moderatelyExcessive

Just returned from Battambang, in the NW of Cambodia, where I had to travel for a client meeting. It was a beautiful 5 hour moto ride each way, and I had a great time in my short stay there. My hosts, Mike and Sopea, were incredibly gracious, and the town itself was beautiful. Unlike every other area of Cambodia I’ve been to, if there was wrong side of the tracks in Battambang, I couldn’t find it. In any case, more on that trip later.

I head home in less than two weeks.

There are few things I will miss as much as the way I’m eating here.

First off, Cambodia has the most incredible variety of fruits: some I was aware of but had never tried, others I had no idea existed until now – almost all of them have become quick favorites. Winter melon, dragon fruit, papaya, mango, pineapple, and water melon are standard end-of-meal snacks. Dragon Fruit seem to be best when frozen – the super-bright magenta meat inside makes it’s own sorbet! As good as dragon fruit are, my favorite (by far) is what the locals call “Angkam.” I have not found another name for it, nor have I found any pictures of it on the intarwebs. It’s dark red, shaped somewhere between an oval and a diamond. It has long red spines and a thick, almost pine-cone-like casing. In fact they’re attached to the branch like pine cones, but come in bunches like bananas. Anyway, when the casing’s peeled, it reveals one to three sections of a chestnut colored fruit, with a pit inside. They are sweet and sour at the same time, and somehow just exude healthiness. I can easily eat a kilo in one sitting. Does anyone here have an English name for them?
Tagalog?
Thai?

Then there are the meals. The two most ‘famous’ Khmer dishes are Luk-Lak and Amok. Luk-Lak is beef in a brown ginger/garlic gravy served (most often) with green peppers, onions, and rice. Good, but the quality of the beef makes all the difference. Amok (which is best served with fish, as opposed to the chicken, beef, or pork that may be offered) is a hearty stew of cubed fish, potatoes, carrots, and other veggies in an insanely good green and yellow curry sauce, and it always comes with blades of lemon grass. It’s beyond delicious, and at $2 to $3 a plate, never disappoints.

I want to make special mention of the road-side stands. It amazes me how fearful I once was of them because they are now a mainstay. As I’ve become friendly with the owners of the stands and continue to practice my Khmer with them, my portions keep getting larger, and the prices keep getting lower. My favorite of the stands (St. 51, next to Howie’s Bar) serves the most delicious BBQ pork with tomatoes and cucumbers over rice, alongside a chili/vegetable salad and a bowl of soup for $1 (I’ve seen other Westerners get charged as much as $3 for the same plate of food). My second favorite stand serves skewers of BBQ beef, along with green papaya/vinegar slaw and toasted bread smeared with sweet butter (which looks like rubber cement). Only after I had eaten the first time did I notice that most Khmer make a beef/papaya sandwich from what they’re given. That discovery has brought me much happiness since, at 1000 riel per skewer and matching buttered bread (eat as much papaya salad as you want). Find this one at the other end of St. 51, a block south of Psar Thmei.
Another of my favorite snacks are the deep-fried spinach cakes with an accompanying citrus sauce for 500 riel (12.5 cents) on Street 178 (West of Street 13). It sits across the street from the stand that sells four deep-fried frogs for 500 riel. I haven’t bought frog for myself to eat, but I have shared others’ often. They’re good. Trust me. Especially the roasted ones that get burned like a marshmallow on the outside. They function just like chicken wings when you’re watching a game at a bar. And at 3 cents per frog, how can you go wrong?

Another joy is the Egg Man. Egg Man pulls a wooden oxcart of boiled eggs on sticks around town, chanting a sing-song come-on line. At first I couldn’t fathom why anyone would be trying to sell eggs that have been dragged around dusty, smoggy Phnom Penh in the afternoon heat. But then I noticed how strong a local following he has, so I broke down and tried one. Inside the eggs are plenty of aromatics. Curry, basil, garlic, and cumin are definitely among them, but I can’t even pretend to know what else is in there. In any case, they’re delicious. And 2 eggs for 25 cents is a deal (with the devil).

Then there are the pair of Indian restaurants on the Boeng Kak Lake Strip… both excellent, and both offer all-you-can-eat deals (three or four entrees, rice, nan, purified water) for $1.50 to $2.00.

The Khmer aren’t too big on dessert. A sweet cake or fruit suffices most often. Sometimes it’s a piece of iced sugar cane, or ice cream, or a palm sugar drink. In any case, it’s the least important part of the meal.

Ordering coffe at a restaurant here often results in receiving an odd combination of Nescafé and what everyone here seems to call Ovalmatine. Yeah. Oval(ma)tine. Sucks for me.

It’s funny because the Vietnamese are quite good at growing coffee, but the Khmer seem uninterested in learning how to brew it.

I do love that every Khmer Restaurant serves fruit shakes… this has given me the opportunity to scientifically deduce that banana shakes are the best of them when it comes to turning the heat down on some of the Thai Chilis that appear in Khmer food from time to time.

Oh, and one quick note to travelers: When eating with Khmer, you will find endless amounts of communal food in the center of the table, and a plate of rice in front of you. Take only as much as you can eat in one bite from the communal bowls and put it on your plate of rice. Then pick it up again and eat. Repeat very, very often. Also, do serve rice from the communal bowl to anyone who is about to run low. This is a shared responsibility, and it seems that it is never in good taste to serve one’s self rice.

So does anyone know if the Cambodian Restaurant that used to be in Fort Greene has re-opened anywhere? Where else can I practice Khmer while I’m in New York?