Youtube video about Happy Pizza: This is my jouney into Happy Pizzaland Phnom Penh: the obvious happened, Paranoia, and missing two paid for flights back to Bangkok-FOOL!!!!!!
Wed, 09 Apr 2008
DPA
Phnom Penh - Changing times and politics in South-East Asia may finally spell extinction for one of the most famous (or infamous) fusion cuisines enjoyed by backpackers, Cambodia's "happy pizza." Legendary amongst travelers for more than a decade, this hippy's little helper version of pizza is simply the traditional Italian favourite with a Cambodian twist - the rich tomato base comes heavily laced with marijuana.
Although officially illegal for several years, locals have traditionally used marijuana in soups or medicinally. Pioneering travelers crossing the Lao-Cambodian border previously even reported a small garden of the stuff being lovingly tended by customs officials.
And then foreign inspiration transformed the drug into arguably the world's most talked-about pizza topping. Dozens of happy pizza parlours sprang up around the country as backpack tourism boomed.
But now the Cambodian government's current battle against drugs has given "pizza wars" a whole new meaning.
This week marijuana was claimed as Cambodia's first "total victory" in eliminating a drug from both domestic and export markets by Interior Ministry anti-drug chief, Police General Lou Ramin.
"Marijuana is no longer a problem in Cambodia," he declared. "We are strengthening our monitoring throughout the country and its borders."
Massive plantations which once required helicopter airlifts to clear them have been wiped out, he said, leaving the government free to concentrate on the increasingly prevalent evils of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines.
The government's anti-grass putsch began in 1999, when seven elderly women who had previously openly sold marijuana at traditional medicine stalls in one of the capital's largest markets were arrested in a police raid and 38 kilos of the weed were confiscated.
Back then, a compressed brick of marijuana sold for around 2 dollars, and a packet of 25 ready-rolled cigarettes was just a dollar, according to experts, but inflation and repeated crackdowns quickly pushed the price up to a dollar per cigarette.
Somehow, however, the iconic happy pizza survived, until now.
The spiked pizza's status as a backpacker's rite of passage has earned it mentions even on reputable travel websites such as Lonely Planet. YouTube features videos of it being made, eaten, sold - and its extremely potent side effects.
"This is my journey into Happy Pizzaland Phnom Penh. The obvious happened - paranoia, and missing two paid-for flights back to Bangkok. FOOL!!!" one YouTube poster writes of his video clip.
A former Foreigner Police officer says that tourists ingesting marijuana in pizza form often got dangerously out of hand in culturally conservative Cambodia.
"Many times I saw people take their clothes off after eating this - especially women. Some people laugh, but some cry, and some just jump in the lake," he said.
Expatriates familiar with the potent pizza grin when they tell the story of one of the capital's most famous happy pizza chefs admitting himself to hospital and spending the night on a drip after sampling a slice of his own cuisine for the first - and last - time.
For most adventurous tourists, however, "happy pizza" provided no more than a great travel yarn, insists one of the country's dwindling chefs of Cambodia's quasi-clandestine classic, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On his menu, it costs as little as 3 dollars for a small pizza of happiness.
But he agrees that life as a purveyor of happy pizza is becoming increasingly precarious and expensive.
"It is much more expensive to make now because of the ingredients," he says. "The special ingredient costs much more now, but our biggest problem is that tourists do not ask for it anymore because they are afraid it is illegal."
"We still make the happy pizza if the tourists ask directly, but we put less special ingredient now because we don't want any problems with the police if they get crazy."
So how long can the marijuana pizza last out the law?
"The government goal is that this drug does not exist any more in Cambodia," says Police General Lou Ramin. "We will only be satisfied when it is not available at all."
Although officially illegal for several years, locals have traditionally used marijuana in soups or medicinally. Pioneering travelers crossing the Lao-Cambodian border previously even reported a small garden of the stuff being lovingly tended by customs officials.
And then foreign inspiration transformed the drug into arguably the world's most talked-about pizza topping. Dozens of happy pizza parlours sprang up around the country as backpack tourism boomed.
But now the Cambodian government's current battle against drugs has given "pizza wars" a whole new meaning.
This week marijuana was claimed as Cambodia's first "total victory" in eliminating a drug from both domestic and export markets by Interior Ministry anti-drug chief, Police General Lou Ramin.
"Marijuana is no longer a problem in Cambodia," he declared. "We are strengthening our monitoring throughout the country and its borders."
Massive plantations which once required helicopter airlifts to clear them have been wiped out, he said, leaving the government free to concentrate on the increasingly prevalent evils of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines.
The government's anti-grass putsch began in 1999, when seven elderly women who had previously openly sold marijuana at traditional medicine stalls in one of the capital's largest markets were arrested in a police raid and 38 kilos of the weed were confiscated.
Back then, a compressed brick of marijuana sold for around 2 dollars, and a packet of 25 ready-rolled cigarettes was just a dollar, according to experts, but inflation and repeated crackdowns quickly pushed the price up to a dollar per cigarette.
Somehow, however, the iconic happy pizza survived, until now.
The spiked pizza's status as a backpacker's rite of passage has earned it mentions even on reputable travel websites such as Lonely Planet. YouTube features videos of it being made, eaten, sold - and its extremely potent side effects.
"This is my journey into Happy Pizzaland Phnom Penh. The obvious happened - paranoia, and missing two paid-for flights back to Bangkok. FOOL!!!" one YouTube poster writes of his video clip.
A former Foreigner Police officer says that tourists ingesting marijuana in pizza form often got dangerously out of hand in culturally conservative Cambodia.
"Many times I saw people take their clothes off after eating this - especially women. Some people laugh, but some cry, and some just jump in the lake," he said.
Expatriates familiar with the potent pizza grin when they tell the story of one of the capital's most famous happy pizza chefs admitting himself to hospital and spending the night on a drip after sampling a slice of his own cuisine for the first - and last - time.
For most adventurous tourists, however, "happy pizza" provided no more than a great travel yarn, insists one of the country's dwindling chefs of Cambodia's quasi-clandestine classic, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On his menu, it costs as little as 3 dollars for a small pizza of happiness.
But he agrees that life as a purveyor of happy pizza is becoming increasingly precarious and expensive.
"It is much more expensive to make now because of the ingredients," he says. "The special ingredient costs much more now, but our biggest problem is that tourists do not ask for it anymore because they are afraid it is illegal."
"We still make the happy pizza if the tourists ask directly, but we put less special ingredient now because we don't want any problems with the police if they get crazy."
So how long can the marijuana pizza last out the law?
"The government goal is that this drug does not exist any more in Cambodia," says Police General Lou Ramin. "We will only be satisfied when it is not available at all."
6 comments:
Tourists stripping naked from marijuana - thats an exaggeration. As someone who would be a frequent user I have NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN, 99% of people sit around laughing, and happy, the other 1% fall asleep.
Tourists stripping naked would be down to alcohol and yaa-ba, which is much more serious that marijuana. The government/police say that the problem is eradicated is bullshit - what they mean is that they have eradicated their competition and they are now the sole sellers of marijuana, go down to boeng kak, loads of the motodups are cops, and they all sell weed, and, yaa-baa and will take tourists to brothels.
I don't endorse this practice but just tell it as it is.
As for the happy pizza themselves, it's more of a kitsch novelty than anything else. They don't put enough in it to get you stoned anyway.
How much do you know, 3:14PM, alway something new to leurn!
it's about time to crackdown on illegal drug uses in cambodia. drug abuses are dangerous to cambodian society. i'm glad gov't is doing something about it. who needs illegal drugs, only losers need them.
Oh great! This is a fucken smart move by AH HUN SEN Vietcong slave government to go after marijuana! And now there are more dangerous and addictive synthetic drugs are on the rise such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines...
I don't see a reason why the stupid Cambodian government want to ban marijuana because even the "locals have traditionally used marijuana in soups or medicinally" I have yet to see the Cambodian local population use the marijuana to the point of excess where they have to take off their clothes, crying, and jumping in the lake! I don't know any Cambodian local people who would eat marijuana like they eat salad! This is fucken crazy! The marijuana is use as spice and flavor in very small amount and it is hot like chili with sweet aroma and it is also used for pain killer!
Since AH HUN SEN government is so much against dangerous drug and I suggest that AH HUN SEN government needs to wage war on cigarette and alcohol as well which destroy more dirt poor Cambodian families than marijuana!
Now you why AH HUN SEN himself couldn't quit smoking over the years because cigarette contain the most addicted nicotine drug know to man!
Hey, we just use marijuana in soup, alright? we don't smoke them everyday like in west, in case you don't know.
Marijuana deserves a special place in Cambodian cuisine and medicine!
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