The Wandering Palate Cambodia correspondent, Darren Gall, puts out the fire of spice in his mouth with the requisite wines.

“The year was 1968. We were on recon in a steaming Mekong Delta. An overheated private removed his flak jacket, revealing a t-shirt with an iron-on sporting the Mad slogan “Up with miniskirts!” Well, we all had a good laugh, even though I didn’t quite understand it. But our momentary lapse of concentration allowed Charlie to get the drop on us. I spent the next 3 years in a POW camp, forced to subsist on a thin stew made of fish, vegetables, prawns, coconut milk and four kinds of rice. I came close to madness trying to find it here in the States but they just can’t get the spices right.” Seymour Skinner

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Our Cambodia Correspondent, Darren gall, finds himself well at home in a Izakaya, if not somewhat culturally anomalous to Cambodia…

Phnom Penh’s uber-in-style Japanese restaurant Yumi is modeled on the traditional ‘Izakaya’ restaurants found all over Japan.  The word Izakaya is a compound word, loosely translated as ‘a shop to sit and drink sake’. Izakaya restaurants are typically small spaces with a long bar and a handful of tables that serve what could be described as Japanese ‘tapas’ style cuisine to go with the core purpose of their being, which is of course drinking!

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I tend to navigate my way around Phnom Penh by my favourite glasses of wine -not a simple matter of where I can get a decent glass at a reasonable price mind you- but places where I can take refuge from the chaos.

These establishments have to be places that have a certain atmosphere, an ambiance that I warm to, places that make me thank the gods that I am alive and well and living in Cambodia, where the food is as good as the food choices and the wines are plentiful and generally inexpensive.

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