One morning in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, I registered to join an early morning food tour. I joined a small group tour with Lost Plate, a company that runs food tours around the world.
I have been to Cambodia many times, but I realized that I didn't know that much about the local cuisine. My goal on this trip wat to Chage that. On my first morning in Phnom Penh, I was met at my hotel by Yim, my Cambodian tour guide for the morning. We picked up a German guy named Sven, who would be joining us that morning, and began our tour at a local coffee and noodle shop.
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| a local Cambodian noodle shop |
Even after living in Southeast Asia for ten years, I don't think I had ever had noodles for breakfast before. That changed one morning in Phnom Penh when I visited Sry Restaurant, a popular local neighborhood noodle shop, for an early breakfast and coffee.
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| Sry Restaurant |
Kuyteav noodles developed hundreds of years ago from Chinese-style rice noodle soup. The noodles are cooked with caramelized garlic oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and palm sugar, and added to a pork bone broth.
The noodles are then mixed with thin slices of pork, minced pork, fried garlic, boiled carrots, Chinese kale, and a bit of (optional but recommended) fried chili. The bowl of soup comes with a side of bean sprouts and a sliced lime which you can add to your dish to taste.
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| breakfast in Cambodia |
Kuuteav is primarily a breakfast dish and is most often eaten before noon. Because of this, it's often served with coffee.
Khmer coffee is one of the most popular drinks in Cambodia. The noodles came with a tiny cup of hot, super strong black coffee and a shot glass filled with sweetened condensed milk. The coffee is so strong and bitter that you really aren't expected to drink it on its own. The milk is added to taste to increase the sweetness and creaminess of the coffee.
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The restaurant opens early and stays open late. The owners work very hard to provide filling and delicious bowls of noodles to all the local people who love to eat at Sry Restaurant. It's also a popular hangout for retired "uncles" who like to sit around sipping coffee and tea while chatting and joking throughout the day.
Visiting Sry Restaurant is kind of like being a part of the community.
Next, we stopped in for a quick snack on the way to the next restaurant.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, comes alive at first light. Thousands of motorbikes and tuk-tuks race across the city as people hurry on their way to work. Even if you don't have time to stop and sit down for a hot bowl of kuyteav noodles for breakfast, there are so many delicious grab-and-go breakfast foods to be had throughout the city. One of the more popular is cha kway, or fried donuts. Similar to Thai patongo, these pieces of fried dough are a cheap, tasty, and filling way to have breakfast on the go.
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The dough is fried in hot oil and stirred with long chopsticks so that they don't stick together or burn. The dough is fried until it is crispy, hot, and golden-brown on the outside, leaving the inside soft and chewy.
The cha kway can be eaten on their own, but are also frequently dipped in coffee, kuyteav, or congee. The sesame donuts are usually eaten on their own. It seems a little strange to dip the donuts in noodle broth, but I'd be willing to try it.
I also tried a fried sesame ball made of a similar type of dough and covered in white sesame seeds. The dough puffed up, leaving it hollow on the inside, which gave it a great texture. The sesame seeds were really tasty, and although the dough was similar, the flavors of the two snacks were totally different. I really enjoyed both, but the sesame balls because they were different from the types of fried breakfast dough that I've had before in Thailand.
There was the regular produce - such as fresh mango, dragon fruit, and bananas. There were also some more exotic ingredients - like silkworm cocoons, fried crickets, and the relatively tame quail eggs!
The locals smiled at us as we walked through the market. It was really nice to see a real slice of life in a city I have been to many times but haven't really ever gotten a good feel for.
Along the way, Yim taught us about some of the ingredients.
We even got the chance to smell and taste some of them as we walked. The ingredients and herbs used in Cambodian cooking are similar to those found in Thai cuisine, but there are some significant differences. I'm afraid I can't remember the names of all of the interesting herbs I got to smell!
We stopped in at a small local coffee shop in the market for a glass of refreshing sweet red lime juice.
The lady running the shop also sells kramas (the traditional Cambodian scarf), and we each got to take one home as a souvenir!
We even got to see the local way of shredding coconut on a homemade motor-powered circular shredder!
Next, it was time for our main course - bai sach chruk!
In the morning hours, as the city wakes, restaurants, shops, and stalls selling bai sach chruk, or grilled pork and rice, open, serving fresh breakfast to people on their way to work. Bai sach chruk is one of Cambodia's most popular dishes and is a beloved breakfast staple.
The pork is the star of the show, of course. The pork is marinaded overnight, then grilled over charcoal before being cut into thin slices and served over white rice.
The marinade itself is a secret, and only the shop owners know the exact recipe, but it typically involves fish sauce, palm sugar, and various herbs. It is served with half of an egg boiled in a mix of herbs and spices.
The dish was served with two condiments. The first was a small bowl of pickled vegetables, including carrots, cucumber, and radish in vinegar. You can add a bit to each bite or eat the vegetables separately.
The second was a bowl of a dipping sauce made from fish sauce and palm sugar and mixed with herbs. It was sweet and slightly salty and is really good drizzled on top of the pork.
We were starting to get full, but the food tour wasn't over yet! It was time for one last very unique dish!
Banh Chao are a type of thin pancake or crepe colored bright yellow with turmeric. It's a common snack in Cambodia and is related to some dishes that you might find in nearby southern Vietnam such as Bánh Khoái. The pancakes are stuffed with minced pork and other rich, savory ingredients, and are served alongside a big plate of fresh Cambodian herbs.
The outside of the paper-thin pancakes are very light and extremely crispy. The inside is filled with minced pork, shrimp, and sauteed onions. I was surprised to find that this was a savory dish, because when I hear the word "pancake", I immediately think of the sweet breakfast food.
You can break off parts of the crispy outer bits of the pancake and eat them directly, but the soft interior part has a specific way to be enjoyed.
Ban chao is always served with a huge plate of local Cambodian herbs including sweet basil, holy basil, mint, and tons of others that I did not recognize. Some of the herbs were bitter, others were peppery. Others still were grassy or even sweet.
To make a bite of banh chao. first you take a lettuce leaf, then scoop out a portion of the pancake and its filling with a spoon. Finally, roll the pancake and the herbs of your choice (I like a little bit of everything for a super complex flavor) in the lettuce making a sort of wrap.
You can eat the wrapped herbs and pancake as is, or dip it in the provided sauce, which is a sweet and savory dipping sauce made with fish sauce, palm sugar, and garlic.
This was one of my favorite Cambodian dishes that I tried when I was traveling to Phnom Penh. It's filling, tasty, and fun to eat as well (although I found it to be a little messy... maybe I'm just not so good at wrapping everything together properly!).
Our final stop was at a local coffee shop that makes a really unique Cambodian iced coffee drink.
Cambodia is known for its coffee culture, and it seems as if you can find at least one cafe or coffee stall on every street throughout the country! Khmer coffee tends to be strong, and is often mixed with sweetened condensed milk.
Instead of mixing their coffee with condensed milk, Kompi Coffee, a trendy and modern cafe in Phnom Penh, serves their coffee sweetened with fresh sugarcane juice.
If you have never had fresh sugarcane juice before, you are in for a treat. It's surprisingly not as sweet as you might expect. I'd say it's far less sweet than a typical glass of orange juice. Sugarcane juice has a cool, refreshing, and mildly sweet taste with a bit of a grassy flavor.
At Kompi Coffee, they layer the sugarcane juice and coffee together in one glass, which you can mix together. The coffee is sweet, but less sweet than if you added sugar, and the sugarcane cuts through the strong bitterness of the coffee to give it a really nice, refreshing flavor.
I've never seen coffee with sugarcane before. It's a really special mix of flavors.
As we sat and talked while enjoying our coffee, we snacked on some old-fashioned Cambodian sweets made of sticky rice stuffed full of sweet bananas. There's a similar snack in Thailand that I'm really fond of! The rice balls are wrapped up in banana leaves and steamed until the inside is very soft, chewy, and sweet.
I had a really great time! I loved the food and really enjoyed the great conversations and company.
I also liked the very energetic cafe puppy who was super excited to see us.
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