Amoking About in Cambodia

Mangostin Fruit, you eat the white in the middle!

After an intense day in Pehnom Penh and success with our Vietnamese visa's we met up to find a recommended restaurant to try Cambodia's national dish of Amok.  I had heard of amok many times but every opportunity I had to order it I always found something I was craving more.  With a name like fish amok it never sounded very appetizing.

Amok is a dish with different vegetables like green beans, carrots, pumpkin some sort of green leaf and usually fish or chicken in a yellow curry sauce.  Usually the dish is served over rice and it soupy. Berg and I found the restaurant we were looking for and ordered some amok and some mango spicy salad.

The chicken amok we received was different than I had imagined.  It was not soupy there was no rice and it was more like a pastry.  Apparently they make it two ways.  This one was a bit similar to a quiche with the crust and in the middle was the curry and chicken and vegetables.  To my surprise the dish was very tasty and I enjoyed it so much so that for the next two nights I ordered amok at 2 other restaurants in to other towns to compare.

First I headed back for Battambang where I was going to catch the river boat to Siem Reap.  I went out to a local restaurant and ordered the amok here.  This one was more traditional and soupy and delicious.  The next night in Siem Reap I ordered the same again at another local restaurant.  This time I ordered the fish amok.  I assumed it would be shredded or very small pieces of fish and possibly too fishy for my taste but the amok came out with nice chunky pieces of fillet filled with loads of vegetables including pumpkin.  This third time was by far my favorite of the three and it tasted incredible.

The food of Cambodia appears very similar to me to those found in Thailand.  Thai food is very fragrant with many different flavors of lemongrass, Thai basil and curry.  So far all the food I have had everywhere has been delicious like pad Thais, green curry, yellow curry, red curry, cashew chicken, basil chicken, pork, mango salad, tom yum soup etc etc.  I am loving the food but often find that it's always a stir fry with rice or noodles or a soup or curry.  I have also been disappointed in the spice of the Thais.  Everyone claims Thai food is spicy but even when you ask them to make is Thai spicy it usually falls short of my expectations and without fail I always add more chili. 

I have also fallen in love with the fruits here.  Every morning I have fresh fruit with muesli and usually a homemade yogurt.  I have tried many new fruits and am always amazed by the variety and flavors.  Everywhere here you can get giant fresh fruit smoothies with the freshest most delicious fruits.  The mango, watermelon and bananas here are so much more flavorful than back home and it is something I will miss a lot once I leave.  Next cuisine to try is the north Thai noodles and then the food in Laos!