- A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas. Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia.
But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.
Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.
Recognising that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.
"It's good for me to slim down," said Tan, a 40-year-old Malaysian visitor.
For some who survived Pol Pot's rule, the cafe served up too many chilling reminders of one of 20th century history's darkest chapters.
"My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.
The cafe will no doubt become a "must visit" for our commie friends seeking to relive the glory days once again.
And it is a sure contrast with the meals Americans serve to the "freedom fighters" held at the "Gulag" at Guantamo:
Choice of honey-baked, lemon-baked fish or orange glazed chicken, as an entree along with fresh fruit grupe, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf.
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