Nathan A. Thompson
This Iraqi Refugee Family Makes Cambodia’s Best Baba Ghanouj
Muna, her husband, and five sons fled their war torn hometown of Fallujah for Cambodia two years ago. Now in Phnom Penh, the family runs a restaurant recreating traditional Iraqi dishes with a makeshift oven and improvised ingredients.
Cambodian Weddings Are an Excuse for Offal and Line Dancing
Weddings are a big deal in Cambodia. In rice-farming villages, people don’t often get to eat five kinds of meat in one sitting or drink until even the most wayward dance moves seem appropriate.
Filipino Hog Roasts Are Next Level
The La Loma neighbourhood of Manila is famous for lechon—a spit-roasted, herb-stuffed, suckling pig cooked over charcoal and considered by many as the national dish of the Philippines.
Cambodian Ghosts Love Sticky Rice Cakes
On Pchum Ben or "Ancestors' Day," Cambodians believe the ghosts of dead relatives return to earth. They are offered Num Om Saum, a sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.
Tracking Illegally Logged Wood to a Factory Used by Top Fashion Brands in Cambodia
VICE News joined a conservation NGO as it tracked illegally logged wood from forests in southern Cambodia to a factory in Phnom Penh which makes clothes for brands including GAP and Timberland.
This ‘Lucky’ Pasta Could Save Bhutan from MSG Noodles
Students from Bhutan’s Royal Thimphu College have created an MSG-free wheat flour pasta shaped to look like the lucky “endless knot” symbol of Buddhist traditions.
Why Does BO Sometimes Smell Like Weed?
Body odor that smells like pot is a real phenomenon, according to some of the world's most eminent biologists and cannabis experts.
Building a Pizza Oven on a Tuk-Tuk Is As Impossible as It Sounds
Three years ago, four friends had a dream to open Cambodia’s first wood-fired pizza oven on a tuk-tuk. Today, after numerous rebuilds and one moped crash, Katy Peri Pizza is a favourite Phnom Penh street food.
Burmese Opium Farmers Make the Best Rice Wine
U Mint Aung, village chief of a tiny community in the opium fields of Eastern Myanmar brings out a clay pot brimming with multi-coloured grains. The thing looks like a trendy smoothie. But it’s home-brewed rice wine.
Tattooed Tribeswomen and the Problem of Photo Tourism in Myanmar
For the Chin women of western Myanmar, outer beauty starts with an inky black, fully tattooed face. But the government has banned the custom, and tourists are flooding in to document the dying tradition.
Meeting a Dildo Dealer in Cambodia, Where Sex Toys Are Illegal
It's not easy to find a strap-on or a vibrator if you live in the home of the Angkor Wat, so you have to get creative.
North Korea, Where Watching a Soap Opera Is Apparently Punishable by Death
Three people were reportedly executed in North Korea recently for watching a South Korean drama on their phones. But despite extreme censorship, many North Koreans secretly access foreign media.