CPP: Cambodian Purim Party

Seth: Tonight I’m hosting a Purim party at the guesthouse where Erin and I are staying. I’ve downloaded a Megillah, bought some booze, baked some hamantaschen and printed some flyers, so I’m all ready to go. It’s all you can drink for $3 ($2 if you come in costume, $1 if you cross dress). Sovy, the owner of our guesthouse and my frequent chess adversary, is going to sell spring rolls, beer and “happy shakes” to make a few bucks for himself and supplement my offerings of hard alcohol and hamantaschen.

Annette, the woman who runs the NGO we’ve been volunteering at, is married to Neil, who is Jewish. I sent him an electronic copy of the flyer I put up around town, and he forwarded it to the Jews he knows here in Cambodia. While most aren’t coming and started up a more “kid-friendly” Purim party, one offered to bake hamantaschen, so I arranged to make mine with her.

This was a clever move on my part, because much of what you see in the photo is not actually mine. I neglected to pack my stove, oven, rolling pin, blue oven mitt and cookie tray on this trip, so finding someone who had all these things made hamantachen-baking more easy than it otherwise would have been.

I brought papaya-pineapple and rose apple jam for the fillings, and Nicole, my lovely hostess, made the dough and a cinnamon-walnut filling and provided the fully-stocked kitchen. While we baked we discussed the NGO/expat scene here in Phnom Penh, and the life of an aid worker. She grew up as an expat kid in Thailand, India and Indonesia, and has worked for NGOs in Uganda and Burma, so she’s had a pretty interesting life. We had a nice talk, and the hamantaschen came out pretty tasty. And in case you doubt my baking prowess, the ones I’m pulling out of the oven in the photo are chocolate (with rose apple filling), not burnt.

On the flyer I asked people to RSVP so I’d know how much booze to buy and how many hamantaschen to make. I only got four replies, but I heard some variant of “I think I might stop by” from at least a dozen other people, which was not so helpful. I settled on two bottles of vodka and one each of whiskey and rum, plus mixers. That set me back $42, which is a week’s lodging for us, so I hope I don’t end up too much in the hole for the party. We’ll see…

And for those of you wondering about this post’s title, the ruling party of Cambodia’s kleptocracy is also called the CPP, for Cambodian People’s Party. My party will definitely be more fun.