Photo Credit: ecstaticist.

So I’ve dedicded to start a new project for dining in 2010. The tagline of this site is “Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver” and so instead of of traipsing around Vancouver’s culinary delights in the random way I have been for the last (almost) 2 years, I am going to present my finds country by country.

I still have a bit of a backlog of reviews, so I may post those interspersed with the project and if I feel really keen, I may even post some recipes.

First stop on the grand tour: North America. Got any favorites you’d like to recommend?

tamarind crab

fresh scallops in their shells

squid in garlic and onions with peppercorns

butter beef

special beef salad

baby lotus root and a couple of other dishes I neglected to post…sausage, pea shoots, fried rice. Then for dessert:

coconut pudding

durian and a gelatinous rice pudding, in slices.

Thanks Mark for the invite and thanks especially to Solange who came in on her day off to make sure everything was just amazing.

__________________________________________

Phnom Penh Restaurant

244 East Georgia Street, Vancouver

Everyone knows that the best pho is dodgy pho. And generally speaking, the dodgy pho is not found at main intersections. So I had my doubts about Kim Penh Xe Lua at Cambie and Broadway. Sure, the unpronounceable name might throw off some diners, but I suspected that I would not be getting a premium bowl of rare beef flank on vermicelli noodles here. And I was right.

First of all, the menu is divided into sections. “For beginners” naturally includes soups without the tendons, tripe and offensive bits (or without any meat at all, for that matter) and the “More adventurous” section includes the soups with various versions of the above.

The small bowl of beef flank and beef balls with noodles ($5.50 for a small bowl) filled the gap in my stomach without making me feel ill, but there’s nothing all that special about it. It’s ok. A bit skimpy on the beef and could have used some more flavour, but the condiments were fresh and I would go again if I was in the area and hungry, but I’m not sure I would make a special trip. It’s apparently open until the wee hours, so that may come in handy.

__________________________________________

Pho Kim Penh Xe Lua
500 W. Broadway, Vancouver

A bowl of noodles on a cold day is love. A bowl of noodles with some deep-fried spring rolls on the side (7 mini ones to a plate, perfect for sharing) is a love that can hardly be contained, but I will try. Steering away from more traditional pho, I tried a dish that had a combination of beef balls, squid balls and fish balls in it, along with the requisite noodles and a giant soggy piece of lettuce that gave some colour to the bowl but was deemed inedible by myself and my dining mates. The soup was nearly perfect, with a broth flavored with garlic and green onions, but the floating balls of meat could have been better. Starting off with the beef balls, I was hooked on the solid form of the greasy, meaty flavour that I had already tasted in the broth – they were excellent – but the squid balls were slightly less excellent and by the time I got to the bland fish balls (one of which had a bone in it), I was ready to leave the meat alone and start in on the noodles. That’s my favorite part anyways, so it worked out, but I don’t think I will order it again.

So maybe I should change my title. Maybe rather than a bowl of love… instead a bowl of “like you a lot” or a bowl of “pretty good”. If we are talking terms of endearment, though, then I was crushing hard on my friend’s dried noodles with soup on the side (below). I will definitely be giving that one a try next time.

Having recently moved away from an apartment that was 5 minutes away from Phnom Penh, I wish I had spent more time there. My favorite dishes are the butter beef with a side of gai lan, or if I`m feeling particularly unhealthy, chicken wings. The butter beef is served barely cooked – thin strips of rare beef, tossed with cilantro, soy sauce, garlic and butter. The chicken wings are deep fried heaven – full of grease, of course – but also exceedingly flavorful and just the thing for a hangover. They come with a side of lemon dipping sauce which is so ingenious you wonder why it’s not a city-wide standard.

The restaurant is large-ish, but it does busy on weekends and don’t even try to go on Chinese New Year unless you are prepared to stand around for a while.

___________________________________

Phnom Penh
244 E. Georgia St, Vancouver