Worldwide, our culinary and cultural traditions are based on the senses. We see art, hear music, taste and smell our food and so on and so forth. But do we really pay attention to the culture we’re experiencing, or have our touchstones become millstones? If we were to take one of our senses away, would we be further liberated or find another way?
Dine in the Dark, a new addition to the capital’s fine dining scene, requires you to experience your meal in total darkness. I was greeted by two sighted hostesses who presented me with a menu with three mystery options: international, Khmer and vegetarian. You’re then asked to place any light-emitting devices into a beautiful dark-blue lockbox, and introduced to your sightless guide.
My dining companion and I were led up a perilous flight of stairs by Guide Honey, who brought a wonderful openness, excellence and warmth to the whole experience. Abandoned in a pagoda at birth, she was sent to a school for the deaf and blind where she learned how to read and write in both English and Khmer, using Braille. Last year she spent ten months in Japan on a leadership course and expanded her knowledge of languages to include Japanese and Japanese Braille. She now attends a mainstream university in Phnom Penh and is undertaking a course in English literature with sighted peers.
The visually impaired guides are all sharp as tacks, well versed and focused, granting you a reassuring passage from the world of the sighted to a world without light. Although they also assume waiter duties, they’re more like interpreters of the darkness. We often view ‘the dark’ as a place in which terrible things happen. Here, we’re invited to converse and even dine with the darkness; to be soothed by it and make peace, with the help of those who understand its murmurings.
The meal ($18) was timed beautifully and came in three ‘surprise’ courses. Each was wonderfully prepared, rich and delicious. Even though we were not privy to the menu components, the mystery sparks interesting conversation between diners and adds to the fun. The actual eating without the aid of visual cues might be a steep curve for some, but I found that if you listened carefully to your guide you could take a mental picture of the layout of the table and eat with ease. Dine in the Dark also, by design, gives you the freedom to slow down, take stock and enjoy your meal distraction free.
I left with the last lines of an old EE Cummings poem in my head – ‘Now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are open’ – my belly full and my millstone transformed into a touchstone.
Dining in the Dark (6pm to 10:30pm), Botanic Café, #126 Street 19; 077 589458