“You can understand a lot about a culture from its food,” said Vanarith, expert in Khmer (Cambodian) cuisine and owner of the recently established Urban Eats street food tours in Phnom Penh. I asked him to explain. “You can learn a lot of facts from museums or from visiting monuments such as palaces and temples and that’s important, but by sitting down and eating with local people and hearing their stories, you can begin to understand their history, traditions and culture,” he said.
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| “You can understand a lot about a culture from its food" |
It was early morning in Phnom Penh and we were eating fried noodles in a small, family-run business, established more than 30 years ago and now run by the grown-up children of the owners. The cafe was an open fronted establishment, allowing customers to watch the early morning street activity, including a procession of Buddhist monks and groups of children on their way to school. Vanarith had collected me from my hotel for a morning street food tour adapted to my vegetarian requirements. I’d been a bit concerned that this might present a difficulty but he reassured me saying: “I can design a tour to accommodate different dietary needs. The morning tours are especially good for vegetarians and even vegans.”
Just thinking about those noodles brings back the taste. They were the culinary highlight of my tour, simple, honest and flavourful. I could have eaten a second plate but had to keep room for other treats. These included the local take on doughnuts - a thick, deep-fried savoury breadstick, as well as local fruits and fresh juice from a stall run by a Vietnamese family. The tour had begun with an iced-coffee in the Old Market (Psa Jas in Khmer) where a friendly woman was selling baguettes on a street corner. She laughed when I told her her they were as good as those sold in Paris. I wasn’t lying.
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| Baguettes as good as those sold in Paris. |
I asked Vanarith how he came to be working in tourism and specialising in food tours. He said: "When I was born, my family were living in the jungle with soldiers fighting the Khmer Rouge. (The communist Khmer Rouge had been ousted from power in 1979, but the remnant fought on for several years). I was always hungry. At three or four years of age I learned to cook simple dishes but there was never enough to eat. I remember begging the soldiers for rice. Later, when I was in an orphanage, I loved helping in the kitchen. I would chop vegetables and prepare herbs and was given extra food for doing this. When I lived in a hostel I cooked for my friends. I would ask them for fifty cents each and then prepare two or three dishes for them. I went to the market to buy the food and brought it back to wash, prepare and cook. I did everything except washing the dishes - I don’t like doing that.”
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| Vanarith with the US Ambassador on an evening food tour |
“We suffered very badly and were subjected to intense abuse.”
He explained how he came to be in an orphanage: "In 1999, we came to live in Phnom Penh. My parents left me and my three siblings in the care of a woman who turned out to be involved in drugs and prostitution. We suffered very badly and were subjected to intense abuse - both physical and mental. We were often beaten.” He continued: "One afternoon I was playing in the street with some friends. I had no shoes or t-shirt and only wore torn shorts. A woman approached me and asked if I would like to live in an orphanage. She said I would be given food, a place to sleep and that I’d go to school. Of course, I said ‘yes’ but first we had to ask the permission of the woman who was supposed to be looking after us. She agreed to us let us go but because of where we had been living we had to take a a blood test. Luckily we all tested negative. I was eight years old.”
At 17 he moved to a hostel, unsure of how to earn a living. “I had no qualifications, no degree, I had not been to college,” he said, “It was hard to find a job that would pay enough to live on. But I had learned English by taking some classes, listening to podcasts, using YouTube, watching movies and most importantly by talking to people. For a while I volunteered at the orphanage, helping to organise things and although I had no formal skills, I would translate and teach a little English to the children.” He went on to work for an NGO where he further improved his language skills, before securing a job with a tour company and then working as a freelance guide for two years. During this time he acted as guide for some high profile clients including the US Ambassador and the vlogger behind Strictly Dumpling, a YouTube channel with more than four million subscribers. “In these jobs I learned about the travel industry and became experienced in interacting with tourists. It’s this that gave me the confidence to start my own business,” said Vanarith.
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| With Mike “Mikey” Xing Chen of Strictly Dumpling fame. |
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| With Cambodian chef, Chef Nak, who is leading the work to recover recipes lost during the Khmer Rouge period. |
You can contact Vanarith through the Urban Eats Facebook page and follow him on Instagram.
All pictures provided by Vanarith with the exception of the lady with the baguettes, which was taken by the author.
You might also like I Used To Steal Small Amounts Of Rice Just To Survive or I Was So Happy I Couldn’t Sleep
You can read more about the work to record and preserve Khmer cuisine here.
