I’m a bit of a fan of Lomo photography and I have just discovered that it is not beyond my means to emulate a crappy Russian camera with Photoshop. To keep within the Soviet theme, the pictured cyprinids are from the occasionally grim local market next door to the Russian Market in Phnom Penh.
Just as I was finishing my year-long opus on the microbiological make-up of Phnom Penh’s streetside icecream, I discovered that the French beat me to it by almost ten years. Damn you, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge. To wit:
A study of the microbiological quality of ice creams/sorbets sold on the streets of Phnom Penh city was conducted from April 1996 to April 1997. Socio-demographic and environmental characteristics with two ice/ice creams samples were collected from vendors selected in the city. A total of 105 vendors and 210 ice/ice creams samples were randomly selected for the study period. Ice/ice cream vendors in the streets of Phnom Penh were adults (mean age: 28 years old) with a male predominance (86.5%). Mean educational level of vendors was 5 years with no training in mass catering. Most ice creams and sorbets (81.7%) were made using traditional methods.
Microbiological analysis performed in the laboratory of Pasteur Institute of Cambodia indicated the poor bacteriological quality of the samples. The proportions of samples classified unsafe according to microbiological criteria were 83.3% for total bacterial count at 30 degrees C, 70% for total coliforms, 30% for faecal coliforms, 12.2% for Staphylococcus aureus and 1.9% for presence of Salmonella spp. These bacterial results suggest that many other food products sold in the streets may be similarly poor. Safety measures should be undertaken to avoid potential threats. Regulation of the street food sector should be part of a larger strategy for enhanced food safety and environmental quality in the city.
Things have either improved in the last ten years or I just happen to pick the 16.7% of icecream vendors who are free from bacteria, assuming that there is a high degree of cross-contamination and my secret superpower is not the ability to digest anything.
The full report has some great demographic info to spice up your icecream vendor-related dinner party conversation:
My only question is: how do I get funding to study street food for a whole year?
See: Kruy Sl, Soares Jl, Ping S et al. Microbiological quality of ” ice, ice cream sorbet” sold on the streets of Phnom Penh; April 1996-April 1997. Bull Soc Pathol Exot 2001; 94 (5): 411-414. Original PDF in French. Includes photos of the four distinct modes of icecream vendor .
Previously on Phnomenon: Icecream Sandwich on Wheels
Proud whaling nation Cambodia has just joined the International Whaling Commission which is a slight surprise given that my belief was that cetaceans in Cambodia were strictly bycatch. Dolphin amok coming to a restaurant near you. I’ll be running a pool as to which minister will become Whale Commissioner in the comments.
See: Whaling coverage from The Guardian’s Commentisfree.
Ray Zepp, author of Cambodia’s best (if occasionally wat-obsessed) niche travel guide, “Battambang and Around”, is back in the country, and has written a nice wrap up of the changes that Battambang has undergone in the preceding few years at Khmer440. On food and drink in Battambang:
Evenings in Battambang, granted, are not as exciting as in Phnom Penh. Relaxation is the operative word. And where better to relax than the Riverside Balcony Bar. Phnom Penh has nothing to compare with it. And although I am usually not given to hyperbole, I would say that the Riverside should be listed in one of the ‘Great Bars of the World’, and is not to be missed under any circumstances. And if you really want to chow down on good Khmer food, you can go right next door to the Riverside to the ‘Cow’s Stomach’ (romantic name, eh?). You can often tell the best Khmer restaurants when you see lots of people eating, but no live music or sexy beer girls. People are there for the food.
I’m with him on both the Riverside and Cow’s Stomach. Apart from the booze and the somnolence, Riverside’s meatballs are the kind of Westerner stodge that I need to keep me sane after a few days of Battambang fieldwork and concomitant roadside Khmer food. Cow’s Stomach is what I need to remember that roadside Cambodian food is not of the same genus as kitchen-cooked Cambodian food. With the opening of the new La Villa Hotel, and more importantly as a few friends have told me, the arrival of chocolate mousse in Battambang, I’ve really got to get back up north there to see what is happening.
Zepp has a new guide out in Summer 2006 with Peter Hogan and photography by Simon Toffanello.