Breakfast News

In an attempt to integrate into the community in Phnom Srok, practice my Khmer a little and get a decent meal I have been eating breakfast at a restaurant every morning. I usually go alone and have progressed from reading my order from a prepared piece of paper to confidently speaking my order off my heart. A typical Khmer breakfast is noodle soup with pork meat. It is surprisingly tasty and quite welcomed as a way to start the day – and there is always a dog or two not far from your feet in case you find something in your bowl you’d rather not put in your mouth! Many a time I have managed to save embarrassment by surreptitiously dropping something inedible into the open jowls of my canine friends!

It is quite the done thing to eat breakfast out and so the restaurant is usually very busy with men filling up with their morning noodle soup or plate of rice before they start work. It feels good to have something of a morning routine and is even more rewarding when recognised by the restaurant owners (who happen to be the family of a man from my office) and those eating there. I also enjoy the walk from my house, which includes passing the truck stop where drivers wait to fill their vehicles with passengers to Siam Reap, because despite the stares and whispers of ‘barang!’ everyone is ready with a smile and willing to reply to my greetings of ‘Sauce-sa-dey’ (Hello!).

In fact the only downside to my morning ritual is that the restaurant owner has become so used to my order that she has stopped waiting for me to say it and brings it to me automatically which kind of defeats one of the objects of being there which was to gain some language practice. To combat this I have taken to changing my order every few mornings so that I remain a little more unpredictable and still get to practice my Khmer!