Interview: Mylinh Nakry Danh from Khmer Krom Recipes

At the second and penultimate New Year, I made a bold resolution to do a spot of interviewing about Cambodian food as an adjunct to simply rocking up to somebody’s stall and asking the vendor what they’re deep-frying today. I’ve also been enthused by Andy Brouwer’s new blog that profiles Cambodians from all walks of life.

The shining light in online Cambodian recipes is Khmer Krom Recipes. At the moment, there is no other English-language Khmer food resource as comprehensive: currently the site lists 561 recipes according to the site’s Khmer Krom expat owner, Mylinh Nakry Danh, not to mention spotter’s guides to Cambodian ingredients, fruit and vegetables.

Now living in the USA, Mylinh started the site as a way to “do something to keep our Khmer Krom culture alive and visible to the public. So much of our culture is take over or disappearing over time as our country was taken and given away to Vietnamese”. I’m all for mixing food and politics, and Kampuchea Krom/Cambodian border politics are some of the murkiest, emotive, and more dangerous of the identity politics locally available. Thanks to my extreme lack of knowledge of these affairs and this website being about Cambodian food, I stuck to asking occasionally torturous questions about Mylinh’s recipes by email.

Who taught you to cook? Who was the best cook in your family?

I learned how to cook from my parents, family and friends. My mom is very good cook but my dad is the best cook in my family. Sorry, mom.

Are there any ingredients that are impossible to find in America?

America is a big country, every state is different, and one state may carry more Asian food than other. I can only tell you that where I live it is hard to find Cambodian ingredients. For example, Cambodian sausage (made with beef), dried salty fish “ngiet trey tok”, pahok trey naing (pickle Asian catfish), and vegetables like fresh bamboo shoots, fresh Neem leaf, “Sadao”, just to name a few. Possibly living in a very large Cambodian community such as Long Beach, California or Lowell, Massachusetts, there would be more of these ingredients available.

Are there foods that you especially miss from Cambodia?

You’re torture me with this question because I miss so many foods from home.

I miss “num pong”, it is white fluffy coconut rice cake that steamed in bamboo stalk. It’s not too sweet and absolutely delicious. I miss “tirk tholk” the most, it is fresh palm juice, not only I miss “tirk tholk” I also miss seeing the elderly man carry heavy bamboo stalks that filled with delicious palm juice on his shoulder. I miss Kampuchea Krom.

Since being in America, do you think that your ideas about food have changed?

My answer: Yes, of course. Now that I am explored more on foods and flavors from all over the world and they are all very good. But I am always drawn back to the traditional foods of my childhood.

Are there any regional differences between recipes from Kampuchea Krom and those from elsewhere in Cambodia? Are there any regional specialties?

Yes, I think that happens everywhere in the world not just only Khmer in Kampuchea Krom and Khmer in Cambodia. “Salor machu” is sweet, sour soup in English. Some Khmer like their “salor machu” spicy hot, other like sweeter or sourer, some Khmer can’t cook with out MSG and some Khmer can’t live without ” pahok” (pickle fish). How do you cook rice? Some people like rice stick together so they add more water. Some people like their rice fluffy so they use less water, but no matter how you cook, its all cooked rice.

There are 21 provinces in Kampuchea Krom and each province has their specialties. For example: Mee Sar (My Tho) province has excellent noodle that made with mung bean. Kamourn Sor (Rach Gia) province is world renowned for seafood and Koh Tral (Phu Quoc) is land for fish sauce. Mott Chrouk (Chau Doc) province is known for Mam (fermented fish) and Pahok (pickle fish).

Do you have a favourite recipe from your website that I could share with my readers?

It’s difficult for me to pick just one out of 561 recipes that on my website because they are my favorite. However, I think your readers will enjoy Khmer Krom vegetarian spring roll.

Recipe: Khmer Krom Vegetarian Spring Roll (Num cha gio pale)

Cambodian food - Spring Rolls

Mylinh from Khmer Krom Recipes recommended the following recipe for vegetarian spring rolls to my reader(s).

Crispy vegetables spring roll with tofu, taro root, cabbage and carrot is very delicious. Khmer Krom vegetarian spring roll is so good that most my friends can’t tell it made without meat.

Ingredients :

  • 2 Cups already shredded taro root
  • 2 Cups already shredded carrot
  • 1 Package 12 oz fried tofu, julienne
  • 2 Cups already shredded cabbage
  • 1 Cup chopped yellow onion
  • 4 Cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Tablespoon sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  • ¼ Teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 Package 25 pieces spring roll shells
  • ½ Cup water
  • 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
  • 6 Cups vegetable oil for deep fry spring roll

Procedures :
Mixed shredded taro root and carrot in a large mixing bowl, and use your palms to squeezes out all it liquid. Add tofu, onion, garlic and cabbage, mixed well. Seasoning with sugar, soy sauce and black pepper, mixed well and set it a side. In a small bowl, mixed water with cornstarch together, mix well and set a side. Gentle pulls out each spring roll shell to separate from other shell. Lay one sheet flat on a cutting board or plate, spoon mix vegetables and put on 1/3 of the shell. Wrap the vegetables filling in spring roll shell, roll it tight and seal the end with cornstarch water, continue to roll till the filling gone.

Note: If you haven’t made spring roll before, look at the back of spring roll pastry package, it has illustrated instruction for you to follow.

Heat 6 cups cooking oil in high temperature. When oil is hot, deep fried spring roll till crispy golden brown. Removed spring roll from hot oil and put on plate covered with paper towel to drained oil. Serve hot with sweet soy sauce, or with rice noodle and vegetarian fish sauce.

See:Khmer Krom Vegetarian Spring Roll

Donuts at Bokor Cinema

Come rain or shine, this husband and wife donut duo never move from just outside the Bokor Cinema on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard. They’ve always got a customer or four hanging around which generally bodes well. I’m almost embarrassed when I drop in because I see them every day on my way to work and am yet to purchase a single deep-fried product from them. Through sheer weight of luck, I happened upon them when they were cutting up a fresh batch. The process is as follows:

Donuts at Bokor Cinema
Firstly, remove your dough from the plastic bag underneath the roof of your cart, where it has been proving in the scorching heat.

Donuts at Bokor Cnr
Secondly, clean the surface of your cart (as unbelievable as this may sound) and give it a liberal dusting with riceflour. Flatten your wheat/rice flour dough out with a rolling pin.

Donuts at Bokor Cnr
Thirdly, cut into strips, paying attention not to accidentally remove your enormous, decorative thumbnail in the process. Roll into flat disks and dust with a few sesame seeds. Hand over to your wife, the deep frying expert.

Donuts at Bokor Cnr
Serve to the Westerner who is paying far too much attention and asking too many questions for your liking. Charge him 500 riel (12.5 cents) for four.

I’m glad that I didn’t drop in earlier as I’d probably be about ten kilos heavier by now. These yeasty pillows are packed with chewy deliciousness: hollow to the core, only slightly sweet, and blisteringly hot out of the fryer. Sadly, I didn’t get the Khmer name for them, although I had a longer than usual, Beckettian interrogation of the vendors that ran along these lines:

Phil: What are these?
Vendor: (Nervous laugh) You understand Khmer.
Phil: Yes. A little. What are these?
Vendor: Food
Phil: Bread?
Vendor: Yes. Bread.
Phil: Fried bread?
Vendor: Yes. Fried bread.
Phil: Are they chaway*? or fried bread?
Vendor: I don’t have any chaway.
Phil: Yes, I understand. What are these?
Vendor: Food.
Phil: (Clutches head in hands)

Location: Just west of Bokor Cinema, near the corner of St. 95 and Mao Tse Toung Boulevard, Phnom Penh

* – Chaway are the donuts that you often have with soup, similar to the Chinese donuts that you eat with congee.

Addendum (21 June 2006): As a very weird aside, according to AsianWeek in 2000, 90 percent of California’s independent doughnut stores are owned by Cambodian expats.

Mobile Ice Cream: Droppin’ Science

Fw: icecream

Just as I was finishing my year-long opus on the microbiological make-up of Phnom Penh’s streetside icecream, I discovered that the French beat me to it by almost ten years. Damn you, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge. To wit:

A study of the microbiological quality of ice creams/sorbets sold on the streets of Phnom Penh city was conducted from April 1996 to April 1997. Socio-demographic and environmental characteristics with two ice/ice creams samples were collected from vendors selected in the city. A total of 105 vendors and 210 ice/ice creams samples were randomly selected for the study period. Ice/ice cream vendors in the streets of Phnom Penh were adults (mean age: 28 years old) with a male predominance (86.5%). Mean educational level of vendors was 5 years with no training in mass catering. Most ice creams and sorbets (81.7%) were made using traditional methods.

Microbiological analysis performed in the laboratory of Pasteur Institute of Cambodia indicated the poor bacteriological quality of the samples. The proportions of samples classified unsafe according to microbiological criteria were 83.3% for total bacterial count at 30 degrees C, 70% for total coliforms, 30% for faecal coliforms, 12.2% for Staphylococcus aureus and 1.9% for presence of Salmonella spp. These bacterial results suggest that many other food products sold in the streets may be similarly poor. Safety measures should be undertaken to avoid potential threats. Regulation of the street food sector should be part of a larger strategy for enhanced food safety and environmental quality in the city.

Things have either improved in the last ten years or I just happen to pick the 16.7% of icecream vendors who are free from bacteria, assuming that there is a high degree of cross-contamination and my secret superpower is not the ability to digest anything.

The full report has some great demographic info to spice up your icecream vendor-related dinner party conversation:

  • Average number of years in the profession was 2 years.
  • Average number of working days was 6 per week and each vendor worked 47 weeks during the year.
  • 65.4% of vendors made their own icecream, 16.3% bought from other small vendors, and 18.3% bought theirs from a larger icecream business.
  • The average number of portions sold per day was 177.
  • The average daily profit was US$2.30

My only question is: how do I get funding to study street food for a whole year?

See: Kruy Sl, Soares Jl, Ping S et al. Microbiological quality of ” ice, ice cream sorbet” sold on the streets of Phnom Penh; April 1996-April 1997. Bull Soc Pathol Exot 2001; 94 (5): 411-414. Original PDF in French. Includes photos of the four distinct modes of icecream vendor .

Previously on Phnomenon: Icecream Sandwich on Wheels

Zepp on Battambang Food

Ray Zepp, author of Cambodia’s best (if occasionally wat-obsessed) niche travel guide, “Battambang and Around”, is back in the country, and has written a nice wrap up of the changes that Battambang has undergone in the preceding few years at Khmer440. On food and drink in Battambang:

Evenings in Battambang, granted, are not as exciting as in Phnom Penh. Relaxation is the operative word. And where better to relax than the Riverside Balcony Bar. Phnom Penh has nothing to compare with it. And although I am usually not given to hyperbole, I would say that the Riverside should be listed in one of the ‘Great Bars of the World’, and is not to be missed under any circumstances. And if you really want to chow down on good Khmer food, you can go right next door to the Riverside to the ‘Cow’s Stomach’ (romantic name, eh?). You can often tell the best Khmer restaurants when you see lots of people eating, but no live music or sexy beer girls. People are there for the food.

I’m with him on both the Riverside and Cow’s Stomach. Apart from the booze and the somnolence, Riverside’s meatballs are the kind of Westerner stodge that I need to keep me sane after a few days of Battambang fieldwork and concomitant roadside Khmer food. Cow’s Stomach is what I need to remember that roadside Cambodian food is not of the same genus as kitchen-cooked Cambodian food. With the opening of the new La Villa Hotel, and more importantly as a few friends have told me, the arrival of chocolate mousse in Battambang, I’ve really got to get back up north there to see what is happening.

Zepp has a new guide out in Summer 2006 with Peter Hogan and photography by Simon Toffanello.

See:Ray Zepp Returns to Cambodia

Cambodian Beers a No-Show

Despite being entrants since its inception and proudly displaying their medals on the bottle, none of Cambodia’s breweries entered the 2006 Australian International Beer Awards. Regionally, BGI, Chang Light, Beer Lao and Myanmar Beer all made an effort, with Chang Light receiving a bronze in the International Lager : Other section.

For a full listing of the 2006 winners and losers, read the AIBA catalogue of results. For anyone loosely interested in small breweries, the list of exhibitors at the end is a good wrap up of the rapidly expanding list of microbreweries in Australia.

Great Balls Of Coconut, Laos

Great Balls Of Coconut, Laos Great Balls Of Coconut

There are very few street vendors that manage to bridge the sweet/savory divide, but this one has managed to construct an appropriate overpass using sweet coconut balls and quail eggs at Talat Sao in Vientiane, Laos. The balls are formed from a sweet, coconut-infused batter which I believe also contains a good portion of rice flour to make the balls slightly gluey on the inside, but still slightly crispy on the outside.

After cooking a few rounds of balls, she alternates to meticulously cracking open and frying half-spheres of quail eggs in her aebleskiver-like pan. The eggs are served with Laos’ favorite condiment: fish sauce. Balls were a few hundred kip each.

Laos Food Bonanza

Buddha Park, Laos

When my commentary on Khmer food slows down, I’m usually out of Cambodia and this time it was in the only Indochinese country described as sleepier than Cambodia: Lao PDR. Thanks to having some friends in Vientiane, I did get to eat a fairly representative sample of the local delicacies.

Sticky rice (kao neaw) is both self explanatory and ubiquitous as the national staple. The process to make it seems complex enough that it involves a fire, a purpose-built basket and constant attention; akin to the early years of ballooning but with slightly less chance of setting yourself on fire and crashing back to earth in a ball of fiery death. It might give the rice a stickier and more fibrous texture, but I think that I would rarely have the time on my hands that it takes to prepare.

In more proof that if you can grind up an animal, you can eat it, laap, the ever-popular minced meat salad, is available in every imaginable meat. I managed to fit in laap in five different ground animal flavours but none in the evil non-meat equivalent, tofu laap. Whenever I attempt to build myself some laap, I can never balance the chili/lime/galangal/fish sauce properly, and so every Laotian laap I ate fills me with both shame and meaty deliciousness. I heard tales of iguana laap but had no success in finding a local lizard grinder or procuring myself an iguana. The local Laos green papaya salad (Tam Mak Hung) is spicier than our Khmer variety and there also seems to be a marked preference to go a little crazy on the fish sauce.

Rice cakes drying in Luang Prabang, Laos
Roadside rice cake production, Laos-style

For me, the two main drawcards of Luang Prabang seemed to be the town’s World Heritage listing and a regionally famous snack made from dried sheets of river algae that comes with a buffalo rind and chili sambal.

From the early part of the dry season, northern Laotians harvest river algae (kai) that they then proceed to sun-dry before pressing into flat sheets with sesame seeds and local vegies. The resulting algae paper (kaipen) tastes like the kelp wrapping from a sushi roll, deep-fried; and the traditional accompanying paste made from ground chili and buffalo rind tasted much like someone had set a fistful of large, sliced rubberbands alight in my mouth with roughly the same texture. Before coming to Laos, I was told that it was “a great snack to eat with Beer Lao” which I should have translated as “a great snack to eat when incomprehensibly drunk”. The buffalo isn’t all bad, as Laotians also make an excellent buffalo sausage.

As for restaurants:

Moon The Night – Not a suggestion for an lewd gesture aimed at the evening but a local restaurant overlooking the Mekong, upstream from the main strip. Like every good local Indochinese restaurant, it blares local pop music at earbleed levels. Their duck laap was excellent although padded out with various offal. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

The strip of local restaurants that line the Mekong roughly opposite the Lane Xang Hotel seem to vary in quality with the weather, but are good for a cheap sticky rice and laap fix.

My brother, who worked in Laos for a while recommended me…

KhuVieng Fried Chicked (KFC). If this doesn’t make a phnomenon write-up, the universe is in a state of imbalance. The crispiness of the chicken puts the Colonel to shame, yet the establishment is somehow notably absent from my edition of the LP. It’s near a large tree about three-quarters of the way down Khu Vieng street if you’re heading towards the Australia Club. It’s on the right and easy to miss, so take your time.

…but I couldn’t find it in several very slow passes on my hired Suzuki Viva. However, just off Khu Vieng is a great spring roll store aptly named The Spring Roll Store. Their spring rolls aren’t bad but the mystery rice salad that accompanies the rolls is excellent. There are two ingredients in it that I can’t identify and I’ll mail a can of your choice of Klang to anyone who can speak enough Laotian to find out. If you’re in Phnom Penh, I’ll drop it by your house in person. One of the components is deep-fried (a spring roll part? Deep-fried leftovers?) and the other is a vegetable (Green papaya? Mango? Cucumber?).

I heart bacon

JoMa Café – So barang that it physically hurts but that didn’t stop me from visiting both the Vientiane and Luang Prabang outlet for Bagel Eggers (17000 kip, above; no relation to David) and good espresso with choice of local or imported beans. I’m on holiday. Your Cambodian breakfast bobor is no match for the true might of a bacon sarnie and decent coffee. Location: On Sethathirath Road in VT; Near cnr of Sisavangvong Rd and Setthatihilat Rd in LP

Night Market, Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang Night Market – At the end of the night market (opposite the daytime Handicraft Market), a small alleyway becomes a Laotian street food emporium. Despite being on the way to dinner elsewhere, I did my best to pick up a selection of deep-fried things (a few balls of deep-fried sticky rice coating a nugget of banana, 5000kip for a hefty bagful; spring rolls, 2000kip worth) to eat en route. There were some good sized racks of pork that I would have had a crack at, but thought it might offend my fellow diners if I rocked up with half a side of a pig.

The Apsara, Luang Prabang, Laos

The Apsara – Herbert Ypma’s Hip Hotels calls this place “the most chic hotel in Luang Prabang” which I only know because they had two different copies of Ypma’s trendspotting tome displayed on their coffee table. Seems to be the only modern place in town that recognises Luang Prabang’s period of suzerainty under Jayavaraman VII, at least in name although no Cambodian food from that era on their “Asian fusion” menu. Their $6 steak frites (below) was a cheap, unidentifiable cut but at that price I would be happy to gnaw on a another strip of buffalo. I take my iron where I can get it. Location: Ban Wat Sene, Thanon Kingkitsarath, Luang Prabang.

FILTHY MEATPORN

Are there any Laos food blogs out there? Comments are open.