Article for My Class!

Hello to All!

I have been working on this article for a while for my Life Writing Class. It is still in drafting stages! Let me know what you think! I just posted the draft online for the class, but any feedback I can get before the actual due date IS GREAT! COOL ENJOY! I hope you all are well!

A Bucket of Crickets
By Jacqui Menard

Deep fried Skuon spiders were not on the entrée menu that afternoon; our group had the luxury of crickets. I reached in, took a deep breath and pulled out the biggest one I could find. I popped him in my mouth, crunched down on his thorax and felt his super fine hairs tickle at my throat. I swallowed, cleaned my teeth with my tongue and thought,

‘I just ate a cricket?’

Cambodia’s food culture is very colorful. From exotic combinations of mint and lemon grass, to fish sauce and sticky rice, there are no boundaries to the culinary delights this thriving South- East Asian country has to offer.

***
At first glance it didn’t look like this was going to be any ordinary dining experience. Bamboo mats took the place of tables and chairs, people lounged around in hammocks and employees chopped vegetables on the floor while street cats meandered around dishes and between customers.

I entered the restaurant that was propped up on stilts, took off my shoes and sat along side my friends on the floor. My stomach churned in anticipation as I was welcomed to a giant bowl of bright yellow durian. I dove in and felt the flesh of the durian slide between my fingers, embed itself under my nails and make its way into my mouth. It was creamy, sweet, milky and pungent. My taste buds were in frenzy and my sense of smell was all confused as I pulled the massive brown pit from my mouth, studied it and wondered how something that smells like garbage and gasoline could taste so good.

Known to many as ‘the king of fruits,’ the durian is most notable for its distinctive spiky shell, bright yellow flesh and unique aroma. In Cambodia, these fruits grow in abundance in the Memot and Kampot regions and are considered some of the world’s finest.

The gas bubbles from my stomach crept up my esophagus and expelled the most putrid smelling durian burps from my mouth. I wafted the stench before me and moved away disgusted…just in time for the delivery of our main course.

***
Food in Siem Reap is relatively cheap and costs only a few US dollars. Cambodian’s revolve their meals around two main staples: rice and fish. Often these dishes are accompanied by stewed meats, soups and fresh local vegetables.

We began our lunch with a watery soup. It consisted of slightly gritty green vegetables, garlic and chilies. Our tour guide Lilly, ladled out our bowls of soup and waited patiently for our verdict. We smiled as we slurped back the stringy veggies, gave her the thumbs up and commented on the explosion of spices that were dancing frantically about on our tongues.

I gulped down the last bit of my soup, wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and put down my bowl. I was hot. Beads of sweat poured down my forehead and pooled themselves in the nape of my neck. I sucked in air and fanned myself frantically in an attempt to make peace with the sweltering sun and the extremely hot chilies.

‘Drink?’ asked Lilly.

I nodded; she got up and began to take orders from the rest of our group. I watched as she left our circle, found an employee and orders were exchanged under the sweet melody of the Khmer language. The employee nodded in compliance, walked over to a massive bin by our group and began to count out twenty two coconuts. Intrigued by her every move, I watched as she picked up a machete and began to viscously hack away at the hard green skin that encompassed our drinks.

The woman tearing open the coconuts handed me the first one. I smiled and thanked her as two massive plates of steaming meat were brought out. The smell of the meat was enticing. Its aroma permeated garlic; it looked tough and crispy and was dripping in hot oil.

To start, I was offered a plate of rice. In Cambodia, about seventy percent of the countries land is cultivated for rice growing. However, the rice in Cambodia is unlike any other South- East Asian country. It’s partially cooked and has a somewhat crunchy bite to it.

I reached across our mat and took hold of the first plate I could find. It was a mixture of meats, some I could recognize and others I couldn’t. After serious debating, I decided on a piece of charred black fish, an oily leg of chicken and a skewer of brown meat.

At this particular restaurant we were given no cutlery and as the saying goes,

‘When in Rome!’

I lifted the plate to my chin, molded a clump of rice into a ball with my fingers and shoved it into my mouth. I chewed my food slowly and could not help but to notice that our group was being watched. Customers spied on us with smiles on their faces. I smiled back, swallowed and picked up my skewer of mystery meat. It was different; it looked tasty and quite dry.

‘What is this?’ I asked perplexed.

‘Frog,’ laughed my good friend before she proceeded with stories about my childhood hero Kermit the Frog.

The food culture in Cambodia is without a doubt quite unique. This is because a lot of its culinary influences can be traced back to monumental events in the countries history. Colonized by the French in the 1860’s, frog legs, fine breads and roasted turtle still manage to find their way onto menus today. Other culinary influences extend from China as well as Cambodia’s long outstanding relationship with its southern most neighbor, Vietnam. Today, national delicacies such as spiders, crickets, wasps and beetles continue to also make appearances on dinner plate’s nation wide. These grubs have transformed themselves from insects locals ate to survive during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, to a fried snack that for me proved not only savory and tasty, but also quite memorable.


Target Publication


For this article I have decided that my target publication is going to be a magazine called Asian Paradises. The magazine is considered to be one of the most up to date travel magazines when it comes to touring Asia. Articles often feature destinations such as Malaysia, Bali, Singapore and more recently unknown destinations such as Brunei and Cambodia. I feel my article will fit the context of this magazine because it provides valuable information regarding the food culture in Cambodia. Moreover, since Cambodia has been taken on as a new destination, I feel that such an article would benefit the overall magazine.

http://www.isubscribe.com.au/title_info.cfm?prodID=11402