Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
volcano in appearance; the beef (venison is also
used) comes to the table ready sliced, with a raw
egg stirred into the meat before cooking. It's
accompanied by side dishes of raw vegetables such
as green tomatoes, capsicum and salad greens.
Once you've grilled the meat and vegetables to
your taste, they're wrapped in a salad leaf and
dipped in a sauce before being eaten.
Typically found at cheap restaurants,
kaar
is a
stew usually made with pig's trotters and green
cabbage (it can also be made with fish or bamboo
shoots) and eaten with unseasoned rice porridge
(
borbor
). Pork is the usual ingredient in
spring rolls
(though Vietnamese restaurants especially may do
a vegetarian version as an appetizer); they're either
steamed or fried and then rolled up in a lettuce leaf
with sliced cucumber, bean sprouts and herbs, and
eaten dipped in a sweet chilli sauce.
(and inevitably expensive) restaurants of Phnom
Penh.
Fish is served up in all manner of ways - grilled,
fried, in soups and stews. Popular in tourist areas is
amok
, a mild Cambodian-style fish curry (chicken is
also used); the fish is mixed with coconut milk and
seasonings and baked wrapped in banana leaves
(or sometimes cooked in the shell of a young
coconut).
Dried fish
is a particular favourite. Much prized
for sun-drying are large freshwater fish from the
Tonle Sap, which are sliced lengthwise like kippers
and grilled over charcoal, to be eaten with rice.
When fish is cheap you'll see people drying their
own in baskets outside their houses.
Vegetables
Cambodia's markets offer up a wide range of
vegetables, some of which will be unfamiliar, all
delivered fresh daily. Regrettably, you won't come
across many of these on restaurant menus, though
one unusual vegetable you will find in restaurants is
morning glory
(
trokooen
), a water plant with a
thick, hollow stem and elongated heart-shaped
leaves, which are carefully removed prior to
cooking; it's often served stir-fried with garlic and
oyster sauce, and tastes a bit like spinach.
Fried mixed vegetables
are ubiquitous in Khmer
restaurants, the constituents varying according to
what's available (in some establishments you may
be able to choose from a selection). Green
tomatoes, crisp and refreshing, are often added to
this and other dishes; red ones are only available in
limited quantities for special recipes. For a decent
selection of vegetable dishes, though, you'll need
to try the Chinese restaurants. At street stalls and in
the markets you'll find
noam gachiey
, best
described as chive burgers. Made from rice flour,
Chicken and duck
Chicken and duck in Cambodia often have a high
bone-to-flesh ratio; except in tourist restaurants,
the whole carcass is chopped up, which means
you have to pick out the bones from each
mouthful. Worth looking out for is
baked chicken
(sait mowan dot)
, cooked in a metal pot in a
wood-fired oven and really tasty. It's usually
prepared to order, so there is quite a wait
involved. Also worth trying is the refreshing
somlar ngam ngouw
, a clear lemon broth
flavoured with pickled limes and herbs.
Fish
Fish is plentiful and the main source of protein for
most Cambodians. Near the Tonle Sap lake there's
a particularly good choice of
freshwater
varieties,
and
sea fish
is plentiful along the coast, though
inland it's only readily available in the specialist
VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS
Although strict Cambodian Buddhists do have a vegetarian meal once every two weeks on
offering days, Cambodians in general can't understand why anyone who can afford meat or
fish would not want to eat it.
The best way to get a
vegetarian dish
is to ask for your order to be cooked without meat
(
ot dak sait
) or fish (
ot dak trei
); in principle, most stir-fries and soups can be done this way. You
might be told that the dish is “not delicious” without meat, and the waiter may also come back
a couple of times just to check he's got it straight. However, to be sure that prawns, chicken,
duck or even intestines aren't substituted, or that a meat stock or fish sauce isn't used, you'll
need to specify a whole list of things to avoid.
Vegans
will need to make sure that no eggs are
included
(ot yoh pong mowan)
as these are widely used, but should have few problems
avoiding dairy products, which are unlikely to be found outside Western restaurants.
In tourist centres one or two vegetarian restaurants have opened, while restaurants catering
for foreigners will also have more choice and a better idea of what being a vegetarian means.
