ED MURRIETA
ed.murrieta@thenewstribune.com
The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington, USA)
Tacoma’s melting pot has a new culinary adjective: Khmer, the indigenous food of Cambodia.
“It’s between Chinese and Thai food,” said Sovanna Eang, who, with her husband, Tharath “Bro” Eang, opened Mitapeap Khmer Restaurant on Dec. 21 in a former Vietnamese eatery in the K-mart shopping center at the corner of East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue in Tacoma.
Sovanna Eang said her 40-seat restaurant is “the first true Khmer-owned restaurant in Tacoma.” It’s the first restaurant for both Sovanna and Bro Eang, both natives of Cambodia, both of whom share the cooking.
As I encountered the Eangs’ home-style cooking, chewy Chinese-style flat noodles and leafy Chinese broccoli stood out in mee katang stir-fry ($7.95). Familiar Southeast Asian ingredients such as lime leaf, galanga and lemon grass anchored samlah kako ($8.95), a smooth and mild green curry soup textured by seeds of bulbous Thai eggplant and accented with prahoc, the Cambodian fermented fish paste. I ordered my soup with sweet and tender pork ribs (fish and chicken are other options); green papaya, green beans and pumpkin filled out the bowl.
Star anise, a seed used in both Chinese and Thai cuisine, added sultry depth to beef stew ($6.95, on the specials board). This was a fantastic bowl of stew. Beef short ribs were spoon-tender, meaty and flavorful in deep-brown broth thickened with potatoes and chopped peanuts. Melt-in-my-mouth beef tendon was the stew’s tastiest surprise. Get the toasted baguette to soak up all the stew.
Whole fried tilapia ($10.95) was crispy outside, moist and flaky inside. Noodle soups, papaya, mango and seafood salads, deep-fried hot wings, and fresh spring rolls round out the menu.
MITAPEAP KHMER RESTAURANT
1314 72nd St. E; Suite A3, Tacoma; 253-414-2262. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays.
“It’s between Chinese and Thai food,” said Sovanna Eang, who, with her husband, Tharath “Bro” Eang, opened Mitapeap Khmer Restaurant on Dec. 21 in a former Vietnamese eatery in the K-mart shopping center at the corner of East 72nd Street and Portland Avenue in Tacoma.
Sovanna Eang said her 40-seat restaurant is “the first true Khmer-owned restaurant in Tacoma.” It’s the first restaurant for both Sovanna and Bro Eang, both natives of Cambodia, both of whom share the cooking.
As I encountered the Eangs’ home-style cooking, chewy Chinese-style flat noodles and leafy Chinese broccoli stood out in mee katang stir-fry ($7.95). Familiar Southeast Asian ingredients such as lime leaf, galanga and lemon grass anchored samlah kako ($8.95), a smooth and mild green curry soup textured by seeds of bulbous Thai eggplant and accented with prahoc, the Cambodian fermented fish paste. I ordered my soup with sweet and tender pork ribs (fish and chicken are other options); green papaya, green beans and pumpkin filled out the bowl.
Star anise, a seed used in both Chinese and Thai cuisine, added sultry depth to beef stew ($6.95, on the specials board). This was a fantastic bowl of stew. Beef short ribs were spoon-tender, meaty and flavorful in deep-brown broth thickened with potatoes and chopped peanuts. Melt-in-my-mouth beef tendon was the stew’s tastiest surprise. Get the toasted baguette to soak up all the stew.
Whole fried tilapia ($10.95) was crispy outside, moist and flaky inside. Noodle soups, papaya, mango and seafood salads, deep-fried hot wings, and fresh spring rolls round out the menu.
MITAPEAP KHMER RESTAURANT
1314 72nd St. E; Suite A3, Tacoma; 253-414-2262. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays; 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays.
5 comments:
personally, i love khmer food. cambodia do have our curry dishes, grilled dishes, soup base dishes, many different kind of noodle dishes, etc, etc...i wish there are more khmer restaurants in the USA, Europe, and Australia. khmer restaurant business is a good business as many foreigners find khmer food good to their surprise, especially if they've ever been to cambodia at all. it's just khmer food was less known to the outside world compare to thai and youn food. thai and youn restaurants are everywhere in the USA, and i think khmer people should go into the khmer food restaurant business like the thai and youn so the world know about our khmer food. khmer food is not always about the smelling prahok and tuk trey; there are variety of khmer dishes out there which are better taste than thai and youn food. it just hardly anybody knows about it except khmer people. maybe after many foreigners visited cambodia and sampled khmer food that they begin to like it and want more of it. so, i'm really glad to hear that some khmer people are opening up restaurants around the world, slowly but surely. right now, thai and youn restaurants overwhelmed the market so people want to see more of other ethnic foods like khmer food for example. i guess they are getting tired of thai food or youn food or something. i encourage many more khmer to open restaurant business; look at the thai and youn.
Yes!!I'd like cambodian-food too.but please learn to cook with a hight qauility of sevice,if we wanted to introduce our food to everyone can eat our food need to be clean not to durty,that included staffs needed to be clean as we work around food not lacking of lazy.own a food business is very hard work,I know dealing with enironmental health specialist.and rude people etc!that a good thing in life,I call it a challenge.so good luck everyone in the food business."ANANIKUM AMERICA RULES!"
in cambodia, people also eat sandwich. i guess the french have left a legacy there as well.
Some of us have changed the way we cook a little bit. Here is one update version of the real one:
Samlor Machou:
Drop prahok, fry chicken until brown, cover it with hot boiling water, add tamarin sause, salt & sugar to taste and finally vegetable of your choise. No msg no garlic and no prahok. Voila! a delicious Samlor Machou Khmer with fresh-new yummy taste!
( better taste can be improved by add seafood. It's either shrimp or crawfish )
After eating it, you can bet that you are feeling great! because, you you have just eating a very satifying and a healthy meal.
Ordinary Khmers
(P.S )Please don't tell our mothers that we drop prahok. Our bodies gotta smell really good tonight:)
Also zero no fish sause this time! found it very disturbing when stop at the viet's eating place.
O.K
Post a Comment