Feeding Umi » cambodia

Penom Penh Chic

umi — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:15:40 +0000

I was doing some cleaning house this morning of my drafts, making up drafts, and lo and behold! Here are some left over pictures from my Cambodia trip! I was meaning to write about the difference between the food I had in Pursat, Siem Riep, and the capital, Penom Penh. As expected, things are a bit different in the city. For example, for dinner, we had barbecue both nights in the big city. It’s a big treat and two different people took us out to dinner and both nights, it was barbecue. (More on that later) For lunch, there were the classic bahn mi-esque sandwich. Here, they have it dissembled, and you put it together with various cold cuts and ham variations. It comes with a pile of pickled veggies on the side, and various sauces, such as hot sauces, vinegar, and mustard. Delicious. We needed something to fill us up after the Russian Market.

While I was eating these sandwiches, Carlos, Sopeark, and Dalin and her sister were taking part in a delicacy of duck eggs with duck fetuses. Carlos, apparently tried some… bravely. I am both sad and relieved to have missed this. One, it would have made great material for my blog. However, that’s really just… I will come out and say it, DISGUSTING to me. I guess I can’t win them all.

Apparently this is a modern thing, but Asian countries LOVE their crustless white bread teatime sandwiches. You find these things with delicately filled egg salad or cucumber sandwiches EVERYWHERE in Japan. They are liked in Cambodia, too, and we ordered these as an appetizer/amuse bouche to a stew. The thing with these sandwiches are that they are cut in triangles or bite-size triangles, and never over filled with stuff. It’s delicate, the bread is soft, and this sandwich had all of those characteristics. I find it fascinating that Asian people love these tea sandwiches, obviously.

Breakfast food is a little different too. In Pursat, we would have no breakfast … since we had to put into silk dresses and caked on with 3 layers of crazy make up and fake eye lids. In Siem Reap, we would have noodles. In Penom Penh, beef stew is a favorite (AND INSANELY DELICIOUS!) breakfast dish. Second to the chicken, of course. Like the chicken, you need to make it in before a certain time or they take it off the menu. The stew is a hearty beef broth with spices and a hint of tomato. It’s filled with meat and you eat it with some pepper and lime over it, dipping a side of crusty bread. This is a meal anyone can really relate to. Yum!

Road Trip Food

umi — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:00:35 +0000

Overall, I think the thing that I enjoyed the most is the food they made for us in Pursat. There were also these egg noodles that they got from a restaurant, which was delicious. Mmm! The duck eggs that they fried for our last day in Pursat, were also delicious. Unlike the eggs here, the yolk were all creamy, runny, and orange. I also enjoyed the longon fruit and baby bananas (and the shakes!) that I had along the way.

Sophear had an Aunt that was the “Soup Lady,” and owned a large restaurant. (That was where the wedding originally was going to be) She chastised us that we didn’t get to try her soup (Danny, Sopeark, Carlos, and I), and wanted us to swing on by again on our way to Penom Penh. (We couldn’t. Sigh.)

Unfortunately, the time in Siem Reap was really lackluster in terms of food. Thin meatless chicken, tons of rice, we went to a Vietnamese shop with lackluster food (I had the pancake/omelet), some weird pork pineapple dish that seemed much better than it was on paper.

Sophear ordered french fries at the Vietnamese place. Now, each dish was less tham $3, and most were around $2 or less. For a plate of fries that would be considered a side dish here in the states, they charged us almost $3. And they were greasy and disgusting. Man.

On the right is some pan fried noodles in Siem Reap that were all right. Not bad. This was breakfast. The coffee in cambodia was delicious. They have a dark espresso topped off with condensed milk, which makes it luxurious, milky, and sweet. I’m sold on that.

During the time we were on the road, we stopped at various places for quick bites. The first night we were driving, though, we left after noon (after we ate a delicious lunch of noodles and fried duck eggs, followed by fruits), and were planning to get to Siem Reap for dinner. However, we ended up being stranded in a small village car repair shop and the gang went across the street to find some food. They came upon a small outside restaurant that pan fried excellent instant noodles topped with a creamy duck egg and beef. And what Carlos described as the best coffee ever. The whole meal was less than $2.

The cons were that there were mosquitoes and other flying insects around them the whole time. (I opted to wait at the car with Sopeark and Daniel) Mmm, lots of protein! But the restaurant people were accommodating and cooked in the dark for them, apparently.

Otherwise, we would also pick things up along the way. We had a bunch of bananas, longon fruit (sort of like a lychee, but meatier and less sweet), and various asian pears that we picked up at the market. We also bought bun dumplings filled with meat, chinese sausage, onions, and other savory things. I love them here and they were really good there, also. We got around 5-6 for a $1. Usually you might find some egg in there too. We also had tons of rice cake, mostly wrapped with banana leaves, but other times we found some packed into some bamboo husks.

Next up: Lounging in a hammock with a coconut & Cambodian barbecue!

During the Wedding

umi — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:40:28 +0000

During our time in Pursat, they cooked huge amounts of food for everyone in such great variety. There were curries (with green eggplant – that I really should not have eaten with my allergies), seafood stir fry, porridge for breakfast, cooked noodles, and fried duck egg done easy. They cooked in vats and pots that they brought from various kitchens (like the lady across the street, the house we had to wedding in, the whole village seemed to pitch in).

(Pictured to the right: Green Eggplant Curry, Seafood Stir Fry, Steamed Fish, and Rice)

I was a little uncomfortable, because they would rouse us up at 3am in the morning to put on our cakes of face masks. Then, we would have to get our hair done. Then squeeze into the dresses. The morning ceremonies usually last until 9am-10am (it starts around 7am), and by then we have been up for over 5-6 hours. The days would be SO long. I would expect it to be 2pm, and it would still be before noon. Finally around 10am, they would serve breakfast, usually of porridge. The porridge was a delicious broth with cooked rice and meats in it. I would generally put bean sprouts and chilly pepper sauce in it.

Sometimes there would be something else, a picture opportunity or something. However, usually we would break and they would prepare for lunch and the afternoon ceremony. Sophea and I would generally try to break out and rest in the hotel room for around an hour. After we come back, we would eat lunch and then they would change our make up, hair, and costume. Lunch was generally curries, stir fry, noodles, and rice. And beer. They have “Ankor” and “Anchor” (HA HA, PUN) beer.

Throughout the day, they would have some fruits. They also had these rice cake wrapped in banana leaves, that were generally REALLY delicious. They’re like little dessert patties with various fruits. This was a banana one. I think my favorite is the jack fruit.

Dinner is a haze to me. Usually it’s noodles or cooked chicken and rice. The first night, was a blur. I think it was noodles. The second night, I was having none of that and felt sick and just slept through dinner and went back to the hotel. The final night, the reception night, was an 8 course meal of appetizers, such as packaged pickled garlic cloves, crunchy spring rolls, various cuts of cold cuts, papaya salads, and entrees like curry, various meats, fish, etc… Unfortunately I ate and ran, since I was a bridesmaid. The cake was a little lackluster and had bugs all over it. : P However, the food put out was delicious and plentiful and there were bottles of jack daniels on each table. (not that I got to really take part)

And these people know how to party and LOVE to dance! Seriously. I think cameras were on our party and I swear we might be put on youtube as crazy foreigners or something.