Sharing is Living

I just got back from Madam Sachiko cookies, and WOW! A woman after my own heart!

Well, in the greater scheme of things, I actually just got back from biking to the Angkor temples. Plus, I almost died when I got lost in the jungle trying to find Ta Nei temple. Plus, I rode alongside the butterflies. Plus, I had a wonderful lunch with three Cambodian little girls who each made me wildflower wreaths.

But what got me fired to boot up my pc and write this is Madam Sachiko.

Sachiko Kojima single handedly provides employment to 40 Khmers, by making Japanese cookies and opening a smoothies cafe.

She hires local people, she uses local ingredients, she even uses Kampot pepper, for goodness sake, and she makes little trinkets that you won’t find anywhere else in Old Market. Talk about being different in the sea of same same.

I knew about the cookie store since my last trip to Siem Reap. At first I thought, “Come on, Japanese cookies, Japanese name, Japanese food, in Siem Reap Cambodia? No, thank you.”

That’s why I never bothered to visit the place, until this afternoon, when my leg was so tired, and I remembered their slogan, “The best shakes in town”.

Even then I almost didn’t go; I passed it by, but then made a u-turn for the sole reason that I knew I’d be too lazy to go back there in the future.

Well, I’m so glad I did. I was truly blown away by this business operation.

The attendants are so nice and helpful, the items are unique, the cookies are delicate and delicious, the lotus tea is happiness inducing, and the shake, OMG, it is to die for!

I took one sip of my watermelon shake, just one sip, and I had to stop and be surprised at how amazing it tastes. Totally flabbergasted, I told the waitress about it.

It was watermelon through and through, with a uniformed icy texture, and a little bit of sweetness that I think is from added sugar. But nevermind all that, it was the  one perfect drink after biking all the way from Angkor Wat.

I care not whether it is Japanese or Cambodian. Good is good, no matter where you are! I hereby declare that my obsession with pineapple shake has ended, replaced with the watermelon shake at Cafe Puka Puka (Madam Sachiko’s cafe).

And if I ever, ever, go to Angkor again, on my way back I must stop by for one of those shakes.

But that’s not all.

I was there, sitting in the cute air-conditioned cafe, overlooking the street with jasmine plants on the window sill, and just enjoying my amazing watermelon shake, my jasmine tea, and my pepper cookies that I just got.

I was leafing through a Japanese magazine, before I remember that I took a copy of a newspaper article about store. Then I started reading that instead.

The article was very positive, and from what I’ve seen already I agree that she is an amazing businesswoman. But what sealed the deal for my utter admiration for this person was what she said in the closing paragraphs.

“Many of the foreigners in this country are aid workers and people from NGOs. I’m not saying they’re not needed, but the longer I’m here the more I doubt the wisdom of simply giving people handouts. In many cases it discourages independence.

What I try to do is offer a workplace to people with the will to work, and pay them in keeping with their labor. If they work hard, they earn more.

I turn down almost all requests for charitable contributions…”

Damn right that handouts discourage independence! I agree that NGOs are well meaning organizations, but sometimes you have to look at the long term effects of what you do.

I would really love to talk to this woman. I’ve never even met her, but I’m so excited knowing that there’s a person like her in Siem Reap, and it’s like I already know who she is.

I’ll definitely make a page dedicated on madam Sachiko cookies and shakes, and place it in a prominent place on my Angkor website. Maybe I should contact her and see if she would give me an interview. Wow, I get to be an interviewer? I love my life.