of its head, only to undergo a strange metamorphosis -where the left eye moves over onto the right side of the body- once they reach about 1 cm long. Sole grow to a maximum length of about 70 centimeters long and are quite thick and plump for a flatfish. The Dover Sole takes between 3 to 5 years to reach full maturity and if smaller fish are caught commercially they are called a ‘slip’. Slip fried in butter is a popular dish in the Netherlands. Sole are a grey/brown, mottled and darkish colour on the tope side, with a white underside, they have small eyes and mouth, a long fin running down the top and bottom of their body and a small tail fin. Technically, they lay in shallow sea bed on their side, with their two eyes on the upward facing side of their body. Sole Food “I like Dover sole. It’s always one of my favorites. I like it when I’m in England. I eat it every day almost. I think it’s probably one of my favorite fish.” — Chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck The Dover sole is famous for its delicate taste and firm texture, it is sometimes described by chefs and food critics as a meat-eaters fish and is the fundamental ingredient in perhaps the finest and most acclaimed seafood dish in the world, ‘Sole Meunière’. It turns out that this glorious dish is a rather straight forward dish to prepare, just so long as you have the right sole fish, (Dover) its fresh and is treated it with a venerable amount of respect. For a fish sometimes referred to as ‘Common’ it is anything but, and will often be the most expensive seafood dish on the menu. Whilst there are other sole-fish species, (that sometimes borrow the name) it is only the ‘Dover’ Sole -from the coastlines around Britain and the English Channel- that produce a dish of such exceptional refinement and joyous palatability. The French term Meunière means miller in English, (as in flour miller) which refers to the fish being coated in flour prior to cooking, this protects its texture and enhances its flavour, by creating a delicate brown coating when frying the fish. The Sole Meunière is then cooked in clarified butter, seasoned and served with parsley and lemon juice. It is known to have been a favourite dish of France’s ‘Sun King’, Louis XIV, (1638-1715) and whilst there is no definitive history of the dish, its simplicity alone suggests that it is probably very, very old. In 1951, whilst living in Paris, American chef Julia Child graduated from the famous ‘Cordon Bleu’ cooking school in Paris and later studied privately with Max Bugnard and other master chefs. She joined the women’s cooking club ‘Le Cercle des Gourmettes’, through which she met Simone Beck, who was writing a French cookbook for Americans with her friend Louisette Bertholle. These three began to teach cooking to American women in Child’s Paris kitchen, calling their informal school ‘L’école des trois gourmands’. Their book, ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ was first published in 1961 and was an instant best-seller, the book is still in print today and is considered a seminal culinary work. This opened up further opportunities for Child, who went on to write for newspapers and magazines and started her own television show ‘The French Chef’ in 1963. The show would run for ten years and collected many awards and was extremely popular with American housewives of the day who made her a star. Julia Child would go on to write many more bestselling cookbooks and star in many more cooking shows for television. A precursor to the celebrity chefs of the current era, and people like Martha Stewart, Child was the most famous culinary personality in the United States at the peak of her career, and one of American television’s biggest stars. Such was her fame that today, her actual home kitchen sits on display in the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History. Long before all the cooking fame started, when Child first moved to France with her husband back in 1948, they had travelled by sea, (a rough one apparently) and docked at Le Harve. Driving themselves to Paris, they stopped along the way for what would be their very first meal in their new homeland. The couple pulled into La Couronne in Rouen, Normandy, up until then Childs husband -himself a well-traveled gourmand- had been teaching her a great deal on how to appreciate good food, fine wine and the art of the table; after this meal nothing in Child’s life would ever be the same again. The experience had such a profound effect on Child that she wrote about it many times, re-counting it in great detail, and describing it to the New York Times as “an opening up of the soul and spirit for me”, she would later recall in her memoir “at La Couronne I experienced fish, and a dining experience, of a higher order than any I’d ever had before’. Yet it almost never happened: “At … Read more

Khéma’s Wine and Dine is back!

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Thursday nights are for… Wine & Dine at Khéma. Gather up with your best friends and indulge in our signature Wine & Dine featuring unlimited servings of our favourite wines, All-You-Can-Eat cheese, cold cuts and much more from our generous counter for only $25 net special deal (until end of March instead of $29.90 net person). Every Thursday from 6PM to 8PM Book your favorite Khéma now https://khema-restaurant.com/reservations/

Monthly Market Offers Neighbourly Bliss

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If you look around the busy street of 158-160 Norodom Boulevard on the first Sunday of the month, more often than not, you’ll see a cluster of people around the tall gates of Odom Garden for the monthly Farmers’ Market. The market, which has drawn in families, vendors, pet-lovers, and food-aficionados alike, is the brainchild of the dynamic duo, Jennifer and Pesei. Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Jennifer worked with Phnom Penh local Pesei at an NGO for a few years, before discovering that they were efficient in working together. “We have a lot of experience in coordinating programmes and management,” Jennifer explained. “Especially in the realm of hospitality and tourism.” Both in their 30s, the women began organizing the Odom Farmers’ Market as a simple concept to hopefully provide an opportunity within the community for locals and expats to sell organic produce. Since then, the market has expanded into a bazaar of artisans, pop up shops, and a venue for smaller businesses to market their products in a beautiful location. “Odom Garden was being officially opened at the time (September 2020) and hosted the market as a venue with the hopes to entice more visitors to this newly created (though temporary) community outdoor space provided by Urban Living Solutions (ULS),” Jennifer recalled. “When we first started our market had 12 vendors and initially we found it quite difficult to attract organic produce vendors to the space as it was relatively unknown.” They then extended their invitation to other independent businesses to join the first event — similar to what Jennifer had seen in the Australian farmers’ market, which offered a few various services and products from local small businesses. Odom Garden served as the perfect spot for their idea to grow. Located in the middle of the city, it had 4,000sqm which includes tall trees, a family-friendly playground, a dog-friendly area, and a cafe. “OFM became a passion project and we love coordinating it and being part of this community,” Jennifer smiled. “Odom Garden is an incredible space — it offers a great day out with food options onsite. Combine that with a vibrant community market atmosphere and you can understand why OFM has become such a highly anticipated monthly event in Phnom Penh.” Waking from Hibernation In 2020, they were able to run four successful markets before the pandemic restricted their activities until November. They implemented safety regulations by asking vendors and visitors to wear masks, undergo temperature checks while attempting to check for QR registration and vaccine cards as much as possible. Small businesses struggled to keep their venues and maintain their sales during travel restrictions and health scares, but the Odom Farmers’ Market (OFM) became an event to regain the loss of sales. Due to the affordable table rent, outside area, and high traffic, many small businesses flooded the registration for the market. Each event became different, with the vendor list is constantly changing to include new brands and crowd favorites, seeking to appeal to everyone. “For both of us, it’s important that OFM doesn’t limit access for brands based on what a vendor sells,” Jennifer stated. “If you have a small business, a side-hustle (something many people have these days thanks to COVID), a service business or NGO and want to get the message out to the community about your product or business – OFM is the place to do that.“ Both ladies enjoy seeing the hamlet of vendors bloom into a one-stop-shop of convenience for visitors to savour and explore what their local community has to offer. Jennifer noted that the market had become something to look forward to each month. The market draws visitors looking to make time to catch up with friends make plans to eat, shop local brands, and escape the concrete walls of the city for a while. Both Jennifer and Pisei expect the concept of the market to spread to other areas of the city as life returns to normal and new travellers arrive. “We hope that we can continue OFM for some time yet,” Jennifer said wistfully. “Odom Garden is a temporary community space, the hope is we would be able to move the market to another location in future however who knows what will happen!” Written by Sotheavy Nou