Kampuchea Noodle Bar

[Fat Guy]

"Cambodian Cuisine," the restaurant on Third Avenue between 93rd and 94th Streets that used to be in Fort Greene, is now open, making the number of Cambodian restaurants in New York City two. I walked in today and picked up a copy of the menu. There were customers eating there. It's an attractive two-level space and at first glance the menu seems similar to the Brooklyn menu. I'll try to go in soon for a meal and will start a new topic then, unless someone else beats me to it.

[Sneakeater]

It can't possibly be as ridiculously cheap as it was in Brooklyn, can it?

[Fat Guy]

The menu with prices is on the restaurant's website:

http://cambodiancuisinenyc.com

I'll start a new topic for discussion of Cambodian Cuisine soon.

[Fat Guy]

So Kampuchea finally got reviewed today, in the New York Times, in "$25 and Under." It's a double review, shared with the other Cambodian place. It's the first review in the Times I've seen by a woman named Ligaya Mishan, who also writes some of those little reviews in the New Yorker.

One thing that irritated me about the review was the tired old harping about "authenticity," for example:

Kampuchea isn’t even really Cambodian

and

To serve authentic food seems less of a priority than to appeal to the young and restless who haunt the Lower East Side. The grilled corn and chili mayonnaise, sticky with coconut ($6), is more South American than Southeast Asian.

Not that I care whether Kampuchea is authentic or not, as long as it's good (and I'm older and well rested, and live uptown), but about two seconds with Google and the phrase "Cambodian grilled corn" yields dozens of recipes for poat dot, aka Cambodian grilled corn. For example this one was published in the Washington Post recently and most definitely includes coconut.

(Note: Ratha and I have become BFFs as I've tracked Kampuchea over the past year, and the restaurant is hosting my book-release party next month)

[Daniel]

Seemed to be a lot more critical of Kampuchea then the other restaurant.. Though, it also received more attention.

[Fat Guy]

Had an excellent lunch at Kampuchea, and particularly enjoyed a dish I hadn't tried before and ordered on account of some lingering vegetarianism at the table: a Cambodian-style crepe with shiitake mushrooms, edamame and chunks of butternut squash.

[weinoo]

Wife and I had lunch here yesterday - I don't know how long the "lunch menu" has been available, and it doesn't have anything ground breaking on it, but what it offers are gentler prices on many of the same dishes that are on the regular menu.

So, we shared the organic chicken salad, the chicken noodle soup and a catfish sandwich...all really good (especially the sandwich), and I think the quality and consistency have really stepped up.

[BryanZ]

I first tried Kampuchea's cuisine at Fat Guy's Asian Dining Rules book release party a few weeks ago. I sampled enough that I felt the need to go back for a full meal.

On Halloween I stopped by, costume and all, with several friends. We ordered a light meal from all the sections on the menu. Sandwich sampler, sweetbreads, catfish crepe, tamarind ribs, cold noodle salad, braised oxtail stew.

On the whole, I found the food to be quite enjoyable. Nothing really groundbreaking, but solid throughout. The ribs are quite tasty, very tender. Noodle salad showed a nice array of ingredients while still staying light. I really liked the flavor of the oxtail, but I'm not convinced this is the best cut of beef to use because it's so cumbersome to eat. You really need to pick up the pieces and pick to get all the meat off the bone. I like the amount of gelatin the oxtail seems to contribute to the stew, I'm just not sure serving them whole is the best way to go about doing it.

Service was fine, the food came out quickly, but our server was completely unfamiliar with the short wine list. Rather than send a manager over immediately--this happened later--she tried to relay information about potential selections between my party and staff members with more wine knowledge. This was kind of awkward.

I definitely see myself going back here. The five of us spent about $35 each, including an inexpensive bottle of wine. I'm a little bit afraid I might get bored with the menu--there is a good deal redundancy in proteins, for instance--but for now this take on Cambodian cooking is novel for me.

[Fat Guy]

I'll divide this post into two parts: first a quick report on the food served at the pre-release party for my book, ASIAN DINING RULES, which I hardly got to taste; and second some comments on Bryan's post. I should preface all this by saying that Kampuchea hosted my book-release party, which in plain language means that Ratha Chau threw me an awesome party for free. I should also note that when Bryan says "I sampled enough that I felt the need to go back for a full meal" he means he was the seven-foot-tall guy parked right by where all the food came out of the kitchen (where, coincidentally, most of the eGullet people at the party congregated).

There were not a ton of food photos taken at the party, because the photography was mostly about me mugging with various guests (you can see it here in all its shamelessness if you're a glutton for punishment), however our photographer did capture a few food images.

These are the tamarind baby-back ribs, made from Duroc pork. They're served with a lime-cilantro dressing.

These are, in process, miniature versions of the num pang (sandwiches) that appear on the restaurant's menu and that are also forming the core of the menu at the Cambodian sandwich offshoot that Kampuchea is soon opening. This one is with grilled cauliflower atop eggplant spread:

And this one is with honey-soy peppercorn catfish:

These are deviled eggs with sambal chiles and scallions, topped with miniature fried anchovies:

Corn fritters with rice flour crust and a honey-chile drizzle:

Desserts were provided by the Mehtani Restaurant Group, the Indian-restaurant group based in Edison, New Jersey, about which I've written plenty (Kampuchea doesn't do desserts):

Here we have Ratha Chau and Scott Burnett, the co executive chefs and partners at Kampuchea:

There were a bunch of other things served at the party that were not photographed. Maybe Bryan remembers some of them. For me it was like an accelerated version of a wedding where you never get to eat anything at your own wedding (I think I had about half a sandwich and a deviled egg).

Anyway, back to Bryan's comments about the food at Kampuchea. I think, based on his order, his comments mostly make sense, though I'm particularly interested in his impressions of the sweetbread dish upon which he has yet to elaborate. I think of Kampuchea much the same way I think about Momofuku Noodle Bar: the menu covers the spectrum from hearty-rustic to haute-refined. I'd place most of Bryan's picks towards the hearty-rustic end of the spectrum, save for the sweetbreads which I think are more towards the haute-refined end.

For those interested in the more haute-refined items on the menu, the ones I recommend from the current crop are:

The spicy organic chicken salad with cabbage, shallots, bell peppers and crushed peanuts. I've had this twice now and think it's way beyond anything the name of the dish -- "chicken salad" -- implies.

The seared sweetbreads with shiitake mushroom broth, enoki mushrooms and basil salad

The seared monkfish liver with beef jus, macerated spicy red plums, pickled daikons and basil.

The thinly sliced house-cured duck breast with shaved green papaya, dried shrimp, basil salad and lime-chili dressing.

The whole head-on grilled Spanish mackerel with lime-lemongrass Thai chile dip (if you like mackerel).

The sauteed-in-rum blue crabs with chives, red onions and honey soy sauce. These are a pain to eat and don't yield a lot of meat but are delicious.

The crispy pork belly with honey, scallions and apple cider. Lined up as four cubes on a rectangular plate, this is the most refined presentation of any dish on the menu, and it's one of the best pork-belly dishes I've had.

Balancing that out with some of the more rustic dishes on the menu, I'd recommend some sandwiches above others. I think the best deployment of oxtail on the menu is in sandwich form not the stew (I agree with Bryan that the stew is unwieldy enough to deter me from ordering it again). The sandwich contains sweet pulled oxtail meat with a tamarind-shrimp sauce (plus the standard toppings of pickled carrots, cucumbers, cilantro and chile mayo). It is awesome. Also impressive is "The Kampuchea," with house-made pork pate and headcheese terrine. Were I getting a three-sandwich tasting I'd get those two plus the house-cured bacon with charred whole pickled Thai chiles and red onion. Although, the veal meatballs are a serious contender as well.

My usual noodle order is what I think Bryan got: chilled flat noodles with seared chili tiger shrimp, crispy pork belly, chives, cucumber, lettuce hearts, hoisin and chile sauce. I think now that it's winter, on my next visit I'll try the Duroc pork katiev (pronounced "k'thee-yew"), which is a hot soup with flat noodles, pork broth, braised pork belly, salted pork shoulder, sauteed pickled mustard greens, sprouts and herbs . I haven't tried it yet.

Last week four of us went and ordered an insane amount of food, five beers and a fruit juice and the tab was $170.

[BryanZ]

I should also note that when Bryan says "I sampled enough that I felt the need to go back for a full meal" he means he was the seven-foot-tall guy parked right by where all the food came out of the kitchen (where, coincidentally, most of the eGullet people at the party congregated).

What can I say, we know how to work a room.

These are the tamarind baby-back ribs, made from Duroc pork. They're served with a lime-cilantro dressing.

The tamarind, lime, and cilantro combo is pretty killer, sour, faintly sweet, herbal.

For those interested in the more haute-refined items on the menu, the ones I recommend from the current crop are:

The spicy organic chicken salad with cabbage, shallots, bell peppers and crushed peanuts. I've had this twice now and think it's way beyond anything the name of the dish -- "chicken salad" -- implies.

The seared sweetbreads with shiitake mushroom broth, enoki mushrooms and basil salad                                           

                         

The seared monkfish liver with beef jus, macerated spicy red plums, pickled daikons and basil.

The thinly sliced house-cured duck breast with shaved green papaya, dried shrimp, basil salad and lime-chili dressing. 

The whole head-on grilled Spanish mackerel with lime-lemongrass Thai chile dip (if you like mackerel).

The sauteed-in-rum blue crabs with chives, red onions and honey soy sauce. These are a pain to eat and don't yield a lot of meat but are delicious.

The crispy pork belly with honey, scallions and apple cider. Lined up as four cubes on a rectangular plate, this is the most refined presentation of any dish on the menu, and it's one of the best pork-belly dishes I've had.

Ha, these were many of the dishes I wanted to order but due to my friends' preferences I couldn't order as freely as I would've liked--no mushrooms, no shellfish, limited offal, ahhhh. Even the sweetbreads were a hard sell. I'll say the sweetbread dish was good, but maybe a bit flat. I wanted a bit more. The basil and thai chile hinted at this, but it wasn't a total home run. Maybe I thought the broth was a bit too much for the sweetbread. A good dish, but I wasn't in love.

Although, the veal meatballs are a serious contender as well.

I'm really into veal meatballs these days. I had only the smallest bite, but these struck me as quite light and pleasant.

I think now that it's winter, on my next visit I'll try the Duroc pork katiev (pronounced "k'thee-yew"), which is a hot soup with flat noodles, pork broth, braised pork belly, salted pork shoulder, sauteed pickled mustard greens, sprouts and herbs . I haven't tried it yet.

This sounded awesome, but I wanted to try the oxtail, as it felt a bit more interesting.