Story here.
Excerpt: “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.”
RIP, Happy Pizza.
I am sorry I have never had that.
Brownies probably go real well with it.
Nooooooooo!
Oh, wait. This is the Cambodian government we’re talking about. Maybe I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Does this strike anyone else as amusing? They’ve gotten rid of dope, now they just have to work on the slight problem of every other drug under the sun, most of which are probably far more harmful?
Every country on Earth is fighting a “war on drugs” and Cambodia is claiming they’re solved the problem of marijuana. Now THAT’s comedy!
So until now, if I went to Cambodia with a backpack, and ordered a pizza, they would lace it with marijuana? Why would they do that?
And what’s this about “hippies”? I thought the hippies all died a long time ago.
In this context, a “backpacker” is a “world traveller”.
At this one specific restaurant, should you choose a “happy” variety they would lace it with marijuana. I believe yojimbo has visited the restaurant, and reports that you can have non-happy pizza there too.
I’m guessing you haven’t spent much time in south-east Asia (or Goa)…
There’s more than one that are actually called “Happy Pizza” (from memory there’s at least one in Phnom Penh and one in Siem Reap), but it’s not uncommon to be able to order a happy pizza elsewhere, even when it’s not on a restaurant’s menu. At least, it was in 2006. Now that Cambodia has solved the marijuana problem, who knows?
In Laos it’s even more explicit. Here is an interesting page from a restaurant’s menu, just stuck in there amongst the stir fries and banana pancakes. I love the way they get progressively less euphemistic as you go down the page… start off with a happy shake, move on to a mushroom pizza and finish up with 1 gram of opium.
They ran a photo in the local paper yesterday of Happy Herb’s in Phnom Penh, in relation to this news. It’s something of an institution in Phnom Penh. Its Lonely Planet entry reads: “Those wanting to pass an evening in a bemused haze can ask the waiter for a ‘happy’ pizza, while those with nothing pressing on the agenda for a couple of days might request ‘very happy.’ The non-marijuana pizzas are equally good and don’t alter the mind.”
