Saturday 1 February 2014

Adventures In Food: Cambodia

 
{freshly baked baguette}
 
First things first, the French influence in Cambodia is just delicious. It was hard to take an appetizing photo of the street stall crepes filled with chocolate and banana but trust me, I had one every night in Siem Reap. The bread is no different and a simple breakfast of baguette with butter and jam, or sometimes an egg, each morning was always welcome.

 
{mango shake}
 
These shakes seem to be common across SE Asia but the best I've (ever) had was in Cambodia. It usually has the flesh of a whole mango, lots of very fine ice and some sort of dairy product!

 
{eggplant in coconut curry sauce}
 
OK, this doesn't look terribly appetizing, but it was super delicious and introduced us to the new flavour of loofah (some sort of veggie?). I highly recommend ordering eggplant any time in Asia and in fact, I usually do.

 
{fresh rice paper rolls}
 
Ho hum you say, this is not new Cambodian food! But these were made by yours truly! I took a cooking class in Sihanoukville. The dipping sauce here was life changing and I can't wait to try at home. Also: my teacher Sinoun said Thailand stole it's cuisine from Cambodia, hence the similarities... good to remember when coming across the same food in different countries!
 
 
{rosie in action- not edible}

 
{tofu amok}
 
Amok is the Cambodian national dish, usually made with fish. I tried a few veggo options while there, some were soupy, some were curry-esque. This was the best I had, with a thick coconut based sauce and heaps of veg and tofu. Believe it or not, it was from a budget beach front restaurant where they sell everything from breakfast to sandwiches to cocktails (and the second best one I had was from the almost identical place right next door). The ambient lighting is due to the candlelit setting on the beach, sorry :)

 
{grilled eggplant}
 
A simple dish of melt in the mouth eggplant and a little chilli, garlic and ginger. The perfect meal.

 
{pumpkin custard}
 
Never heard of this until I cooked it in my class. Simple custard jazzed up with coconut milk instead of cow's milk, poured into a hollowed out pumpkin and steamed until set. Eat the flesh and custard together!
 
Essential phrases (phonetic)
 
hello : soowah sooday
thank you : aw gohn
excuse me/sorry : som doh
bill please : som kut loi

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