Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Where next?

Eating out has become an everyday occurrence since moving to live in Phnom Penh. I merely pass through my kitchen area each day rather than ever contemplate slaving over a hot stove, so restaurants are my third home right now, my second being the office!
Last night saw me sample the delights of Romdeng on Street 278, just around the corner from my apartment, in the engaging company of Rachel and Craig, who were in Phnom Penh on holiday. Rachel, in particular, has a severe case of Cambodiaitus and will be out here again in January working for five weeks with Cambodia Trust. In her spare time she has her own website and blog on her specialized topic, Cambodia. The word is certainly out about the tasty dishes served up at Romdeng – a non profit training restaurant for former street youths who learn cooking and waiting on table and is part of the Friends’ empire – as the place was heaving and clients were turned away while we were there. Promoted as ‘a taste of the provinces’ my chicken dish was spicy and full of flavour.
Earlier in the day, I had lunch at another new location, Khmer Borane, on the riverfront under the shadow of FCC’s tapas bar-cafĂ© called Pacharan, and which serves tasty Khmer food. I chose my usual chicken curry. It’s easy to tell it’s the high season, as every table in the restaurant was taken. For the previous two lunchtimes, I’ve sampled the fare at two different restaurants, situated along the ten minute walk from my home to the office, with Khmer Kitchen and Khmer Surin providing my authentic Khmer food experience, as their names suggest. Both are incredibly popular with expats and tourists and lie in the heart of the NGO quarter of the city. There is a wide selection of restaurants to choose from in Phnom Penh, I am not intending to sample all of them, but I’ll have a jolly good stab at it! Oh, and don't expect any gourmet food reviews either, I'll leave that to the experts.

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