June 21st
98 days here
I am up at 8am.
My eye is sore. I catch a glimpse of it as I brush my teeth. A red eye stares back. It's painful too. Oh dear. Marlon Brando's 'One Eyed Jacks' was a favourite film of mine growing up. I'm not so keen on this new look to my countenance though.
I walk across town to the Old Market to buy two kilos of belly pork, then to Thai Huot Market for odds and ends like Chinese wine and 5 spice powder for today's cooking. As I place a can of Schweppes Tonic into my basket, I am very tempted to place a bottle of Gordon's Gin there too. I don't. Drinking alone is not a good habit to get into.
Forget hammams and Turkish sweat emporia, cooking in an under stair 'kitchen' with no fan and no air conditioning, in a tropical country, will definitely help you sweat. I does me. My blue shirt is soaked. I purposely change into a previous worn shirt because of this. Clever eh!
Tiny people are passing through. One small child is fascinated by me cooking and climbs up onto a stall to see what I am doing, all the time chattering. Later a young man, maybe ten or twelve, unpacks a plastic bag and hands me a can of coke cola, saying that he bought it for me. Aaah, so sweet. Salone comes and asks if I need help. I refuse her help as I know that she really needs to get on with her painting. It's becoming a regular Piccadilly circus in this cubbyhole.
Today I cook 'Red Cooked Pork using the 'twice cooked' method (boiling then frying). I have adapted a traditional Chinese recipe and merged it with a recipe I got (from Jo, a Filipina friend), for Adobo. Basically the meat is simmered in spices with soy sauce, Chinese white wine, bay leaves and a few other things like palm sugar, then reduced until it frys.
All the time I sit, in that hot space, on a red plastic stall watching, and stiring when necessary. Two hours, and two cans of cold coke cola, later it is ready and I am tired. Phew!
Today is Fathers Day. 'A' posts a nice image of the two of us hand in hand, from the 70s, in Hunstanton North Norfolk East Anglia. I haven't heard from my other daughter, nor my significant other in Malaysia. People are people and will do what they do, I guess.
Today is not just Fathers Day, but also the Summer Solstice. June 21st is the day when the northern hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight, which causes the day to last longer than any other day in the year, which is why this day is also known as the Longest Day, and Midsummer. Shakespeare knew that for he produced my favourite play of his 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
Today in Wiltshire, England, druids like my old mate Sid Rawle (now deceased), would attempt to gain access to Stonehenge to see the day break over the stones. However, the summer weather in Britain doesn't always allow for celebration. As I suffer the heat and sunshine in Cambodia, rain blesses the more spiritually minded in England.
Okay so I also have to mention that today is at the tail-end of the Zongzi festival period in Chinese communities around the world. Zongzi (Chinese dumplings) are conical pyramid of stuffing, sweet or savoury, wrapped in bamboo leaves, then boiled or steamed. Due to my extended stay in Cambodia I've missed out this year.
My partner's mother makes excellent Zongzi, which are called 'chung' in Malaysia (I wrote about these six years ago).
Today's spend
Old Market….Belly Pork…$8
Thai Huot Market….Xugang Old Red Rice Chiew (cooking wine); Nguan Soon Chinese Five Spices powder; Milk Soft Bread; Dasani Water x2; Schweppes Tonic Water; Globemilk; Coca Cola x2; Angkor Khmer Palm Sugar Powder and Peeled Garlic…$11.20
Total …$19.20
98 days here
I am up at 8am.
My eye is sore. I catch a glimpse of it as I brush my teeth. A red eye stares back. It's painful too. Oh dear. Marlon Brando's 'One Eyed Jacks' was a favourite film of mine growing up. I'm not so keen on this new look to my countenance though.
I walk across town to the Old Market to buy two kilos of belly pork, then to Thai Huot Market for odds and ends like Chinese wine and 5 spice powder for today's cooking. As I place a can of Schweppes Tonic into my basket, I am very tempted to place a bottle of Gordon's Gin there too. I don't. Drinking alone is not a good habit to get into.
Forget hammams and Turkish sweat emporia, cooking in an under stair 'kitchen' with no fan and no air conditioning, in a tropical country, will definitely help you sweat. I does me. My blue shirt is soaked. I purposely change into a previous worn shirt because of this. Clever eh!
Tiny people are passing through. One small child is fascinated by me cooking and climbs up onto a stall to see what I am doing, all the time chattering. Later a young man, maybe ten or twelve, unpacks a plastic bag and hands me a can of coke cola, saying that he bought it for me. Aaah, so sweet. Salone comes and asks if I need help. I refuse her help as I know that she really needs to get on with her painting. It's becoming a regular Piccadilly circus in this cubbyhole.
Today I cook 'Red Cooked Pork using the 'twice cooked' method (boiling then frying). I have adapted a traditional Chinese recipe and merged it with a recipe I got (from Jo, a Filipina friend), for Adobo. Basically the meat is simmered in spices with soy sauce, Chinese white wine, bay leaves and a few other things like palm sugar, then reduced until it frys.
All the time I sit, in that hot space, on a red plastic stall watching, and stiring when necessary. Two hours, and two cans of cold coke cola, later it is ready and I am tired. Phew!
Today is Fathers Day. 'A' posts a nice image of the two of us hand in hand, from the 70s, in Hunstanton North Norfolk East Anglia. I haven't heard from my other daughter, nor my significant other in Malaysia. People are people and will do what they do, I guess.
Today is not just Fathers Day, but also the Summer Solstice. June 21st is the day when the northern hemisphere receives the most direct sunlight, which causes the day to last longer than any other day in the year, which is why this day is also known as the Longest Day, and Midsummer. Shakespeare knew that for he produced my favourite play of his 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
Today in Wiltshire, England, druids like my old mate Sid Rawle (now deceased), would attempt to gain access to Stonehenge to see the day break over the stones. However, the summer weather in Britain doesn't always allow for celebration. As I suffer the heat and sunshine in Cambodia, rain blesses the more spiritually minded in England.
Okay so I also have to mention that today is at the tail-end of the Zongzi festival period in Chinese communities around the world. Zongzi (Chinese dumplings) are conical pyramid of stuffing, sweet or savoury, wrapped in bamboo leaves, then boiled or steamed. Due to my extended stay in Cambodia I've missed out this year.
My partner's mother makes excellent Zongzi, which are called 'chung' in Malaysia (I wrote about these six years ago).
Today's spend
Old Market….Belly Pork…$8
Thai Huot Market….Xugang Old Red Rice Chiew (cooking wine); Nguan Soon Chinese Five Spices powder; Milk Soft Bread; Dasani Water x2; Schweppes Tonic Water; Globemilk; Coca Cola x2; Angkor Khmer Palm Sugar Powder and Peeled Garlic…$11.20
Total …$19.20
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