Comments on: Amok Trei (Fish Amok), part 2

By: Vanna

Vanna — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:49:25 +0000

Hi!

I’m a fan of Amok trei, My mom use curry leaves in her amok, which is almost impossible to find in Montreal.
She told me to replace the curry leaves for chinese brocoli leaves, which taste pretty good too.

have a good day !

By: Phnomenon: food in Cambodia » Never ending piles of prahok

Phnomenon: food in Cambodia » Never ending piles of prahok — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:11:29 +0000

[...] They’re both different grades of prahok. It describes a whole genre of fermented freshwater things. Journalist and blogger Ed Charles takes on fish in Cambodia and takes off with one of my jokes about prahok in The Australian newspaper. It’s a joy to read an article where a journalist doesn’t just eat fish amok. [...]

By: Phnomenon: food in Cambodia » Bring the noise

Phnomenon: food in Cambodia » Bring the noise — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:21:11 +0000

[...] While newspaper Cambodia Daily’s coverage of the local food scene over the last two years has amounted to the occasional mention of a stout-drinking monkey or the carnivorous habits of Ratanakiri’s recent “jungle woman”, today they’ve atoned and inserted a 12-page full-colour wining and dining supplement packed full of original content. The coverage is as diverse as Cambodia’s dining scene: fresh mangoes, fish amok, the desserts from Raffles, local sommeliers and winery, ribs in Battambang, Swedish in Sihanoukville, vegetarian faux-meats, akao (with comment from “pastry chef” Johannes Riviere), and an interview with me about Phnomenon. Thanks to Suzy Khimm for the article (also read her latest piece over at Slate), Nathan Horton for the photo of me grinning deliriously into my 1500 riel bowl of num banchok from Psar Orussei. [...]

By: Lord Playboy

Lord Playboy — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 05:56:43 +0000

Not too mention the obsession with oranges…

By: Jo

Jo — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 05:37:50 +0000

If you like rice or soursop…

By: Lord Playboy

Lord Playboy — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:38:18 +0000

Phil, Jo,

the site http://www.khmerkromrecipes.com/ holds some interest although I do not always agree with their version of recipes.

As for a country girl, sorry, you are way off, Battambang is the best choice – although I could be biased…

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:48:56 +0000

From my own experience asking vendors about ingredients can sometime be frustrating since quiet often things to end up in soup. There are a few very efficient method:

Falling in love with a girl from the country side (I recommand Kompong Thom or Kompong Speu province, if you like fishes go for Kampot)

Learning all the vocabulary regarding food (and then being stuck with that and not being able to speak about anything else in Khmer)

Trying to get invited at your neighbours house and not losing face eating raw pounded prahok or dried eels.

There is another book but it’s in French.

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2877308162/qid=1142235600/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/403-7155249-5754007

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:53:19 +0000

I’ll definitely take a look at that dictionary: my tactic at the moment is mostly asking the the vendors at the market whether the greenery is meant to be cooked or smoked. Their Latin is also pretty dodgy. This guy’s site is OK for spice translation: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/index.html

Do you know any of any Khmer recipe books apart from “The Cuisine of Cambodia” by a thai journalist, and the Elephant Walk cookbook?

By: Lord Playboy

Lord Playboy — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:18:45 +0000

Wow, and I thought that I was anal about food !

Excellent write up though Jo.

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 02:45:45 +0000

One mistake though, krachai isn’t called zedoary in English but lesser ginger (zedoary is Curcuma zedoaria)

Sorry mate. I’m a man.

There is a really cool book called dictionnary of plants used in Cambodia by Doctor DY PHON Pauline. It’s normally available at Mekong Libris (in front of the post office). It’ written in Khmer, English and French and give you all kind of informations about plants and spices used here. You can find copies but I recommend buying the original since it represents such an amount of work (38 $ for 12 years of research, not even 1 cent a day…)

Good day.