Rising Star
Saturday, 2 June 2007 by Dr Maytel
If you haven't acquainted yourself already with the prodigious talents of Cambodia's most famous food blogger and fast rising star food writer Phil (who also happens to be a Gut Feelings team member) then I suggest you do so now and begin with his recent review of Melbourne's only Khmer restaurant Bopha Devi
Phil writes
"In Cambodia, Princess Bopha Devi is best known for being the former King Sihanouk’s wayward daughter. Educated as a ballerina in France, the princess emulated the other princes by taking a succession of beautiful lovers but unlike the princes, this was much to the dismay of Sihanouk who once labelled her a “whore”. It makes for an interesting choice of name for a restaurant: Cambodians would more likely associate Bopha Devi with Sihanouk’s comments or her more recent political career as Minister for Culture. If the food had been better, I’d rant about the clash of feminism, modernity and tradition that the name embodies, and the difficulties of reconciling a modern education with the demands of Cambodian royal life. But it wasn’t.
Not only does Phil possess a highly evolved style of diction as displayed in his ever so eloquent equivication of a restaurant to one of dubious sexual mores, he can also single handedly increase the internet traffic on Gut Feelings tenfold in a day by a simple referral.
Ta Phil
Phil writes
"In Cambodia, Princess Bopha Devi is best known for being the former King Sihanouk’s wayward daughter. Educated as a ballerina in France, the princess emulated the other princes by taking a succession of beautiful lovers but unlike the princes, this was much to the dismay of Sihanouk who once labelled her a “whore”. It makes for an interesting choice of name for a restaurant: Cambodians would more likely associate Bopha Devi with Sihanouk’s comments or her more recent political career as Minister for Culture. If the food had been better, I’d rant about the clash of feminism, modernity and tradition that the name embodies, and the difficulties of reconciling a modern education with the demands of Cambodian royal life. But it wasn’t.
Not only does Phil possess a highly evolved style of diction as displayed in his ever so eloquent equivication of a restaurant to one of dubious sexual mores, he can also single handedly increase the internet traffic on Gut Feelings tenfold in a day by a simple referral.
Ta Phil
respect to the man.
the nose knows.
PS
between durians and fermented fish pastes, you guys make me feel very betty crocker.
i mean, i do like dried squid - when it's hermetically sealed with strips of processed cheese that is