Soup Kind of Day

The Breakfast soup

Rural Cambodia Day

A few things you should know.

I’ve been eating soup for breakfast. You know what they say, when in Cambodia do like the Cambodians. I believe that is a fairly common phrase.

Preparing my soup

How they make the soup is quite interesting; at least to this “western girl.” First you pick out your noodles. Thin, thick or medium. Joined with the noodles are sprouts, spinach and few other vegetables. They are placed into a vat of boiling hot water. And then you choose your protein, thinly sliced beef, pork and sometimes chicken. The water is so hot, the protein cooks in the water. Once laded into your bowl you add a variety of hot, very hot or mouth burning spices. The first morning I added what I thought was teriyaki sauce. It was a mouth burner. The next morning, I tried first on my finger the innocent red sauce. Oh my, it’s a amazing I still have lips. Today, three days older and wiser I just added the lame, non spicy chives and some inconspicuous flavorless green things. I do like the soup. I would like it better at lunch or even dinner; but it is full of flavor.

And breakfast is served

Another common food is curry chicken soup with a small amount of rice. I’ve had that now three lunches in a row. Yeap. Three. The curry isn’t hot nor spicy like India curry. It’s mild which adds a touch of red to the soup. The flavor at first is a bit bland; you want to add salt or even a dash of sour cream. But you stick with it because it’s what for lunch. And then after several spoon fulls you are like, wow this soup is good. Much like cheese, it only gets better with age as long as that age isn’t more than three minutes old in the spoon.

The Ox cart ride from my point of view ….

And finally, I had my first and perhaps my last Ox cart ride, or as Dan would say tic-tac-toe ride. You know, OX or XO or XXX or OOO. Our tour guide kept calling the Ox cart the Cambodia Lexus, only better. Never needs gas.

Ox at your service

At one of the floating villages

After the Ox cart ride, we took a boat ride to a floating village. Ten percent of the population lives in a floating house/village. I was surprised to see many the houses had pets. I saw several dogs, cats and even a pig oops I mean bacon. That’s not a pet. The villages survive on batteries and generators for lights and a small TV at night. I didn’t ask about the WC situation or the whole bathing and showers. We were told many of the villagers believe the water to be clean and use it for cooking and cleaning. You’ll see in my pictures that is very clearly, emphasis on the word clearly not the case.

Pickle limes for soup

A kitchen in a private home in the floating village

Oh wait, one more thing, the Nana creature I talked about is spelled Naga. I saw that spelled today. Oops, my bad. I suppose I’ll go ahead and make the disclaimer now; my facts and stories is this blog many not to accurate; but only as I heard it.

Love the floating trees with the floating house

Look, a tourist