Phnom-e-non

2/28/2008: Woke up in Chau Doc feeling much better(!) and hopped aboard a swift boat [video] headed north, up the Mekong river and into Cambodia. We were detained delayed briefly at the border when one of the Canadian's in our group was pulled aside by the guards for having a suspect looking passport (it accidentally went thru the wash a few months back, and is rather beat up). You really have to keep an eye on those neighbors of ours from the north! After some international relations - read: cash exchange - we were back on our boat headed up the river. Jessica & I were enjoying the sights from the back deck of the boat, when suddenly we heard a rather loud thunk! Did we hit something? Did some luggage fall off? The boat driver promptly killed the engine to inspect what was wrong. Forty-five minutes later, and a couple of hundred meters drifting back south in the currents of the Mekong, the capt and his first mate finally pulled this off the back end of the boat and up on deck (John Kerry would *not* be impressed!) We limped downstream back to the border checkpoint, and in no time a new boat arrived and we were off to Phnom Penh.

Dinner: Frizz's in Phnom Penh, Table-side grilling, Cambodian-style. Fish, chicken, beef, and veggies.

JM - We met up with another couple in our tour group and partook of this particular restaurant's specialty. They brought out a cast-iron pot loaded with red hot coals, topped it with an iron grill and showed us the ropes. We dipped the raw meat into a bowl of raw eggs and then threw it on the grill. The veggies followed. We plucked the food off the grill once it was done to our liking, dipped it into a yummy peppery, lemony sauce and enjoyed.

BDM - Agreed. The stomach was back in the game for this one, and it enjoyed every last morsel. Plus the tabletop charcoal grillin' had a fun fondue-ish social aspect to it. Beer was bottled cold and tasted good too!

Phnom Penh Day 2

We were originally set to tour the Toul Sleng (S-21) prison--the notorious prison where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned, tortured and killed thousands of Cambodians--but upon arrival discovered it was closed. Why was it closed? It turns out the chief commander of the prison during the genocide, who has been in prison himself since being captured in the late 90s, is finally being prosecuted for his involvement and for the first time was returning to the prison and taking officials around to recount what took place there. Talk about an historical day.

Our tour group headed out to Choeung Ek (the killing fields) just outside of Phnom Penh to witness and pay tribute to the largest of the mass grave sites in the country. It was here that the prisoners from Toul Sleng were brought, women and children included, to be killed. It seems trite to talk about this here, but we wanted to mention it nonetheless.

Lunch: Friends, Cambodian-style chicken curry, crispy (not 'rispy') wontons with shrimp

JM: This restaurant was similar to Koto in Hanoi in that it is staffed by disadvantaged kids who are taught how to run a restaurant. We ordered a chicken curry, crispy shrimp wontons and some sweet potato fries. The fries weren't good, so we didn't bother cataloguing them, but the curry and wontons were passable, if nothing extraordinary. Still I really enjoyed supporting the cause.

BDM - Curry? Already? Such a stereotypical thai flavor, I was really excited to see this on the menu. Good coconut milk flavor, and it has whetted my appetite for more curries as we approach the curry motherland (oh wait, is that India?)

Dinner: RomDang. Fried tarantulas & Fish Amok

JM: This one's for you Jeff!! RomDang is a sister restaurant to Friends, but the menu was so much better! Now that BDM was back in full form, we decided to dive in with the fried tarantulas. I was apprehensive at first, but after a shot of honey flavored Khmer style rice wine, it was go time! And much to my surprise, I really enjoyed these suckers. Fried up they taste a lot like soft shell crab. The meat of the body was very similar and the outside was crispy and crunchy like a soft shell crab. I wouldn't order this everyday, but I definitely enjoyed it beyond the novelty factor.

Fish Amok is a Khmer specialty, so we had to give it a go at this place. It's fish steamed in banana leaves with coconut milk, lemongrass and various other spices. The last time I had this was when I was in Cambodia in 2004 and got a nasty bout of food poisoning and missed Angkor Wat...so I wasn't sure if I was ready to revisit it on the eve of once again visiting the temples. But it was delicious and I woke up tummy ache free.

BDM - A special shout out to my sister Meaghan on her 24th birthday - and what better way to celebrate her birthday from abroad than by eating a fried version of her mortal enemy?? These arachnids are fried at a pretty high temp such that all the hair on their 8 legs was completely singed away by the time the appetizer arrived in front of us. Honestly, it doesn't taste like much at all (chicken anyone?), more of a carrier for the very tasty lime/black pepper/salt dipping sauce that came with.