When I arrived on Koh Rong 4 months ago I had no grand plans and certainly never dreamed that I would be opening a veggie restaurant on this Cambodian island, but that's what I've done!
It started with a painting, I was looking for somewhere to paint a mural as I had done in Thailand and Laos, and Vagabonds had space for me to paint. I was told they wanted a mermaid so I started sketching and by the time I met Dave, the owner, I had already begun painting on the wall. He quickly offered me free beer, food and accommodation to continue painting and with a free rein to paint what I wanted where I wanted it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
My role as in house artist quickly expanded as I offered to help out with everything I could in this guesthouse/bar and within a week I was manager!
As the business was just starting up (we had the opening party two weeks after I arrived) and wasn't really serving much food, Dave said we could experiment in the kitchen, but we couldn't order expensive foods such as meat. This gave me the idea of trying to make some good vegetarian food...
My parents are vegetarian and I was brought up working in vegetarian cafes in Glastonbury so I'm used to cooking vegetarian food but my first couple attempts at veggie burgers came out as sloppy pumpkin mess.
With everything else going on it took me until the end of June to get a menu written but as soon as that was done it was amazing how quickly we transformed into a restaurant.
There is already a good selection of western food on the island and Pan Mai and Tom, the two girls who work in the Vagabonds kitchen, could cook a full English breakfast with their eyes closed.
Introducing a vegetarian menu, however, meant a lot of new dishes that they had never cooked before, using different flavours than they are used to and a whole new style of cooking. The girls have done an amazing job of learning a lot of new dishes in a short space of time but it's tough work introducing a whole new menu in a week, let alone teaching stock control, efficiency and what needs to be prepared in advance. At the moment it's low season though so there aren't many customers and we can use the next couple of months to practice and really get it right for high season.
Yesterday we demolished one of the dorm rooms to build a new, bigger kitchen and moved the bar to create more restaurant seating so in the next few days we should be able to have a grand reopening party of our new restaurant!
So if your in Koh Rong at any time soon, come check out the menu, maybe even stay for a 'Yolanda special' - a baguette with marmite, poached eggs and cheese :-)
It started with a painting, I was looking for somewhere to paint a mural as I had done in Thailand and Laos, and Vagabonds had space for me to paint. I was told they wanted a mermaid so I started sketching and by the time I met Dave, the owner, I had already begun painting on the wall. He quickly offered me free beer, food and accommodation to continue painting and with a free rein to paint what I wanted where I wanted it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
My role as in house artist quickly expanded as I offered to help out with everything I could in this guesthouse/bar and within a week I was manager!
As the business was just starting up (we had the opening party two weeks after I arrived) and wasn't really serving much food, Dave said we could experiment in the kitchen, but we couldn't order expensive foods such as meat. This gave me the idea of trying to make some good vegetarian food...
My parents are vegetarian and I was brought up working in vegetarian cafes in Glastonbury so I'm used to cooking vegetarian food but my first couple attempts at veggie burgers came out as sloppy pumpkin mess.
With everything else going on it took me until the end of June to get a menu written but as soon as that was done it was amazing how quickly we transformed into a restaurant.
There is already a good selection of western food on the island and Pan Mai and Tom, the two girls who work in the Vagabonds kitchen, could cook a full English breakfast with their eyes closed.
Introducing a vegetarian menu, however, meant a lot of new dishes that they had never cooked before, using different flavours than they are used to and a whole new style of cooking. The girls have done an amazing job of learning a lot of new dishes in a short space of time but it's tough work introducing a whole new menu in a week, let alone teaching stock control, efficiency and what needs to be prepared in advance. At the moment it's low season though so there aren't many customers and we can use the next couple of months to practice and really get it right for high season.
Yesterday we demolished one of the dorm rooms to build a new, bigger kitchen and moved the bar to create more restaurant seating so in the next few days we should be able to have a grand reopening party of our new restaurant!
So if your in Koh Rong at any time soon, come check out the menu, maybe even stay for a 'Yolanda special' - a baguette with marmite, poached eggs and cheese :-)
