Culinary delights...

When I went for my medical check up before coming away with VSO my GP informed me that I was morbidly obese & urgently needed to lose weight - I reassured her that I was off to a developing country for 26 months and that the Cambodian weight loss plan (low income, poor diet, chronic diarrhoea, cycling everywhere) would surely bring my BMI down.

For the first few months this looked quite likely - I lost 10 kg after various intestinal assaults from e.coli, Giardia & the like. However I am a Wilson & the thrifty gene is strong in me.

So an initial eversion to white boiled rice was quickly over come, Asian - in particular Cambodian - food soon became my favourite food. Recently working away from home, abandoned by my male Cambodian work colleagues & feeling rather glum I found myself perusing the local petrol station for delicious western comfort food. After pondering Pringles, sweets & ice-cream I eventual gave up & went to the local food stall for some 'bai char' - fried rice instead.

The trouble with Cambodian food is that the reason it is so delicious is invariably because it is stuffed full of saturated fat, sugar & MSG whilst served with an enormous plate of white rice. Even the Cambodian tendency to eat almost anything that creeps, crawls or canters has not helped me lose weight.

For breakfast I am partial to a big steaming bowl of Chinese noodle soup with offal with lots of chilli. Every drink I have will be crammed full of condensed milk. The snacks are exotic tropical fruit with a deep fried rice based 'nom' (cake) on the side. On a good day I can eat 3 plates of rice with lunch - often piled on my plate by my friend who also loves his food as much as I do. We have developed a companionship of polishing off plates of food that culture here dictates is actually polite just to leave.

It hasn't helped that sugar in every meal & drink has sweetened my tooth & given me a taste for full fat coke. This is less of a problem when I haven't eaten for 10 days (x-ref e.coli & Dengue) & drinking 8% of my daily calorific requirement kept me going, but obviously it doesn't help my current Cambodian weight loss programme.

In the last week I have sampled deep fried crickets with my Paddy field cocktail & eaten fertilised ducks eggs with varying levels of enjoyment. There are still Cambodian delicacies that I am yet to dabble in - snake (not to be confused for when a Cambodian mispronounces snack), dog, frog, turtle but I absolutely draw the line at spiders.

Psyching myself up by reminding myself of all the ants,  flies & other insects that I have inadvertently eaten here already

Cricket anyone?

15 day old chick inside

Yes that is a beak & a beady eye!

In khmer this part of the fertilised egg is called 'the pillow' & I can attest to it being absolutely disgusting - like chewing a condom as R so eloquently put it but he likes that!