One of my favorite foods

Just before leaving Switzerland Anne-Clare told me that my Cambodian diet would consist of rice and lemon grass one day and the next day I would have lemon grass and rice. She was very close to the mark.

Have you ever lived away from your home country for a long time or been on an extended vacation and longed for familiar food? That is happening to me.

In Kampong Cham there are markets with stalls but nothing you could call a supermarket. The two large gas stations have the best selection of products. This does not say much for the overall selection.

Right now I am in Phnom Penh, the shopping Mecca of Cambodia; there are shops of every size, selling almost everything. This afternoon I explored the “Lucky Supermarket”. When I walked in, I was hit by a blast of refreshing cold air. It was a little too cold because I have been sweating walking along the street in 35 degree heat. I am not complaining, with this heat I will take cool wherever I can find it.

Lucky is very much like a medium size U.S.A. Safeway supermarket. The clientele are half ex-pats and the other half is wealthy Cambodians.

On entry, there is a wine rack, a pastry display, a cold meat section and cheese counter. Very up-scale for Cambodia. I wandered past the selection of Australian beef, fresh and rotisserie roasted chickens, fresh papaya and, the ice cream freezer (thinking that my freezer in Kampong Cham is too small to hold anything but an ice cream bar). I turned down the kitchen utensil isle and found plastic containers for storing food and in my case, some of the parts and pieces of photographic equipment that are currently cluttering up my closet.

Then I turned down THE aisle, chips. There were Doritos chips with several flavors, Fritos and other familiar brands. Then the BIG Find. I found Export Cheetos. I held my excitement, Keith Daily had told me back in Belgium not to purchase the European Cheetos, and they were not the same an American Cheetos. Should I chance it? I picked up the bag and fondled it. They felt the same but how would they taste? I spent a long time thinking about this purchase. My first thought was they are $2.70 which is about one third of my daily food allowance. The other thought was they do have “EXPORT” on the bag. Could they really be REAL Cheetos? I put them in my basket and went to check out.

I hurried back to the hotel with my prize. In the room, I opened them, I knew that the first whiff would tell me if they were the real thing or not. I carefully opened the bag and placed my nose in the bag. A deep sniff. WOWWWWW, they are the REAL THING!!

If you know about Cheetos, you will know that the keys on my computer are now yellow.