Takeo Tico Tour

The illustrious Mark Latham and I enjoyed a lovely Tico tour of the southland yesterday, making it down to Phnom Chisor and Takeo but being unable to find the oldest of all the local ruins at Phnom Da. As Mark says, another day. Mark’s account you’ll find posted on Khmer440 right about here.

A Mekong House

Another great house on the Mekong is profiled in the premier edition of the Cambodian magazine Elegant Homes. You know times have changed when the country can support a magazine like this. The builder used double skin walls with an insulating space, which space also nicely accomodates some sweet sliding doors. Floors are a mix of wood and tile. I like it.

Kampot Pepper

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cambodia was exporting about 8000 tones of Kampot Pepper. In 1960, 1 million pepper poles remained in Kampot.

After the events that took place in Cambodia from 1975 to the end of the century, pepper plantation in Kampot were almost completely destroyed.

FarmLink Cambodia

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Last night I enjoyed a nice ribeye steak, seasoned with Kampot pepper. Pepper from Kampot province is believed by professional foodies and poseurs alike to be one of the finest in the world and I am not one to argue. It’s fantastic in any form.

Unfortunately despite its reputation, not a huge amount is yet produced, and even locally most of what you find is mixed with poorer grade Vietnamese pepper (Kep being just across the Vietnamese border). The NGO FarmLink Cambodia is a primary distributor of the locally grown pepper, and estimates their farmers output just 50 tons per year.Total production may be 1,100 tons — compared to 8,000 one hundred years ago — most of it coming off very small farms outside of Kep, and most of it exported to Vietnam.

You see little silk bags of the stuff around town here, but if you’d like to get your hands on the real thing in quantity, Jasmine of Jasmine in Kampot buys hers direct from a local farmer and can likely help (and try her green pepper steak!), or you can order from Farmlink. In bulk, it’s $10/kilo. And worth it.

Links:

• A nice article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal sometime back which is worth a read for a bit of history and local context. It’s here.
• The Lost Pepper of Cambodia (Phil Lees’ article from March 2008 Chili Pepper Magazine)
• Another NGO working with local farmers you’ll find at kampotpepper.org.
• From a Japanese university site here’s a fascinating history of colonial Kampot (in pdf format).
• Phil’s Perfect Plate of Pepper Crab

The Pepper Crab at Ta Oeuv Restaurant, Kampot (photo, Phil Lees)

Film Library Update

My film library catalog has been updated (Linkification). The demise of HD-DVD means there are some good deals out there so I have a few on order, including the Star Trek Original Series Season 1 and Battlestar Galactica sets which should be good fun on what is now a 130″ screen at home.

She’s Over

I’m done. 10 days on the waterboarding diet completed (at least the fooding hours are now complete). I feel great but I’m ready to sink the choppers into something substantial. I don’t have a scale but I’ll say I lost at most maybe six or seven pounds. A lot for 10 days I suppose but actually less than I thought given how radical a diet this has been.

So what am I thinking about?

First and foremost, ribs and mango salad at Restaurant 522 in Kien Svay. It’s been too long since I’ve gone out there and it’s my favorite meal in Cambodia (boat or no boat). Thai boat noodle soup, but mostly because it became subject of a thread on Khmer440 yesterday. I’ve got a lead where I might be able to find some. The frozen steak in my freezer, or even better, a Metro steak. A pasta with pesto for which a quart of olive oil awaits in the pantry. Or maybe mussels with pesto since I’ve got those New Zealand green lipped boys in the freezer too. Spicy sausages, inspired by a post on Phil Lees’ The Last Appetite site (he formerly of the Phnomenon Cambodia food blog). My anchovie and black olive pizza from Cafe Sarawan — best in town. A nice Greek salad from Jungle.

Alas, I’m going to have to ease into food again. So tomorrow will be soup and juice and maybe something something very very light. Hey, but that beats the hell out of a quart of brine.

Food for Thought

Cost of importing a 1962 Studebaker Hawk to Cambodia: $5,600, delivered to Phnom Penh.

Fastest Hawk on the block: Bo Burt’s Studebaker-powered ‘63 Hawk: 9.99 quarter mile. Horsepower: 600+(pictured)

The why and how of building a fast Stude: Ted Harbit and the Chicken Hawk (pdf download)

Play Ball!

The Cambodian national baseball team got Jamaican bobsled team like attention (video here)…but they didn’t exactly set the diamond on fire in the recent Southeast Asian games. So hopes, springing eternal as they do, turn to the Dodgers (sigh), with spring training’s first game on Thursday.

The addition of a now portly Andruw Jones, who hit 51 home runs just three seasons ago, and at 31 should have plenty left, is one reason for hope. But alas, a lot pieces will have to fall into place for the Dodgers this year to make it, including getting a good season out of 40-year old Jeff Kent and getting a full season out of recovering pitcher Jason Schmidt.

Projected Rotation:

1. RHP Brad Penny
2. RHP Derek Lowe
3. RHP Hiroki Kuroda
4. RHP Chad Billingsley
5. RHP Jason Schmidt

Projected Lineup:

1. SS Rafael Furcal
2. LF Juan Pierre
3. CF Andruw Jones
4. 2B Jeff Kent
5. RF Andre Ethier/Matt Kemp
6. 1B James Loney
7. C Russell Martin
8. 3B Nomar Garciaparra/Andy LaRoche

So what’s with this Andruw Jones character’s parents? Couldn’t spell Andrew? Typo at the hospital? I guess I could have spelled Aliyah “ALI3YAH” but it just didn’t occur to me.

Tiny Yong – Tais Toi Petite Foll

I’ve blogged about Tiny Yong before but just came across this video which I trust you’ll enjoy (It’s got a puppy for crying out loud, how can you not), a cover of the Shirelles’ “Foolish Little Girl”.

A blog reader informed me today that the Phnom Penh born Ye-Ye star ran a small Paris restaurant through 2001. I hope she is doing well.

I’m still looking for a copy of the French magazine Jukebox, Issue 216 which features Tiny Yong. C’mon, somebody, help me out here.

Tiny Yong – Tais Toi Petite Folle
Uploaded by teppazandco

The Doctor’s Corner

I’ve been fortunate never having to see the inside of a hospital for myself for any serious ailment. I’ve got a cast iron stomach and despite all the time I’ve spent in Southeast Asia have never suffered more than minor discomfort from bad food. I’ve also never had any road accidents and on that score I count myself lucky as moto crackups are pretty common in these parts. I had Dengue last year, but that’s not difficult to diagnose (and untreatable), and a few months ago had a secondary cataract removed, a five minute laser job in Bangkok. Vatey on the other hand, has had to suffer through more hospitals in just these past two years than anyone should have to. Ulcer, appendicitis, childbirth, and most recently a double bout of salmonella/typhoid from which she is still recovering. Aliyah has been a very healthy baby, thank God.

Our favorite doctor has gone back to the States, leaving us without our trusted GP. Knowing all this, I decided it was time to get some good insurance and find a new doctor. Good news on both fronts.

Forte Insurance here in Cambodia offers a pretty good insurance package for the family. It will costs us $1864 per year (with no deductibles) for the three of us, with evacuation to Bangkok should it be necessary. Coverages are low compared to US, but reasonable when you consider all-out cost for an angioplasty at the best hospital in Bangkok is less than $7,000. This doesn’t include dental, eyecare, our outpatient medical but that is all ridiculously inexpensive here — one can get an eye exam and glasses for $35 in Phnom Penh, or a dental cleaning for $25, not something to worry about, certainly not worth the additional $1500 it would cost for that coverage.

And on the doctor front Rattanak Clinic, where Aliyah was born, is now Royal Rattanak Hospital, part of the world-class Bangkok Hospital Group, and one of only two hospitals so affiliated outside of Thailand. We haven’t yet gone there but it will be where I’ll go next time any of us need to see a doctor. Good news indeed.

Me, I’m on Day 8 of the diet and coasting all the way home. Time for my lemonade.

Cambodia Calling: Gizmo5

There’s a new VOIP mobile service on the block, Gizmo5, which enables calling from your Cambodia mobile phone to anywhere in the world at reasonable rates. Not as cheap as calling from an internet cafe, but about $.21 a minute to the US. You download the Gizmo client to your mobile and pc, and buy some Gizmo Call Out time as you would with a Skype account (be forewarned it’s not instantly credited). To make a call you load Gizmo on the mobile, dial the number you want to reach, and wait for the Gizmo service to ring your phone. You accept the call and are then connected to your party. You’re billed both for Gizmo’s call to you ($.19/min for Cambodia) as well as the Gizmo rate to your party ($.02 to the US) which is why it’s not as cheap as a computer initiated call.

I called my Mom this morning and it does work as advertised. Call quality is decent — not as good as a good Skype connection but close, certainly better than many calling card calls. And you have the convenience of making the call anywhere, anytime. US call in numbers are available as well if you want a Gizmo local US number someone can call which would ring your mobile and pc. Skype for Mobile has never been available for more than a couple of handhelds so this is quite a nice offerinng.

You can download the Gizmo software here.