Phnomenon: food in Cambodia

For a few people that follow the global Khmer diaspora or posthumously stalk Jack Kerouac, Lowell in Massachusetts is one of the few hubs. The Boston Globe, in its coverage of the Lowell Folk Festival has picked up on the trend and published a diminutive article on the local Khmer food options. Their picks:

Locals recommend […]

One of the most frequent emails that land in my inbox is the “I’m coming to Phnom Penh, where should I eat?” question. I hate recommending restaurants to people when I don’t know them, but it does seem to be the question everybody does ask. To save me venting my hatred in a shirty reply […]

Blocks of ice, cut, tied and ready for sale at Chbar Ampouv Market, Phnom Penh

I’ve been teaching a friend’s grandmother, Channa, to make pizza. I literally have no idea how she got the desire to learn to cook Italian but she’s a relentlessly inquisitive student and masterful Cambodian cook. The exchange is a little one-sided – I tend to pick up about ten recipes for every one that I […]

Note: The vespa has been sold. Sorry.
Manual, four-speed, kick start. Only 42,000km on the odometer before it was permanently disconnected. I haven’t seriously crashed it in two years, so comes with good Vespa karma, also top box, basic tools (pliers, tyre/sparkplug iron, screwdriver), spare clutch cable, spare spark plug, half a litre of 2-stroke oil. […]

The Nehru jacket. The jacket so nice that they named a Pacific island after it. The crisp battle armour of Third World service staff. Beige. The person inside it greets you in a characterless patter that suggests you’ve arrived in a non-place, a refuge from whichever city the hotel is located. It is a garment […]

“It’s like people who go hunting for deer,” Radoski says, predicting how the snakehead will change the game for the Potomac’s anglers. “And then you find a carnivorous, fanged deer that’s hopping through the woods.”
That would be just like finding a bear. The Washington Post catches snakehead fever and regales us with tales of capturing […]

Watching the fish circus at Chbbar Ampouv
Unless you happen to work at Cambodia’s Ministry of Fish, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever hear about Chbar Ampouv. If you eat fish in Phnom Penh, you will have certainly eaten something that has changed hands there, most likely, trei ros.

The ubiquitous snakehead fish arrives at the Chbbar […]

Suesdei tngai trei!
The first of July in Cambodia was World Fish Day. I somehow missed it, despite having a huge banner draped across a street near my house saying “Place save fish resources for Cambodian future”, which would have been much more apt if the first word had been “plaice“.
Maytel at Gut Feelings […]

It is a rare day in Cambodia where everything goes to plan, more so when that plan involves cooked food. Austin and my plan was relatively simple: drive to Kampot then Kep on Cambodia’s south coast and eat pepper crab until we received a plate worthy of a food magazine money shot. Getting to Kampot […]