Khmer Food

In addition to the Western food we’ve been eating recently, we’ve had two fabulous Khmer meals. Thanks go to Julie who sent me an article about ethical dining/shopping in Cambodia.

Our first Khmer meal (pictured above) was at the Friends Restaurant and wasn’t strictly speaking Khmer, but had a few good Khmer dishes. The European side of things was represented by some excellent grilled veggies with olive oil and lemon, and some sweet potato fries with curry mayonnaise. The sweet potatoes were definitely a different variety than we have at home, and almost too rich tasting to eat, but we persevered. Moving towards the East, we ordered coleslaw with cabbage and mango, flavored with sesame and lime. Declan’s choice, but unfortunately it came with a lacing of ginger and chilies which made it too spicy for him to enjoy. Note that Khmer food is much, much less spicy and more subtle than Thai food, but Declan is not a fan of strong flavors.

Aidan’s choice was a delicious chicken curry with potatoes and green beans and I think he also suggested the pork fried rice. Made with minced fresh pork, not the familiar bbq pork you’ll find in Chinese restaurants, this was a far cry from the “use up all the leftovers” fried rice that I make at home. We rounded things out with some excellent shrimp wontons (Richard never got to try these, generously giving his up to Declan), and baby bok choy with mushrooms and oyster sauce.

The resulting meal was a slightly bizarre fusion meal, but each of the individual elements were well prepared and tasty.

Our second Khmer meal was today, after our trip to the Killing Field near Phnom Penh. We tried to go to Romdeng, sister restaurant to Friends but with an even bigger Khmer menu, but got there too late for lunch (arriving at 1:15, they close at 2). We asked for a suggestion for where to go next, and got directed towards a restaurant on the riverside. We never did figure out the name of the place, but it is downstairs from a very trendy Spanish tapas place called Pacharan. This is not a hole in the wall local place, but geared towards tourists. At 2 in the afternoon, however, there were only a few other people dining.

Declan was staggering a bit from the heat at this point; having been car sick on the way to the Killing Fields he was also a bit undernourished. But he gamely trudged the 7 blocks to the new restaurant, and perked up when our sodas, beer, and peanuts arrived at the table. The peanuts, which we also had at Friends, are freshly roasted, and tossed with salt mixed with the smallest bit of sugar. Yum. Just the thing to help re-balance the electrolytes.

Aidan immediately spotted the barbequed pork ribs on the menu, and Declan gravitated towards the club sandwich. When we nixed this on the grounds that in a Khmer restaurant it was unclear what it would be, he chose stir fried ginger with chicken. Richard picked out mixed fish with vegetables, and I rounded things out with beef on a stick and mixed vegetables. We gave our order to the waiter, who vetoed the fish on the grounds that Khmer dining requires soup with every meal, and suggested that we have the sour fish soup with vegetables instead. We had read this, though forgotten it, so we were glad the waiter intervened. The soup is used like gravy to flavor rice and soften things up a bit.

And the soup, as it turned out, was delicious. It was the consistency of split pea soup, but was creamy white, thick with minced fish and bright with the flavor of limes and lemongrass. Aidan and I liked the ribs, but Richard and Declan felt that they were too plainly pork tasting. It’s true, they were minimally seasoned, and they did taste mostly of pork. What’s not to like? The beef on a stick had been marinated in a mild turmeric, garlic, and oil rub, and grilled. Chewy, but quite tasty. Declan’s favorite.

The chicken was interesting. The menu had listed it as ginger with chicken, and that is exactly what it was. Lots and lots of shredded ginger, with little bits of chicken snuggled in the shreds. It proved too strong for Declan—ginger can be potent—but made a nice contrast to the otherwise very mildly seasoned food. I particularly liked stirring little bits of it into the mixed veg. The veg was nothing special, but we all need to get some produce.

Having been hoping for an interesting Khmer dessert, we were disappointed that there really weren’t any on the menu. Instead, they brought each of us a perfect Satsuma. Happily stuffed, we waddled back out into the heat, and got a tuk tuk back to our guesthouse for our delayed siesta.