For many, Cambodia is famed only for the gruesome insanity of Pol Pot's genocidal regime. That's now changing, however, as the country becomes synonymous with spoiled Western kids all doing 'something different' with their trust funds -atrocity-spotting trips about as tasteful as a gift shop at Auschwitz.
Seafood guru Rick Stein - a self-confessed virgin of Cambodian cuisine - is the latest intrepid Middle Englander to visit the extraordinary Angkor Wat with little more than a camera crew and a laptop on his new Far Eastern Odyssey (Thursdays, BBC2). He is immediately at home among people for whom food is apparently "the greatest love in their life" (which seems a bit harsh on the wife and kids), and is soon making a beeline for a nearby fish sauce factory.
Rick tellingly compares the process to winemaking - although we were sadly denied the sight of surly, ex-colonial Frenchmen wading about in vats of anchovies.
Part cookery show, part travelogue, the scenery is stunning; as is the food on display, starting with the national dish 'fish amok' - catfish steamed in banana leaves with coconut milk, lemongrass, turmeric and galangal. Though undoubtedly delicious, few (OK, none) of the subsequent recipes are any use for veg-heads, thanks to Rick as ever drenching everything in fish sauce. That's only fair, of course, seeing as in the Far East most people's notion of 'meat-free' translates as 'slightly less meat'.
Between meals, Rick indulges in traditional pastimes such as trying on pointy hats and patronising locals, always beneath the spectre of the country's blood-drenched past.
It's odd getting a history lesson on one of the 20th century's most horrifying episodes from a man famous for his ability to broil a haddock. And there's an awkward moment when Rick actually laughs over the phrase "slaughtering each other in large numbers" during an interview with a local hotelier.
But he has a degree of humility missing from certain sleb chefs. Indeed, Rick apologises that he "first became interested in Cambodia after reading The Killing Fields". He needn't be sorry - most of us in the West waited for the movie.
Seafood guru Rick Stein - a self-confessed virgin of Cambodian cuisine - is the latest intrepid Middle Englander to visit the extraordinary Angkor Wat with little more than a camera crew and a laptop on his new Far Eastern Odyssey (Thursdays, BBC2). He is immediately at home among people for whom food is apparently "the greatest love in their life" (which seems a bit harsh on the wife and kids), and is soon making a beeline for a nearby fish sauce factory.
Rick tellingly compares the process to winemaking - although we were sadly denied the sight of surly, ex-colonial Frenchmen wading about in vats of anchovies.
Part cookery show, part travelogue, the scenery is stunning; as is the food on display, starting with the national dish 'fish amok' - catfish steamed in banana leaves with coconut milk, lemongrass, turmeric and galangal. Though undoubtedly delicious, few (OK, none) of the subsequent recipes are any use for veg-heads, thanks to Rick as ever drenching everything in fish sauce. That's only fair, of course, seeing as in the Far East most people's notion of 'meat-free' translates as 'slightly less meat'.
Between meals, Rick indulges in traditional pastimes such as trying on pointy hats and patronising locals, always beneath the spectre of the country's blood-drenched past.
It's odd getting a history lesson on one of the 20th century's most horrifying episodes from a man famous for his ability to broil a haddock. And there's an awkward moment when Rick actually laughs over the phrase "slaughtering each other in large numbers" during an interview with a local hotelier.
But he has a degree of humility missing from certain sleb chefs. Indeed, Rick apologises that he "first became interested in Cambodia after reading The Killing Fields". He needn't be sorry - most of us in the West waited for the movie.
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