Lost In Translation
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Phnom Penh, as there is quite a large number of expats and tourists, there are plenty of restaurants, bars etc set up specifically to cater to this audience.
This is a good idea for if you are only here for a short while, as the food is a little safer, the staff speak a little English and they are likely to have something on the menu that you are used to eating – like eggs for breakfast, for example instead of fried noodles.About a week into our stay here, we were feeling pretty invincible so we decided to brave a local Khmer beer garden for dinner.
With the staff speaking very little English and the menu in Khmai, our plan was to randomly point to dishes to order. Our bravery was somewhat quashed when we discovered the first dish we were pointing to was eel, and the staff seemed somewhat hesitant to take our order in this manner, so we resorted to sign language and making animal noises to get out meanings across.With two vegetarians at the table we ordered “bonlai”, veggies, and Pat imitated pigs and cows for our next two dishes.
At this s stage most of the restaurant was curiously staring at us. When the waitress said “OK, thank you” we 6 back in our chairs triumphantly and waited for our feast to arrive.While we were waiting we partook in the healthy consumption of our first beer rocket, this baby cost $6 and fit 16 cans of Cambodian beer into it. I believe we finished two over dinner. Anyway, our food started to arrive, first the rice, then the veggies… so far so good.
We were somewhat horrified when the waitress plonked down a couple of plates of offal in front of us, (she ended up taking them back, they were for someone else) and even more perplexed when a plate of deep fried frogs arrived.How “moo, moo” and “oink oink” was understood as “ribbet ribbet” we’ll never know.
The frogs turned out to be pretty yummy (just like chicken) but the hilarity of the evening was clearly a highlight in our “Orientation” of Cambodia.
Some of the more adventurous members of the crew took on fried crickets and ants for dessert while others looked on, grimacing.
