Pandoraspace

Malis

Before visiting Cambodia, I had never tasted Khmer food. For that reason, I was grateful to Toe and her husband, D, for taking Padma and me to dinner at one of the more popular Khmer restaurants in Phnom Penh called Malis (the Khmer name for Jasmine flower).

The ambiance of Malis is similar to that of any stereotypical fine dining restaurant where the tables are covered with crisp white table clothes, the chairs are comfortable, and although there is background music, the place is quiet enough for the diners to hear each other and not hear the conversation going on at the next table. There is, however, a distinctly Khmer feel to the place. Outside the restaurant are a Buddha and a lotus pond. Inside, the restaurant is dotted with Buddha heads, the walls are painted red and the windows are rectangular-shaped.

Despite the great ambiance at Malis, it was the food that took most of my attention. The food not only looked appetizing and beautiful, it tasted wonderful as well.

The first dish was an appetizer of diced stir-fried scallop with bunches of fresh green Kampot pepper served on scallop shells. The taste of the sweet and tender scallops combined with the fresh, spicy and crisp peppers was explosive. As this dish was novel, I have come to associate it with distinctly Khmer cuisine.

For our main meal, we had pork ribs, kangkong (this is a green leafy vegetable that grows in water but I do not know how it is called in English) and prawns. Those dishes tasted similar to Thai or Chinese dishes but were delicious nonetheless. The pork ribs were deep-fried and basted with a salty-sweet glaze. The pork was succulent and its oiliness tempered by the glaze. The kangkong was sauteed in garlic. Simple but good. The prawns were my favorite. They were fresh, sweet and as huge as a child’s fist. The prawns were decapitated, shelled, dipped in a light gossamer-like batter, deep-fried and served to us with a sweet chili sauce. In the customary Filipino fashion, we ate these dishes with moist piping hot steamed rice.

For dessert, we shared the pumpkin crème brulee. It was slightly thicker and had more texture than a regular brulee. It did not have a pumpkin or custard taste. It was not too sweet or too bland either. The taste was rather unique and I loved it.

Malis is definitely one of the places you should not miss when visiting Phnom Penh.

The Soup Dragon

On the day we went to the Silk Farm, we asked Tony out for lunch and he recommended that we eat at the Soup Dragon. The Soup Dragon is a casual dining restaurant that serves Khmer, Thai and Vietnamese food. It is located beside the Old Market in that part of town that tourists usually visit. The waitresses were friendly and accommodating. I felt very relaxed at the Soup Dragon.

We were given a table at the second floor veranda that overlooked the street. As we were starving when we got there, we over-ordered. Of the six or seven dishes we ordered, I was only able to sample the Beef Loklak, Vietnamese spring rolls and a Khmer dish of chicken in sour pandan broth. Of course, I ate all those dishes with steaming moist white rice. My favorite dish was the beef Loklak, which surprised me. There was nothing unusual about the stir fried tender strips of beef but eating it with the dip made of lime juice salt and ground black pepper made the dish extraordinary. The tangy taste of lime and the spicy pepper gives the beef a refreshingly usual flavor and it opened my taste buds. There is no taste quite like it. If you are looking for a cozy place to eat a hearty meal, I suggest you eat at the Soup Dragon.

Madame Butterfly

On our first day at Siem Reap, we dumped our things at the Villa Siem Reap and headed for Madame Butterfly (MB), a French-Khmer-Thai-Vietnamese fine dining restaurant. Although MB is closed for lunch, the staff graciously open the place for us. To our delight, we were the only ones in the restaurant. 

The restaurant is located on the second floor of a big old two story Khmer house with a garden. The second floor of the house has a veranda and a huge room. The tables are set up along the veranda and inside the huge room the doors of which are left open so the breeze could come in. There were plants everywhere.

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On hindsight, the Siem Reap experience is indeed a Magical Mystical Tour.

Tip No. 17: Even if I may sound hypocritical about this, I must advise you to HELP PRESERVE AND PROTECT THE TEMPLES BY FOLLOWING ALL THE RULES AND REGULATIONS OF THE TEMPLE VISITS.

When we were in one of the smaller temples, our guide showed us text carved onto one of the walls of a door.  If I remember correctly, our guide said that the text was a love letter of some sort.  As we looked at the text closely, we discovered that someone had recently carved a rabbit at the bottom of the text.  The graffiti not only ruined the wall, it is one of the reasons why, little by little, certain areas of the temples are now off limits to tourists. So, please follow the rules of the temple visits.

  Tip No. 16: Be corny and spare $ 10.00 for an elephant ride. You are sure to impress the kids at  home.  

 For $ 10.00, you can take an elephant ride from outside the east gate of Angkor Thom to the surrounding areas of Bayon. Padma, who had her fair share of elephant rides in the past, decided to forego the ride. I, on the other hand, could not help myself. I wanted to go on another elephant ride.  When I got home and showed the picture that Padma took of me riding the elephant to the kids, they were soooo impressed.

Tip No. 15: Do not forget to bring your wan dalah (this is how they say US $1.00 in Cambodia) bills and set aside cash for travel tax and temple passes.

US dollars are accepted in all stores in Cambodia.  Some establishments do not, however, have enough change to give you if you pay for purchases using $ 20.00 to $ 100.00 bills. So, my mom who had also gone to Cambodia ahead of us, advised Padma and me to bring $ 1.00 bills.  Also, since $ 1.00 is equivalent to about 4,000 Reils, you would need sacks of Reils to make a major purchase.  Of course, if you want to experience what it is like to be a millionaire, by all means, change your US dollars to Reils.

Tourists are assessed US$25.00 for travel tax when they leave Cambodia. Be sure to set aside this amount for the tax. Non-Cambodians are also asked to pay a temple pass worth $ 20.00 for a one-day visit or $ 70.00 for a five-day visit to enter the Angkor complex where most of the wonderful temples are located. You should also set aside money for this.

Tip No. 10: Splurge on food and sample some street food avoid street food.

Siem Reap offers a wide range of food choices.  There is the authentic Khmer food such as beef Loklak and chicken or fish Amok.  As Cambodia was once a French protectorate, many restaurants serve French food. Thai and Vietnamese cuisine are also available because, at one point or another, the Thais and Vietnamese tried to invade Cambodia.  For the less adventurous, pizza, pasta, deli sandwiches from the Blue Pumpkin and other more familiar food are available at restaurants that cater to foreigners.  So, you should not miss the opportunity to sample the different cuisine available in Siem Reap.

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Tip No. 9: Avoid the crowds.

You get a better feel of the temples if there are only a few people around. Tourists usually troupe to the temples after breakfast, leave right before lunch, return to the temples at two in the afternoon and leave before sunset. To avoid the crowd, we would visit the temples before breakfast or late in the afternoon. Of course, this rule does not apply to Angkor Wat since tourists visit it at all hours of the day.  To known more about avoiding the crowds, check this out.

Tip No. 8:  Chose your temples and avoid getting “Templed Out”.

There is much to learn from every temple.  Alas, there are more than 1,000 temples in Cambodia and it is impossible to visit all those temples in a couple of days (and I suspect even during a lifetime).  I find that the best way to enjoy the temples is to select only a few to visit and explore them at a leisurely pace. Two temples a day is my quota. Otherwise, my mind cannot absorb all the information about the temples, I would get overwhelmed and would  have no time to get a feel of their magic and mystic. Also, try to do other things like going to the Silk Farm or shopping in between temple visits to avoid getting “Templed Out”.

Between our temple visits, Padma and I visited the Silk Farm and went shopping at Artisan D’ Angkor and the Old Market.

From the Silk Farm or Artisan D’ Angkor, you could buy premium quality raw silk fabric and other items made of silk like bags, clothes, bed covers, table napkins and runners. From the Old Market you can buy Kramas or cotton scaves (just make sure you get the good kind by feeling the fabric to make sure it is 100% cotton), Kampot pepper (they say that no self respecting French restaurant would use pepper other than Kampot pepper, which is grown in Cambodia), silverworks (make sure you get the items that have 92.5% silver content), amber (cheap), and semi-precious stones. According to my friend, Toe, all stones that are mined in Cambodia like topaz are cheap but those which are not mined there like rubies and sapphires are expensive. The stones they sell are real but I suspect that not all are of the highest quality. Unless you know what you are buying, I suggest you just buy those that are less than $5 a carat and do not forget to haggle.