of mojitos and other madness: khmer cuisine

cambodia has always been one of those places that's been on my places to go to list for quite a while. having heard quite a lot about it already from uncle d and aunty c, cousin marc, g's mom and aunty s, this girl thinks a trip to cambodia soon would be nice to not only catch the beauty of the ang kor wat but to experience first hand the khmer cuisine that draws inspiration from thailand, vietnam and not forgetting france!

as luck would have it, this girl discovered that her curiosity for the khmer cuisine will no longer need a plane ride as singapore's first full fledged cambodian restaurant has landed a ten minute walk from home. khmer delight opened a couple of months back and has appeared to have developed a bit of a following, based on the reviews available online, since it appeared in the sunday times . but that friday night that i was there, it was kind of quiet which i thought wasn't typical for a joint like khmer. the up side to it was that we had attentive service and recommendations of what to eat. we started off with a serving of mango salad and some deep fried prawns and calamari. being more used to the tangy and spicy thai version, the mango salad didn't quite whet my appetite. as for the prawns and calamari, well let's just say if not for my niece, we would have spent our calories on something else!

the khmer signature soup, curried fish paste and roasted chicken came highly recommended by the staff there and they turned out to be quite unique. the soup had a sweet sour tom yummish flavour that kinda mellowed down just when you expect the kick of the spice to come in. it did take some getting used to but after a couple of spoonfuls, the soup somehow manages to entice one to have more. the curried fish paste was quite lemak with the homemade fish paste stewed in generous curry gravy. this dish had quite strong spice flavors which went surprisingly well with the freshly fried prawn keropok. for veggies, we had the eggplant which was served pan fried and garnished with minced meat. it was decent, not overly oily but the trick here was to have a bit of the mince with every bite of the eggplant just to balance out the flavors. the roast fried chicken turned out to be a hit with the family. think suckling pig inspired chicken, served with a tangy slightly spicy salty dipping sauce. pak law enjoyed it as is while i preferred it accompanied with rice. either way, this dish turned out surprisingly good.

looking back as i punch out this post, i honestly am a tad disappointed as i expected the khmer cuisine to have a bit more of that french influence. but i guess there are again different varieties within the cuisine and i do give it to khmer delight for trying to bring a taste of home styled cambodian cuisine to singaporeans here.