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The Lost Art ofElephant Wrangling
Forgotten Sanctuaries
Pestle Power
WEEKLY T h e
WEDNESDAY - JANUARY 20, 2016
Vol: 01 | Issue: 20
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8,000+copies every week
600+locations in Cambodia
REGULARS
On the TownThe best listings in town PAGES 6 & 7
FILMS, EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
Big Fight for theSmall ScreenCan Khmer TV shows compete?PAGE 3
Khmer CuisineA newcomer searches for authenticCambodian avorsPAGES 10 & 11
Forgotten SanctuariesOne couples mission to document theKingdoms monasteriesPAGE 4
PUBLISHER
T. Mohan
EDITOR:
James Reddick [email protected]
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Aisha Down, Jonathan Cox, MaddyCrowell
ART DIRECTION:
Khiev Chanthara, Aim Valinda
096 217 7770 | 012 244 [email protected]@khmertimeskh.com
ADVERTISING SALES:
Mary Shelistilyn [email protected] 678 324
NEWSROOM:
No. 7 Street 252Khan Daun PenhPhnom Penh 12302Kingdom of Cambodia
023 221 660
PRINTER: TST Printing House
DISTRIBUTION:
Kim Steven Yoro016 869 302 [email protected]
AVAILABLE AT:
Monument BooksNo. 53 Street 426Phnom [email protected]
023 217 6177
The Weekly is published 48 times a yearin Phnom Penh. No content may bereproduced in any form without priorconsent of the publisher..Cover Photo: Maddy Crowell
PAGES 8 & 9
An elephant has the life of aperson. It knows more than we do.
- Pok Phan
The Lost Art ofElephant Catching
PAGE 8 & 9
A woman in a remote village inMondulkiri Province.
F a b
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J o h n
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Not to Miss:
Conrad KeelyMeta House, 37 Sothearos Boulevard, 9 PM, FreeThe front man of And You Will Know us by the
Trail of Dead performs his new solo album, whichhe wrote after moving to Phnom Penh last year.
FRIDAY
After touring the globe, the Sophiline ArtsEnsemble has since 2014 been focusing onperforming locally. This is the second performanceof a series called Bamboo Shoots, in whichSophiline Shapiros students have the opportunitto perform their own works. Its an effort toencourage creativity among Sophilines studentssaid co-founder John Shapiro. They range fromthose true to classicism and ones that are muchmore experimental.
Bamboo Shortsby Sophiline ArtsEnsemble The Khmer ArtsTheater in TakhmaoDistrict, 7 PM, $2.50entry
SATURDAY
The Black BoxThe simple technology that could make childtestimony more humane and accurate PAGE 5
THIS WEEK WEEKLY
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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 , 2016
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MARY CLAVEL
[email protected]@khmertimeskh.com010 678 324010 678 324010 678 [email protected]
To advertise in Cambodia's most exciting WEEKLY magazine, contact our SaleTo advertise in Cambodia's most exciting WEEKLY magazine, contact our Sale
LY RATHNA
[email protected]@[email protected] 678 324086 677 977086 677 977
Customers at a caf in PhnomPenh watch television during
primetime.
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Will a new law help locally-produced TV triumph in a market dominated by foreign shows?Or will the law be nixed before its second season?
THE SMALL SCREENBIG FIGHT FOR
By Jonathan Cox Jealousy. Crazy Love. TwoMothers. The Journey 2. Thesehows dominated prime timeelevision in 2014, and none
of them were produced inCambodia. For years, Cambodiasyoung film industry has struggledo compete with powerhouseoreign shows that attract
viewers with bigger budgets andbetter-trained actors. In 2014,of all the dramas aired on the
major stations MYTV and CTN,only one was Khmer, with theest coming from such far-flung
countries as the Philippines,South Korea, and India. TheThai show Jealousy alonedrew millions of viewers duringprime time. Without all theprime time slots taken by foreignhows, Khmer filmmakers have
been feeling some jealousyof their own. In an effort toget more viewers to watchocally-produced TV, last year
a group of Khmer actors asked
the Ministry of Information torequire channels to air morelocal shows during prime time.
They saw that duringprime time most TV stationsentertained viewers with moviesfrom foreign countries, saidOuk Kimseng, undersecretaryof state at the InformationMinistry. They thought thatlocal productions should bemade available to the viewers.
The government listened. On
New Years Day, the Ministry ofInformation began enforcinga new law that requires all TVstations in the country to only airshows produced in Cambodiaduring prime time (between 7and 9 pm). Whether the new lawwill survive is uncertain, though,as viewers and TV stationscomplain that Cambodian-produced shows dont measureup to foreign entertainment.
I dont like Khmer shows asmuch because the production isnot as good, and the story is not
interesting, said Phnom Penhresident Chanratana Srong. Themusic and style of the shows are
just copied. Its all copied, andthe genre is lame romance,added 23-year-old Tirot Sou.Theres no originality. Thegovernment should fund afilm school. Audiences arentthe only ones who preferforeign productions. TV stationexecutives do too, since theforeign shows are often reruns
and are much cheaper tolicense. Its more expensive tobuy Cambodian shows, and thisproduces little or no profit forthe channel, said Chai Borah,director of the Motion PictureAssociation of Cambodia.
Advertisers in Cambodiapay less than a tenth what Thaiadvertisers pay for an ad spot,leaving Cambodian televisionchannels with less money toinvest in producing shows. Whilean ad spot in Thailand goes forroughly $5,000, a similar one on
Cambodian TV costs just $300.Lim Khunsrun, the general
manager at MyTV, said this lackof funding hurts the local filmindustry. The quality [of shows]cannot match imported showsyet, due to the huge differencein their investment budgets, hesaid. TV stations have smallerbudgets to invest in production.
The result is a TV marketthat has been ruled by Thai andChinese shows. While the new
law hopes to address foreigndominance, the law may not lastlong enough to accomplish itsgoal, as it comes up for review inMarch. Well sit down with TVoperators to see if... it is worthit to continue to restrict primetime to local productions, saidKimseng. Whether or not thenew policy survives will dependon whether the number ofprime time viewers has droppedsince January, he added.
For the time being, the hope isthat the new law will encourage
Khmer filmmakers to come upwith original plots and push theiractors to give better performances.I hope that in the next few yearsCambodian studios will producegood dramas compared toneighboring countries, saidBorah. Unless the new lawremains in place, Cambodianshows may still struggle tocompete. Otherwise, the marketwill be dominated by imported TVshows, Kimseng said.
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A poster for Korean showTwo Mothers, one of the most
popular programs in Cambodiain 2014.
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By James Reddick
In 2004, Dominique andDanielle Gueret encountereda problem in Cambodia: thecountrys religious sanctuarieswere being destroyed, andnobody seemed to know just
what was being lost. In KampotProvince that year, the couplenoticed that a sanctuary wasdemolished to make room for anew one, with little considerationfor the buildings history.
The temple was destroyedwithout being photographed,without being drawn, and withoutbeing documented, Danielle said.We said to ourselves that a partof the countrys cultural heritagewas disappearing. So we becameinterested in this and decidedto go see for ourselves what still
remained.The couples mission at the
beginning was relatively modest;they wanted to see what paintingsremained in sanctuaries builtbefore 1975. Theres a commonbelief that the Khmer Rouge,in their attempt to abolishreligion, destroyed the religiousmonuments that came beforethe Angkar. But this thesis hasnever been fully tested. No fulldocumentation of the countryspagodasand the sanctuarieswithin themexisted before the
Khmer Rouge took power in 1975,making it virtually impossibleto know how much they haddestroyed. So Dominique andDanielle set out every weekend
in 2005 to the villages in thecountrys central heartland.Quickly, they realized that moreremained from before the politicalturmoil of the recent past thanpeople knew.
We decided to go into eachprovince, and in 2005 we visited
20 percent of the sanctuaries ineach. We visited 800 pagodas thatyear, going out every Saturday andSunday, said Dominique.
Since the early 1990s,when Dominique was a civiladministrative director withthe United Nations TransitionalAuthority, the duo havedelved into the Kingdomscultural history. Danielle taughtarchaeology at Royal University,and in 2009 the two of thempublished a book together inFrench called Cambodge: Art,
Histoire, Socit. Despite theircredentials as cultural explorers,the pagoda project was very muchan informal endeavor. Rebuffedin their attempts to get fundingfrom cultural organizations andthe government, they ended uppaying all the fees out of pocket.As the scope expanded, so too didtheir nancial contributions.
Sometimes we felt a bithopeless because there were somany things to do, Dominiquesaid. Since we have no funding,in fact nobody [in Phnom Penh]
believed what we were doing.After beginning with a focuson painting, the pair expandedto researching the details of everysanctuarythe central building
within a pagodabuilt before1975. More than a decadeafter they began, they havedocumented more than 3,600monasteries and found that 563built before 1975 remain. Tracingthe history of these buildings hasgiven insight into the countrys
recent history.For example, early monasteries
were built with wood anddesigned modestly. They soonbegan to grow, and under theFrench protectorate started touse reinforced concrete in the1910s. Suddenly, during theJapanese occupation in the1940s, new sanctuaries shrunkare ection of the deprivation of thetimesbefore the optimism andrelative prosperity of the post-independence Sihanouk years ledto more extravagant designs.
Though Dominique andDanielle did indeed nd that theKhmer Rouge, and the years ofcivil war and American bombingbefore the takeover, took a toll
on the countrys architecture,they were surprised at how muchremained. During the 1970s,they estimate that nearly 850monasteries were destroyed.More destructive than the KhmerRouge radicals, they found, is thetendency to tear down, rather
than renovate, sanctuaries that aredeemed too old.At least 50 percent were
destroyed [during the waryears], but that means that a lotsurvived, Dominique said. Manywere destroyed afterwards by theKhmer to make new buildings.He said that traditionally asanctuary was not designed forlongevity. In the 1800s, they werebuilt with wood, and duringconstruction villagers would alsoplant koki trees nearby. Within 50years, as the sanctuary fell into
decay, those trees would grow.After 50 to 60 years they wouldbuild a new one with those trees,he said. And they keep thiscustom with the pagoda in brick
or concrete because the belief isthat if you build a new sanctuaryyou are earning merit. This is whya pagoda of 100 years is very oldin this country.
The Guerets hope theirpainstaking research will providea degree of stability. For the rst
time, the country has a completecensus of modern religiousarchitecture. They successfullydefended the two theses at theSorbonne in Paris and now hopeto distribute them to librariesand universities throughout thecountry. They are meeting with theMinistry of Culture and Ministry ofInformation this week.
Our problem now is to nda sponsor to pay for the copies,Dominique said, while pointingto the stack of bound reportsthat have resulted from 10 years
of research. We need 20 or 30copies to give to all the librariesand theyre each about 500 euros.
As the couple was nishingtheir work, they encountered anexcerpt from the famous Frenchconservator Bernard PhilippeGroslier that seemed to validatetheir weekend sorties to everycorner of the country. Writing in1973 during the height of the civilwar, and without any idea of thehorrors to come, Groslier called foraction. We have waited for toolong to study systematically Khmer
monasteries, he wrote. We mustdedicate ourselves to this withoutwaiting any longer. Threedecades later, the Guerets nallyanswered his call.
Wat Toul Tom Poung in Phnom Penh, which was left undamaged by the Khmer Rouge.
A depiction of the Parinirvana at Wat Veal Mlu in Kampong Cham.
Forgotten Sanctuaries F a b
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The countryspagodas have beenof little interest tohistorians. Throughpainstaking research,a pioneering Frenchcouple hopes to fllthe void.
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 , 2016
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By Jonathan Cox
For child victims of sexualassault, the nightmaredoesnt end when theyreport the crime to the
village chief. Instead, they areorced to describe the attackgain to district police. Andgain to their lawyers. And againn court.
In total, a child can beequired to describe an assault 10
or more times during the courseof the investigation, according
o a 2015 study by Hagarnternational. Instead of beingllowed to forget the rape, thehild is often forced to recall and
describe it in detail months later.Maybe adults can put up
with this, but it really affected mydaughter to have to [repeatedly]nswer the same questions abouthe incident, said the father ofone 10-year-old victim quoted inhe Hagar study. It really upsether after she was recovering...I donot agree with this process.
James McCabe wants to put
an end to the endless interviews.He is the director of the ChildProtection Unit (CPU), a nonpro that helps the Cambodian policeand courts investigate serious
crimes involving children. Rightnow the CPU is putting thenishing touches on the designof a video recorder that couldchange the way child testimoniesare recorded and used in court.
The recorder is a small blackmetal box with two DVD drives,a back-up hard drive, and awebcam. This simple piece ofequipment, manufactured inCambodia, will record secure,tamper-proof video of a childtalking about the crime with anexpert interviewer.
McCabe said these recordingscould serve as evidence, nallyremoving the requirement forchildren to testify over and overto different of cials. It reducesthe amount of time that the childwill be cross-examined, he said.If a quality statement is taken onthe rst occasion and the childis allowed to talk through whatoccurred in detail, that will reducethe amount of questioning by theprosecutor, by other police, andby the judiciary.
Video-recorded testimony
has been used for decades inmuch of the world to help policeinvestigate crimes against children,and is sometimes also admissibleas evidence in court. Studies into
the use of live link and videotapedinterviews have shown that theseinnovations could help to reducethe trauma of testifying forchildren and could lead to betterquality evidence from the child,said an article in Medicine andLaw. That assessment was nearly18 years ago.
McCabe said he was shockedthat this cheap, simple technologyhad not yet been introducedin Cambodia. This isnt rocketscience, he said. Its a shamethat this hadnt been introduced
earlier...why hasnt this recordingtechnology been provided inCambodia?
Video recordings will not onlyprotect children from the traumaof testifying. They will also helpthe court reach a just verdict, byproviding an accurate account ofthe assault, recorded soon afterit occurred. It will also provide abackup source of information ifchildren become too ustered orfrightened to testify in court. It[the recording] can assist if thechild freezes, or becomes unable
to speak, or is afraid of the judicialprocess, McCabe said.The Hagar study found that it
is all too common for children tofeel unsafe in court. Nearly every
child who testi ed in a sexualassault trial in court said they saw,and were sometimes intimidatedby, their attacker on their wayto the court or in the court. Onechild interviewed for the studywas taken to the court in thesame van as her rapist. I wasafraid, the child said. I had toshut my eyes tightly and not lookat him.
The video recordings may helpmake the court process easier forchildren, but the recording is onlyuseful if the childs testimony is
accurate and detailed. Gettingthe details right the rst time isthe responsibility of 24 expertchild interviewers, who have beentrained by CPU to talk to youngvictims of assault.
The black box will be tested inBattambang Province next month,with tests in other provincesscheduled for later this year. CPUlegal experts are also checkingCambodian law to ensure thatrecorded testimony would beadmissible in court.
Once the tests are concluded,
McCabe said he hopes the videorecording method will be onits way to becoming the newcountrywide standard for sexualassault cases.
The cash-strapped nationalpolice were unable to invest indesigning and building theserecorders on their own, butMcCabe said that they areenthusiastic about using them.There is a new generation of judicial of cers who want andare embracing change, he said.Weve had nothing but supportand cooperation, as well as a realwillingness to improve.
Until the new video recordingsystem is introduced, though, theendless interviews will continue to
take a psychological toll onchildren. I also feel a bit badbecause I just want to try toforget what happened, said oneyoung victim interviewed for theHagar study. And when I talk, thememories come back again.
THEBLACKBOX Child rape victims in Cambodiahave to describe an attack topolice and lawyers repeatedlybefore the trial. What if theyonly had to testify once?
The video recorder to beadopted in Cambodia.
J a m e s M c C a b e
F l i c k r
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B l a i r
InnovationWEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 , 2016
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EVENTS
WEDNESDAY 20 th SUPER SMASH BROS TOURNAMENT
@Eluvium Lounge, 205A Street 19, 7 PM
warm ups, 8 PM tournament: 1st place will receive a bottle of housewine (or some equivalent). 2nd and 3rdwill get 1 or 2 free cocktails. Tournamententry is free.
SHAMELESS
@Pontoon Club, #80, Street 172,
DJ Blue and VDJ Leo with cabaret showat 1:30 AM
OPEN MIC
@ Show Box Bar, #11 Street 330
Weekly open mic eventPUB TRIVIA
The Willow, #1 Street 21, 6 PM:
Seven players per team, $2 entry withcash prizes
GREEN NIGHT
Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 6 PM
Exhibition, environmental films andtalks: The bi-monthly GREEN NIGHT isheld in cooperation with SMART. Thismonth they showcase THE HANDBAGPROJECT by Dutch paintress IdaNauta. Environmental NGOs and socialenterprises will display their productsin the gallery. On the rooftop will benew green films from Cambodia,accompanied by short talks. Lucky Draw!
THURSDAY 21st
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
@Street 380, opposite Blue Pumpkin bakery,4:30 PM.
DODGEBALL
@13 Street 456, 7:30 PM
OPEN MIC
@Paddy Rice, Street 136 and Sisowath Quay,9 PM
TRIPPY THURSDAYS DJ PARTY
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 9 PM
Featuring a Live PA by KOTARE - the beatalias of New Zealand lo-fi musician JesseGubb, a new Phnom Penh resident.
KARAOKE NIGHT
@Eluvium Lounge, 205A Street 19, 6 PM
Get a free beer or soda for hopping onstate. Happy hour cocktails at $2 until8 PM.
STARTUP BOOTCAMP
@Emerald Hub co-working space, 11th Floorof PPIU building, Street 169, 2:00 PM-5:00 PM
Global startup ecosystem Techstars willpresent. Free admission.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22nd
CONRAD KEELY (AND YOU WILL KNOW USBY OUR TRAIL OF DEAD) IN CONCERT
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 9 PM Keely will be performing selections fromhis debut solo album.
COMEDY CLUB CAMBODIA
@ Show Box Bar, #11 Street 330, 8:30 PM
UK comedians Mary Bourke and SimonClayton headline. Tickets are $5.
FUNKING FRIDAY
@Soho Pub, Street 19 and Street 154, 8 PM
DJ Bree will be playing funk, soul andR&B. Thirty percent off select drinks allnight.
@The Oyster Restaurant at Himawari Hotel,6 pm-10 pm
Expect fresh seafood, barbequed meats,local Khmer delights and internationalfavourites. Call 023 214 555 ext 63 toreserve. $21 per adult, and $10.50 perchild between 6 12 years old.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23rd BOOK LAUNCH & ART EXHIBITION: THEILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO WILDLIFE OFCAMBODIA
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 4 PM
Join Liger Learning Center for acelebration of the first book to beillustrated, researched, written andtranslated entirely by Cambodianschool children. Guests will meet the13 student illustrators and scientists. You can view and purchase originalpaintings from the book. Proceeds willsupport local printing of the book fordistribution to schools in Cambodia.
BAMBOO SHOOTS (TOMPEANG SNONGRUSSEY)
@Khmer Art Theater, Takhmau, KandalProvince, 7 PM:
Sophiline Arts Ensemble present fivenew dances and one new song. Entryis $2.50.
BACK TO MINE W/ DJ AIRFIX TWIN
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 9 PM
@The Oyster Restaurant at Himawari Hotel,6 pm-10 pm
Expect fresh seafood, barbequed meats,local Khmer delights and internationalfavourites. Call 023 214 555 ext 63 toreserve. $21 per adult, and $10.50 perchild between 6 12 years old.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 th
ZEPPELIN BAR FAREWELL PARTY
@Zeppelin Bar, 109 Street 51, 8 PM
The Street 51 institution is moving toStreet 278. The Brass Balloon All-Starswill be playing with a selection of localbands.
OPEN MIC
@Sharky Bar, 126 Street 130, 9 PM:
Spill your skills for free drinks.
MONDAY, JANUARY 25 th
NERD NIGHT
@Cabaret Restaurant, 159 Street 154, 7:45 PM
Rapid fire presentations, music, drinksand chats. Nerd Night is a chance foryou to get a quick glimpse into the life,work and interests of the people in thePhnom Penh community.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 26 th
FLY MAGIC (JAZZ)
Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard, 8 PM:
The German jazz outfit performs,
presented by the Goethe-Institute
EXHIBITIONS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20 th
ROAM!
@The Plantation, #28 Street 184, openingwith cocktail reception at 6:30 PM:
A collection of 15 charcoal drawings oncraft paper, depicting the impromptuparties held by moonlight in theCambodian countryside, near Kampot,where Vincent Broustet lives.
ONGOING:
THE DISAPPEARANCE
@Java Cafe, 56 Sihanouk Boulevard, untilFebruary 28
The Disappearance is a body of work byNicolas C. Grey using pen, ink, collageand found photographs and objects.The exhibition has been composed as aninstallation each work is experiencedin relation to the other.
LANDSCAPE OF TIME
@Sa Sa Bassac, #18ED2SothearosBoulevard, until February 6
With Landscape of time (2015),photographer Vandy Rattana continueshis work visiting sites around Cambodiawhere the living and the dead wereburied in unmarked graves during theKhmer Rouge regime lands that are alsohost to fecund rice paddies, vegetable
and fruit plantations, and construction.Vandys compulsion to find, revisiand reflect at these sites is a reminderthat the landscape perseveres withinan indefinite cycle of time, allowing formemory to recede into oblivion.
SHIFTING GEOGRAPHIES
@Bophana Center, until January 22
Artists: Lydie Jean-dit-Pannel, KvSamnang, La Le Bricomte, DaphnLe Sergent, Patrick Nardin, et VandyRattana.Moving Geographies provide exploratioof a territory raising questions aboutlimits, boundaries, memory of placesbeyond codified figures which produce adisembodied vision. What is happeninbetween the places and how to makethem visible? How events that are socialrepressed can resurface in the field of art?
ORCHIDS AND TATTOOS
@The Insider Gallery at InterContinentalPhnom Penh, 296 Mao Tse Toung Boulevard,until February 7, 2016
French artist Thomas-Pierre presents aseries in which orchids are the leitmotifof the compositions. The artist combinescolors and tattoo graphics.
SEA OF THE ANCESTORS
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard,until January 24
Swiss photographer Beat Presser takesthe viewer on a unique journey fromSulawesi to Madagascar travelling witboats and ships on the Indian Ocean.
Sophiline Arts Ensemble perform Saturday at 7:00 at Khmer Arts Theater in Takhmao.
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Films
FILMS
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20 th
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW (2010,05 MINS), 4 PM:
Documentary by Sophie Fiennes followsfamous German artist Anselm Kiefer, ashe creates a spectacular architectoniclandscape.
CLOTHES TO DIE FOR (2015, 58 MINS), 7 PM:
The story of the 2014 collapse ofDhakas Rana Plaza, which took 1,134lives, bluntly and brilliantly.
THE SALT OF THE EARTH (2014, 110 MINS),8 PM:
For the last 40 years, the Brazilianphotographer Sebastio Salgado hasbeen travelling through the continents,in the footsteps of an ever-changinghumanity. Wim Wenders stunning2014 Cannes Film FestivalWinner guidesthe viewer on a visual odyssey throughthe photographers career
@The Empire, #34, Street 130:
THE KILLING FIELDS (1985, 141 MINS), 4 PM:
A photographer is trapped in Cambodiaduring tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero"cleansing campaign, which claimed
the lives of two million "undesirable"civilians.BLACK MASS (2015, 122 MINS), 6:30 PM:
The true story of Whitey Bulger, thebrother of a state senator and the mostinfamous violent criminal in the historyof South Boston, who became an FBIinformant to take down a Mafia familyinvading his turf.
OY (2015, 124 MINS), 8:30 PM:
Joy is the story of the title character,who rose to become founder andmatriarch of a powerful family businessdynasty.
@Flicks 1, #39b, Street 95
YOUTH (2015, 124 MINS), 4:30 PM: A retired orchestra conductor is onholiday with his daughter and his filmdirector best friend in the Alps whenhe receives an invitation from Queen
Elizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip'sbirthday.
SOLACE (2015, 101 MINS), 6:30 PM:
A psychic works with the FBI in order tohunt down a serial killer.
THE MARTIAN (2015, 144 MINS), 8:30 PM:
During a manned mission to Mars,Astronaut Mark Watney is presumeddead after a fierce storm and leftbehind by his crew. But Watney hassurvived and finds himself stranded andalone on the hostile planet. With onlymeager supplies, he must draw uponhis ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsistand find a way to signal to Earth thathe is alive.
@Flicks 2, #90, Street 136 THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984, 102 MINS),4 PM:
A troubled boy dives into a wonderousfantasy world through the pages of amysterious book.
THE KILLING FIELDS (1985, 141 MINS), 6 PM:
A photographer is trapped in Cambodiaduring tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero"cleansing campaign, which claimedthe lives of two million "undesirable"civilians.
THE WAVE, (2015, 104 MINS), 8:30 PM:
Even though awaited, no-one is reallyready when the mountain pass of
kneset above the scenic narrowNorwegian fjord Geiranger falls out andcreates a 85 meterhigh violent tsunami. A geologist is oneof those caught in the middle of it.
@Flicks 3, #8, Street 258 :
A WALK IN THE WOODS (2015, 104 MINS),4:00 PM:
After spending two decades in England,Bill Bryson returns to the U.S., where hedecides the best way to connect withhis homeland is to hike the AppalachianTrail with one of his oldest friends.
O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (2000, 106MINS), 6:00 PM:
In the deep south during the 1930s,three escaped convicts search forhidden treasure while a relentlesslawman pursues them.
BLACK MASS (2015, 122 MINS), 8:00 PM:
The true story of Whitey Bulger, thebrother of a state senator and the mostinfamous violent criminal in the historyof South Boston, who became an FBIinformant to take down a Mafia familyinvading his turf.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21st
@Flicks 1, #39b, Street 95: THE WAVE (2015, 104 MINS), 4:30 PM:
Even though awaited, no-one is reallyready when the mountain pass ofkneset above the scenic narrowNorwegian fjord Geiranger falls out andcreates a 85 meter high violent tsunami.A geologist is one of those caught inthe middle of it.
SOLACE (2015, 101 MINS), 8:30 PM:
A psychic works with the FBI in order tohunt down a serial killer.
THE MARTIAN (2015, 144 MINS), 8:30 PM:
During a manned mission to Mars,Astronaut Mark Watney is presumeddead after a fierce storm and left behindby his crew.
@Flicks 2, #90, Street 136:
YOUTH (2015, 124 MINS), 6:30 PM:
A retired orchestra conductor is onholiday with his daughter and his filmdirector best friend in the Alps whenhe receives an invitation from QueenElizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip'sbirthday.
SOLACE (2015, 101 MINS), 8:30 PM:
A psychic works with the FBI in order tohunt down a serial killer .
@Flicks 3, #8, Street 258:
Solace (2015, 101 mins), 4:00 PM:A psychic works with the FBI in order tohunt down a serial killer.
THE KILLING FIELDS (1985, 141 MINS), 6 PM:
A photographer is trapped in Cambodiaduring tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero"cleansing campaign, which claimedthe lives of two million "undesirable"civilians.
YOUTH (2015, 124 MINS), 8:30 PM:
A retired orchestra conductor is onholiday with his daughter and his filmdirector best friend in the Alps whenhe receives an invitation from QueenElizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip'sbirthday.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 22nd
@French Institute, No. 218, Keo Chea (St. 184)
KNOCK ON WOOD (FR AND EN, 1981, 95MINS), 5 PM:
The daughter of the rich businessmanBens has mysteriously disappearedwhile vacationing in Mexico.
@The Empire, #34, Street 130:
TRUTH (2015, 125 MINS), 6:30 PM:
Newsroom drama detailing the 2004CBS 60 Minutes report.
THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015, 187 MINS), 8:30 PM:
In the dead of a Wyoming winter, abounty hunter and his prisoner findshelter in a cabin currently inhabited bya collection of nefarious characters.
VINCENT (FR AND EN, 2014, 78 MINS), 7 PM:
Vincent is a quiet, unassuming man.Who happens to have superhumanpowers when exposed to water. He livesa life that keeps him away from othersfor the most part. Then he meets a girl.Then his powers are discovered. And hislife changes
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
HITLERS CHILDREN (2012, 80 MINS), 4 PM:
About the descendants of the mostpowerful figures in the Nazi regime:men and women who were left a legacythat permanently associates them withone of the greatest crimes in history.
IN MERU (2015, 87 MINS), 7 PM:
Three men struggle to find their waythrough obsession and loss as theyattempt to challenge one of the worldstoughest mountain routes.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23rd
@French Institute, No. 218, Keo Chea (St.184)
APPROVED FOR ADOPTION (FR AND EN, 75MINS), 10 AM:
Since the end of the Korean war, morethan 200.000 Korean children havebeen adopted all throughout the world.This movie tells us the story of Jung, bornin 1965 in Seoul and adopted in 1971by a Belgian family: the orphanage,his first time in Belgium, his family, histeenage years .
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 th @Flicks 1, #39b, Street 95:
HUMAN (2015, 190 MINS), 12 PM:
Reservations required. A collection of
stories about and images of our world,offering an immersion to the core ofwhat it means to be human.
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
THE TRUE COST (2015, 92 MINS), 4 PM:
About the clothes we wear, the peoplewho make them, and the impact theindustry is having on our world.
THE ISLAMIC STATE (2014, 43 MINS), 7 PM:
A stark wake-up call to the realities ofreligious fundamentalism in the MiddleEast and the corruption of generationsbeing raised to believe violence is thebest defense of their beliefs.
CHILDREN OF MEN (2006, 109 MINS), 8 PM:
In 2027, in a chaotic world in whichwomen have become somehowinfertile, a former activist agrees tohelp transport a miraculously pregnantwoman to a sanctuary at sea.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 26 th
@Meta House, #37 Sothearos Boulevard
THE EMPIRE OF SHAME (2014, 92 MINS), 4PM:
Documentary challenging the SamsungLegend by tracing the tough andstrenuous struggles of female workersemployed at Samsung ElectronicsSemiconductor factories.
RED WEDDING (2011, 52 MINS), 7 PM: Lida Chan and Guillaume Suon portraya victim of forced marriage under theKhmer Rouge regime. Produced byRithy Panh.
7 WEEKLYthe
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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 20 , 2016
DO WE HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED?Please email all details to [email protected] by Sunday at 5pm
In Meru, about the high stakes of big-wall climbing, plays at 7 PM on Friday at Meta House
ROM PAGE 06
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by Aisha Down
Cambodias last known
living elephant trappernets fish and farms ricethese days, in a small
village called Nyuich some 90kilometers from Sen Monorom,down a narrow dirt road leadingto the deep forest, a road whichin early January is gritty with ashfrom Lumphats dry, cracklingfires.
Facts in these parts arealmost as hard to come by aselephants. Pok Phan, 58, mightnot actually be the last livingelephant trapper in Cambodia.
Hes certainly one of very few.Theyre dead already in thisvillage, says Mahaich Hong, 38,a Bunong resident of Putang who
used to tend his grandfatherselephants. In most villagesaround Sen Monorom, theyve
been dead for years. If any areleft, they live in the far districts,near the forest.
Its been over 20 years sincethe Khmer government forbadethe trapping of elephants,fearful of ivory poachers in thestormy wake of the civil war. Thepractice, a ritual of the Bunongpeople in Eastern Cambodia,had dwindled long before thenthough, during the years of theKhmer Rouge and the chaos thatfollowed.
In the long shadows of the
dead, myths and memories loomand fade. Some Bunong villagersnow say that the country beforewas full of elephant catchers,
that men from every villagewould gather a few times a yearto go into the forest, sharing the
beasts they caught among theirfamilies after a trip.Others say that elephant
catchers were rare, that therewere at most three true elephantcatchers in a district. Theseskilled riders sold what theycaught dearly; a female elephantwas worth 26 water buffalos,a male, 35. As for the selling,most say that the Bunong onlysold the elephants among otherBunong, but Khmers will claimotherwise.
An architectural contractor
working in Voen Sai inRatanakkiri Province says thathis grandfather made a living bybuying elephants from Bunong
tribesmen near the Srepok, andthen riding them hundreds of
kilometers across wild countryto sell in Phnom Penh. In thosedays without roads, the journeycould take monthsbut the
money from rich cityfolk wasgood enough to last him and hisLaotian wife a whole year.
Pok Phan says that, to his
knowledge, the Bunong neversold to the Khmer. We couldnot sell the elephants, he says.
We pitied them as humans.And catching elephants, an arthe learned from the elders in hisvillage, was an undertaking toosacred, and too fraught withconsequence.
There were taboos, beforewe left, he says. There aremore than he can remember.
You could not pound rice tomake ambok, he said, becausethe motion of a pestle smashingrice is the same motion as theone an elephants foot makeswhen it tramples a man. You
could not wash your clothes,once in the jungle, lest theelephants tusks tore the fleshof your chest open. Each night,
The Lost Art ofLassoing ElephantsHunting elephants used to be a lucrative trade, until the government banned it morethan 20 years ago. Reporter Aisha Down goes in search of a former elephant wrangler
If anyoneviolated ataboo in
the days before thedeparture, his wifewould not let himgo into the forest.
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A mid-century photograph of anelephant in Cambodia.
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before you slept, you had tocircle your camp three timeson foot. You could not fight orargue with anyone, least of allhose who were to walk into theungle with you.
If we fought, so, too, would
he forests wild elephants, PokPhan says, motioning with hishands to indicate the clash ofrunks. They would kill us in the
dense forest.If anyone violated a taboo in
he days before departure, hiswife would not let him go intohe forest.
The morning of departure,hey would sacrifice in theirvillage. A young chicken, ora pig, even. A peang of wine.We would ask the forest spirits,Neak Tha, for elephants. For
afety and, too, for elephants.Twenty would ride into theorest together, says Pok Phan,
brothers and uncles all from
within the village. They wouldtravel on the backs of their ownelephants, he says, ten of them,the most powerful and strongcreatures they had. In thosedays, elephants were plentiful.There were 200 in the northern
Mondulkiri forest, he guesses.A day of riding, [sometimes] amorning of riding, and youd beupon them, he says.
Catching one, however, wasa different matter. Hong, inPutang, describes the elephantlassoes of the elders in his village.They were of braided cowskin,water buffalo skin. They hadto be strong. In those days, wedidnt have good fiberjustleather.
When the men came uponthe elephants, they would set up
a wild cry. They would trumpeton the horns of water buffalosand they would drive theelephants before them.
One would ride at the headof the elephant, and one at thetail, hitting it, says Pok Phan.Sometimes the wild elephantswould run up to 10 kilometersin the dense forest, says Hong,pursued by tribesmen the whole
way.When they were exhausted,
the elephants would break ranks.This was the crucial moment.Children would separate fromtheir parents. Then the menwould swing out their leatherlassos. They would rope the legsof the youngest elephants.
The mothers would returnto fight us, says Pok Phan. Ourelephants had to join togetherto fight them off.
I wasnt afraid, he says.I rode on the back of an
elephant.When they had caught a
young elephant, they wouldstay with it a month more inthe jungle to tame it. They keptit in their camp, letting it runitself into exhaustion, letting itgraze the forest. They tended it,teaching it to walk with themand live among them.
After it had been gentled,they would take the elephantback into the village. In the daysbefore cars or motorbikes, ananimal that could carry loads
of wood and tired humanswas immeasurably important.The return of the men wasgreeted with further sacrificessometimes even water buffaloand what, in Bunong culture,inevitably follows: feasting,celebration, meat and wine.
It was glad, says Pok Phan,to come live among us.
* * * * *
Elephant-catchingpetered off, say theBunong of Mondulkiri,long before thegovernment forbade it. PokPhan said that they stoppedcatching them during Pol Pots
timeHong believes it wassometime after.
In the 1980s we ceased tosee them, said Hong. Theirprints in the forest disappeared.They retreated from us.
Not everyone has come toterms with the loss. Pok Phansvillage is poor and dusty, seton the edge of wildness. Deepforest is less than 30 kilometersaway; poachers come backfrom it carrying hares and theoccasional muckjack deer. TheForestry Administration says
that there are maybe less than20 elephants left in Cambodiaswilderness, in the stretch ofwoods covering Phnom Prichand the Mondulkiri ProtectedForest, Pok Phan and hisneighbors say there are more.Thirty or forty, says Pok Phan.Theyre still there. They have
just gone into the deep forests,now. They are afraid of all thesepeople.
In his life, says Pok Phan, hecaught four or five elephants.The last one was in 1996. A
cowboy at heart, he doesnthave much to say about theend of his old livelihood. Whenasked his feelings about thedisappearance of the elephantsfrom the forests, he takes a longdraw from his cigarette.
I still have an elephant, hesays.
To my surprise, he doesindeeda female he caught in1993. She lives with his younger
brother in Sok San commune.He has named her Srey Ian,which means shy woman. Shedoesnt carry much these days,though some neighborhoodelephants do; villagers of Nyuichsay that every year a processionof three elephants and riderscomes through the town,carrying peangs of wine torelatives in the deep forest.
Theres a sacredness totradition as it dies, and aholiness to the things that usedto give the world mystery. As histown gets poorer and the Khmermove in to hunt, Pok Phan seeselephants as something far morethan transportation.
You could not drink or fightwhen you had an elephant,he said. You could not go outand play with pretty girls. Theelephant would know. It knewitself. It would sleep in the shadeof your house day and night,and it would cry.
Even the grandchildren of theelephant catchers are touchedby it. Theres an old Bunonglegend; elephants were humansonce, but were transfiguredby an angry god when theywent out to poison the fish ofa river. The god hit the mouthsof the elephants to renderthem speechless, and thereafter
elephants served and livedbeside people, carrying theirloads and eating some of theirfoodpineapples, bananas.
Theres a Khmer third-personregister for animals, and anotherfor humans. Hong and Pok Phanuse the latteran elephant isalways he or she, never it.
An elephant has the life of aperson, says Pok Phan. Itknows more than we do.
A mid-century photograph of passengers riding in a howdah
in Cambodia.
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PESTLEPOWER The key ingredients for Amok, made
into a paste with a mortar and pestle.
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by Maddy Crowell
The smell of fish hovered
outside the BoeungKeng Kang Market, asprawling indoor bazaar
in the heart of Phnom Penh,even before I entered. It was justafter nine in the morning, butthe market felt like it had beenawake all night; children nappedin patches of shade, mothersnursed, and fresh raw meatswung from hooks, selling fast.
Watch your bags, Sary,the head chef of a cooking classrun by La Table Khmere that Iwas attending, instructed the
class before ducking inside thetent. A sizeable group of mostlyAustralians and French, wescrambled to keep up, camerasin tow.
Shafts of sunlight cut throughthe tented ceiling. Bright orangecarrots lay in stacks next towriggling gray catfish. Vendorssat skinning fresh fish andchicken in a peaceful silence.A bloody, skinned frog largerthan my hand rested on a pileof other frogs. Sary held the frogup with her bare hands while
the class snapped photos. It wastranslucent and still trembling.She informed us we wouldnt beeating it we were in the market
to shop for fresh ingredientsfor the meal we were about tocook: green mango salad, amok,
and cha houy teuk.Ive been in Cambodia forless than a week; Ive alreadysampled delicious curries fromThailand, croissants from France,Chinese noodles, VietnamesePho. But wandering the streets,Ive been hard-pressed to finda dish that didnt include somesort of Asian-Western fusion.The street food Id tasted wasvastly unflavored noodles andpretty much any kind of grilledamphibian or arthropod withinreach, but it lacked the famous,
subtly textured dishes Id heardCambodia was known for. (Asa Cambodian chef later toldme, You eat street food to fillup.)
I wanted to find what madeCambodian food authenticallyCambodian. I decided to enrollin one of several cooking classesoffered by restaurants in thecapitol; for $20, I would be ableto do more than get a glimpseof Cambodian food Id learnhow to make it myself.
We followed Sary and her
assistant chef Kai through themarket, waiting silently as theynegotiated in Khmer for thenecessary ingredients: green
mangos, shallots, carrots, hotchili peppers, fresh basil, fish,tofu, chicken, dried shrimp,
tapioca jelly, bananas, galangal,garlic, lemon grass, kaffir lime,turmeric, chicken powder, driedchili, shrimp paste, fish sauce,peanuts, coconut milk, andpalm sugar.
* * * * *
Cambodian cuisine,much like the restof the countrysheritage, has beenunder threat since the countrysindependence in 1953. Decades
of brutal dictatorship underthe Khmer Rouge, and thestruggle for sovereignty withthe Vietnamese and Thai inand after the 1980s, has takena toll on what has been a richculture since the 9th century.When Cambodia appealed tothe French for protection in1864, they were introduced tobaguettes, pate, sardines, eggsand coffee. By the 1990s, aninflux of foreigners summonedby the United Nations missioncarried with it an influx of
more Western food includingpizza and hamburgers. Heavyinvestment from the Chinese inrecent decades has also brought
in a swath of Chinese noodle,dim sum and dumplings.
I think many things were
lost during the Khmer Rougeand the cuisine got lost a little.Then you have ingredients likeketchup and Knorr powderthat they certainly didnt usein the 60s, Nicole, the Swissco-owner of La Table Khmerewho preferred to go only byher first name, told me as wesat in the shade of their hotel.She, along with her Frenchhusband Stephan, decided toopen La Table Khmere to infuseCambodian cuisine with aWestern accent. They hire only
Cambodian chefs, but half themenu includes Western options.We wanted to attract
tourists, and we thoughtit would be nice to have aKhmer restaurant that was alsowesternized, Nicole explained.A lot of tourists want to tryKhmer but theyre scared toget sick. For example, we serveamok on our menu, but wevetaken the bones out. On thestreets, when tourists try amokit still has bones in it, and mostdont like that.
La Table Khmere is one ofhundreds of Khmer-infusedrestaurants in Phnom Penhgeared to attract foreign palates.
But, perhaps ironically, only ahandful of distinctly Cambodianrestaurants exist in Phnom
Penh. I visited Chef Luu Meng Malis Restaurant, a well-knownupscale Cambodian restaurantin the city center.
This is not Khmer cuisine,this is Cambodian cuisine. It isa project for us to rememberour own history and let peopleremember the past, Mr. Mengexplained to me as we sat inthe mid-afternoon heat in theoutside terrace of the building.I learned to cook by listening tothe seniors. We researched andwe went through history. We
learned a lot from Buddhism,Indian spices, the Chinese.Mr. Meng emphasized that
the concept of the restaurant wasto revive traditional Cambodiancuisine, opening the menu toshow me the front, which read:Malis is a high-end CambodianRestaurant which boosts a LivinCambodian Cuisine.
Together, we went throughthe menu, which displayed thekroeurng, or equal spices fresh spices we shopped forin the market: herbs, chili,
lemongrass, prahok.Cambodians were soclever to preserve ingredientsHundreds of years ago, they
A new arrival searches for authentic Cambodian cuisine
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didnt have electricity, but theytill managed to find ways to
preserve fish. They used whathey had, he said.
He pointed to a photo ofwhat looked like a sausage.This is a takeo sausage, he
xplained, It looks French onhe outside but its Cambodian
on the inside.I asked if hed ever considered
catering the menu to a moreoreign palate.
Well buy good meat fromFrance or the US. But if you askus to serve a French dish here,wed never do this, he said.
Others have worked topreserve Cambodias culinaryoots. In what has become an
annual tradition organized byhe French NGO Pour un Sourire
dEnfant, the Cambodian CuisineFestival in Siem Reap featuresmothers cooking, recruitingocal cooks from 20 provinces
around the Kingdom. In 2000, a Thai journalist
named Nusara Thaitawat spenta year in Cambodia collectingover 1,000 recipes from everyonerom middle-class families toarmers and peasants to the
Royal Family, publishing TheCuisine of Cambodia, a cookbookof 200 carefully-selected recipeshat serve as a living relic of the
countrys past. Ms. Thaitawatdiscovered Cambodias farmersonce had a system so advancedhey cultivated over 2,000
varieties of rice."There are lots of similarities
with Thai food as we come fromhe same region," Ms. Thaitawatold The Wall Street Journal.The basis and ingredients arehe same but it has evolved
differently. They use ingredientshat we have lost as we've
become a more urban society.n Cambodia, you can walk out
of your house and pick theseherbs and vegetables and fruits.n Cambodia, they are still more
connected to the earth."
* * * * *
When we finishedshopping, wepiled into threetuk tuks to returnto La Table Khmere, where alarge, air-conditioned kitchenthat housed twelve personalizedkitchen stalls including burners,cutting boards, silverware andindividual pestle and mortarsets sat waiting. It was timeto cook, and Sary and Kei tookturns teaching the class.
Although their cookingtechniques are local, the pairmade concessions for thesqueamish taste of foreigners.In my homeland we put fishsauce in the salad, Kei explainedto me, but it has a very strongtaste. We use prahok, its likea Cambodian cheese, but
foreigners dont like this verymuch so we dont use it here.
There were other thingsmost foreigners didnt like,he explained, like excessivespice, insects, and fishytastes. Prahok, however, isa very popular dish amongCambodians. Originally used asa way of preserving fish, its asalty, fermented fish paste thatis served as a main course alongwith rice and vegetables.
At the restaurant, we adda lot of food like pasta that is
more European, Kei explained.He learned to cook first from hismother, but became more skilledwhen he moved to Phnom Penhto work for a hotel.
He started us off peeling greenmangos, which were surprisinglyfirm, and then carrots. Theshavings were the foundationsfor the green mango salad.
Now chop the lemongrass,Kei instructed. His hand movedlike a machine, dicing the grassinto a fine dust. It took him abouta minute and the class about ten.
Slowly, we added color andwith it, taste. Lemongrass, brightred hot peppers, dried shrimp,sugar, salt, crushed peanuts,chicken knorr powder. Wechopped mostly in silence. Sary
Sary, a cooking instructor at La Table Khmere, compares fresh ginger and fresh turmeric.
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told me shes been teaching thesame class for a year, sometimestwice a day, but she doesnt gettired of it. We put our mangosalads in the fridge to cool.
Next we made amok,embedded in soft banana leavesand served with rice. The secretto amok lies in the spices
pepper, fresh basil, lemongrass,garlic, shallots, kaffir lime leaves,fresh ginger and turmeric, fishoil, palm sugar and chili flakes which we spent a good twentyminutes grinding, by mortar
and pestle into a fine paste. Weadded milky white coconut milk,and our choice of fish, tofu orchicken, and poured the curryinto beds of bamboo leaves andtoothpicks.
As we waited for the curry tocook, we finished the class withcha houy teuk, a Cambodian
dessert that can be found on thestreets for 1,000 riel ($.25). Therecipe was straightforward; weboiled hard gelatin and coconutmilk with sugar and sweetchopped bananas until the
gelatin and bananas were soft.Four hours later, we were
done and sat down to eat in therestaurant, unanimously hungry.The mango salad had a subtleshrimp-base to complement theotherwise slightly sweet, crunchysalad; the amok was soft andrich and still warm, perfectly
tender and with a mildly spicycoconut base.A French woman, who
had attended the class withher mother, only ate half herdish. I asked if she liked it. Shenodded enthusiastically.
I have to save this for myhusband to prove my handscan make something this nice!
I knew the class was onlythe beginning that in themonths to come my search forthe roots of Cambodian cuisinewould extend far beyond the
food itself and into thenarrative of a country deeplyentangled in externalinfluences. But the amok was astart.
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