Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #19.  Part 1 of 2.  From the frying pan to the fire (remember I did food last week?) More delving into the past.  We hear from a new guest who details his experience following the Vietnamese invasion? Liberation? (It’s all in your perspective) of Cambodia as he and his family seek a NEW LIFE IN AMERICA.  Hear some of his story as his family escapes a hail of bullets at the border and gets into one refugee camp only to sneak into another camp and how he made some cash in a Thai prison as his family tried to gain refugee status.  Which will leave you wondering how this could have happened to a 13 year old.   And just try to remember what you were doing in 1985.

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 The opening music is Chek Mach and ensemble playing Sorlyong, of the Bassac style, from the archives of Cambodia Living Arts (www.cla.org). 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #18.  A very tasty Tasty Dog.  Delilah takes a takes a cooking lesson and delves into the deep, dark and mysterious world of Khmer cuisine.  Two dishes are covered in this episode, explained by Katana the owner and head chef of the Sugar Palm restaurants, which you can find in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.  Give a listen to how Green Mango Salad and Fish with Ginger are made.  These are amazingly simple to make, so a good place to start.  Email if you want the recipe to try yourself. 

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com. 

The opening music is the contemporary Cambodian heart-throb, Preap Sovath (big sigh). Nor is he hard on the eyes.   I think we will have to have him on a bit more.  Tears are in the title of the song, so it must be about love.  Pardon the abruptness, since I cut off the first 15 seconds of computerized trumpet solo, just so you could hear more vocals.  I do hope you don’t mind.  

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #17.  More holidays can you believe.  Thanksgiving in Cambodia is whatever you can cook without an oven, a plethora of pumpkin and bemoaning the loss of apple pie, followed by the Water Festival and how you can wish for health, money and love in the upcoming year on the banks of the Siem Reap River (and health includes not going into the river), yet another ecology lesson to help you with your Cambodia-learnings and what is the scariest thing when all the people from the provinces come to hang out in the big city.  The episode concludes with some noise from the riverbanks during the last night of the Water Festival.  No, those aren’t gunshots, they are fireworks.  Duh.

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The opening music is Sin Sisamuth (I realize I have been misspelling the transliteration of his name this WHOLE time) and another old favorite, Rosarai Sothea about whom there is some 20 minute documentary that I want to see, but haven’t yet.  If I track it down and watch it, perhaps I will give you my two cent review.  So pay your two cents.

Get your helmet on and your rocks off.  Take a ride through Phnom Penh with your latest and best buddy with whom you entrust your life, the motodup, and Delilah Marie as she holds the camera in one hand and grabs onto the seat with the other.  Please note, this is a leisurely Sunday morning.  Just wait for the real rush hour commute….

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Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #16.  Delilah Marie gets her paranoid old lady on to chronicle some common ailments that you can pick up here, which sound both exotic and not-so-enticing, dispenses advice about where to go if something serious happens (Bangkok, of course), and then has a whinge as she lists the maladies she’s picked up in the past month.  The episode concludes with some evil, barking dogs – but you actually have to listen to the episode to find out why these are included.     

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The opening song is about a victim of the heart – giving Pat Benatar a run for her money – and then the dogs, dogs, dogs at the end.  I hope I mixed it well or you will be deafened by the vicious beasts.

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #15.  Wedding Edition, parte dos.  The cultural immersion continues.  Delilah gets out of bed at 6am on a Sunday morning to carry a silver tray of fruit, but pities the poor bride who gets up at 3am to “do the beauty,? rendering her unrecognizable and ending up with so much fake hair that she is unable to lift her head straight up.  You will also find out who is the ultimate documenter of this central Cambodian event.

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Been looking for Love Music to open the wedding edition.  Not hard to find.  So let’s bring it back to Sen Sisamok (you missed him, didn’t you?)  in a duet, with I think, Rosari Sothea.

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #14.  The Wedding Edition, parte uno.  Learn why the onset of the wedding season inspires fear and dread in innocent bystanders, the sites, sounds and tastes of a wedding party where kitsch is king, why it’s ok to bring plus-4 guests instead of just plus-1 and what shape your thank you note takes.  (hint: it comes in a green wrapper and you can chew it.)

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com.

This action packed episode ends with a bit of LIVE wedding music.  Crank it up.

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #12.  Count yourself lucky as a stenchcast from Cambodia is not coming your way soon, Delilah covers parks and greenspace – and the coolest thing to see in the park in the middle of town, the ubiquitous plastic bag makes its presence seen, felt and smelt and why she spent two years peeling off price tags from wine bottles.  Also featuring a P.S. where Delilah tells you what that damn chicken from #11 is and followed by a walk in the park.   

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Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #13.  This is truly life in the fast and frivolous lane, in which Delilah indulges and discusses the most popular outfit in Siem Reap, tells what the straight young guys wear while trying to pick up girls, and reveals her inappropriate costume for Halloween.  She also throws some deafening crickets at the very end, if you are patient and make it to the end. 

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 The opening music is from a live performance of the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus from Battambang, the famous Battambang circus, who now perform the first Saturday night of every month at Abacus Restaurant, Siem Reap, where you can have dinner and drinks and watch the performance.  You can see bendy bodies, juggling, balancing and a poor guy in a hot silver suit carrying around the lights and battery pack on his back. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #11.  Delilah speaks a bit about the strange place that Siem Reap is, dominated by Asian mass tourism, gives another Cambodian word of the day, tells how to pronounce “Angkor?, bemoans the dual pricing structure and then gives you a hint as to where to find a bit of North Korean culture in the Kingdom, not to mention a flammable nightgown.   

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The opening serenade is an old song, Kmau owey kmau, (but I think it was redone in the modern times) that has a heck of a flute solo.  It was my very first attempt at purchasing Khmer music on my own.  Let me tell you, the CD shops aren’t as intimidating as one thinks.  Though when I asked for recent music by the big rock star now, I did get quite a few giggles. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life #10.  Ah ,the thrill of a holiday in Cambodia - not what the Dead Kennedys referred to -  it is chanting and Khmer food and life a bit outside of normal.  Find out how to expatiate the sins of your ancestors, how to feel like a 12 year old again, and listen to a bit of chanting as Delilah gives a much simplified explanation of the Cambodian day of the dead, a major Khmer holiday.     

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com.     

The opening is a chant by Buddhist monks for the ancestors of a family as they gather together over the holiday to remember and honor their ancestors. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #9.  You get a brief history lesson, uncited, unreferenced and hopefully not too mangled before launching into more of Dara’s personal story, covering his final years under the Khmer Rouge where he took the correct turn to work on the dam, and how he found himself, alone with a bag of books at 15 years of age, back in Phnom Penh and finally found a place in school.

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com. 

The opening music is some contemporary Cambodian srey-srey sa-aht (lovely lad-eee) singing probably about love, loss and fermented fish.  I went into the CD shop and said, Oh, I want some music from srey-srey sa-aht and pointed at a picture.  And now off to you.

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #7.  Delilah Marie rambles on a cool evening about stuff, revealing what’s so good about the early mornings here, giving a short lesson on the ecosystem of the Tonle Sap Lake (don’t get too excited) and asking questions but giving no answers about one of the hot topics of the day, the arrest of Brother Number 2.     

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com.     

The opening music is the haunting PreyKhan from the archives of Cambodia Living Arts (www.cambodianlivingarts.org).   

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #6.  Delilah Marie returns to the Kingdom. Is it warm and welcoming, or just warm?  This episode covers first impressions of Cambodia after a month away, where to go to stock your refrigerator after it’s been empty for a month, and you can decide whether you want your fish “prepared? when you buy it.  (yes, you do.)  

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com.

The music is again from Sen Sisamok from the Best of Cambodian Oldies, Vol 8.  Maybe I’ve been in Cambodia too long, but the more I listen to it, the more attached I get to it.  Do I need to return to Prozac Nation? 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #5.  Delilah Marie is on vacation and visiting the U.S. of A.  Find out what Indiana is watching out for (and it’s not a Tastydog), what she likes most about visiting her homeland, what is just plain strange and what activities one does when camping as Tasty Dog in New Hampshire.  And with all intents of doing so, she gets lazy and has one too many beers and doesn’t tape the Savage Elders, Moo and Broo, over the campfire. 

 www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com. 

The opening music is our old heartthrob favorite, Sen Sisamok in a duet with Pbain Nai (spelling is definitely incorrect) off the $2 album, The Best of Cambodian Oldies Vol 8 (8!!).  It is old, but is it the best?  You decide. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #4.  Fifteen minutes on Golden Street. Delilah Marie, in Phnom Penh city for a few days, speaks of the joys of a real city.  She stands on the terrace of the hotel overlooking Street 278, and you can hear why she calls it Golden Street and why to cover your food when the wind is blowing from Wat Lanka.

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com.

The opening music is Tep Mari and class playing the traditional pin peat from the archives of Cambodia Living Arts. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom:  This Cambodian Life, #3.  Delilah Marie recounts the glories of a Sunday in Siem Reap, how to go on a date in Cambodia and the perils of stopping the motorbike when you are unaccompanied by a mechanic (which relates to the boring story of why a kickstart is preferred).   

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com. 

The opening music is a famous Cambodian oldie, sung by heartthrob Sen Sisamok (sigh) about the love he feels for the province of Koh Kong. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #2.  Delilah Marie rambles on about some of the road rules she’s encountered in Cambodia.  There are actually no complaints about the state of the roads (which may be attributable to blessed shocks) but you may learn why it’s ok to try to outrun a Cambodian cop, what a barang is, and why not to drive with your lights on in the day. 

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions/comments to tastydog@gmail.com. 

The opening music, coming from the archives of Cambodia Living Arts Master Musician’s Project, is Sinat Nhuck playing the traditional stringed instrument the ksai diew. 

Tasty Dog in the Kingdom: This Cambodian Life, #1.  Welcome to the first podcast of Delilah Marie, giving just an overview, just a flavor, of life in Siem Reap, Cambodia, covering the weather (as in hot and rainy or hot and dusty), why it’s best not to have a black dog in Cambodia and in what conditions does Delilah Marie live, without really covering what would make some tall, blonde woman from Boston want to live in Siem Reap of all places? 

www.tastydoginthekingdom.com or questions and comments to tastydog@gmail.com

The opening music, coming from the archives of Cambodia Living Arts Master Musician’s Project, is the traditional smot genre by Keot Ran.

This is just a quickie introduction, as I spend hours running away from the biting dogs, dodging the terrible traffic, finding good photos, making minute changes to the website that only matter to me and trying to find the humor in all this.  Of course, I'm also learning the patience of Buddha as I battle the evil Internet gods in Cambodia.  If Buddha had a reliable ISP....ah but then I wouldn't know that patience is one of the virtues that I lack.  

soon!  soon!