Help: there is a nun in my house ?!?

Help: there is a nun in my house ?!?


So yesterday lunchtime I head home, expecting upon arrival to have my lunch ready and waiting, prepared by Heng as normal.

However, upon arrival I find Heng’s mum, the nun, in the kitchen. Heng is also there, along with a couple of toddlers that Heng’s mum is currently looking after.

It seems that Heng’s mum wants to repay my recent acts of generosity [some small donations to her temple] by cooking me a ‘special meal’

Fair enough, although in true Khmer fashion nobody consulted with me on the matter, timing or choice :-)

Feeling slightly outnumbered, I retreat into my room for a shower and change of clothes.

Ten minutes later there is a discreet knocking on my door, it is Heng, apparently lunch is served and they are awaiting my presence.

So I wander through to the dining room, where a veritable feast is ready for us:


o Pork; dry rubbed with Chinese spices and stir-fried with spring onions and green peppers
o Pork, broccoli and morning glory stir-fried with oyster sauce
o A salad of pickled vegetables
o Boiled rice and soy sauce dip with chillies and garlic
o French bread


I have to say, it was delicious.

A lot of visitors, not too mention residents and ex-pats, complain about the food here in Cambodia, but what they are referring to when they complain about it is what ‘those of us in the know’ refer to as motodope food; the cheapest of the cheap, eaten in roadside cafés off tin tables while sat on blue plastic chairs. It is, at best, functional food that is eaten by the cities army of lowly paid workers, e.g. motodopes.

***

For those not resident in Cambodia, a motodope is a small motorcycle taxi. There are probably 10,000 of these guys in Phnom Penh, you can not walk 10 yards without one pulling up alongside you saying ‘moto, moto, moto?’ they are quick, easy and cheap; they are also the only form of public transport in this city.