Archive for 'Cambodian'

6 Packs and Spicy Raw Beef at Khmer Sweet Basil

Khmer Sweet Basil is a 6 month old Cambodian and Beer take out spot (with a pretty decent beer election). A combo that would only fit in South Philly. The small amount of seating required a take out order, but the real issue was the insanely long wait for our order. We were told everything is made fresh as we waited. Most customers stopping in were looking for beer. Maybe the kitchen wasn’t ready for food seeking customers? Read more »

I DO Heart Cambodia

My Cambodian dining experiences around Philadelphia have been largely positive, save for some corn starchy frog legs. When I read about I Heart Cambodia’s opening and later, saw the menu on their Instagram account, I immediately yearned for another Khmer adventure. Luckily, a friend with a car and identical taste for Asian food was able to take me.

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Top Lunches of 2013

I am a big pig and have eaten hundreds of exciting lunches this past year. I am both grossed out and proud of myself when looking back at all the damage. I wrangled up my favorites of 2013 to share.

January started the year off strong, with peirogi’s from Donna’s smokey bar, Caribbean platters from Little Delicious, tom yom beef jerky from Ratchada, and the gooey mac and cheese brisket sandwich from MeltKraft.

In February, the Uzbeki meal from Samarkand was pretty legendary.

Taco truck, Taco El Rodeo was a pleasant surprise in April.

Pennsylvania 6 did the fancy business lunch right for me in May. Less fancy, but still satisfying: Poi Dog cart’s fried chicken and Campo’s monster of a meat sandwich called “The Stockyard”. Plus, this month brought the opening of Sizzling Woks (called Xi’an Famous Foods then), which meant slippery, spicy liang pi noodles in my mouth.

In June, I was obsessing over the lamb tacos at Border Springs Farm.

The meatball sandwich at Corner Foodery and the beef sandwich at Pura Vida were stand outs. Slightly more upscale, I loved the grilled pastrami and mac and cheese at Twisted Tail.

The meaty torta from American Sardine Bar and meaty burrito bowl from Animo  provided tasty protein in August.

September is beautiful in Philly. Perfect for a picnic provided by Talula’s Daily. I was also overjoyed to find pupusas at Tamalex. I also ate a large amount of pork from Freddy and Tony’s.

The sandwiches at El Soto and cheesy tacos from Quetzally satiated Mexican cravings for October. I was also in love with the bread from High Street and much of the Cambodian snacks at Kavei Express.

Rounding out the year; in the past 2 months I was impressed by the dim sum at Wokano, the Godfather sandwich from Cosmis, and the soup dumplings from I-Green.

I think its time for a salad. Please keep your fingers crossed that I fit in to my New Year’s Eve dress tonight. So- What were your favorite lunches this year?

Kavei Express Switching to Angkor Thom, Expanding the Cambodian Menu

Over 2 years ago, I visited Kavei Express and was really blown away by their fried Cambodian dumplings. When I returned to try more, I saw that the menu is completely different. Then I found out that new owners took over a few months ago and will soon be changing the name of the restaurant to Angkor Thom.  The new menu is much more expansive and comes with helpful English translations.

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Frogs and Tripe at New Phnom Penh

I was in the mood for soup and the soups at New Phnom Penh were recommended by friends. I have had some great Cambodian meals in Philly so it seemed promising.

Inside, the small restaurant has a whole garden of plants lining the window and on our visit, There’s Something About Mary played on the television.

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Find Cambodian Lemongrass Meat Sticks and a Soup Piñata at Angkor Restaurant in a North East Shopping Plaza

Angkor Restaurant is a Cambodian restaurant located north and east of Center City in the Lawncrest area. Angkor can be found inside a shopping mall that also hosts a grocery store and a few other South East Asian dining spots. Angkor has a pretty big menu with authentic and potentially unfamiliar dishes. Its the kind of place you should head to with a group of open minded friends. Just be warned, there is no alcohol and for some reason they do not allow BYO. Basically a whole new meaning for beer tears is happening at Angkor.  But their food mostly makes up for that ridiculous policy.

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Cambodian Dumplings at Kavei Express

While doing some Cambodian food exploring in South Philly, we came across Kavei Express, a month old Cambodian fast foodish restaurant. This should not be confused with the Kavei on Oregon Ave, also a Cambodian restaurant, which has closed.

Fruit smoothies dominated the menu, but more interesting were the combo platter options offering rice and an entree for $4, rice and 2 entrees for $5, etc, etc. A steam table displayed many of those entree possibilities, including fried fish, a pork curry, and other meat with vegetable preparations.   Pictures of 4 different soups with no English explanations would have normally called out to me, but I had just finished an outdoor adventure involving a crazy Cambodian stew with unidentifiable meat products and pickled baby eggplant, so I needed to scale back on the adventurousness level.  Among the few English words on the side dish section of the menu, Kavei Dumplings was the safe choice I was looking for.

Menu and Dumpling pictures, after the jump

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