Tue Jan 15, 2008
By Gillian Murdoch
Phnom Penh (Reuters Life!) - First kill your tarantulas by pressing hard on their bodies then remove the fangs and wash the spiders thoroughly, advises the glossy in-house recipe book from Phnom Penh's Romdeng restaurant.
Served with a lime and pepper sauce, the crispy arachnids, fried to remove their venom, became a delicacy during Khmer Rouge reign over Cambodia when Pol Pot's plan to create an agrarian utopia forced millions from cities to the country.
The spiders are part of the restaurant's mission to champion Khmer food from the present and dating back to the Khmer Kingdom of over 1,000 years ago while also helping provide work and a new life for street kids.
Virtually annihilated during the Khmer Rouge's reign that ended in 1979, Cambodia's traditional specialties are less well-known than Western-friendly pad thais and rice-paper rolls from bigger neighbors Thailand and Vietnam although many regional dishes have their roots in Khmer cooking.
But with Cambodia rapidly developing, restaurants such as Romdeng are helping spearhead a comeback, said founder Sebastien Marot and top chef Sok Chhong who put together the cookbook "From Spiders to Water Lillies."
While the spiders may seem like a gimmick, the restaurant also has a serious social mission -- getting young people off the streets and into employment and education.
Run by Cambodian non-profit Mit Samlanh or Friends, Romdeng and its sister restaurant Friends are staffed by former street kids who design the menus, cook the dishes, wait tables, and even sew the silk cushions for the chairs.
So what will Cambodia's breakthrough dish be if tarantulas are not to everyone's taste?
The country is considering submitting its "prahok" fish paste and peppercorns from the southeastern town of Kampot for trademarking as distinctive national products but it is "amok" curry that probably has the widest crossover appeal.
Milder than other curries, as Cambodia's traditional dishes were first cooked up in the days before traders introduced chili to the region, it is named after the dark green amok leaf that's shredded into the dish as a seasoning.
Not surprisingly in a country crisscrossed by the Mekong and two other mighty rivers, the Tonle Sap and the Bassac, fish and shrimps feature heavily on Cambodian menus.
A range of local vegetable dishes also get a creative spin, in dishes like morning glory and water spinach salad, and sautéed rice and chive flower cakes on green papaya salad.
As there are no starters or mains in Khmer culture, all the food comes at once, and there are also no knives so don't wait for anything more than your fork and spoon.
Washed down the meal with a bottle of local Anchor beer, a shot of honey-flavored Khmer rice wine, or fancy combination juices such as sweet tamarind, guava and honey.
True converts to Khmer cooking can end the meal with a commitment by buying the cookbook that feeds its profits back into the endeavor.
Romdeng:#21, Street 278 Phnom Penh (Tel:+ 855 92 219 565)
http://www.streetfriends.org/CONTENT/BUSINESS/romdeng.swf-
Friends: #215, Street 13, Phnom Penh (Tel:+855 12 802 072)
http://www.streetfriends.org/CONTENT/BUSINESS/restaurant_final.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
By Gillian Murdoch
Phnom Penh (Reuters Life!) - First kill your tarantulas by pressing hard on their bodies then remove the fangs and wash the spiders thoroughly, advises the glossy in-house recipe book from Phnom Penh's Romdeng restaurant.
Served with a lime and pepper sauce, the crispy arachnids, fried to remove their venom, became a delicacy during Khmer Rouge reign over Cambodia when Pol Pot's plan to create an agrarian utopia forced millions from cities to the country.
The spiders are part of the restaurant's mission to champion Khmer food from the present and dating back to the Khmer Kingdom of over 1,000 years ago while also helping provide work and a new life for street kids.
Virtually annihilated during the Khmer Rouge's reign that ended in 1979, Cambodia's traditional specialties are less well-known than Western-friendly pad thais and rice-paper rolls from bigger neighbors Thailand and Vietnam although many regional dishes have their roots in Khmer cooking.
But with Cambodia rapidly developing, restaurants such as Romdeng are helping spearhead a comeback, said founder Sebastien Marot and top chef Sok Chhong who put together the cookbook "From Spiders to Water Lillies."
While the spiders may seem like a gimmick, the restaurant also has a serious social mission -- getting young people off the streets and into employment and education.
Run by Cambodian non-profit Mit Samlanh or Friends, Romdeng and its sister restaurant Friends are staffed by former street kids who design the menus, cook the dishes, wait tables, and even sew the silk cushions for the chairs.
So what will Cambodia's breakthrough dish be if tarantulas are not to everyone's taste?
The country is considering submitting its "prahok" fish paste and peppercorns from the southeastern town of Kampot for trademarking as distinctive national products but it is "amok" curry that probably has the widest crossover appeal.
Milder than other curries, as Cambodia's traditional dishes were first cooked up in the days before traders introduced chili to the region, it is named after the dark green amok leaf that's shredded into the dish as a seasoning.
Not surprisingly in a country crisscrossed by the Mekong and two other mighty rivers, the Tonle Sap and the Bassac, fish and shrimps feature heavily on Cambodian menus.
A range of local vegetable dishes also get a creative spin, in dishes like morning glory and water spinach salad, and sautéed rice and chive flower cakes on green papaya salad.
As there are no starters or mains in Khmer culture, all the food comes at once, and there are also no knives so don't wait for anything more than your fork and spoon.
Washed down the meal with a bottle of local Anchor beer, a shot of honey-flavored Khmer rice wine, or fancy combination juices such as sweet tamarind, guava and honey.
True converts to Khmer cooking can end the meal with a commitment by buying the cookbook that feeds its profits back into the endeavor.
Romdeng:#21, Street 278 Phnom Penh (Tel:+ 855 92 219 565)
http://www.streetfriends.org/CONTENT/BUSINESS/romdeng.swf-
Friends: #215, Street 13, Phnom Penh (Tel:+855 12 802 072)
http://www.streetfriends.org/CONTENT/BUSINESS/restaurant_final.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)
1 comment:
there are more to Khmer food than tarantulas, coco crickets, etc. I remembered the taste and smell of Cambodian food when I was young. We, Khmers, do great variety of our authentic, national food that are Khmer in nature; but because of isolation and war, our food become isolated from the Western world, thus, Cambodian food become less known outside of Cambodia. Look around the world, Thai and Viet foods are everywhere. Why? Because the Thais and Viet have a policy to spread their foods outside of their respective country and they would open up many restaurants in the United States, Europe, etc., when compare to Cambodian overseas almost has none. Plus, I think many well to do Khmers do not like to cook and don't seem to care much about spreading their national food overall the world like the Thais and Viets. Maybe we ought to change our attitude towards our food a lot more so we can compete with our neighbors. Now that Cambodia is opening up to the world and becoming more and more less isolated, which I think is a good thing for long-terms national interest, our Khmer foods are beginning to attract other people's taste bud. I think every khmer people could do to help promote Khmer foods by encouraging young Khmer people both overseas and in Cambodia to appreciate Khmer foods and to be proud of our foods. Trust me, Khmer foods are more than the essential "prahok" and "teuk trey", these two items, just to name two, are kind of equivolent to the "cheese" or "kimchee" that are beneficial to health as the human body needs to have fermented food to aid digestion and regulate our body for good health. Now, I just begin to see Khmer took some initiative to name their food like the recent talk of geographical identity of Siem Reap prahok, Kampot meric (Kampot blackpepper), Battambang krouch pursat, Kampot durian, etc., just to mention a few. Let us be proud of our Khmer foods and promote them to the world.
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