The Khmer Rouge Cafe and Other Political Ideology-Themed Restaurants

Seen at Trifter is a list of 7 political ideology and war-themed restaurants around the world. For example, this Khmer Rouge Cafe next to the once Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture chamber (better known as the Killing Fields) in Cambodia:

The Khmer Rouge Cafe is meant to remind the public of the genocide in 1975-1979 during Pol Pot's era. The waitresses are dressed in the local guerrillas black uniforms. Most visitors may not be able to even
stomach the food as the "Khmer Rouge detainees set menu" includes rice water, corn mixed with water and leaves, dove eggs and tea, which costs $6 per set.

With a little more digging, I found an old news story about the Cafe:

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.

Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.

Recognizing that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.

Links: The list at Trifter | News article about the Killing Fields Cafe (2005 - I think the cafe has closed now)


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The restaurant is definitely closed now. As soon as the news hit the streets there were howls of outrage. Authorities went looking for the place to close it down, but it was closed already.
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