Gourmet Vegetarian Food in Cambodia- Who Knew?

3/30

I meant to get up at 6 a.m. to start going around to the temples by bicycle early in the day but didn't even hear my alarm.  I still got up early, about 8:20 a.m., because I couldn't go back to sleep even though I was still tired.  After a Coke Light to wake me up, I wrote and messed around online for several hours.  Heading out, I ate lunch and bought a Cambodian SIM card so I could call my Mom. 

At 4 p.m. I met Chris and Amarita at their hotel to go out to Chong Kneas, a floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake.  We were driving out in the van they rented with their guide when it broke down.  By the time the guide- who laughs creepily, especially when he doesn't know something or have a good answer for why he screwed up- got another car to come pick us up (about 25 minutes), Amarita and Chris didn't want to go because they would miss the sunset so we just went into the Old Market area to look around and have dinner at the vegetarian restaurant, Chamkar.

It was actually really, really good.  It was definitely gourmet food, but cheap.  Mains were around $5-6.  The spring rolls and sauce were particularly fresh and tasty- I think it was the basil that made it so light.  All the flavors were expertly combined and innovative.  My Aunt asked to buy a copy of the menu since it was so interesting so the owner, a Frenchman who was no longer the chef but had created the dishes, came out and talked with us for a while all about Cambodian ingredients and told us a good restaurant to go to in Phnom Penh.  He also made us a dish that wasn't on the menu but was better than any of the mains we had ordered: sauteed Cambodian spinach with soy sauce and a bit of garlic.  I don't even like spinach, but this kind tasted a bit different, and somehow just felt comforting and homey. 

From Old Market, we went back to their hotel, and then their guide drove me and my bicycle back into town, as I was uncomfortable bicycling back in the dark along one stretch of empty road, and dropped me off at the Night Market.  I'd been by it before and had thought it looked slightly interesting but I now realized it wasn't.  It was a crappy, overpriced souvenir bazaar.  The part of it and reason I'd thought it would be good was just a smaller food area next door, which was mostly closed at night.