I imagined that a Belgian bistro would, be dark, smoky and retaining a noirish conspiratorial feel to it. Yet La Patate couldn’t be more different. It’s well lit and as brightly coloured inside as a Tin Tin cartoon strip with bold reds and yellows decorating the walls. The eponymous national hero Tin Tin himself stares down from framed cartoon strips and I could have sworn I saw Snowy the fox terrier cocking his leg up against a cyclo outside as I was parking my bike on Street 5.

Prior to arriving at this recently opened bistro, I doubted whether many Khmers would know quite where Belgium is, geographically speaking, and my Khmer dining companion confirmed this by gently probing me as to why the menu was in French if this was a ‘Belgian’ restaurant. ("Because the Moon’s a Walloon," I told her.) Yet our fellow diners this rainy...