I'll Have the Plastic Shard

Siem Reap, Cambodia, 8/7/11

Our final meal together in Cambodia is at Amok, a restaurant named after, and celebrating, the country's national dish. After eating Cambodian BBQ yesterday at restaurant "Cambodia BBQ", it is clear that Siem Reap restaurants could use some creative employees on staff to come up with better names. Amok is located down a hidden alley right in the heart of town. The restaurant is comfortable and beautiful -- walls are painted in burnt orange and decorated with baroque wood carvings. The napkins, tablecloths, and rug are brightly colored with flashy prints. Place mats are made of dark-stained bamboo and the chairs are lavender with neon orange cushions. Plates are beautiful flower-printed blue and white porcelain that would be more at home in Santorini, Greene than Cambodia. Fat candles decorate all the windows and tables, making the Amok feel like a romantic, warm respite from the darkness of its alleyway home. Grammatically defunct signs on the menu remind tourists to "make your stay in Cambodia safe stay" due to filtered ice and "Western standards." The sign also shows the smiling "chef cook" confiding that he "also takes care of your health." 

From website

From Google

From Google

Everyone's favorite "chef cook"

It's late in the evening, so we have the restaurant mostly to ourselves and are dotted on my the solicitous staff. As with yesterday's meals, our group splits into duos, each ordering the degustation (expensive for Cambodia at $10/pp). The platter is even more ornate than at Angkor Palm -- each dish has a specially designed bowl either made out of banana leaf or bamboo, resembling flowers, boats, and petals. In the center of the seven-course platter is a banana leaf cone, a decorative touch to keep the curry below warm. First course is a banana blossom salad with roasted chicken. The blossom resembles emerald spaghetti but has a crunch like green papaya. Mixed with carrots, basil, and a lime vinaigrette, it's bright and refreshing. Second dish is also a salad with lightly poached local Cambodian river fish with long beans, onions, pine nuts, and chilis. Third is a chicken stir fry with whole leaves of basil, onions, peppers, and cashews. The restaurant eponymous dish is available is five different varieties (chicken, beef, pork, fish, tofu) and the menu proudly announces it to be "the best amok in Siem Reap." It is delicious -- hefty filets of catfish in a thick, herbaceous curry stew, with plenty of chilis, mint, basil, roasted onions, and coconut. The dish almost resembles an inverse fried egg - a bright yellow curry surrounding a small white dollop of coconut cream. Although I would give the award for best amok to Angkor Palm, one final taste is necessary before I leave the country as a meal in Cambodia without amok is like a day without sunshine.

One of the dishes of the evening is found to feature a large, sharp piece of plastic. The wait staff is apoplectic over the sight of the foreign material and our pints of Angkor beers are quickly joined by gratis watermelon martinis. As the night wears down, the "chef cook" comes to our table to check on our meal.  His chef's whites and matching hat are basically spotless although it's after 10pm, proving him to be quite a meticulous kitchen overload. He comes bearing a large smile and a large dish of fried bananas with a honey dipping sauce, a dessert he says he is perfecting for the menu. As with all the banana desserts I've eaten around Southeast Asia, they are terrifically juicy and sweet, not even needing the honey sauce. The bananas are followed by a sorbet sampler, with five different flavors served in shot glasses, small pieces of fruit used for identification. The platter includes pineapple, lime, mango, passionfruit, and coconut. We spend the rest of the evening exploring downtown Siem Reap, visiting the terrific night market which takes cement and fish food bags and turns them into bohemian accessories, and closing the night with ice cold pints Angkor Beer drafts.

Psar Chaa district, downtown Siem Reap