As my trip comes to a close I have a few regrets: I didn't achieve enlightenment, get a book deal, or take a Cambodian cooking class. I still have a shot at the first two, but alas, I believe the ship has sailed on my Cambodian cooking dreams. I had only eaten Cambodian cuisine once before visiting the country, and that was at an unmemorable place in Brooklyn. My pre-reading had told me it was kind of like Thai food (except less spicy) and kind of like Vietnamese food (except less fish sauce). Poor Cambodia. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Ultimately, it was an exciting prospect to discover a cuisine in the country of its origin. So here is the low down on the memorable meals I enjoyed during my visit.
Ginger pork and
noodles in Siem Reap. During my first day of marathon temple-viewing I was
near the point of collapse and asked Mr. Ron (the tuk-tuk driver) if we could
stop for lunch. I'm completely and utterly certain that he took me to some
place that gives him a commission for delivering unsuspecting tourists, but at
that point I really didn’t care. I was exhausted and I needed sustenance. And
furthermore, my meal was delicious. The ginger was undoubtedly the star in this
dish, and it played its part well. I’m
sure we’ve all had those overly gingered dishes in which the heat and sweetness
somehow take a wrong turn at Albuquerque and end up a bitter, sad mess. This was emphatically not the case here. The sauce was rich, with bite, and it created
a silky coating for the flat noodles.
Also, these noodles. I recognize
that they are of the instant variety, but they were sooooooooooooo good. Their size and texture really matched the
weight of the sauces in Cambodia. Before
I go on to the next dish I must give a shout out to Southeast Asia’s pork. It’s some of the best pork I’ve ever had
(okay, Spain probably wins, but come on, it’s Spain!!) Always tender, often fatty, and never veering
toward the dry, flavorless slabs of meat so frequently found in the US. Yay Southeast Asian Pork!
Cambodian Barbeque. Let it be known, I have eaten snake, and it
was good. But nowhere near as good as crocodile! Actually it was rather chewy, so I don't know what James the Thai Tour Guide was complaining about. But I digress. My big splurge dinner in Siem Reap was a
heaping plate of Cambodian Barbeque, featuring five different kinds of meat,
three sauces, and somehow, also, hotpot.
Who knew? The whole meal is
really stupendous. You’re given your own
enclosed mountain of coals, upon which is placed a rounded barbeque altar. The hill of grilling goodness is then surrounded
by a hot pot moat. Really, the cookery
alone won me over. So here’s the
process: the barbeque volcano is lit, and then a huge, glistening piece of pork
fat is placed at the top. The hot pot
moat is filled with chicken broth, into which is thrown greens, carrots,
squash, cabbage, and those ridiculously awesome noodles.
While the hot pot is working its
sultry magic, the grilling begins. The
five “meats” I ordered were chicken, beef, snake, crocodile, and squid. The beef came with an egg for dipping, which
put such a Taipei-nostalgia smile on my face.
The snake kind of tasted like
pork, nothing too exciting. But the
crocodile was amazing. It had the
gaminess of lamb, and yet the sweetness of squid. I know, I know. Lamb-squid doesn’t sound very
convincing. But it was good, dammit! A really excellent meat, one which I would
search out again. It must be said that
Cambodian barbeque is a lot of fun. In
addition to getting my grill on, I also got to play with sauce-to-meat
combinations. The sauces were explained
to me thusly: one for meat, one for fish, and tofu. Yup. Just
tofu. I’m still not sure whether the
waitress meant that the sauce was for tofu, or made of tofu, but no
matter. The “tofu” sauce kind of had a
lemony béarnaise thing going on, and it was particularly good with the
chicken. The second sauce was
reminiscent of chimichurri, filled with fresh herbs, oil, and a bit of
vinegar. I was happy to unite it with
its crocodile soul mate. The final sauce
was a pepper-lemon oil, and it bathed the succulent pieces of charred squid in
its goodness. 
Speaking of pepper, those Cambodians are pepper-growing
masters. There are pepper farms all over
the country, and indulging in a product so fresh was a true luxury. For my last night in Cambodia I decided to go
for the official dish of Kampot: Kampot Pepper Crab. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting,
but it wasn’t this:
Crab is a food that makes me incredibly
nostalgic. My Uncle Carl used to boil blue crab for the family at least once a
summer. I was the only one who could stand to be in the kitchen during the
morally-dubious cooking process. What can I say, I was a kid. I thought it was
great fun to watch the crabs try to escape, and do to my part to round them up
again. Once the crabs were finished we would cover the table in newspaper and
break out the nutcrackers. Oh how the butter would flow! I recalled those days
with my Uncle as I smeared the sticky, brown pepper sauce all over my hands and
face in my attempt to delicately eat the meal. Chopsticks abandoned, I was
pretty much just tearing into the claws and chomping down on anything that
wasn’t shell. Every now and then a peppercorn popped in my mouth, and I
scrunched my face up from the delightful, tickling pain. Throughout my trip the
seafood was outstanding. This crab was rich, creamy, briny, and yet of course
it also had that necessary burst of fresh sweetness. I wonder what my Uncle
Carl would have made of this dish. I'm not sure he even would have tried it,
but I'm pretty sure he would be glad that I did.
And those were just a few of the
culinary highlights. Sadly I do not have a picture of a particularly kick-ass
seafood red curry that I ate on the beach, but alas, not every meal can be
captured. And I haven't gotten into the gloriousness that is Amok. Okay, I may
have to revisit this topic in a later post. But for now, I leave you with
sun-kissed pepper pods to hopefully tickle your fancy.
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