Who Wouldn't Pay 6 Bucks For Rice Water

A new theme restaurant in Pnom Penh is in danger of going under.

"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy.

Her brother opened the restaurant across the street from Pol Pot's infamous Tuol Sleng "S-21" interrogation and torture center.

"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," she said, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."

For a mere 6 dollars, diners can order a bowl of rice water as an appetizer, followed by a mixture of corn and leaves.

"Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pyjamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas.

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."

I can't help but wonder why nobody ever thought of a holocaust-theme restaurant at Auschwitz, where diner could pay $6.00 for the privilege of being starved.

Apparently, the restaurant is a place that not even a mother could love. "My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.