Cambodia's Former Minister of Ital Propaganda (Some #PlantBased Laughs)

I miss doing daily thali propaganda with Monkey-B and Srey-Yuu at our former Ital cafe and school in Kampot, Cambodia. 🍲

Nutritional Healing & Language Learning

NO REGRETS

     It has now been more than two years since we closed our Ital restaurant in Cambodia. It's funny how life works out the way it should. We were quite bummed out we had immigration lawyer problems in Ecuador, and our time there didn't turn out fruitful, resulting in our exodus before overstaying.

     Ecuador has a booming vegetarian trend, and we know we could've had some success there, but we have no regrets, because with corona running the world, we would've suffered hard times in Ecuador, and likely ended up breaking our rental agreements due to the corona bureaucracy that has been destroying many small businesses around the world, especially small-scale restaurants.

STAYING POSITIVE

     It's amazing how many trials and tribulations we've had thus far to be here now in Suriname struggling to to survive day-to-day. We can see light at the end of the tunnel, although not sure if that light is here in Suriname or elsewhere on the globe.

     We would love to reopen an Ital restaurant, but feel the lifestyle of Suriname is too dependent upon automobiles, air conditioning, and oil. We would return to Cambodia, but that's still not possible as a family, and as it stands now, the only country on Earth we can presently travel to is Bangladesh, a place I've always been curious about.

     Not sure if we could successfully open an Ital restaurant in Bangladesh or not, but the cost of living there is similar to Cambodia, and we could perhaps get back on our feet, economically speaking. Until something manifests, we are stuck with culinary memories from the past.

ITAL MEMORIES

     I forgot I had a handful of thali videos from Adwa I-tal Kitchen, so I decided I had to share them with you all, both as an example of the food we used to serve, but also for some laughs and smiles. The @KidSisters didn't eat a #plantbased diet before I met their mother, the lovely @Sreypov.

     Through time and many delicious Ital meals, I was eventually able to encourage them to practice speaking English for a free Ital thali set. Monkey-B used to do a daily photo with each day's thali for the Facebook page of the restaurant, and to let customers know what was on the menu for the day.

     They have grown so much over the last few years, and now Srey-Yuu has Ital chef aspirations, especially after being featured on Suriname national television for her cooking skills. We used to eat a much more diverse diet when he had the restaurant, and I can tell a big difference between our physical health then and now.

     I think it's obvious in this video that Monkey-B has always been and always will be a firecracker. Her little "yes I do" at the end of our video had me in stitches, Monkey-B has always had a bigger personality than can fill her shoes.

Dad@JustinParke	Mom@SreyPov		Srey-Yuu@KidSisters	Monkey B@KidSisters