Among Friends Story: Karen Mitchell Photos courtesy of Mith Samlanh

"Mith Samlanh touches the lives of about 1,500 Cambodian children through multiple training and outreach programs"

hat's a little tapas between friends worth? Plenty, when you're enjoying it at 215 Street 13, Phnom Penh. That's the home of Friends - the restaurant. Not only does the tapas come in a global array of culinary influences, but the modest fee garnered for each delectable - $1 - helps some of Cambodia's most disadvantaged children.

Located near the National Museum, Friends Restaurant is operated by Mith Samlanh (Close Friends), a charitable organization founded by expatriates and devoted to the needs of Phnom Penh's street children and their families. The restaurant is the brainchild of co-founder and coordinator Sebastien Marot, a former Parisian marketing executive and civil servant who first came to Cambodia in 1994.

"I met some street kids who were resting together late at night, sleeping on cardboard," he explains. "I was upset, and I started feeding them, then met some other expats who were doing the same thing."

Marot and the others soon opened a shelter with beds, a shower and a school for 17 kids, and he's been in charge ever since. Today Mith Samlanh touches the lives of about 1,500 Cambodian children through multiple training and outreach programs. In addition to the restaurant/cooking program, students may choose from mechanics, hairdressing, electronics and carpentry. An on-site educational center provides literacy classes, a primary school, and cultural and artistic activities.

Marot's encounter with the sleeping children has evolved into a program that enjoys support from AUSAID, the World Food Program and private donors. Angelina Jolie and Billie Bob Thornton visited the training center and the restaurant while on location for the making of Tomb Raiders. The pair donated about $45,000 through their Maddox Foundation.

The Friends tapas restaurant, a kind of public showplace for Mith Samlanh, is in a renovated and sunny bistro adjacent to the main training center. The French Colonial building was once part of a bicycle factory but is now decorated with self-portraits - some searing, all endearing - of the young servers and cooks.

The menu was created by Friends technical advisor and former Vancouver personal chef/caterer Gustav Auer. "My goal in training the restaurant students is that they learn to have self esteem," he explains over the din of the restaurant, "they start from scratch, no pun intended, and how well they do depends on how well they adapt and understand. They're really hungry for education."

Auer's menu features such treats as Khmer Tri Roch fish served with fresh salsa verde and capers, Sauteed Green Beans with Roasted Almonds, Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Grilled Eggplant with Coconut. You can wash it down with a smooth Tamarind-Pineapple Shake or a glass of Merlot, and finish with Crepes with Lemon Sauce.

"We write our own recipes," Auer says, "and we plan to publish a cookbook in the future. We import some vegetables and we import cheeses, flour and chocolate - the students make great chocolate chip cookies."

Despite its foreign origins, native Khmers run most of the operations. Tach Bunna, a native of Phnom Penh and a former security guard, now teaches restaurant skills and hygiene to a group of 17 to 21-year-old Mith Samlanh students.

"I'm excited to teach them," he says, "they have no families, and they had no food or clean clothes before coming here. They didn't understand how to behave socially or how to talk to other people. I'm happiest when they learn to work by themselves and don't need me anymore."

For information about Mith Samlanh or to make donations visit their Web site at www.streetfriends.org.

About the Author

Karen Mitchell is a Boulder-based writer and former journalist who frequently writes about the professional audio industry, food and lifestyles. She has won several journalism awards for humor and food writing. Her career began when she wrote about consumer electronics for Rolling Stone Magazine at the end of the same decade in which she was a charter member of the legendary Studio 54.

She splits her time between Hanoi and Boulder, Colorado.