Phnom Penh Stew Beef Rice Noodles
By Sarah Bennett
If anyone e'er asks you what Cambodian food tastes like, simply have them to Phnom Penh Noodle and offset ordering. The card at this tiny abode-manner dining room (no, really, it's built into the house of the family who started information technology 31 years ago, and locals call it "The Noodle Shack") is by no means comprehensive, but when information technology comes to sampling the complex mishmash of flavors, textures and ingredients that comprise Khmer cooking, it's a vivid place to start.
As the proper noun implies, the focus here is noodles and, more than specifically, kuy teav, or every bit many like to phone call it, Cambodian pho. Not only is it a bowl of meaty broth traditionally eaten for breakfast like the Vietnamese classic, it as well comes as a base setup that you can add also with a tableful of condiments, from sweet to spicy, crunchy to silky.
But that is where the comparison to pho stops, considering kuy teav at The Shack is so much more that it makes pho seem similar salty MSG water (kuy teav came first, by the fashion). Firstly, the soup is far more customizable right out of the kitchen, meaning you need to make some choices beyond basin size and meats.
Do you lot have a preference on noodles? There are the standard thin rice noodles, but there are as well large rice noodles, egg noodles of various sizes, pin (or "tear drop") noodles and something listed as "mama noodles," which is actually just the wavy noodles you lot'll find in any pack of Top Ramen.
Dry kuy teav (with a pork bone on the side). Photo by Sarah Bennett.
Also: do you want those noodles wet or dry out? Wet will come as a familiar bowl of soup; dry means the ingredients are in i large bowl and the thin, porky broth comes in a bowl on the side with a giant scraggly pig knuckle plopped in the centre. (Doing the latter lets you dose your noodles with the broth, suck out the marrow in the bones and dip some cha quai–sugariness Cambodian fry bread–in whatever'due south left).
What kind of meat are you looking for? If offal makes you queasy, you lot should probably leave now. The house special is, of class, Phnom Penh Noodle, with sliced and basis pork meat along with stomach, liver and shrimp. Beef stew gets y'all beef, tripe and tendon. Mo'south special–named after one of the three 2d-generation owners who now run the identify–is ground pork, sliced pork and beef balls. The Chluy Basin is named after a young Cambodian parody singer who stops by when he's in town ("chluy" means rude) and includes beef intestine, quail eggs and pork rinds.
Once your kuy teav hits the table, information technology's time to go to work, bringing your own level of balance to the medley of flavors. Squeeze bottles filled with hoisin sauce, chili paste and a house "chluy" sauce (a sweeter, smoother Sriracha alternative) line the table. A rack is filled with cups of sides like salted blood-red soy beans and pickled greenish beans. There's also the pancake-syrup dispenser filled with sweetness, garlic fish sauce (not unlike the 1 you'd pour over a bowl of Vietnamese bún). It all well-nigh makes the plate of bean sprouts and lemons dropped as before long equally you ordered seem like an reconsideration.
Stir fried "student noodle" (aka it's cheap!). Photo by Sarah Bennett.
Overwhelmed yet? Don't worry. Dissimilar visits to The Shack 10 years ago, the place is now run past friendly, bilingual staff of Khmericans, kids built-in here who didn't desire to run into the local institution their auntie started go under when she retired. They gave the identify a new pigment job, a fresh landscaping of native plants, an Instagram, Facebook folio and Snapchat, and volition happily help confused Western palates navigate the menu (the stir-fried noodle plates are "kind of like Pad Thai" and the meat staff of life is "basically an empanada," one said recently).
That's why it's best to offset your adventures in Khmer eating here, the least daunting of all Cambodia Boondocks restaurants, then get forth from the land of kuy teav. An even wider world of deep fried catfish, beef-anchovy salads and prahok-laden dishes awaits.
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Source: https://www.ricestringns.com/2016/05/11/oc-weekly-long-beach-lunch-phnom-penh-noodle/
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