Went to my Happy Place….I think?
All in the name of client research, I tried a Phnom Penh Pizza. While it may not sound very “local” or Khmer, it’s not just an ordinary pizza, it’s a happy pizza.
In Cambodia, marijuana is illegal to smoke, but not illegal to use as a herb in cooking, apparently, so these happy pizza have a sprinkle of happy herbs on them.
Down the road from the hotel there are 3 in a pizza restaurants row, Happy Herb Pizza, Pink Elephant Pizza and Happy Pizza. Ok, I decided to give it a go and I picked the restaurant in the middle, The Pig Elephant as they offered “super Happy Pizzas”. The menu said “Non Happy, Mildly Happy or Very Happy”. I didn’t want to be maniacally hysterical so I went with mildly happy ham and pineapple.
What arrived was a thin crust pizza with sprinkles of green herbs on top. Enough that you could see them, but not enough to make you worried. The pizza itself tasted quite nice while the marijuana tasted a bit like, dare I say it, grass! The weedy flavour (there I did it again, the puns are flowing) was not strong enough to really add any additional flavour to the pizza.
After lunch I went to the nearby Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. I certainly wasn’t tripping, in fact not sure I felt anything at all, other than mildly happy. 
Stopped off for a coffee and all of a sudden a wave of pure exhaustion overcame me mixed with tingles and a slight hint of paranoia. I had lost all motivation and all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel for a lie down. Did it have anything to do with the happy pizza, or was it due to the fact that I had been up at 4am that morning to catch my flight?
I can tell you one thing, I certainly haven’t experienced an attack of the munchies. In fact it has been quite the opposite as I haven’t felt like any food since lunchtime 10 hours ago.
Would I do it again? Probably, only because the pizza was very nice, it didn’t feel sleazy, but it really isn’t my thing. A Johnnie Walker soaked pizza base, now you’re talking.
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