(The fried noodles for breakfast is nothing new for me – I often have the same for breakfast back in Malaysia too. However, I appreciate the breakfast here as they provide a lot of vegetables even for breakfast and these vegetable dishes were well prepared indeed).
Continuing the Cambodia adventure, this post will be on breakfast as we started our self-isolation for 14 days and on the 13th day, we suppose to go for our 2nd COVID19 test. That will determine if we will be free to go on to work on our project in Phnom Penh or get stranded in a Government Hospital until we are free of the COVID19 virus.
Read the earlier posts:-
(Sweet potatoes were great – it was sweet, warm and was good enough to be eaten on its own. Sometimes we have corns instead of sweet potatoes. I opt for fried rice for breakfast instead of noodles as they put in a lot of ingredients in it. We had sweet and sour tofu this morning)
Although the 2nd hotel that we stayed was right at a tourist spot where there are numerous cafes, restaurants and shopping malls, we try to adhere strictly to the meaning of self-isolation. That means no sightseeing, going to the mall only to buy the essentials and of course going to the laundry.
(Seafood soup with plenty of kangkung for breakfast is already good for protein and fibre. The soup did not go well with fried rice but it really went well with plain rice)
The hotel provides laundry services but they charge us by each piece of our clothing which is nothing new whilst the small laundry shop across the street charges us only USD1 for each 1 kilogram of clothes. The dumbest part of this arrangement is the hotel also sends the clothes to the same shop and pockets the difference. So evil of them!
(I noticed that we often have long beans and cabbages for breakfast and it is not cooked for long so it is still a bit raw when we start eating. It is good despite the level of the rawness of the vegetables)
The hotel that we stayed during this self-isolation period, however, provides complimentary buffet breakfast which I later understood from another customer was the only hotel within the vicinity has this offer. Other hotels within the vicinity only offer breakfast on ala-carte or with little options on the menu.
(Yes another round with long beans, cabbages and sweet & sour chicken but sometimes the fried rice was a bit dry so the sauces from the sweet & sour chicken reduce the dryness a bit)
The breakfast starts at 7 am on the top floor of the hotel. The dining area itself is a bit hidden once you step out the lift but considering the number of people who often come up for breakfast, it was large enough for all of us. The food is brought up from the kitchen on the dot of 7 am and once it is placed on the large containers, the kitchen staff leaves us alone.
(A close-up shot of the vegetable dish in the morning. I don’t know about you but I can take vegetable dishes any time of the day especially if it is in the morning)
Other than a lady who sits in front and often busy with her phone than busy checking the hotel guests and cleaning up the tables after we had finished, there was no one else around. Seriously I doubt if they even had properly cleaned the utensils because some of the spoons and forks had stains – I guess from the previous day dining. The plate, however, seems clean enough to put our food on.
(I know that whilst taking vegetable in the morning is good but it is not the same thing with rice as the main ingredient of the breakfast. However with full breakfast in the morning and we don’t go anywhere thereafter, it keeps us full till dinner)
The breakfast menu is pretty much standard on daily basis except for some alterations here and there but overall we have the same thing on daily basis – 3 sets of vegetable dishes (sometimes it is soup), fried noodles, fried rice and plain rice, congee, fruits (which don’t get replenished) and finally two pots of coffee and tea but without any sugar.
To be continued in Part 7