Cooking The Books

The Street Food of Cambodia - Boiled Crab

Name:  Boiled Crab

Time of Day:  Lunch and dinner, I guess

Location: Kep, in southern Cambodia

Cost: $5 for 9 crabs (1kg)

The Rest: We'd been told about the crabs here but when we turned up all the stalls only had BBQ squid and fish for sale.  Luckily some of our compatriots spoke a bit of Khmer and asking around led to a lady wading out into the sea, dragging a bamboo cage back with her and proceeding to grab a load of blue swimmer crabs from it.  Some bartering ensued (thanks to the Khmer speakers again) and before you knew it a well used saucepan was placed on to burning logs and the crabs were getting a bit restless on the quickly warming floor.  

There was no complex preparation - just crabs, saucepan and a bucketful of sea water - and a few minutes later we were presented with the crabs who had given up on the blue look and were now sporting a nice rosey complexion.  This was street food at its most basic, so much so that the lady didn't even have any tables.  Luckily for us a friendly food stall next door let us sit on theirs and provided us with some nuoc cham (fish sauce, lime, chili, sugar) to dip, a favour that worked out well for them as we only managed 5 crabs between us so they were given 4 when we left.

The crab itself was a delight - sweet and tender - and the sauce worked well.  Crab has an affinity with chili and here was no different, the sauce cut through the richness of the meat too and the salty fish sauce seasoned and added umami.  With seafood fresh is best and you don't get much fresher than this.  They were a pain to crack open with nothing but our teeth and hands but the effort was worth the reward and with the sea a few metres away the hands didn't stay dirty too long.

The Street Food of Vietnam - Com Tam

Name:  Com Tam

Time of Day:  All day

Location: Everywhere.  This one was in Chau Doc, the last town in the Mekong Delta before Cambodia.

Cost: 10,000 - 50,000 dong depending where you are and if it's street or restaurant

The Rest: Taking the barbecue concept and beefing it up (well porking it up really) is com tam.  If my sources are correct com tam means broken rice but it's the pork that's the main event.  No kebab this time but it's not missed too badly due to the freshly barbecued pork chop, slice of pork terrine, shredded pork skin and - if you're lucky - some pork stomach.  A veritable pork banquet all for about 30p and all for breakfast.

As this is more meal than snack (broken) rice provides carbs, pickled veg some nutrients, nuoc cham some saltiness and heat and soup some rehydration.  The one pictured was my last meal in Vietnam and also one of my favourites of my month there.

The Street Food of Vietnam - Thit Nuong

Name:  Thit Nuong

Time of Day:  Anytime

Location: Anywhere

Cost: The cheapest I saw were 2,500 dong each, the most expensive 15,000 - although they came with rice and pickled veg

The Rest: A lovely (for the person eating anyway) side effect of being in a poor country is, due to the lack of plumbed in gas and a dodgy electricity supply, lots of food is cooked over open fires.  Here the smoke filled flame gives heavily seasoned skewers of minced pork a flavour you just couldn't replicate with a different heat source. 

Eaten as a snack or with rice and some pickled veg as a meal you're onto a winner.

The Street Food of Saigon - Scallops and Razor Clams

Name:  Scallops and Razor Clams

Time of Day:  Afternoon and evening

Location: Quite a few places, this was next to the bia hoi joint on Bui Vien St (in the backpacker district)

Cost: 20,000 dong each plate (so next to nothing, 70p maybe)

The Rest: I'd seen them dragged from the ocean in obscene number so it was no surprise to see them gracing the pavements of Saigon.  Even used to Nam prices I was pleasantly surprised by the cheapness though, we're talking less than 10p a scallop or razor clam.  After near 7 months away I'm used to street eating but still the sight of raw seafood sat in 30 deg heat does scare me a bit.  I'm still standing though and they were damn tasty.  Plus if they made people ill they'd soon lose custom.

For the second time this trip the scallops came with peanut and spring onion with the cooking coming from a grill.  They're not flavours that I'd immeditaely think of with the king of seafoods but it worked nicely, the salty peanuts seasoning and adding texture and the onion's sweetness complementing that of the scallops.

The razor clams were more heavily flavoured, but then they have more flavour to start with so can stand up to things a bit more.  These heavy flavourings were a mass of garlic, a little chili and then a dipping sauce of salt, pepper and chili with a quarter of lime to moisten.  This dip - sometimes just salt and black pepper with lime - hadn't been encountered by me before this trip but I've seen it a few times now.  It works wonders, both with seafood and with steak - especially barbecued - so it's definitely one I'll be repeating at home.  The razor clams were firm and sweet and I found all of them edible, sometimes with bigger razor clams the black sack (stomach I guess) has been to gritty but here it went down fine.

Great street food at a great price.  What makes it even better is you can order from the stall and have it delivered to your table in the bar next door ready to be washed down with 10,000 dong (30p) a big bottle beer.

The Street Food of Vietnam - Mi Quang

Name:  Mi Quang
Time of Day:  Evening Meal
Location: The back streets of Nha Trang but you see it all around central Vietnam
Cost: 20,000 dong
The Rest: Mi quang is a speciality of central Vietnam.  I tried to buy some in Hoi An and when I failed I thought my chances were up.  Luckily I spotted some whilst scootering around the streets near Nha Trang market and so we had to try it.

The most distinguishing feature of mi quang, and one completely missed in my photo, is the bright yellow rice noodles, dyed a lurid tone with turmeric.  Outside of that it's a reasonably standard noodle soup, albeit one packed with meaty goodness - here we had pork knuckle and two minced pork loaves.  As frequently happens a couple of hardboiled quail eggs made an appearance too.  The spicy and sweet broth is topped off with ground peanuts and crushing one or two of the green chilies against the bowl adds welcome heat and the lime balances the sweetness.

Not much more to say really, but if you stuck for food in Nam and you see Mi Quang written on a restaurant or street stall now you know what to expect.