"I think Phnom Penh has become far more confident in its own voice. A few years ago, much of the retail and lifestyle scene felt either NGO-adjacent or heavily expat-driven. Now there's a noticeable shift toward Cambodian-led creative businesses that are designing for a more discerning local audience."
The announcement of a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" between Brussels and Hanoi last week places the EU side by side with China, the United States, and Russia as one of Vietnam's top-tier diplomatic relationships. Vietnamese President Luong Cuong described it as a "historical milestone underlining the great achievements that the two sides have made," during a meeting with the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, in Hanoi.
Christmas is lovely, but my kids think Chinese new year is by far the best holiday. I might be biased, but, unusually, I am inclined to agree with them. As my eldest puts it, New clothes, cash, booze and food what's not to love? There's the added bonus that cash is absolutely more than acceptable in fact, it's de rigueur, so there's no shopping for mundane socks and smelly candles. Chinese new year is full of rituals and, just as at Christmas, every family has its own, but they are all variations on a theme. Symbolism looms large in Chinese culture, and at new year it centres around messages of prosperity, luck and family.
My late 30s were hard. Living alone in Cape Town, South Africa, I was holding out for a partner and children while my friends moved through weddings and baby showers without me. My parents and sisters (including my twin) lived in another province, freelance writing work was drying up, and as 40 approached, I felt stuck - single, lonely, and unsure what came next.
This is the time of year when my kitchen starts to tell the truth about who I am. Scottish crab, fresh from Tarbert, is lowered gently into a bubbling chilli bath of sambal and egg to become chilli crab, scooped up with steamed mantou buns and eaten messily with friends and family. Oysters from Lindisfarne are deep-fried in a light cloak of rice and corn flour, fished out of the wok with long chopsticks and dipped into sweet chilli sauce.
In the 1960s and 70s, Ruby Lee's parents ran the Pagoda Cafe in Burleigh Heads, a surf town in Queensland. They worked 14-hour days and opened the restaurant year-round, even Christmas. When they did eventually close for one day a year, it was for lunar new year. It was the only day that I can recall ever eating out with the family while growing up, says Lee.
