Where beggars can be choosers
Clive Graham-Ranger
Feb 23, 2009 SCMP
Seek help from Wordreference and Thesaurus!
Like so many of Phnom Penh’s main thoroughfares, the road into town from the airport is a chaotic mix of street vendors’ cries, pungent food-stall aromas, everyday bustle and choking exhaust fumes. The early morning traffic jam is not helped by the waves of barang (foreigners) and Khmer elite whose giant 4×4s jockey for position.
The upside, however, for the ever-present troupe of barefoot beggars who line the road is a finger-drumming queue of monied and mobile donors. Hun “Lucky” Li Heng, 22, was a prince among that ragged band of panhandlers and admired by street kids. Unlike them, though, his meagre takings fed his siblings, not the demands of drug dealers and gamblers.
“I came to Phnom Penh to escape and find a new life,” he says, sipping a soft drink. “My mother died when I was very young, so I have no memories of her. My father didn’t have a job. I come from Svay Rieng, where there was little or no work. The future was in the capital.”
So Heng hitchhiked west and ended up on the airport road, where he joined a gang of panhandlers. “Mostly we collected bottles and cans and sold them to the dealers who would come around every couple of days. It was a living, but not a great one,” he says, hiding his shyness behind a raised hand and infectious laugh.
Trapped in a cycle of necessity, he could be collecting bottles and cans to this day. Fortunately, however, he was spotted by a volunteer from Friends, a Phnom Penh-based non-governmental organisation, and put to work in its kitchens. Heng had an unusual and amazing ability to taste and smell the culinary possibilities of local herbs and spices, and was given a chance to learn the arts of cooking, fine dining and service.
Cleaned up and wearing chef’s whites, he was a quick learner and within months became the chef at Romdeng, a classy Friends restaurant that specialised in Cambodian food in the city’s NGO enclave.
It was a talent that did not go unnoticed. Although Heng is not backward in coming forward to impress with his intelligence and culinary knowledge of spices and aromatic herbs, he owes his present position as a kitchen guru to a close friend.
Frits Mulder, the Dutch owner of Frizz restaurant located behind the royal palace in Phnom Penh, says: “A friend of his came by and gave me Heng’s CV, which was very impressive. The only problem for me was his age. How could anybody so young know so much about Cambodian food and have the kitchen skills to make it?
“So I called him, invited him to the restaurant for a chat and was immediately impressed. Here was a 20-year-old with the in-depth knowledge of Khmer food that older chefs I had met could never replicate.
“I took him on and in a matter of months he had created a stunning array of drinks and salads that are unique to my restaurant.” Mulder recognised that the next stage in his relationship with the young talent was simple. He would build a culinary school around his protege’s talents and give the world “what it deserved, the true and unique taste of Cambodia”.
Heng says he is lucky in more ways than he can describe, particularly his rediscovery and promotion of his culinary heritage. Formerly the poor relation of Southeast Asia’s regional cuisine, Cambodian food is fast catching on as a tasty alternative that also has the distinct advantage of having long-lasting health benefits.
News of the subtle and complex flavours he created reached the world of television chefery and in recent months Heng’s name and cooking classes have featured in television shows across the region.
Heng is also about to make his debut on British television with celebrity chef Rick Stein. Although he was initially nervous about being filmed while he worked with Stein, he says it turned out to be fun. “Once I got used to the fact that we would do one sequence and the camera would stop and move around to get another angle and shoot exactly the same thing again, I was able to relax and enjoy it.”
He says he’s not envious of Stein’s millionaire celebrity through television shows and best-selling cookery books. Although obviously tempted by the opportunity to accumulate such fame and riches, he has a more concerned and down-to-earth view of his future that dates back to his days of begging and scavenging on the airport road.
“For too long Cambodia has had only two classes, rich and poor,” he says. “Too many of my people selfishly do things only for what they can get out of it. It’s time we changed and encouraged successive generations to achieve the kind of success we wish for ourselves.”
