It's a trip!: A really bad business idea...

30 September 2005

A really bad business idea...

A new restaurant has opened in Cambodia, across the street from a notorious interrogation and torture center/now genocide museum. The idea is that museum visitors can stop by the restaurant afterwards, and get an authentic "taste" of what life was like under the Khmer Rouge. Almost 2 million people died under the regime in the late 70s.

"Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pajamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas." One of the owners said, "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."

Well I hope it's more than a restaurant--cause there doesn't seem to be much food being served. Basing a restaurant on a starvation diet seems pretty counter intuitive to me.

On the menu at the Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe for $6 a head, is:
Salted rice water
Corn, mixed with water and leaves

Hmm...now, I don't know about the Cambodian economy, but I have to assume that 6 US dollars is a substantial amount--as it is in other countries in the region. Probably enough to get a good 3 course meal in a different restaurant. Or maybe a car.

Maybe they'd be better off as an exhibit in the museum. After being open only 2 weeks, they're already not sure how they can keep operating with their nonexistent profits. I wonder why? You know what they say about good intentions...

posted by Julie at 4:10 PM 2 comments

2 Comments:

Jen said...: Where could the profits be going? It can't cost that much to buy rice and leaves... I can only assume people aren't "buying" the whole experience.

That's pretty tasteless, har!; Sat Oct 01, 05:13:00 PM GMT+1
lochan said...: Weird. Really. really. weird.; Wed Oct 05, 07:12:00 PM GMT+1