May 2022

Brunch has become a traditional time to go out and enjoy a full meal in the late morning or early afternoon with friends and booze. But how did brunch become part of our weekly treat? One of the most interesting parts of brunch is its origin. Although first published in England, the concept of brunch has become part of our cuisine’s history. This meal will forever be embedded in history as the meal that helped the weekends with bacon, eggs, movement in the women’s workforce, and recovering debauchery. Everyone knows that the word “brunch” is a mixture of the words “breakfast” and “lunch, which most likely originated in the 16th century in Vienna. During this, people enjoyed a midmorning meal called “Gabelfruhstuck”, meaning ”fork breakfast. But the concept was first published in an 1895 Hunter’s Weekly article. In “Brunch: A Plea,” British author Guy Beringer encouraged a midday meal in contrast to the traditional heavy, after church Sunday meals. Weekend’s Social Necessity The idea began as a way to sleep in and share a relaxing time with friends. According to Beringer, people who drink heavily on Saturday nights should never right away eat when they wake up. Instead, they should skip breakfast and feast on a big midday meal. Beringer also promoted tea and pastries for after brunch as well as the ideal of sharing the meal and hangover tales with your friends. The main purpose of a brunch meal was to heal hangovers by filling your stomach with something solid. Since then, carbs and vitamin-packed cocktails have been a part of brunch. The Meal That Took Over America Brunch became a hit big in America in the 1930s when actors started making their way across the country by train and stopped in a city for a midday meal. The temptation of waking late was the main selling point. As church attendance floundered after World War II, people searched for a new social outlet. The trend caught on to hotels and restaurants which were closed on Sundays. Restaurants soon began offering a large selection of food, introducing such signature morning cocktails as Bloody Marys, Bellinis and Mimosas. A big push for brunch came from the historic progress for women in America. Women in the workforce needed a break from cooking and wanted to take out their families to dine out rather than eat at home on Sunday. Brunch gained steady popularity because it was economicly freindly by combining two meals into one while still being a treat to look forward to on weekends. The success of brunch, pushed restaurants to began offering it on Saturdays, in addition to Sundays. Going out for brunch became far more popular than staying in. Since then, the notion of brunch has expanded to Chinese dim sum, fancy pastries, and loaded bagels. It has become part of weekend activity to enjoy their favorite brunch hotspots, keeping its core value of over 100 years as a social activity. The Real Brunch Menu Khéma is offering a new brunch experience every Saturday and Sunday. Discover the new brunch menu every Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm. Celebrate like the days of old with a family meal or dine with friends hungover from the night before with Khéma and their wide selection of breakfast and lunch dishes. Feast on the eggs Florentine with baby spinach and signature hollandaise sauce, indulge in the tasty traditional pork and prawn kuy teav noodle soup. This special also offers French classics like quiche lorraine with bacon or cheese and eggs baked in a pie crust. A highlight of the brunch menu is the selection of delicious desserts. The crème brulée, a rich vanilla custard with a caramelized crunchy shell of burnt sugar and the classic crème caramel, du chef, is a popular treat on the menu. Written by: Sotheavy Nou

“The ancient Egyptians believed the god Anubis met each of us on the other side, and that he stood before a great scale on which our hearts were set. There each was weighed, tested for its worth. Was this the heart I wanted measured? “ Victor LaValle Anubis Anubis was an important deity to the Egyptians, depicted as a canine or a man with a canine’s head: he was the god of death and all pertaining to it, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the underworld. Anubis was the protector of graves, the one who would guide your soul into the afterlife. It was the god Anubis who would weigh the hearts of the dead to determine whether they could enter into the realm of the afterlife. Grave of Sorrows The Valle de Cafayate is a part of the Valles Calchaquíes, in Salta Province, northwest Argentina. The area is famous for is breathtaking topography, its intricate geology and unique geography, where sub-tropical forests are folded into mountain desserts. The multi-coloured rock formations in the area are famous landmarks, with names like: El Sapo (The Frog), El Fraile (The Friar) and El Obeslico (The Obelisk). And then there is the Garganta del Diablo, (The Devil’s Throat) near the ghost town of Alemania. The Cafayates were a tribe who, together with the Tolombón, inhabited the Valles Calchaquíes prior to the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores. The word “Cafayate” in the ancient dialect of the Cacana means “burial place for all sorrows”. Cafayate is the heart and soul of the local wine culture, the epicenter for high-altitude wine production in Argentina. With vineyard heights averaging 1700 meters, the area is home to some of the highest winemaking sites on earth. Susana Balbo Of Italian heritage, Susana Balbo’s parents sold tablecloths door-to-door in Guaymallén, Mendoza, and by all accounts they were humble, modest people. As a young girl Susana herself, was nothing if not ambitious; she wanted to study nuclear physics but Susana’s parents forbade her from going away to study. This was understandable at the time given it was the onset of what was to become known as the ‘Guerra Sucia‘, (The Dirty War) in Argentina, when hundreds were killed, thousands were ‘disappeared’ and students were often targeted as sympathizers or agitators. Ultimately, she took up oenology as it could be studied locally, and her parents had purchased a small vineyard because her brother did not want to follow in the family business. In 1981 Susana Balbo became the very first woman in Argentina to earn a degree in oenology, receiving a gold medal along with her Master’s degree for having the highest GPA. This was only the beginning of a hugely successful and much decorated career at some of her country’s most recognizable wineries. Often cited as one of the most influential women winemakers in the world; after gaining experience in Spain, Chile, Italy, Brazil, Australia, and California, Balbo established her own winery in 1999. Since then, she has gone on to forge a much rewarded and respected career, gaining recognition as one of her South America’s greatest winemakers and one of the world’s leading female winemakers. Not satisfied with putting her country’s wines onto the international stage, Balbo has extended her influence into politics and female empowerment. Her list of achievements is substantial: First Woman to graduate in Enology in Argentina – Masters degree with gold medal for highest GPA. Universidad Juan Agustín Maza (Mendoza); 1997 – Awarded by the Argentine Organization of Businesswomen as Women Entrepreneur of the Year; 2001 – Susana Balbo Torrontes selected by British Airways in a blind tasting to be served to Business Class passengers; 2006 – Elected as the President of Wines of Argentina (WofA); 2015 – Awarded the “Woman of the Year” by The Drinks Business. Balbo made the top 10 in 2012 & 2020 – Awarded “Wine Making Legend of the Year” – Tim Atkin MW; Chairwomen of W20 Argentina – A group focused on closing the gender gap in Argentina; and She lists her two children as per greatest achievement with José, a winemaker who graduated from UC Davis (California) and Ana, a Bachelor of Business Administration from University San Andrés (Buenos Aires), both have decided to go on with the family tradition and join the Susana Balbo Winery team. Torrontes Early in her winemaking career, the Torrontes grape variety was being turned into cheap, bulk wine sold in demijohns, or blended away with other white grape varieties as generic blends. The owner of the winery she was working at wanted her to try and make a high quality Torrontes, so Balbo set about making a wine that would have global appeal. Local critics somewhat predictably called the wine ‘too feminine’, but once it was selected for service on Pan-Am airlines first class and began to gain an international audience, the critics were silenced and she is credited with almost singlehandedly changing the fortunes for the variety in Argentina. Because of her success with the variety, Balbo was known for a time as the ‘Queen of Torrontes’. Malbec Although and official variety of Bordeaux, its use in the region diminished significantly after the great frost of 1956, which killed off almost 75% of the Malbec crop. Today, it is Argentina that ‘owns’ the variety on the world stage, producing single varietal Malbec wines that consistently fetch perfect point scores from the critics, win medals and trophies on the world wine show circuit, and fetch breathtaking prices from collectors and connoisseurs. Susana Balbo’s Anubis range is an inexpensive, fruit driven, high quality offering and a great place to start with Argentinian Malbec. This 2020 Malbec comes from the Valle de Cafayate: the wine is dense, dark plum and ox-blood in colour, the aromas are of ripe, fragrant black cherry, pomegranate and blueberry, with notes of black olive, poêle à épices and mixed peel combines with subtle hints of graphite and smoke. Ripe fruit floods the palate, the wine is plush and … Read more

“The sweetness of food does not last long, but the sweetness of good words do.” Thai Proverb Whilst I lived in Thailand some time ago, I became very fond of a local saying taught to me by my Thai friends; I cherished it, mostly because I could observe it in action almost every day. The saying went something like this: ‘Thais eat five meals a day with snacks in between and when we are not eating, we are thinking about our next meal’, this often preceded the additional comment; ‘it’s only funny because it’s true!’ Few could blame them, Thai cuisine is truly delicious, their street snacks are legion, and legendary and their love of food is glorious, as is their sense of humor. In the West, we have this long held notion of three-square meals per day, with the early evening meal with family being the main meal of the day. However, just as what we eat has changed over time, when we eat, and the emphasis we place on each meal has changed dramatically. For many, particularly Greeks, Romans and Mediterranean cultures, a large midday meal, followed by a nap to pass the hottest period of the day, was the normal practice. Food historian Ivan Day told the BBC, “The whole day used to be structured much differently; people got up much earlier and they went to bed much earlier.” Making maximum use of natural light was of paramount importance. Dinner was always the main meal, but back in the Middle Ages this would be taken during late morning. Through the centuries, as dinner kept getting pushed back later and later, (by the time gaslight was common it would replace the ‘supper’ meal) a new term was needed for the midday meal, and lunch it was to be. It should ne noted that in some cultures, the midday meal is still the most important meal of the day and is often still referred to as ‘dinner’. Nicola Twilley on her well-researched and thoughtful website: www.ediblegeography.com , wrote that ‘whilst lunch may be the second meal of the day, it was the last of the three daily meals to rise above its snack origins to achieve that status.’ As early as 1591, the term was being used to mean a ‘thick piece, hunk or chunk’ as in a “lunch of bacon”. Twilley notes that in the 1755 edition of ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ by Samuel Johnson, the word lunch still meant “as much food as one’s hand could hold”, suggesting it remained something of a snack, (depending on the size of one’s hand). According to the Oxford English dictionary, the modern use of the term lunch did not appear until 1829 and it was not until the latter half of the 19th century that we were sitting down to a proper midday meal known as lunch. For the working classes this would often involve downing tools and sitting to eat something brought from home, or eating in a staff canteen on site. The French painter Édouard Manet, (1832 – 1883) was one of the first to depict everyday, modern life in his works, and he remains a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. In 1863, Manet submitted a work to the French government for inclusion in its biannual Paris Salon, which was to house works by the most important artists of the day at the Academie des Beaux-Arts. Artists from all over Europe submitted their pieces for consideration and a jury determined who was to eventually be selected. According to ‘Paris impérial: La vie quotidienne sous le Second Empire’, A medal from the Salon was assurance of a successful artistic career; winners were given official commissions by the French government, and were be sought out for portraits and private commissions. Since the 18th century, paintings were classified by genre, following a specific hierarchy; history paintings were ranked first, followed by the portrait, the landscape, the genre scene, and the finally, still life. The jury at the Academy of Fine Arts, was extremely conservative; looking for near-photographic works and those with an idealized realism. In the selection of 1863, the judges managed to reject a third of all the work submitted, including pieces by artists such as Paul Cezanne, Camille Pissarro, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and of course, the work by submitted by Manet. In an attempt to appease these spurned artists and avoid public backlash, Emperor Napoleon III hastily arranged for a separate exhibition, known as the “Salon des Refusés,” which would be held at the Palais de l’Industrie. Napoleon’s office issued a statement, published in ‘Le Moniteur’ on 24 April 1863.: “Numerous complaints have come to the Emperor on the subject of the works of art which were refused by the jury of the Exposition. His Majesty, wishing to let the public judge the legitimacy of these complaints, has decided that the works of art which were refused should be displayed in another part of the Palace. The journalist Emile Zola reported that more than a thousand visitors a day visited the Salon des Refusés and that in the crowded galleries where ‘the refused’ paintings were hung, the rooms were full of the laughter and ridicule of the spectators. However, this critical attention also legitimized the emerging avant-garde in painting and the Impressionists successfully exhibited their works outside the traditional Salon beginning in 1874. Subsequent Salons des Refusés were mounted in Paris in 1874, 1875, and 1886, by which time the popularity of the Paris Salon had declined, people were now more interested in Impressionism. The work Manet submitted and was ‘refused’ he titled, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, (The Luncheon on the Grass) a large painting depicting two clothed men and two women, one half dressed, the other naked, having lunch on the grass in a wood. Its first showing sparked outrage, it was considered vulgar and indecent, but it also heralded a new type of painting and marked the single biggest … Read more