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With Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut being trendy places to dine out for many Asians, it is refreshing to see that Siem Reap lacks so far such establishments (and no McDonald’s either) as besides
eating roadside, the traditional way of dining-out is still preserved in Cambodia. Recently I was invited to experience with Cambodian friends a night-out at a local restaurant and experience what sets
the Cambodian dining-experience apart: entertainment. We drove to a spacious open-air restaurant, surrounded by little huts, for a more private dining experience, which was located on the outskirts of
Siem Reap and boasted, very essential, a huge car-park for the prestigious new cars of the guests. We were then welcomed by lovely ladies dressed in night-gowns who ushered us to our table. Immediately
we were surrounded by “beer girls” wearing beer brand uniforms ranging from Tiger, Anchor, Asahi to Heineken. The ladies are paid by the bottle they sell so they wasted no time trying to convince us to
go with their brand. I quickly settled for my beloved Japanese Asahi beer and the Asahi-girl brought warm beer bottles and poured it into our glasses, adding ice-cubes in order to cool it (the positive
effect is that it dilutes the alcohol). Regarding food I opted for a traditional Cambodian BBQ that consisted of a dome-shaped table-grill that gets coated with lots of butter and is heated by hot coal
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