18.01.2017 - After my short nap, I decided to look for lunch. Because it was too hot, I decided to go to the eatery next to the Hostel. I did not have to walk very far. Plus, I could still get the WiFi from the hostel. So, you can imagine how near it is. I saw some locals eating here, and I thought it must be a good choice.
I had Fish Amok (the most famous local food ever), Lok Lak and Avocade Smoothie. Total USD10. I noticed an arrangement which I have not noticed before in any other countries. They give the spoon and fork in a cup of hot water to sterilise them.
Bò Lúc Lắc (Sauté Diced Beef) is a cubed beef sauteed with cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, pepper, and soy sauce dish in French-inspired Vietnamese cuisine. The name derived from the shape of the beef, which is cut into small cubes the size of playing dice (hột lúc lắc) before being sauteed. Source from Wikipedia.
USD4 / RM18. It is definitely costly. It tasted like a Chinese dish, hence, it is nothing foreign to me.
In South-East Asian cuisine, "mok", "amok" or "ho mok" refers to the process of steam cooking a curry in banana leaves, or to the resulting dish. Thick coconut cream and galangal are classic ingredients, added to a wide range of possible kinds of leaves and staple ingredients. Amok is a major national culinary tradition in Cambodia, and also popular in Laos and Thailand. Amok is thick soup cooked with fish, meat, vegetables, eggs and coconut milk. It is a common dish served at restaurants. The most common types of amok are made with fish, beef, or chicken as the main proteins. Amok can also be eaten with rice. Source from Wikipedia.
I was looking forward to eating this because all websites recommend this dish. I was surprised that it tasted like the usual curry I have back in Malaysia but not spicy. It is slightly creamier. Thankfully, no fish bones. USD4 / RM18.
My avocado drink of USD2 / RM9. It is tasteless as all avocados are. But the ones I tried in Bali, Indonesia has chocolate swirl. I tried not to cry when I convert USD10 to RM45.
After my late lunch, I walked to the surrounding shops. I stopped outside an Indian restaurant and gagged at the price. The common chapati bread costs USD1 / RM4.50. Here, in Malaysia, the chapati I eat costs RM1.20. Vegetable biryani for USD4.50 / RM20. Chicken biryani for USD5.75 / RM25.50. Oh my gawd. It is about RM10 more expensive than in Malaysia.
Time for dinner. The next best place to eat at - Night Market. Along the way, I stopped to get ice-cream rolls. USD2. I chose 2 flavours - coconut and a flavour-I-cannot-remember but it was a nice combination.
The mixture is stirred and poured onto a dish seemingly identical to the flat bottomed pans used by street sellers to fry noodles. This pan is coated in ice, having been cooled by thermal plates to -23 degrees Celsius. By working the mixture quickly with two spatulas, then spreading it thinly like a crepe across the surface of the pan, the mixture slowly freezes. Once frozen, the server uses the spatula to scrape strips of ice cream off the cold plate and into thin rolls. Placed side by side in a cup, they have the appearance of a delicate bouquet of roses. Source from Phnom Penh Post.
Night Market is very near to Pub Street. It was just 250metres away. The Hostel is strategically located to these places. The Hostel to the Night Market is just 450metres away.
We stopped at a random restaurant to have dinner. I ordered White Noodles with Minced Pork and Tofu as per the photo in the menu and looked what I got. The actual meal look very different from the photo. USD5 / RM22.50
We continued our walk to the Night Market. There were so many stalls. The Night Market is huge. There is the Original Night Market banner where the Night Market is in the open and then there is there Night Market in a covered building. We went to all of them and realise the one in the covered building has no customers.
We saw a booth that sells sombai and tried some. The combination of various flavours were interesting.
Sombai – pronounced as “som bai” – means “some rice, please” in Khmer.
Rice is the main staple food in Cambodia, but is also the base of the distillation of alcohol hence the preparation of the staple alcoholic beverage, the rice wine. Throughout history, the Khmer have used local liquor in traditional medicine to extract the benefits of fruits, spices and roots.
Because we wanted to make a delicious liqueur, sweet and fruity, we decided to add the secrets from Mauritius that are used in the production of infused rums in the islands.
Thus, the spices and local fruits freshly bought from the market are infused in the spirit. The flavours are always presented in a combination of 2. Indeed, this enhance the balance and complexity in taste for this Cambodian liqueur. Furthermore we insert a sugar cane stick in each bottle rounding out the taste and giving it an additional woody flavour as time goes by. Already very tasty at the time we proceed with the bottling, it all gets even better with time.
Some may say “no matter the bottle, provided there is tipsiness”. To agree to this implies ignoring the quality of young Cambodian artists and their ability to sublimate the bottles. And “to crown” the whole thing, each Sombai bottle proudly bears its traditional colourful krama cloth over the bottle top. Moreover, young artists paint on the Sombai bottles and they are decorated by hand, making each of them a unique piece and an amazing souvenir. Source from Sombai.
I cannot remember what she tasted but it was sour.
Neatly arranged spices which got my attention.
Lovely place, yes?
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