Trattoria Italiana

Samot is no more but now it's a pizza place called Trattoria Italiana.

My friends and I decided to check their food to see if it's a thumbs up or down.

We were given some herbed bread stick dipped in eggplant as starter.

We decided to order a few main and share everything so we could try as many. Their Seafood Risotto looks yummy!

And it even tasted yummier!

We also got the Margheritta Pizza...

and the Seafood with Kampot Meric Pizza. The pizza didn't taste great. Some of the seafood toppings weren't cooked yet. The Margheritta was just ok.

We also got this Calamares Frittos and it was a disaster.

But I'd give it a second try because the risotto was so good. It might be just opening hitches.

Hot Days

Summer here in Siem Reap is scorching hot! Despite my predilection for layered, covered and voluminous fashion, it's just silly and also deadly because the heat is unbearable. I'm just lucky to work in an airconditioned workplace and keep most of my time indoors.

Here's one outfit that I attempted to prance around town one hot day-off, without much thought of mood or reference. It was pure grab whatever's lying clean again. LOL! I'm so lazy nowadays I can't be bothered to care about fashion statements and such (Really? lol!). Much of what I see in the net nowadays being hyped wouldn't work in here, anyway. If push comes to shove I guess I'm loving grunge-y statements now. I don't know why but I'm just loving the easy vibe to it. I'll post some grunge-y photos that I've collected from the net in some later posts.

What I'm wearing above: some unbranded vest over a Muji stripe tank, a Ralph Lauren khaki pants I cut into shorts, Giordano Concepts sneakers and Marc by Marc Jacobs patent tote.

Sammaki

Recently, there's been lots of new establishments opening in our little Alley West. One of those is Sammaki, the gallery cum coffeeshop by our friend Jam. Loven and moi like going there for an inspired talk about art and stuff.

Currently, they are showcasing the works of Agora, a Khmer art collective.

My fave is this rusted metal piece with cut-out flip flops.

One can enjoy a wonderful iced coffee with Kerouac, perhaps?

Of course, me being moi, I brought my own Fantastic Man to devour.

They had this thin 'The Traveler' picture book there and it was very inspiring.

Cheers for new hang-out place! ;)

Tourist Day

Lazing under the sun and swimming in the pool while sipping Coke Light. Perfection!

The Blue Hue

Here's another of my take on the denim trend. Although it seems I plan my outfits on a certain trend or look, most of the time it's a matter of what clean stuff I can grab easily. I'm such a lazy dresser these days. Long gone are the days when I was in Iloilo that I would 'curate' my outfits.

I try to avoid black as much as possible and I thought it would be fun to pair this light blue cardigan with an intense blue tee from Ouki, Levi's 501 and my current everyday bag from Earth Made. I wore it going to the gallery for work. Blue reminds me of boring office button down shirts worn by crazy serial killers in those Hollywood movies or something.

Fish

I had seabass with a cauliflower sauce for lunch ;)

at Picasso

Tried this very interesting cocktail called Sex On The Beach, hmmmm...I wouldn't know if 'it' would taste like that, lol!

Although Picasso is beside Poetry, we actually seldom hang out there. It was soooooo hot that evening so we decided to chill in there and take advantage of the airconditioning, wehehehe! ;) Thanks Thilo! (owner of Picasso).

It's a good place to bump into 'Siem Reaper' expats and visitors who likes a more upscale environ rather than the usual pub dive atmosphere. At Picasso you can sip your wine leisurely while enjoying a nice chat with some random pips.

Max here is from Ontario and after just 3 months of being here he already speaks good Khmer. I feel ashamed of my Khmer language skill.

Here's some more Siem Reapers: Khua, Liya and Claire. They had fun trying out all of the funny tasting cocktails at Picasso.

I think Khua had a bit too much to drink, non?

We also met this couple from Shanghai (I forgot to take photos of them) and they were so much fun. They own a funky restaurant in the Bund area, I think, which is totally hip and happening place there.

Do check it out if you're here in SR.

Ivy 2

My friends and I sorely miss our V&A hangout, the vegetarian restaurant that was near Poetry, but good thing the menu is still available at the Ivy 2, the guesthouse of the owners. To satisfy our craving we decided to troop there and check out if it's still the same.

We started with this palate teaser of simple bruchetta.

Then I had this vegetable wrap salad with the most delish vinegar dressing.

Then we ordered their classic spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce, basil and parmesan cheese.

The verdict? It was lovely and divine as ever! I'm so happy that if I have a craving for their dishes I can just pop by and have the same food I love.

Easy

I was moaning to a friend (yes, Kawadjan, that's you) how confused I am about my own current personal clothing aesthetic because whenever I look at my clothes rack and wardrobe I don't think it projects a certain singular mood. That's not a bad thing actually but we are talking about self absorbed me here and I'm wishing I'm more ruthless in my editing and style choices. I'm ruthless in editing my collection but I can't edit my clothes properly! I do remember back in college when I couldn't afford to buy clothes and all I had was 10 pairs of black t-shirts paired with 10 black pants. It was minimalism hard core. Then of course I earned money, discovered thrift shops and then it all broke loose! LOL!

When I arrived here in Cambodia, I only had one suitcase. Looking at the pile now I don't think 5 suitcases can suffice, hahaha! It's just giving me the 'shame' feel thinking about it. Well, thanks for sensible friends like K, I realised I'm caring too much about trivial things like that. Why care anyway? I should just be thankful I have lots of things to wear, non?

Anyway, here's one look I'm loving just because it feels 'easy'. It's not that 'fasyon' but exudes a more 'I don't care' feel, non? That to me is more fasyon than fashion itself ;)

Fashion Diary:

Top: Ouki polka dot tee with Giordano knit sweater

Bottom: APC bleach mistake jeans

Shoes: Converse

Accessories: assorted necklaces

Mad Hat B-Day Party

It was a mad party, indeed, when Loven asked all of his 1000plus plus Facebook friends (not including those who aren't into the silly social networking site) to don their party hats for a revelry that included three establishments: Picasso, where you can drink sangria and eat tapas, Poetry, for gin, rum, wine and nibbles, and Circle/Samaki, for deadly Mojitos. See more of the party people here.

Some of the party pips: Eliz here looking very Slash, non? That's an authentic top hat she got in London that she's wearing.

At Picasso was Faith, Sreyneang, Vichet, moi, Cielo and Blady.

Shinta, who was unusually dressed down, tried my Eiffel Tower head piece.

Of course, there were prices given to the most creative hats and I won the Lifetime Achievement Award, lol! I was thinking of something fashion-y and what better way to represent that than the most iconic landmark of Paris, non? My hat was pretty popular with the Frenchies, of course.

Fashion Diary:

Top: DP 'Bird' print tee

Bottom: Helmut Lang white denim jeans

Accessories: canvas work boots, Thomas Sabo skull necklace and Moschino bag

Rubber Shoes

While in Koh Kong island, I got fascinated by the rubber shoes being worn by fisherfolks to protect themselves from corals and rocky shores. It comes in brown, black and gray. I got the gray because I thought it looks obviously rubber. The material is very similar to Croc's.

Here I wore it with my DP f/w 10 crop jacket, black Marc Jacobs tee, Only jeans and assorted necklaces.

The shoes is very soft and comfy. It's like doll shoes, very Margielic. There's something subversive about it.