Have you eaten rice yet?

Last time I spoke about how often I’m asked about my salary and money. This is common for people wanting to get to know me. As for people who already know me or just being friendly, they always ask if I’ve eaten rice yet. I think it’s the most common question in Cambodia. The question actually translates into “have you eaten rice already or not yet?” And then you answer with “already” or “not yet.”

This neighbor asks me every morning if I've eaten rice yet:


The assumption is that eating rice is inevitable. Cambodians typically eat rice almost every meal and when they are not eating rice, they eat noodles or cake made from rice. At a restaurant, the rice has some food on top of it. If they are eating as a family, they have a bowl of rice and a one or two dishes of fish or meat and vegetables in the middle of the table. They assume that westerners do the same thing, but eat bread instead of rice.

Here are my host-brothers having dinner. In the background, other family members are watching TV:


Statistic of the day: 100-400 million. This is the range of guesses of the global population by the students who I taught geography to today.