Inside Harrods’ Newly-Renovated Dining Hall

One of the highlights of the Dining Hall is that diners can choose to sit at each of the different bar counters to get a front row view of the action or they can opt to take one of the intimate corner booths and order a combination of dishes from the different sections. Along with the popular lobster cheese toastie, star dishes include rigatoni cacio e pepe with pecorino and kampot pepper from the Pasta Bar… (Read full article…)

A nearby sea, flanking mountains, a quartz-rich soil: It’s the perfect spot on earth, devotees say, to yield a product they describe in that rapturous vocabulary usually reserved for fine wines: “aristocratic, virile, almost aphrodisiacal,” with subtle notes of caramel, gingerbread and mild tobacco. (Read full article…)

There’s pepper and then there’s Cambodia’s Kampot pepper. You might think that the stuff that comes out of shakers and grinders is pretty much the same wherever you go, but to increasing numbers of chefs, restaurateurs and foodies, ordinary pepper bears as much resemblance to Kampot pepper as vin de table does to fine Bordeaux. (Read full article…)

PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Rising demand for Kampot Peppers is pushing a cultivation increase, but only a limited number of companies are benefiting. … “Farmers cannot greatly expand their cultivation area, because they don’t have money and a lot of land,” said Mr. Lay. “But there are more companies starting to plant pepper on a lot of land.” (Read full article…)

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia’s Kampot pepper, a go-to spice for chefs around the world, has joined an elite group of gourmet food items whose names are protected by the European Union, joining products such as Gruyere cheese from France and Parma ham from Italy. (Read full article…)

Kampot pepper is a chef favorite, a rare pepper that has been grown in Cambodia since the 13th century. According to the AP, last year just 60 tons of Kampot pepper were produced, and 70 percent of that was exported—primarily to the EU, the United States, and Japan. Those in the know credit the Kampot region’s mineral-rich soil for itsfloral and sweet flavor. (Read full article…)

…The region, along the country’s southern coast, is famed for the spice, which was the first Cambodian product to receive a Protected Geographical Indication (the same certification that protects regional products like Champagne). The mineral-rich soil and rainy weather in the high-elevation areas near Kampot and Kep are perfect for pepper production, and I was here to see it firsthand. (Read full article…)

… Surrounded by pepper poles on a half-hectare farm, my guide takes up the story. “My father told me people didn’t want to come here. They were afraid of mines and Khmer Rouge soldiers,” says Mr Meas Rim. The area was a Pol Pot stronghold into the 1990s. Replanted in 2000, the early pepper crops fetched only US$1 a kg (Read full article…)