FOOD
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Next course: Cambodia
Distinctive food entices travelers, despite land's tragic history By Eleanor
Ostman Special to the Tribune
PHNOM PENH -- Tourists who venture into Cambodia are so focused on the
ethereal carvings of Angkor Wat and surrounding ancient temples that the
country's food gets scant attention.
Some travelers fly in just for the day from Bangkok, allowing barely enough
time to a quick lunch between temple visits.
Guidebooks are terse on the subject. Frommer calls Cambodia "a difficult
destination," and like other travel books, yields no specific details about
dining experiences.
Perhaps Cambodian cuisine is overshadowed by the food of its neighbors, the
more popular, fiery dishes of Thailand and the French-Chinese fare of Vietnam.
And yet, a Cambodian renaissance is under way. A recent issue of Travel and
Leisure magazine proclaimed Cambodia "the next hot spot." Tourist hotels are
sprouting on the road between Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, 6 miles away. Markets
display plentiful food and tourists can eat very well in restaurants and
hotels. The adventuresome, seeking a true taste of Cambodia, can visit the
night markets and eat cheaply.
Chef Luu Meng of the Sunway Hotel here defines Cambodian food by comparing it
to its neighbors:
"We are not too spicy like Thai cooking, and we don't use fish sauce to cook
as do the Vietnamese."
Instead, Meng said, Cambodian food is flavored with herb pastes, ground fresh
daily, or with make-your-eyes-water prahok, a fermented fish paste. Prahok
can enliven anything, from a dip for fresh vegetables to a fragrant soup.
The herb paste combines the ever-popular lemon grass, galangal root,
turmeric, lime zest, garlic, shallot and dried chilies, though expert cooks
tailor the blend to the dish they are making. The paste especially stars in a
classic Cambodian soup made with king prawns.
As Cambodia emerges from years of isolation, cooks, Meng among them, are
fusing local dishes with the flavors of their Southeast Asian neighbors,
adding some Thai and Vietnamese characters. That's the newest trend, he says,
speaking of restaurant food.
On his own menu, favorites include grilled king prawns with tamarind sauce
and roast chicken with lemon grass. All dishes strive to achieve and balance
the four basic Cambodian flavor elements: sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
Home cooking is simpler, with pork, chicken and fish as the flavoring agents.
A typical Cambodian family dinner includes three dishes: soup, grilled meat
or fish and a vegetable.
Dessert is the same everywhere, for tourists and locals alike: a plate of
fresh fruit, usually including watermelon, pineapple and dragon fruit (like a
soft, sweet apple speckled with black).
Tonle Sap, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, is critical to
the Cambodian diet. Up to 75 percent of the country's protein comes from
fish, and the lake supplies more than 300 species. Probably a few frogs, too:
One of the country's signature dishes is barbecued stuffed whole frog.
Like the Vietnamese, most Cambodians begin their day with noodle soup, unless
they're breakfasting on rice soup similar to Chinese congee.
"Some people like fried noodles in the morning," said Chhenglay Meas,
chef-owner of Cheng Heng, a restaurant in St. Paul, Minn. Meas fled Cambodia
with her husband and two daughters to escape the Khmer Rouge.
Meas cooks chha kuy teiv, noodles with bean sprouts, green onions, bits of
meat, and a topping of roasted peanuts.
One-pot meals are popular with Cambodian home cooks, particularly samlor
kakau, which blends tiny eggplants, green papaya, long beans, leaves from
young peppers, bitter melon, lemon grass and roasted ground rice. Fish or
chicken might be added to this Khmer stew, she described.
"Cambodians like the contrast of sweet and sour. The sour cleans up the
tongue and is refreshing," says Meas, whose hometown is Kampong Cham, "where
the real Cambodian food is still cooked."
Raised in a family of educated and professional people, she remembers eating
very well on dishes such as river lobster with "burning sugar," the
caramelized sauce that appears on finer menus.
At holidays, her family would enjoy a Cambodian version of hot pot, immersing
meats and vegetables in a boiling broth.
"We would eat, laugh and joke while cooking," she recalls of happier times in
her country.
Meas' daughter, Kunrath Lam, who manages Cheng Heng, described how to make a
family-size batch of fragrant machu Angkor, from their soup entree list. An
aunt who had just traveled to St. Paul from Cambodia for a family wedding
brought the secret ingredient, ma orm, an herb grown in the rice fields.
Though a waitress said she'd seen a fresh version of the basil-like herb in a
nearby Rainbow grocery store, the dried version is difficult to find, even in
Asian grocery stores. Home cooks can substitute fresh Thai basil.
Condensed tamarind juice, also available in Asian markets, adds the sour
element to compliment the sweetness of pineapple. It also keeps the
vegetables crisp in the soup, Lam said.
Cambodian chicken and melon soup (Machu Angkor)
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
The authentic version of this soup calls for winter melon, a large mild Asian
muskmelon--this recipe offers substitutes that are easier to find--and
prahok, Cambodia's fermented fish paste, for which we have substituted the
more widely available fish sauce. Look for condensed tamarind juice in Asian
food markets. Serve this soup with a bowl of hot rice, to be mixed in at the
table.
5 cups water
3 whole chicken breasts, skin on, bone in
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 Crenshaw melon, cubed, or 1 medium cucumber or zucchini, peeled, seeded,
coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1 tablespoon each: condensed tamarind juice or lime juice, fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons minced basil
1. Heat water, chicken and salt to boiling in large saucepan. Reduce heat;
cover. Simmer 1 hour. Skim off any fat. Remove chicken from broth; let cool
enough to remove meat from bones. Discard skin and bones. Shred chicken meat;
return to broth. Add melon, pineapple, tamarind juice, fish sauce and sugar
to broth; heat to boiling.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook
until soft, about 1 minute. Remove soup from heat. Add tomatoes and basil to
soup; stir in garlic.
Nutrition information per serving:
140 calories, 16% calories from fat, 2.5 g fat, 0.6 g saturated fat, 35 mg
cholesterol, 665 mg sodium, 16 g carbohydrate, 14 g protein, 1.5 g fiber
Copyright 2002, Chicago Tribune
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From: kdburton3@verizon.net
Full-name: DithPran
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Date:
Chicago Tribune, Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Next course: Cambodia
Distinctive food entices travelers, despite land's tragic history By Eleanor
Ostman Special to the Tribune
PHNOM PENH -- Tourists who venture into Cambodia are so focused on the
ethereal carvings of Angkor Wat and surrounding ancient temples that the
country's food gets scant attention.
Some travelers fly in just for the day from Bangkok, allowing barely enough
time to a quick lunch between temple visits.
Guidebooks are terse on the subject. Frommer calls Cambodia "a difficult
destination," and like other travel books, yields no specific details about
dining experiences.
Perhaps Cambodian cuisine is overshadowed by the food of its neighbors, the
more popular, fiery dishes of Thailand and the French-Chinese fare of Vietnam.
And yet, a Cambodian renaissance is under way. A recent issue of Travel and
Leisure magazine proclaimed Cambodia "the next hot spot." Tourist hotels are
sprouting on the road between Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, 6 miles away. Markets
display plentiful food and tourists can eat very well in restaurants and
hotels. The adventuresome, seeking a true taste of Cambodia, can visit the
night markets and eat cheaply.
Chef Luu Meng of the Sunway Hotel here defines Cambodian food by comparing it
to its neighbors:
"We are not too spicy like Thai cooking, and we don't use fish sauce to cook
as do the Vietnamese."
Instead, Meng said, Cambodian food is flavored with herb pastes, ground fresh
daily, or with make-your-eyes-water prahok, a fermented fish paste. Prahok
can enliven anything, from a dip for fresh vegetables to a fragrant soup.
The herb paste combines the ever-popular lemon grass, galangal root,
turmeric, lime zest, garlic, shallot and dried chilies, though expert cooks
tailor the blend to the dish they are making. The paste especially stars in a
classic Cambodian soup made with king prawns.
As Cambodia emerges from years of isolation, cooks, Meng among them, are
fusing local dishes with the flavors of their Southeast Asian neighbors,
adding some Thai and Vietnamese characters. That's the newest trend, he says,
speaking of restaurant food.
On his own menu, favorites include grilled king prawns with tamarind sauce
and roast chicken with lemon grass. All dishes strive to achieve and balance
the four basic Cambodian flavor elements: sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
Home cooking is simpler, with pork, chicken and fish as the flavoring agents.
A typical Cambodian family dinner includes three dishes: soup, grilled meat
or fish and a vegetable.
Dessert is the same everywhere, for tourists and locals alike: a plate of
fresh fruit, usually including watermelon, pineapple and dragon fruit (like a
soft, sweet apple speckled with black).
Tonle Sap, one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world, is critical to
the Cambodian diet. Up to 75 percent of the country's protein comes from
fish, and the lake supplies more than 300 species. Probably a few frogs, too:
One of the country's signature dishes is barbecued stuffed whole frog.
Like the Vietnamese, most Cambodians begin their day with noodle soup, unless
they're breakfasting on rice soup similar to Chinese congee.
"Some people like fried noodles in the morning," said Chhenglay Meas,
chef-owner of Cheng Heng, a restaurant in St. Paul, Minn. Meas fled Cambodia
with her husband and two daughters to escape the Khmer Rouge.
Meas cooks chha kuy teiv, noodles with bean sprouts, green onions, bits of
meat, and a topping of roasted peanuts.
One-pot meals are popular with Cambodian home cooks, particularly samlor
kakau, which blends tiny eggplants, green papaya, long beans, leaves from
young peppers, bitter melon, lemon grass and roasted ground rice. Fish or
chicken might be added to this Khmer stew, she described.
"Cambodians like the contrast of sweet and sour. The sour cleans up the
tongue and is refreshing," says Meas, whose hometown is Kampong Cham, "where
the real Cambodian food is still cooked."
Raised in a family of educated and professional people, she remembers eating
very well on dishes such as river lobster with "burning sugar," the
caramelized sauce that appears on finer menus.
At holidays, her family would enjoy a Cambodian version of hot pot, immersing
meats and vegetables in a boiling broth.
"We would eat, laugh and joke while cooking," she recalls of happier times in
her country.
Meas' daughter, Kunrath Lam, who manages Cheng Heng, described how to make a
family-size batch of fragrant machu Angkor, from their soup entree list. An
aunt who had just traveled to St. Paul from Cambodia for a family wedding
brought the secret ingredient, ma orm, an herb grown in the rice fields.
Though a waitress said she'd seen a fresh version of the basil-like herb in a
nearby Rainbow grocery store, the dried version is difficult to find, even in
Asian grocery stores. Home cooks can substitute fresh Thai basil.
Condensed tamarind juice, also available in Asian markets, adds the sour
element to compliment the sweetness of pineapple. It also keeps the
vegetables crisp in the soup, Lam said.
Cambodian chicken and melon soup (Machu Angkor)
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
Yield: 6 servings
The authentic version of this soup calls for winter melon, a large mild Asian
muskmelon--this recipe offers substitutes that are easier to find--and
prahok, Cambodia's fermented fish paste, for which we have substituted the
more widely available fish sauce. Look for condensed tamarind juice in Asian
food markets. Serve this soup with a bowl of hot rice, to be mixed in at the
table.
5 cups water
3 whole chicken breasts, skin on, bone in
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 Crenshaw melon, cubed, or 1 medium cucumber or zucchini, peeled, seeded,
coarsely chopped
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1 tablespoon each: condensed tamarind juice or lime juice, fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon peanut oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons minced basil
1. Heat water, chicken and salt to boiling in large saucepan. Reduce heat;
cover. Simmer 1 hour. Skim off any fat. Remove chicken from broth; let cool
enough to remove meat from bones. Discard skin and bones. Shred chicken meat;
return to broth. Add melon, pineapple, tamarind juice, fish sauce and sugar
to broth; heat to boiling.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; cook
until soft, about 1 minute. Remove soup from heat. Add tomatoes and basil to
soup; stir in garlic.
Nutrition information per serving:
140 calories, 16% calories from fat, 2.5 g fat, 0.6 g saturated fat, 35 mg
cholesterol, 665 mg sodium, 16 g carbohydrate, 14 g protein, 1.5 g fiber
Copyright 2002, Chicago Tribune
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