Beneath her hat’s wide yellow brim,
a woman rides a bicycle slowly, head
dipping as she peddles down your dead-
end street. Thirty-six degrees
and heavy with humidity, the heat presses
Phnom Penh flat. You tell me
she’s a regular. Her face is wrapped in a Kroma.
She’s dressed in gloves, tabi socks, flip-
flops, long sleeves and pants to shield
her skin from the sun.
Strapped to the bike with strips of inner tube
from tyres, two wicker baskets sit
front and back; a large pot nestled
in one, a secured cloth covers the other.
Her voice floats almost plaintive over
the red brick fence and concrete walls
up to your balcony. ‘Duck-egg babies—
hot!’ she calls in Khmer. ‘Powng
tia kown k’dao!’ She pauses
at your wrought iron gate of finials
and scroll-work coiled with razor wire.
You hesitate.
The invitation is there, barang, to go
downstairs in t-shirt and shorts with five
thousand riel (less for Khmer, you suspect)
to buy an egg in a Styrofoam nest
(you confess, you’ve not done it yet);
to tap through the shell’s dome, peel
back the skin, sip the warm brothy
fluid within, spoon out the cooked
downy duckling; add chili, pickled
garlic, lime juice, sugar, salt
& pepper, with fresh leaves of mint, to taste,
and see if it’s as good as they insist.
Glossary:
Khmer: the official language of Cambodia
Barang: Europeans
Riel: Cambodian currency
Kroma: the traditional woven scarf worn by the Khmer people
Powng tia kown: A popular street snack of fertilised duck eggs, similar to balut in the Philippines.
Richard Smith,
Porirua NZ
Richard is a teacher. He and his wife lived for five years in Cambodia, where he taught and ran an addictions recovery program in a prison.
