A
S WE STOP ON THE SIDE OF
the road to buy a fresh young
coconut from a colourful fruit
stand, a darling little girl (she must be
five or six) comes up to me. She hands
me a bag of homemade cookies and
asks me where I’m from.
We are in the middle of the
Cambodian jungle, and I am impressed
she can speak English so well.
“Eeet-a-ly, – she mumbles – is that
where London is?” Her eyes shine
with lively curiosity, making up for the
dullness of her creased sleeveless dress.
She lives in a stilt house, with
no electricity and a post-WWII TV
activated by a battery, but she’s already
eager to discover the world outside of
Asia, and in a second language too!
I buy her baked treats, thin crispy
florentines scattered with sesame seeds
and, while sitting on my knees right
next to her, I list the main cities of Italy
on the tip of my fingers.Allergen-free
She listens carefully, and as I give her a
hug before getting back in my car, she
starts counting cheerfully on her little
hand: “Rome, Venice, London, Milan!” I
wave from the window.
“You know you are totally fine eating
those cookies, right?” Pisith Theam,
the Executive Chef of the Park Hyatt in
Siem Reap, revives in me that approach
to eating that’s usually lost for all those
dealing with food allergies.
“People in the villages have no
access to wheat or dairy – all they have
here is rice, coconut and palm sugar.
Remember what I told you?”
Little did I know about Cambodia
(and Cambodian food) before I got there
to visit Angkor Wat, one of the seven
wonders of the world. But during my
very first breakfast in Siem Reap, Chef
Pisith, who was already aware of my
food restrictions, surprised me with a
feast of local gluten and dairy-free riceWhere wheat doesn’t grow
and cows don’t make milk
Ambra Torelli travels the globe
and discovers that, in some
cuisines, being intolerant is
just not an issue...