My first taste of Battambang
It happens on Broadway Street, Oakland. Dishes with names so hard to pronounce, ingredients and tastes so similar to Vietnamese food. I learn of the second largest city of Cambodia, smaller only than Phnom Penh. I share my first simple Cambodian dinner, complete with a salad, a meat, and a dessert.
Here’s a little language snippet: to Vietnamese people, salad is called “gỏi” |ghoy| in the South and “nộm” |nom| in the North. To my surprise, “nhorm” is its romanized name in Cambodia. Listening to the other customers at Battambang, Mudpie comments that Khmer and Vietnamese sound similar, to which I first protest, but perhaps it holds a grain of truth after all.
Here we have nhorm lahong. If there’s any salad that never goes wrong, it must be this green papaya salad of Southeast Asia. Delicate, raw, and soaking fruit shreds retain nothing but a tightening chew, the sweet lime dressing sends a quiet smell of fish extract. Battambang’s batch is a drop more watery than Dara’s som tum/tam mak hoong, on the plus side there’s plenty of sauce to make rice go quickly down the pipe.
To make rice go even quicker comes sach chrouk aing. I don’t think I’ll be able to handle a full Khmer sentence of words like these, but now that I’ve known pork is sach chrouk and grilled is aing, I can survive in Cambodia ;-). Long version: sliced pork marinated with lemongrass, charbroiled, served with sweet lime nuoc mam and boiled cabbage on the side. Short version: godly.
Like at most family operated Asian restaurants, the check will be brought out before you can order dessert, but we don’t let that stop us from ending our dinner on a sweet note. The dessert menu stands next to the salt, pepper, sweeteners, and a slender vase of real orchids.
I ask our hostess to recommend either amuk knor or chake ktiss, and with no delay she says “Amuk knor for sure”. I then ask if it’s whole jackfruit or just some kind of paste or flavoring, and I must sound pretty stupid, the whole jackfruit is huge, at least as big as a 30lb turkey, but she (and you?) knows what I mean. Amuk knor is a kind of coconut milk custard with jackfruit slices, all steamed in a banana leaf cup. It breathes tropical and countryside, warm and mild. We scrape every corner of the leaf.
(I can only guess that chake ktiss is similar to chè chuối chưng).
Address: Battambang Restaurant
850 Broadway Street,
Oakland, CA 94501
(510) 839-8815
Battambang’s menu online
Money matter: $24.70 a dinner for two.
I think other web-site proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and great user friendly style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!
1Hey very cool website!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your web site and take the feeds additionallyKI’m satisfied to search out numerous useful info here in the publish, we want work out more strategies on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
2Thanks for this marvelous post, I am glad I noticed this internet site on yahoo.
3It’s best to participate in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will suggest this site!
4I’ll right away grasp your rss feed as I can not in finding your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please let me recognise in order that I may just subscribe. Thanks.
5Some really superb info , Sword lily I discovered this. “It’s amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.” by Charles Franklin Kettering.
6Throughout the grand design of things you receive an A with regard to effort. Where you actually misplaced everybody was in your facts. You know, people say, details make or break the argument.. And that couldn’t be more accurate here. Having said that, let me inform you exactly what did deliver the results. Your article (parts of it) is actually rather powerful which is probably why I am taking an effort to comment. I do not make it a regular habit of doing that. Second, while I can certainly see the jumps in reasoning you come up with, I am not sure of how you seem to connect the ideas that produce your final result. For right now I will subscribe to your issue however trust in the near future you actually link the facts much better.
7After study a couple of of the weblog posts on your web site now, and I really like your means of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website checklist and will be checking back soon. Pls try my website online as nicely and let me know what you think.
8I am glad to be one of the visitors on this great internet site (:, thanks for posting.
9horse gelatin trick
10What i do not understood is actually how you’re now not actually a lot more neatly-liked than you might be right now. You are so intelligent. You recognize therefore significantly in relation to this subject, produced me for my part imagine it from so many numerous angles. Its like men and women don’t seem to be involved except it is one thing to do with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs great. Always maintain it up!
11Hi, just required you to know I he added your site to my Google bookmarks due to your layout. But seriously, I believe your internet site has 1 in the freshest theme I??ve came across. It extremely helps make reading your blog significantly easier.
12I besides conceive thus, perfectly written post! .
13Some times its a pain in the ass to read what website owners wrote but this site is real user friendly! .
14Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in truth was a amusement account it. Glance complex to far brought agreeable from you! By the way, how could we keep up a correspondence?
15Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any recommendations?
16Very great post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to mention that I have truly loved surfing around your weblog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I’m hoping you write once more very soon!
17Great post, I conceive blog owners should larn a lot from this web site its really user pleasant.
18As a Newbie, I am permanently exploring online for articles that can help me. Thank you
19Wonderful work! That is the kind of info that are supposed to be shared across the internet. Shame on the seek engines for no longer positioning this post upper! Come on over and seek advice from my website . Thank you =)
20I was looking through some of your blog posts on this site and I believe this site is very instructive! Keep putting up.
21I like your writing style truly enjoying this internet site.
22I just couldn’t depart your web site before suggesting that I extremely enjoyed the standard info a person provide for your visitors? Is gonna be back often in order to check up on new posts
23Hi I am so delighted I found your blog page, I really found you by accident, while I was looking on Yahoo for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a remarkable post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to browse it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the excellent work.
24My brother recommended I would possibly like this blog. He was entirely right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t consider simply how a lot time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
25Wohh precisely what I was looking for, thanks for posting.
26I would like to thnkx for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the upcoming as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your write up is a good example of it.
27Thank you for another wonderful article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such an ideal way of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the look for such info.
28I’ve been surfing online greater than three hours as of late, yet I by no means discovered any attention-grabbing article like yours. It’s lovely price sufficient for me. In my view, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you did, the internet will likely be a lot more useful than ever before.
29I just couldn’t depart your web site before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the usual info an individual supply for your visitors? Is gonna be again frequently to check up on new posts.
30Normally I do not read article on blogs, however I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice article.
31It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this superb blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
32Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!
33Lovely just what I was searching for.Thanks to the author for taking his clock time on this one.
34When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!
35certainly like your web site but you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very bothersome to tell the truth nevertheless I will surely come back again.
36I view something truly special in this internet site.
37I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post…
38I am glad for writing to let you understand what a helpful experience my cousin’s princess undergone reading through your web page. She picked up too many things, with the inclusion of what it’s like to possess a marvelous teaching character to get other individuals with ease thoroughly grasp a variety of specialized subject areas. You undoubtedly exceeded our expectations. I appreciate you for churning out those productive, healthy, explanatory and even easy tips about this topic to Mary.
39Hello. excellent job. I did not imagine this. This is a great story. Thanks!
40Lovely just what I was looking for.Thanks to the author for taking his clock time on this one.
41Sweet blog! I found it while browsing on Yahoo News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Many thanks
42good post.Never knew this, thanks for letting me know.
43Interesting blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks
44I truly enjoy looking at on this internet site, it has got good blog posts.
45You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!
46Thank you for another informative web site. Where else may I get that kind of info written in such an ideal way? I have a mission that I’m simply now operating on, and I have been on the look out for such info.
47Hey there! Someone in my Facebook group shared this website with us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m bookmarking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Outstanding blog and great design.
48My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on a number of websites for about a year and am anxious about switching to another platform. I have heard great things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress content into it? Any help would be really appreciated!
49Amazing blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple adjustements would really make my blog stand out. Please let me know where you got your theme. Thanks a lot
50