Cambodia – Make mine champagne

HANOI, VIETNAM – During a recent boat tour around Lan Ha Bay we met a group of women visiting from Spain. They were traveling together around Southeast Asia and had recently visited Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

In talking with them about their adventures, I was reminded of our own trip to Angkor several years back and an amusing experience that happened one evening at our hotel. Salud!

SIEM REAP – Champagne seemed like the perfect accompaniment to the complimentary VIP dinner provided by our four-star hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia. At $14 per bottle, it was the highest priced drink option on the hotel menu. Still, that was just a fraction of what it would have cost back home in the States.

But when we tried to order a bottle, our young Cambodian waiter said, “We don’t have that.”

“But it’s right here on the menu,” my wife replied as she pointed to the listing.

“Oooh, chom-pong-nee,” he said. “Yes, yes. We have.” He made a note on his pad, bowed to us as he backed away from our table and scurried across the room to the bar.

Several minutes later, I noticed the restaurant night manager studying the champagne bottle on the bar. She slowly turned the bottle on the counter, a puzzled look on her face as she examined the foil wrapping around the top.

It suddenly dawned on us that she had apparently never served a bottle of the bubbly liquid before and wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it. This was, after all, a fairly new hotel and many of their staff members seemed to be on-the-job trainees.

We offered to show her how to open the bottle

We motioned her over to our table and offered to show her how to open the bottle. With a relieved smile, she asked, “Please, can you show some of my staff as well?”

“Of course,” we replied. Melanie and I giggled at the prospect of teaching the young staff about one of the finer things in life.

With a small commotion, an ice bucket and chilled wine flutes appeared at our table, as did our server, bottle in hand. A handful of young restaurant staff completed the entourage.

I proceeded to demonstrate the champagne-opening process with a fair amount of flourish and showmanship.

Exaggerating my moves just slightly, I tore off the foil wrapping and slowly untwisted the wire bail, as I stressed the importance of keeping one hand firmly on the cork lest it should become unstuck on its own and launch across the room.

I implored my students to be sure to hold the bottle at a 45-degree angle during the opening process – the angle allowing the pent-up pressure inside the bottle to safely escape without jettisoning the bottle’s precious contents when the stopper breaks free.

The cork yielded its grip with a POP!

My small audience watched with rapt attention as I demonstrated how to twist the bottle off the cork, which soon yielded its grip with a satisfying “POP.”

Melanie then proceeded to demonstrate the proper way to pour champagne. She carefully wrapped the chilled bottle in a cloth napkin, explaining that the cloth would prevent the condensation on the bottle’s outsides from dripping into the champagne glass and diluting the tasty libation.

As we finished our demonstration, we realized that our audience included not only the restaurant staff, but most of the dining room patrons as well. Raising our glasses to a round of friendly applause, we drank a toast to our latest travel adventure and set about our delicious meal.

So, was it the best bottle of champagne we’ve ever had? No, not the best. But it certainly was the most memorable – at home or abroad.