Chicken Rice at Barn Barn

Barn Barn Singapore Chicken Rice offers more than just its signature Hainanese chicken with rice. There’s southeast Asian staples such as fried rice and noodles, and at just $2-$3 for any main dish you’ll have plenty of spare change to pick up some sticky rice cakes filled with shredded coconut. #174 St 454, Russian Market area, 8am-5pm, closed Sunday.

May 05, 2017 ·   0

Cheap Eats Guide 2015

Fiscally responsible foodies, welcome once again to Post Weekend’s annual Cheap Eats guide, where we share some of our favourite sub-$5 dishes from across Phnom Penh. This year we’ve tried to add as many new entries as possible while keeping some of the classics for those who haven’t been in town that long. Bon appetit!

Nompang sandwiches, $1.50
Nompang is a trendy little fast-food outlet that’s taken the humble nompang Cambodian sandwich – normally dished out from handcarts – upmarket. Crusty baguette rolls packed with plenty of fresh salads and coriander, they come in omelette, black pepper chicken, roast pork (our favourite), lunchmeat and meatball varieties ranging in price from $1.50 to $2. Perfect as a big snack, two are enough to satisfy even the strongest hunger pangs.
Nompang, corner of streets 163 and 408.

Pork and Rice on Street 9, $1 
Pork and rice is arguable Cambodia’s national dish and everyone has their own favourite place – but usually it’s got more to do with proximity to work or home than anything else. Our favourite, on Street 9 between Phsar Kabko and Sihanouk Boulevard, just happens to be pretty conveniently sited to the Post offices. The marinated pork is delicious and you get a slice of omelette, pickled veggies and a bowl of broth all for $1.
Pork and rice, Street 9.

Tinfi Chicken Rice hot pot lunch, $1.50
Every day at lunch time, Tinfi Chicken Rice offers their claypot special: $1.50 for a rotating roster of six dishes such as sour soup, curry or meat and vegetable stir-fry. But instead of serving them up cold, like many other Khmer lunch spots, each customer gets their own claypot to reheat the meal. With a free dessert thrown in, it’s proven a popular option for Phnom Penh’s budget-conscious students and workers.
Tinfi Chicken Rice, #75co Street 310.

Sach Ko Ang Jakak, 2,500 riel
At this boisterous sidewalk spot right off busy Norodom Avenue, 2,500 riel gets you a skewer of charred beef marinated in a mix of lemongrass, turmeric and galangal, garnished with a hefty amount of papaya, mini pickles and carrot shreds, all on a toasted baguette and drizzled with yellow ber, a concoction made from butter, sugar and egg.
Sach Ko Ang Jakak stand, corner of Norodom Avenue and Street 322 (across from the Taiwan Cooperative Bank).

CP Fried Chicken, 2,500 riel
The ubiquitous stalls around the city offer no-frills fried chicken. At 2,500 riel a pop for white or dark meat, it’s better than you’d probably think and pretty much identical to their global-chain brethren.
CP Fried Chicken, various locations.

May 05, 2017 ·   0

Ginger chicken with a kick at Central Market

Go down to Phnom Penh’s Central Market at 8am and you’ll find that the food court on the west side is crowded with diners. Stalls offer the usual fare: pork and rice, borbor rice porridge, kuy taev or rice noodle soup. Market vendors fuel up for the day ahead.

Tucked in the middle of the stalls is a stand adorned with the usual unidentifiable meat products. In a glass case, enormous shrimp are for sale. But behind the display a harried young woman prepares a vibrantly yellow dish on a metal tray: cha knyay sach moan, or chicken with ginger. Every morning, she opens her stall at 6am.

On the Sunday I visited, the place was packed. Men sitting at our table were eating Khmer noodles, and a woman was eating pork and rice.

Cha knyay sach moan isn’t strictly for the morning: it can be eaten throughout the day, and comes in various styles. Cambodians often swap the chicken for pork or beef. The ginger can come either raw or cooked, and chili is sometimes added to provide an extra kick. The dish is made by frying chicken with salt and sugar, before adding the ginger. When the ginger is cooked, it’s fried along with the other ingredients.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my helping of cha knyay sach moan was served atop a mound of white rice, and although I was given a generous portion it was the yellow zing that caught the eye, making for an attractive plate and a more exciting breakfast than murky grey borbor porridge. The ginger was grated in thin strips, adding some elegance to the lumps of on-the-bone chicken. Sprinkled on top were thinly-sliced green slivers of spring onion.

We ordered iced coffees, but there wasn’t much need: like with many street food stalls, cold tea comes with every dish.

Although the raw ginger overpowered the subtle taste of the chicken, it wasn’t such a bad thing given the dryness of the meat. Like many Cambodian dishes, there’s a lot of bone. For people used to gnawing on close-cuts, this might suit. I prefer fleshier cuts of meat, and became self-conscious of constantly raising my hand to my mouth to take out bits of cartilage. Eventually I gave up on the meat altogether, but happily ate the rest of the ginger and rice.

If you’re not averse to meat on the bone, cha knyay sach moan is an attractive dish. Even if it’s not your thing, the taste is extremely pungent, and just the thing to wake you up in the morning. Just make sure you like ginger. ​​​

May 05, 2017 ·   0

Phnom Penh breakfast the Cambodian way

Enjoy noodle soup, Cambodian porridge or beef stew with French bread at one of Phnom Penh's many tin table street food stalls

Photo by:
Tracey Shelton

A street food vendor in Phnom Penh prepares for the day's business.

ONE mark of an urban society is eating breakfast outside the home, and in Phnom Penh there are thousands of places offering this morning sustenance.

Cambodian breakfast food typically includes noodle soup and one that stands out is kyteow, which is a thin, white noodle in a pork broth with viscera and seafood. The accompaniments are usually bean sprouts and a squeeze of lime, though the table will also have a range of condiments such as black pepper, sugar, black (soy) sauce, pickled and dry chilli, pickled garlic and preserved white cabbage.

A variation on the above is "kyteow kowk", which means your broth will come in a separate bowl from the noodles and you can spoon it into the noodles as you go. In better places the broth will have a piece of pork bone. The soft, slow-boiled meat on this bone is perhaps the most exquisite tasting pork you will ever eat, as all Asian gourmands know the sweetest meat is closest to the bone.

Breakfast delicacies

A good breakfast restaurant also has other dishes to get your day started on the right foot.

"Bobor" is known throughout this region as the food of babies, invalids and the elderly. It is rice porridge and the Cambodian breakfast version is particularly delicious.

Order your "bobor" with either fish or chicken. They will be shredded into the bowl before the porridge is added. Normally you should get a couple of cubes of congealed pork blood in the porridge as well as thin-sliced root ginger, bean sprouts and a squeeze of lime.

Again, the table condiments are there, try adding fermented cabbage to the porridge, and of course lashings of ground black pepper.

The things that look like long, straight dough left on the table are for this dish. They are called chakquai and are a light, airy batter that has been deep-fried. Dropped into the porridge, they become soft and tasty.

There are a number of other breakfast options, including rice with sliced roast pork bai sait j'ruuk, or rice with a chicken leg - bai sait moan.

You can also order rice with fried pork and fried duck egg, bai sait j'ruuk nang pohng tia jien, as well as fried rice (bai chaa) and fried noodles (mee chaa).

If you order fried noodles, there are two kinds:  one is the inferior instant kind named after a brand called mee Mama, but the better kind is mee dom, which is a long, fresh, yellow noodle.

Enjoying breakfast ... is a great way of getting into the mood of the city.

If noodles and rice are not your favourite way to start the day, you should try nohm paang kor koh, which has got to be the tastiest way to eat French bread. You will be served a couple of pieces of baguette with a bowl of the richest, red, beef stew you have ever eaten. It is made with ligaments and strips of shin, so do not expect hunks of meat here. Dunk your bread into the rich, aromatic sauce that has a certain spiciness and oiliness to lube your start to the day. Again, you will be served bean sprouts and limes to bring out the flavours.
Tea is served free at all the breakfast stands, but you have to order coffee. Expect a strong, heavy blend and unless you order a big glass you will just be served a small cup.

On the side

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of the Khmer language is the word milk - teuk dawh koo - which can easily be confused with ice - teuk koh. Part of the problem is that a lot of people want both ice and milk in their coffee but a word of warning: The ice in a breakfast restaurant will almost certainly be dirty ice from a block, not clean "tube ice".

While breakfasting you will usually be offered a newspaper - sometimes even in English - and you will certainly be offered a shoe-shine.

Expect a small supplement on the price of the paper and to pay 1,000 riels to get your shoes polished.

Cambodians have a firm belief in the importance of eating three good meals a day, and to omit breakfast from this is considered foolish if you have the money to pay for it. For a foreigner, enjoying breakfast in Phnom Penh is a great way of getting into the mood of the city.

May 05, 2017 ·   0

Phnom Penh eats: Chicken claws at The House of Lu

Delicious food and a special name brought huge fame to Jeung Mon Ptas Lu – “The House of Lu’s Chicken Claws” – restaurant in Phnom Penh.

“I wanted to create something original and Khmer by using our unique style,” said Chea Pisey, the owner. “Moreover, I would like to expand and promote Cambodia’s cuisine, as created by our Khmer chef with 10 years of culinary experience.”

The restaurant’s specialties include deep-fried or spicy roasted chicken claws. But people also go there for romeat fried rice with Koh Kong Sauce.

Jeung Mon Ptas Lu is located on St. 95, Chamkar Mon. Tel: 081 338 668.

May 05, 2017 ·   0