Cambodian food

People have asked about the food. It is this odd combination of Chinese and Mexican. So you get all the common Chinese dishes; fried rice, noodles, but you get this assortment of pepper sauces in little bowls to add to the food. We have grown quite fond of the red chile pepper sauce but our favorite is the crushed peppercorn sauce. We have been told that the Cambodians grow a little green chile about 2 inches long, and it should be avoided. Caliente!
The fresh fruits and vegetables are beautiful. We can eat the fruit if we can peel it. The vegetables are enjoyed when cooked. Today at lunch I am quite sure the carrots were in the ground yesterday. They grow four different varieties of bananas, each with its own flavor. My favorite is the little one that is about 4 inches long. We had watermelon for dessert today, and afterwards my teammates practiced using their chopsticks to pick up melon seeds.
The staple of the Cambodian diet is soup. Like a lot of developing countries with a poor population, they can make soup our out of anything. And apparently they put everything in the soup, so we are always picking out bones. For breakfast we had rice soup, which sounds a little gross, but it is a lot like porridge (and you know what a favorite that is of mine). But when you add a little chile sauce it was fine.
And of course, there is the rice. Steamed white rice comes with everything. And you begin to appreciate that when the main course seems a little dicey, like the steamed squid a day ago, a little white rice and soy sauce goes a long way.
I have gone on and on about the food, but have saved the best for last. The bread and coffee. Both are holdovers from when Cambodia was a French Colony. The bread is fresh baked and served as baguettes. It is crusty and wonderful. But my absolute favorite is the coffee. Rich, black and syrupy. It has the viscosity of refrigerated honey. And they sweeten/lighten it with sweetened condensed milk. Granted they serve it is demitasse cups, but a little goes a long way. Here at the conference it is not served at breakfast, but at the break. So the first day I was approaching serious caffeine withdrawal, but I discovered a coffee shop on the corner. All is right with the world.