oNe PhOtO a DaY aUgUsT 2024:

AUGUST 1st ON MY PLATE: is my favourite breakfast: Shakshuka. This prompt made me realize almost all our meals are served in bowls as was today’s breakfast so this is from several days ago

AUGUST 2nd FRESH: a portion of the platter of finger food I just assembled to enjoy with drinks on the terrace tonight. 

The see the whole platter

AUGUST 3rd A BUSY CAFE: at brunch time in a trendy part of the city this morning

AUGUST 4th A CLOSE UP OF FOOD: enoki mushrooms actually

AUGUST 5th HOT: chillies in fact those claimed to be the hottest in Bhutan. An archive shot from our travels in Trashiyangtse. These  were drying in the sun on market day

AUGUST 6th FRESHLY PICKED: basil from the back balcony pot that even survived the heat wave

AUGUST 7th COLD: Frozen Khmer coffee and it was very cold. This was a first for me and at a newly discovered cafe with $1 coffees on Wednesday. Perfect especially accompanied with cold rolls for a late lunch

AUGUST 8th GOOEY: This is a local sticky rice patty filled with garlic chives and one of the very few street foods in Cambodia that we are absolutely sure is vegetarian. There was a vendor right outside the entrance to our apartment block today and I love them

*The pan of them frying in a street vendor’s mobile stall

AUGUST 9th COLOURFUL FOOD: a meal I assembled at home earlier this week. I’ve been an advocate for eat a rainbow since I first read about it in Japan in the 1990s

AUGUST 10th A COFFEE CUP: with a few stains, and scratches but still a favourite and the well loved one I use everyday

AUGUST 11th BREAKFAST: Nothing is quite like starting the day right with fresh tropical fruit, probiotic yoghurt, a homemade muesli cookie and coffee

* unexpectedly this one made it into the Fab 4 on Insta

AUGUST 12th MY FAVOURITE FOOD: is mushrooms. In this shot are shimeji, king trumpet or eryngii and shiitake fresh dried and simmered. Homemade mixed mushroom pasta and risotto on the menu for us this week

AUGUST 13th SLICE: A slice of the simple yoghurt and lime cake I recently added to my baking repertoire

AUGUST 14th HOMEMADE: I missed having an oven so much in Bhutan I seem to be on a bit of a baking blitz at the moment

AUGUST 15th LUNCH: I rarely eat lunch these days but if I do this one is my favourite. It quick, easy and delicious

 

AUGUST 16th FRESHLY BAKED: zucchini, spinach, capsicum and cheese savoury muffins with salted black peppercorns. Had to try one while it was still warm and they are definitely delicious

AUGUST 17th FOOD IN MOTION:Wow Now food delivery in a torrential monsoon downpour

AUGUST 18th A STACK: This prompt inspired me to attempt a stack of roasted veggies with couscous. Of course it required a skewer to make it stand up but it tasted great. Embracing imperfection

AUGUST 19th INGREDIENTS: for one of my signature dishes - Lotus Root Salad. We never tire of it

AUGUST 20th MOUTH-WATERING: selection of salads for a simple picnic dinner outdoors tonight. We are hoping to see the blue, sturgeon, super moon rise tonight if there isn’t too much cloud cover 

AUGUST 21st CRISPY: tempeh and veggie skewers with spicy peanut sauce as a post table tennis and swimming treat today. We are quite taken with this little cafe with its quirky location, decor and menu

AUGUST 22nd FOOD & PEOPLE: The street side stalls and vendors of Phnom Penh always have a ready smile whether you buy or not

*Update this was a selection for the fab 4 on Insta

AUGUST 23rd DINNER: Homemade spicy tofu and veg dumplings for us for dinner tonight. It’s a two person job. I can’t make the wrappers and Ian can’t form them up. Team work is dream work

AUGUST 24th MY FAVOURITE DESSERT: Actually I’m not big on sweet treats but this is one that I do make for special occasions and special guests The Moosewood’s Montana Momma’s Double Baked Cheesecake with a tropical twist. I just can’t resist adapting things - halve the sugar bake with lime zest and juice and serve with puréed mango and passionfruit pulp. Yum

AUGUST 25th A BOWL OF: eat a rainbow salad for dinner tonight

AUGUST 26th A PERFECT PAIRING: Freshly made flat bread with leftover salad for a simple wrap for lunch

AUGUST 27th FRUIT: the mostly dried fruit component of the muesli cookies I am baking right now. Add seeds, coconut, oats and even chocolate chips sometimes, but not today and they are the perfect breakfast with fresh fruit or afternoon tea pick me up. A must have in our household these days

AUGUST 28th CHEESY: A delicious plate of grilled halloumi with micro greens. This is a favourite dish of mine and an archive shot as we don’t actually have any cheese in the house today and I’m too lazy to go buy some

AUGUST 29th VEGETABLE: one of my favourites is red capsicum and it makes its way into many dishes in our household

AUGUST 30th GLASS: How about a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc or two? Don’t mind if I do

AUGUST 31st A MARKET STALL: we frequent in our local area and one of the many different vendors from whom we regularly buy specific 

*second update Just discovered this one made it into the Fab nine on Facebook as did Ian’s on the same day 

THE PROMPTS

oNe PhOtO a DaY ArPrIl 2022:

APRIL 1st ON MY PLATE: is fresh coconut and date cake I baked. Almost everything else we eat is in a bowl so this prompt was an excuse to have coffee and cake today. PAD making every day better

 

APRIL 2nd A VEGETABLE: Having just arrived home from the local market I was spoilt for choice but this smaller than my hand, sweet, local pumpkin was today’s bargain and at about 35 cents, it is definitely the best choice. It will be roasted with other veggies for a salad to accompany zucchini fritters tomorrow

APRIL 3rd A FRUIT: Mango is one of my favourites and right now they are in season here. Yesterday the lovely Khmer family, from whom we rent our house, gifted us these five mangoes from the trees on their property. They are always very generous with the prolific crops they produce and we feel grateful for their kindness and generosity

 

APRIL 4th BREAKFAST: almost always includes baguettes these days but this was actually yesterday’s breakfast, because on weekends we try to up the ante- eggs, rocket, Malabar spinach, Thai basil, tomatoes, chili jam, vegemite and lashings of Kampot pepper

APRIL 5th LUNCH: At the pagoda the main meal of the day is lunch as monks don’t eat after noon. This is Din and he has the haircut but not the robes as he is yet to be ordained but he was helping deliver the food for lunch to the tables today. Many of their meals are donated by families on the alms walk in the morning and then the helpers serve them up at around 11am.

 

These are the alms bowls the monks carry through the streets and return to the pagoda with almost every morning

 

APRIL 6th DINNER: Dukkah spiced, zucchini and cheese fritters I made for dinner a few nights ago. I’m beginning to think Dukkah is my favourite spice mix and I keep finding more dishes it adds zing to

 

APRIL 7th RAW: My favourite kind of salad is a combination of raw and roasted so here are the raw ingredients for tonight’s version. Perfect for a vegetarian, eat a rainbow kind of meal

 

The final dish once the steamed broccoli, roasted potatoes, onions, garlic, pumpkin seeds and almonds were added with omelette strips.

APRIL 8th COOKED: We had lunch in our favourite vegetarian eatery in Kampot today and the Falafel Plate is Ian’s go to order. Both the bread and falafels were cooked and thoroughly delicious

APRIL 9th IN MY PANTRY: Our galley kitchen doesn’t stretch to a pantry but four wheelie boxes under the kitchen shelf unit serve the same purpose and make more efficient use of the small space

 

APRIL 10th DESSERT: Fresh mango and pineapple with yoghurt and oats. It was actually breakfast but that’s about as close as it gets to dessert in our house. I do bake cakes and cookies for coffee time but I almost never make dessert these days

 

APRIL 11th A GREEN FOOD: Snow-peas are one of my favourite salad ingredients and one that is not easy to find here but Kampot market had a supply and I availed this week

*this shot was surprisingly selected for the Fab Four in PAD 

APRIL 12th SNACK: Homemade chocolate chip shortbread and oatmeal cookies with coffee is the snack of choice in our household

APRIL 13th A FAVE RECIPE: of mine is Beijing Salad. I named it for the street food it was adapted from and I’ve been making it for three decades. The recipe is stored in the digital file I keep in my phone so that I can share it with friends and that is exactly what I did today as we had friends for dinner last night and they requested it. Even when I write the recipe I still adapt it every time and the ingredients change a little each time I prepare it

APRIL 14th INGREDIENT: Freshly ground black pepper makes its way into most dishes at our house. How could anyone resist when world famous Kampot pepper is grown just a few kilometres down the road

APRIL 15th KITCHEN: We are having a staycation and house sitting in Kep so I will showcase the main indoor kitchen in this magnificent home. We actually use and prefer the outdoor kitchen and it’s cooler and more practical to cook outside in the tropics too

APRIL 16th 2 THINGS: Lime and chili make their way into many dishes and even some drinks in our house

 

APRIL 17th A DRINK: It’s a rare treat for me to indulge in this kind of drink - mocha frappe. Ian stuck to his regular order of black coffee but I decided to take a trip down memory lane when this was the kind of reward I would allow myself for submitting assignments on time in my college days. Must have been more than a decade since I’d had anything like it and I savoured every indulgent mouthful

 

APRIL 18th A WHITE FOOD: Last night’s deconstructed salad was absolutely what the doctor ordered but it was the feta - a white food, that was my favourite ingredient. Also featuring the last of the rocket since the chooks decimated the garden and destroyed it all yesterday while we were house sitting elsewhere!

 

The actual salad as it was served

APRIL 19th HEALTHY: I’m not sure how healthy this breakfast really is but we certainly had healthy appetites after our early morning walk this morning and we enjoyed every last mouthful

APRIL 20th INDULGENT: This is about as indulgent as it gets in our house. At today’s gathering brownies with coconut ice-cream and dragon fruit was dessert

APRIL 21st A RED FOOD: Not one of Ian’s chilli concoctions but a local product that was gifted to us. A little goes a long way and my lips are now tingling with the after effect of this in my lunch

 

APRIL 22nd SAVOURY: A platter of salad filled lettuce and cabbage cups. It was a bit of a messy savoury for finger food but I still loved the taste

APRIL 23rd SWEET: chilled and artistically carved watermelon. It was almost too pretty to eat

 

APRIL 25th IN MY CUP:  I love latte and often order it in cafés but rarely have milk at home. I was recently gifted this sachet and keep forgetting to buy milk to make it. I was also not so recently gifted this gorgeous Japanese tea cup with flashes of orange. As of now, this is as close as the turmeric latte has come to being in my cup

 

APRIL 25th ON MY FORK: is linguine with roasted cherry tomatoes, red capsicum, red onions, giant oyster mushrooms and garlic sauce garnished with Thai basil and Parmesan- going with Eurasian fusion cooking and though I did use a fork for this shot, I ate it with chopsticks as I do almost every meal

 

APRIL 26th YUK: When you have been vegetarian for about 35 years this is really the definition of yuk. Many those who do eat beef are somewhat confronted by the way it is stored and presented in the markets here and also think yuk. As a Cham person I think she is Muslim and the only beef vendor and among the pork sellers, who usually display the whole pig’s head. I guess it’s halal

 *this shot was my second selection for the Fab Four in PAD in this month! 

APRIL 27th I EAT HERE: every time we go to PP and usually several times. Backyard Cafe simply the best. Archive shot today as it’s really been a total overwhelm

 

APRIL 28th THIS IS DELICIOUS: A tempeh open sandwich at Simple Things for lunch today. Kampot’s vegetarian haven serving up health and nutrition with style

 

APRIL 29th UTENSIL: The Cambodian, lacquer chopsticks I use daily and absolutely love. I eat almost everything with chopsticks and have for more than three decades

APRIL 30th IN MY BOWL: Two of my favourite rattan bangles in my lacquered, coconut nut shell bowl. After a full month of food and drinks I just had to break the pattern. This beautiful bowl has always been used for bangles and bracelets and it will never be used for food

 

THE PROMPTS