noodles and rice

Finding my food rhythm here has been interesting. Food can be very cheap here - you can eat for less than $2 a meal if you go to the right places. On the flip side, it can also easily be the same price as home if you allow yourself to fall prey to those eating establishments set up solely to cater to westerners. (Tempting on occasion... I won't lie.) But I think I have been playing a bit of a game with myself since I got here to see how sensible I can be in my food and drink budget.

It's sort of new to me, as most of my travelling over the past decade has not been in countries like this... nor has it really been of the budget variety. And when I lived in Guatemala, I stayed with a host family, where I just ate what was served. Massive papaya for breakfast that I could barely force down (look, papaya is good, but not in those kind of doses).... chewy steak... yep, whatever it was, I just ate as much of it as I could stomach. Even if I ate a few things I didn't like in order to avoid grandma's disapproving look, the up side was that I really didn't have to think about it.

Here I am staying in a guesthouse. It includes breakfast but all my other meals are on my own. No kitchen.

Anyone who has been over to my flat recently in London and seen the contents of my refrigerator is probably laughing right now, thinking... as if you are actually going to cook something anyway. Look, I can cook! :) I can make anything from homemade pizza to Thai curries to scones to anything Mexican you can think of, but I just don't see the point of cooking for one. And, truth be told, I'm slow as molasses. I only like cooking when it is for other people and I can crack a bottle of wine and chat and putz my way through the whole thing. I distinctly remember my first experience cooking on my own after my former live-in chef and I parted ways (the fact that he dominated the kitchen - which I welcomed, don't get me wrong - explains part of my speed issue). Anyway, what was I cooking? It was just a vegetable stir fry. Time I began: 7:30. Time I ate: 8:40. (It was a lot of chopping!) I thought - forget it, no way am I doing this every night just for myself. It was good for the waistline, if nothing else.

Anyway, back to the point... so after two weeks here are a few of my observations on food:
1) noodles and rice are great. but not for every meal, even if they only cost $1.25. right now, I think if were to see another noodle I would, well...
2) therefore, an occasional visit to westernised eating establishments is in order every now and then. for a salad. and some ice in my diet coke.
3) if you're going to have a drink, it is probably going to be a beer. (not a lot of wine regions near Cambodia... unless you count rice wine... so unless you want to pay 5 times the price for wine that doesn't taste that great anyway... yep, as I said, you're drinking a beer).
4) so if you're going to have a beer, go to one of the many establishments that serve 50 cent drafts. (I know this sounds reminiscent of bars you (and I!) probably frequented in the college years... but really a lot of the restaurants have 50 cent drafts). So now I have learned not to go to any of the places that just serve cans, because they cost twice the price, but perhaps more importantly, they get warm in 2.5 seconds.
5) I did try going to the grocery store. I bought a few things but I don't think I'll be back. It's more expensive than eating out. And while there is a refrigerator in my room, the power goes out so often I think it is slightly risky. I ate some things from it last week that were questionable, while crossing my fingers, and vowing not to buy real food for that refrigerator again.
6) I am starting to find things on the cheap Asian menu with vegetables, sans noodles, sans frying. Fresh spring rolls for one. But it is not without trial and error. Tonight I had some sort of papaya salad. With papaya cut into noodle-like shreds. Sort of like cabbage. Soaked in what I swear was a combination of fish sauce and straight garlic. I almost considered not eating it it was so potent. But, I was too curious, and I'd already paid for it. And as I have made a conscious decision not mingle too much with the backpacker crowd for the first month I am travelling, and there's not a chance for me and any Cambodian men (for many reasons, not least that even at 5'5 and 115 pounds, I qualify as giant status relative to them!)... well, I can probably eat garlic all I want for now.