Happy Birthday to Me

Huzzah! Phnomenon turns one today. What started as little more than a fatuous vanity project wherein I could make snide comments about watery beer has blossomed to become slightly less fatuous and even more snide. There were loose plans to buy a badly-worded Cambodian birthday cake for the blog but the only thing sadder than buying yourself a birthday cake is buying one for an inanimate object of your own creation. Instead here are my five favourite posts for the year:

  • Why travelers dislike Khmer food: With a bit of judicious editing, I’ve discovered that rants can be disguised as genuine content. Gridskipper gave this the snappier title “Cambodian food is good, you’re just crap at eating it”.
  • Five (Cambodian) foods you should eat before you die: This post on a selection of five random Cambodian foods generated much more traffic than it deserved. Everybody loves a list.
  • Bayon Beer: It was hard to pick a single Cambodian beer review. It’s like picking a favourite child because they’re the one that you most enjoy berating.
  • Phnom Penh hamburger fiesta: As shocking as it may sound, Cambodians don’t eat Cambodian food all the time. Occasionally, they grind up animals to consume between two buns, like crazy Western folk. Uncover my bold and now hugely erroneous prediction that a McDonald’s and a Burger King would be open by year’s end.
  • Meric: The first time that I have reviewed Cambodian fine dining and the last time that I will quote a French postmodern theorist.

13 thoughts on “Happy Birthday to Me”

  1. Congratulations! Happy blogiversary. Look forward to many more posts to come 🙂

    ps. I would’ve bought the cake. Who says no to cake? lol

  2. Bayon Beer; the gay redheaded stepchild of Khmer beer.

    We had a huge Khmer cream cake the other week, it looked impressive, alas, it was durian flavoured…

  3. Happy birthday. Your fatuous vanity project has done heaps to educate the world on the fact that yes, there is something as distinct as Khmer food. Keep it up.

  4. Can it be a year already?? Well by all means keep it up. Phnomenon is the first of its kind but hopefully not the last.

  5. Happy Birthday, Phnomenon! Incidentally, RealThai celebrates its first b-day on the 10th, so I guess this makes you our big brother?

  6. Phnomenon turns 1
    Phnomenon blog hags in Phnom Penh prefer modernist birthday trappings when celebrating. Congratulations Phil!

  7. Hooray!

    With Indonesia’s invasion of Timor-Leste, Yasser Arafat’s recognition of Israel and the Long Island Railroad Massacre all transpiring on this auspicious date, you’re in apropos company.

  8. Happy birthday. I’m very glad I found you. Now I can chuck away my Lonely Planet and hopefully avoid the crowds (unlikely in January I suppose). Especially looking forward to rubbery squid.

  9. I’m a bit late but I wish you a very happy blog Birthday! I like to come to your site and if I would come to Cambodia again, now I would know what to read instead of the LP Guide. Cheers from Brussels (via Hungary)

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