Cambodian Food

Cambodian town’s proximity to Angkor Wat temple yields tourist payoff

2007-09-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

Cambodian town’s proximity to Angkor Wat temple yields tourist payoff
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes,
Scene, Sunday, September 9, 2007

A Buddhist monk looks out from 13th Century Bayon, the last state Hindu temple to be built under the Angkor civilization.

Angkor Wat, shown here, is considered the masterpiece temple of the Angkor civilization. Built in the 11th century, it was reclaimed by jungle after Angkor's inhabitants fled a few hundred years later. Today, it is far and away Cambodia's most popular attraction.

An up-close and personal view of Angkor Wat

Siem Reap, the nearest town to Angkor Wat, has fully immersed itself in the tourist trade with bars and clubs designed to appeal to Westerners -- though an "original shake mango beer" would probably be a first for travelers.

The road to Angkor

Thanks to various government-backed monopolies, there are few cheap, comfortable ways to get to Siem Reap.

South Korea’s Asiana Airlines now offers a round-trip flight to Siem Reap from Seoul, which will explain the surreal abundance of kimchi and soju restaurants on the way into town from the Siem Reap airport. Otherwise, travelers can pay $200 to $250 on Bangkok Airways, or fly cheaper from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital.

River ferries are also available from Phnom Penh. The fastest take five hours, according to tourist brochures.

More adventurous travelers can try the 12-hour overland route by train and bus from Bangkok.

To get to the temples, it’s best to bargain. Locals prefer U.S. dollars; you’ll rarely see the Cambodian riel. Renting a three-wheeled, open air cab towed by a motorcycle — called a tuk-tuk — is the cheapest and most fun way to get around. It should cost $10 to $12 for two people, and maybe a dollar or two more for trips to the outer temples. A car, usually an old Toyota, may cost about $20 for the day. Both come with drivers who will try to sell you something else, as will nearly everyone you meet in Siem Reap, starting with your airport taxi driver.

There are some places you go to escape from the crowds and immerse yourself in authentic local living.

There are places like that in Cambodia, but Siem Reap is not one of them.

However, Siem Reap is the jump point for one of those places you should see before you die — Angkor Wat.

Although not quite yet as well known, Angkor Wat plays in the big leagues of world wonders — say it in the same breath as the Egyptian Pyramids and the Grand Canyon.

Historians say that, 1,000 years ago, Angkor sprawled to the same physical size as modern-day Los Angeles. Its inhabitants fled during the 15th century after military assaults from the Thais, leaving the city and its temples to be buried by jungle.

The city was “rediscovered” by Western archaeologists in the late 19th century. Still, it was barely accessible to most until the murderous Khmer Rouge ended resistance fighting in 1996.

Today, Angkor is mobbed with tourists during December and January, the relatively cool and dry months.

The tourist traffic is taking its toll on the ancient temples, and some tourist Web sites speculate that the temples may have to be roped off in the future for preservation.

The marquee temples include the iconic Angkor Wat itself, Angkor Tom and Ta Phrom.

Farther away, temples like Banteay Srey provide a little more peace.

Once you’ve had your fill of antiquity, Siem Reap does have some pluses. A fantastic one-hour foot and calf massage costs $5 and is widely available. Historic world treasures aside, it may be the highlight of the trip.

The average dinner costs about $3, which is wildly expensive compared to the rest of Cambodia.

The local Khmer food isn’t as spicy as Thai food. It resembles Vietnamese food, with its reliance on fish sauce. Other world cuisine is also widely available.

Gourmet prices run up to $10 in town, and run on par with Western prices at the gaudy five-star hotels. The more pedestrian hotels, which generally cost $30 to $60 per night, also usually serve stripped-down meals.

There are plenty of bars and nightclubs in Siem Reap as well. Angkor Beer costs 50 cents; it’s well worth the 25 cent upgrade over the swill sold in the green can.

If you like fishing, primitive Tonle Sap Lake is about an hour away, though it may be shallow during dry months. It contains more than 200 species of fish and accounts for more than half of all fish eaten in Cambodia, according to government estimates.

It’s also a window into what Cambodian life really looks like. But even among the many travelers I met who experienced only the touristy aspects of the area, none said they had any regrets about their trip.

Most would agree that with one good look at a 1,000-year- old, sandstone-carved temple at sunrise, the tourist trappings around you melt away into nothingness.

Chicken, Cambodian-Style

2007-09-09T01:35:00.000-07:00

Chefs at Home / Nadsa De Monteiro
Chicken, Cambodian-Style
A chef known for blending East and West cooks a light meal for the closing days of summer
By JOYCE GEMPERLEIN
September 1, 2007; Page P5

THE CHEF: Nadsa De Monteiro is executive chef of the Elephant Walk restaurants in Boston, Waltham and Cambridge, Mass. Each of the sites has two kitchens, one preparing authentic Cambodian food and the other French-inspired dishes. Ms. De Monteiro studied with Michelin chef Yves Thuries in Cordes, France, and at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, but she says her most important influence has been her mother, Longteine.

KNOWN FOR: For more than 15 years, Ms. De Monteiro has been preserving her heritage, cuisine and culture through her restaurants and cooking classes. "The Elephant Walk," written by her mother and writer Katherine Neustadt, was one of the first volumes of traditional Cambodian recipes published in the U.S.

THE MEAL: Core ingredients of Khmer and Cambodian cuisine include lime juice, garlic, sugar and fish sauce (a liquid made from salted and fermented fish that's widely available in Asian markets and some supermarkets). Kampot sauce incorporates all these in both chicken dishes.

KITCHEN TIP: Why spritz the rice with cold water in the Bai Mouan recipe? Ms. De Monteiro says this allows the rice grains to absorb more flavor when they are toasted in oil, chopped garlic and pepper or other ingredients.

* * *
Bai Mouan (Classic Cambodian Chicken and Rice)

Yield: 4 servings
Active prep time: 30 minutes (all of the garnish can be done while rice is cooking)
Cooking time: 50 min to 1 hour

1 large whole chicken (about 4 1/2 to 5 pounds), any innards removed, washed
1 large, peeled whole yellow onion
2 cups jasmine rice
11/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Kampot sauce:
Juice and pulp of 21/2 limes
8 garlic cloves, ground to a paste in a mortar and pestle or in a minichopper
3 to 6 green and red bird's eye or serrano or jalapeño chilies to taste, finely chopped
1/2 cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar

The garnish:
1/2 small head bibb lettuce, separated, washed, dried and torn into small pieces
1/2 large English cucumber, thinly sliced on the bias
1 scallion, sliced diagonally into 1/4-inch pieces
Handful of fresh cilantro leaves, washed and dried
1/2 small onion, halved and sliced paper-thin crosswise
2 tablespoons preserved cabbage, called Tianjin (optional)*

• Place the chicken in a large stockpot and cover with cold water by an inch. Add the onion and bring to a boil; reduce heat to maintain a simmer and skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Cover and simmer until chicken is tender but not mushy, about 50 minutes to 1 hour. Remove chicken from the broth and store tightly covered until serving time; reserve broth. If desired, strain broth through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth to remove any additional sediment.

• Put the rice into a strainer or fine mesh sieve and spray cold water over the rice until rice is completely wet. Let the rice drain for a minute or two. In a large pot heat the oil and saute the garlic over medium heat until lightly golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Add the drained rice and stir to mix well; toast the rice, gently stirring often without breaking the rice grains, until the rice becomes mostly opaque, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; mix well.

• Add 3 1/4 cups of the reserved chicken broth to the toasted rice and stir to mix well. Bring to a boil and immediately lower the heat to a minimum. Cover and let the rice cook undisturbed until broth is completely absorbed and the rice is tender, 20-22 minutes.

• While the rice is cooking, make the kampot sauce. Combine the lime juice, pulp, garlic paste, chilies, fish sauce and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Cover and store refrigerated.

• Reserve one chicken breast for the tomato salad. Discard the chicken skin and bones and shred the remaining meat into bite-size pieces. Arrange the chicken on a platter with the rice, lettuce, cucumber, scallions and cilantro. Serve this dish accompanied by individual bowls of the kampot sauce and individual bowls of piping hot chicken broth garnished with thinly sliced onion and Tianjin (preserved cabbage), if desired, to be sipped as you eat the bai mouan. Reserve remaining kampot sauce for the tomato salad.

* * *
Nyuom Peng Pah (Tomato Salad With Chicken)

Yield: 4 servings
Active prep time: 10 minutes

1 cooked chicken breast, finely shredded (reserved from Bai Mouan)
1 pound fresh plum tomatoes, very thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 English cucumber, thinly sliced crosswise
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, large leaves torn
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, preferably Thai basil, large leaves torn
1/3 cup Kampot sauce (reserved from Bai Mouan)
Thinly sliced green and red bird's eye, serrano, or jalapeño chilies to taste
1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts, coarsely ground

• In a large salad bowl, combine the chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, mint and basil. Add the kampot sauce and chilies to taste. Sprinkle with the peanuts. Toss and serve immediately.

* * *
Cha How Lang Tao Nung B'kong (Stir-Fried Shrimp With Snow Peas)
Yield: 4 servings
Active prep time: 20 minutes

1 pound medium shrimp, shelled with tails remaining, and deveined
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 garlic cloves, smashed
1 pound snow peas, stems and strings removed
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• Butterfly the shrimp by cutting them down the back lengthwise but not all the way through, so they will flare open when cooked.

• Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet or wok over medium-high heat and saute the garlic until golden, 5 to 10 seconds. Stirring well after each addition, add the shrimp, peas, fish sauce and sugar and cook until the shrimp are cooked through and the snow peas have lost their crunch but aren't yet mushy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the pepper and serve immediately.

2007-05-15T19:06:00.001-07:00

The Food & Cooking of Cambodia

Over 60 authentic classic recipes from an undiscovered cuisine, shown step-by-step in over 250 stunning photographs; An ... using ingredients, equipment and techniques (Paperback)
by Ghillie Basan (Author)

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Book Description

Ancient Cambodia was a kingdom with an Indian culture, which then expanded into Burma and Vietnam, later becoming a territory claimed by both Vietnam and Siam. As a result, the Cambodian cuisine has Indian roots, with strong influences from both China and India.

2007-05-01T21:13:00.002-07:00

Cambodian Food by Sambath Sim

The staple foods for the people of Cambodia are rice and fish. Cambodians like to eat rice, fresh or dried fish and rice noodles.
Prohoc is a Cambodian dish that the inhabitants of Cambodia think that the foreigners will not be able to eat. This is a special dish that is comprised of rotten fish being left to fermentation to form a fish paste. This is eaten with rice. This food item has a strong taste that is not usually liked by everyone.
One of the interesting facts about Cambodian foods that you should know is that the Cambodians feel cheese must always taste like the paste made of rotten fish.
Hot peppers, lemon grass, ginger and mint are some of the favorite, hot seasoning items in Cambodian cuisine.
Like everyone, even Cambodians like to have desserts after the main course and they prefer the sweeter ones. The desserts are usually prepared from either fruit or rice. Owing to the weather conditions, especially in the countryside it is difficult to keep ice cream cold, however, it is quite popular in the urban areas. Cambodians like tea and coffee equally and they prefer to consume them with sugary, undiluted milk.
The food preferences Cambodians are very similar to those of Thai and Chinese but definitely not the same. Even though Cambodia and Vietnam share a border, the culture and food preferences are very different. In fact, Cambodian architecture, food preferences, etc are more like Thai than Vietnamese. If you traveled to Vietnam and to Cambodia, you will find that the cuisine in each country is very different. You will usually find soups made of coconut milk and spices that are a lot like Thai cuisine and not at all like Vietnamese.
Cambodian cooking is not quite famous all over the world. But the cooking industry is fairly staunch in the country itself.
Below is a recipe of one of the most popular dishes of Cambodia known as the Sach ko char spee khieu which is made of beef with crunchy Chinese Broccoli. The required ingredients for preparing this dish are as follows:

½ lb. Lean beef delicately cut
1 lb. Chopped Chinese broccoli
2 shredded cloves garlic
One cut yellow onion
Cooking oil ( 2 table spoon)
Fish paste (1 table spoon)
Soy Sauce (1 table spoon)
Oyster sauce (1 Table spoon)

Sugar (1 table spoon)
Cornstarch (1/2 table spoon)
Water (¼ cup)
Black pepper (¼ tea spoon)

How to prepare:
First mix the cornstarch with water in a small bowl along with oyster sauce, fish paste and sugar. Then blend garlic with soy sauce in another bowl.
Pre heat the skillet to a reasonably high temperature. Then add cooking oil. Stir-fry the onion and broccoli stems along with the beef. Then put in the Chinese broccoli leaves. After that, mix thoroughly, cover it and wait for a few minutes.
Put the sauce mixes in and blend until the sauce becomes thick. Then you add black pepper. After this, the dish is ready to serve with rice.

Sambath Sim