Collectively south-east and East-Asia host the most famous and loved cosines in the world, but there are a couple of exceptions to this. Filipino food is hardly lighting up the world, and you don’t see all that many Cambodian restaurants around either! In fact, Cambodian cuisine, with its regional influences, and own unique flavors (some influenced by famine) is extremely underrated! I’m therefore going to do a little series only favorite Khmer dishes!
Part 1, frogs with tamarind, Khmer style!
Cambodian frogs with tamarind is a long time favorite on the Cambodian street food and general culinary scene, and you will see it in almost every Cambodian restaurant in some shape, or form.
I get to have my dalliance with it whilst staying at the rather lovely Amanjayah Pancan Hotel, which was lovely was stated not only nicely next to the Mekong, but also one of the doggiest parts of town…..
Dodgy, or not the area transformed at nightfall into a street food heaven, with street hawkers everywhere, and the sweet sweet smell of roasting meat everywhere. I found me a place called …….. and ordered me some Cambodian Fried Noodles (more on them later), tamarind frogs, and an Angkor Beer.
Now, to the frogs! I am not a huge fan of frogs, I have eaten them in France as a teenager (I felt so adventurous), and in China many a time, but I find them just too bony. Boniness cannot be avoided when you are dealing with frog meat, but I was seriously surprised at how good it tasted, although to be fair you could put tamarind with calk and it would taste good.
The texture of the flag was very flavorsome, with the tamarind being very much in effect. The sauce was almost like a fine gravy, and to deal with the bones? Well, I simply had a bin thrust in front of me to gob out all the unwanted stuff. Great stuff! Coronavirus anyone?
Tasty, but certainly not a meal in itself, and I was glad that I had the fried noodles, and the beer to finish me off. And all of this for under 10 bucks.
Cambodian cuisine, underrated, and damned good value!
