Mouthful

What in the world are you eating?

The greatest fruit of all

20 August 2008 | 16:09 - By Phil Lees

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"That the Mangosteen is universally acknowledged, to be the best and wholesomest fruit that grows; that its flesh is juicy, white, almost transparent, and of as delicate and agreeable a flavour as the richest grapes; the taste and smell being so graceful, that it is scarce possible to be cloyed with eating it."

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He adds, "That when sick people have no relish for any other food, they generally eat this with great delight; but should they refuse it, their recovery is no longer expected." So said botanist Georg Eberhard Rumphius at some point between 1670 and 1702

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Food bloggers banned for the Olympics

13 August 2008 | 11:45 - By Phil Lees

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Two years ago, my first food blog was banned in China. It came without warning. One morning, one of my friends in Kunming emailed me to say that the blog was no longer publicly accessible or at least, accessible without using web trickery to circumvent the Great Firewall of China.

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I checked my web statistics which confirmed that my Chinese readership had disappeared into the ether.

I'm still unsure of what particular offence I had caused to the PRC Government. My hunch is that I used the word "democracy" in a post a few days prior to the banning which triggered an automatic "potential dissident" filter.

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Homecook essentials: The tajine

06 August 2008 | 14:29 - By Phil Lees

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I'm normally the person who rails against the single use kitchen utensil. I like to think that I've whittled down my kitchen into a streamlined efficiency worthy of a launch into space, apart from the barbecues that I'm unwilling to give up.

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"From my grease splattered hands", to paraphrase Charlton Heston .

I can also justify owning a tajine, the conical-shaped terracotta cooking pot synonymous with Moroccan food. I can think of at least five dishes to cook in it. That all of those dishes contain the word "tajine" in them is neither here nor there. I also received the tajine as a gift and cooking up the mechoui a few months ago has put me on a minor Moroccan food kick.

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About this Blog

A blog about what the world eats, when and where it eats it, and why it matters to us all. Only much less ambitious than that sounds and with more excruciating puns.

Phil Lees grew up in rural Victoria, the first generation in his family to not have lived on the farm and thereby not slaughter their own meat.

In 2005 he moved to Cambodia and started the nation’s first food blog, Phnomenon.com, named after the best pun that he has ever made. It turns out that Cambodian food is delicious and unlike the warnings in most guidebooks, is not likely to kill you with any immediacy. Gridskipper called him a “national treasure”. Lonely Planet’s Greater Mekong guide called him “the unofficial pimp of Cambodian cuisine”. The New York Times laughed at a funny hotdog he saw.

Phil makes a mean sausage, a hoppy pale ale, a modest laksa. He owns three barbecues and is in the market for a fourth. He’s never eaten at a Michelin-starred restaurant. There is more important food in the world to be eaten.