La femme vintage

via La Femme Vintage

My oldest friend  and co-conspirator of vintage finds just opened her very own vintage shop in Long Beach, California!  Unfortunately, I'm too far away.  For now, I can only check out her etsy shop.

The weekend in review

via Ermie

While it is admittedly awesome to be able to hop on a bus and/or plane to Bangkok for a weekend, it also tends to throw my schedule off kilter.  This weekend was the first in weeks that felt normal and lazy.  It's so funny how not being able to cook a full breakfast, bake something, read, and  dawdle in my home on a Saturday or Sunday can throw me off balance.   I must be more a creature of ritual than I imagined.

I love weekends that are open and not riddled with appointments, meetings, or tasks that require  my immediate attention.  Yesterday, I had brunch with some lovely women at the new gastrobar in town, Botanico.  It was a good way to catch up with people I haven't seen in a while - J is back from Baltimore to work on women's health rights  and I hadn't seen F since fall last year.   We talked about life developments, about working in Burma, about travel and life in India (F previously lived in Bangalore), and friends' planned trip to Sri Lanka this fall.

Other than that brunch, I declined other invitations.  Instead, I stayed home.  I baked this and cooked, and fed the ornery brown and black spotted feral kitten, "Cookie," which has taken over my terrace.

April brings with it another Khmer holiday, then there's May with another holiday, and then it's June, my last month at work.  I started my application for the Indian visa and with that, I allowed myself to daydream about the trip.  I've also become aware that the pace of life may pick up again for a while until the respite in July and August.

Oh yes, before I forget:  I finally ordered the Ermie shirt above, and what service!  Jennifer ordered more material for me in the Talitha print (which was out), offered to pre-wash the silk for me (because  I don't have a dry cleaner in Cambodia), and is currently having the shirt made with my measurements.  I'm not a big fan of fast fashion these days, particularly given all the garment factory finds in the local markets, but this type of service alone reminds me why I would rather spend my money to support the work of artisans like Jennifer. I am super excited to own one of her pieces.

Bangkok Street Style

first via Namtanw; second via Style Anywhere

As you walk the streets of Bangkok, you encounter street vendor upon street vendor of clothes and shoes - many not so great, but some quite tempting - in addition to the shiny malls and the small boutiques. I cannot even begin to describe the difference between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, two cities that are connected by a cheap one hour flight on Air Asia. It boggles my mind every time I step foot across the border.  Geographically and even ethnically, the two cities are not so disparate, but they are years and years apart in modernity and infrastructure, in order and offerings.

I'm always amused by the uniform I see in Bangkok, which shifts with each visit.  This visit, I could not stop seeing scallop-edged tap shorts with blouses tucked in, amongst the long dresses and skirts I saw  late last year.  At Chatuchak Market, where I spent a good part of Saturday, I saw vintage silk button-down blouses over and over again, all with their sleeves rolled up, which made me think of this uniform.

The city is heating up.  One day, I was just overwhelmed by the swarm of people on BTS, Bangkok's sky train and by the traffic jams below on the streets.  I had a flashback to my first visit to London (over 10 years ago!!), when I was going opposite the work rush on the Tube, a wall of people moving in unison.

Bangkok, again

I'm battling a cold after having spent 4 days in Bangkok.  On this visit, we did the usual - ate too much, walked in the heat, visited one of our favorite Japanese restaurants with a killer lunch special on Silom Road and had delicious Isaan food.  We also met a few folks and talked work-stuff.  It's so nice to visit a big city.

Good morning, Cambodia

Toasted four grain cereal recipe, taken from 101 Cookbooks - except I could only find two kinds of grains in Cambodia.  For my morning mix, I throw almonds, raisins, honey and maybe a little cream on top. Done.  

Four grain cereal blend:
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g rolled oats
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g rolled rye
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g rolled barley
1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100g rolled spelt

Make a jar of four grain cereal blend, to keep on hand, by combining the rolled oats, rye, barley, and spelt. Store in an airtight container. Makes four batches.

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
2 2/3 cup / 560 ml water, plus more to your preference

The night before you want to enjoy your cereal, melt the butter over medium-high heat in a saucepan. Add 1 cup / 3.5 oz / 100 g of the four grain cereal mixture, and stir well to coat. Add the salt and continue to cook, stirring often, until the grains have really toasted and are quite fragrant - roughly 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat, add the water, and leave overnight.

The next morning, heat the cereal over medium-high until it comes to a simmer. Leave it for about 10 minutes, or until the cereal is cooked through. Here's the thing - the cereal will thicken more the longer it simmers, so timing is truly a judgement call here. If you prefer a thinner cereal, feel free to adjust with more water. When the consistency seems right, taste, and add more salt if needed.

Lunch meetings

Lunch meetings in Sihanouk Ville can be so tough ...

An afternoon in a wat

A wat is a monastery temple.  In Cambodia, they often take the place of community halls. One has to be mindful of clearing out when it is lunchtime for the resident monks.