Gazpacho

I made this for the first time this week -- a perfect meal for Bangladesh in March & April, when Tomatoes are down at Tk 5-10 a kilo (3-7 cents/lb) and the weather is at it's hottest. Along with Middle Eastern yogurt-cucumber soup, it is now one of my favorite hot-weather foods. Any other good cold soup recipes?

Cambodia

The MCC annual retreat this year was in Cambodia. After the retreat time was over, several of us headed up to Siem Reap, in the NW part of the country. This was the capital of the old Khmer empire, and the area is dotted with stone temples.

Until recently many were overtaken by the jungle, but now there were restoration projects everywhere. The scale of the buildings was amazing -- Ankor Wat (above) is the largest religious building in the world. Despite the scale, the walls are covered everywhere with some of the most intricate carving I have seen.



Another highlight of the time in Cambodia was lots of good strong coffee. (The white is condensed milk.)