Mondol Kiri in the 13th

Last time I was in Paris, I discovered this Cambodian restaurant. I had never seen a Cambodian restaurant before, so I was very curious about the kind of food Cambodians ate. Finally, today, I had a chance to try some.

I'm not sure if this a cultural thing or it's only at this restaurant, but they gave me a hot towel to clean my hands. I'm only wondering if it is cultural because they do the same thing in every restaurant in Korea. If they don't normally do this, it's a bit odd, right? They also brought out a free amuse-bouche.

It was two parts : a cone made from spring roll dough, and a small flower-shaped bowl made from a similar dough - the only difference is that there were black sesame seeds. Inside the bowl was peas, corn, spices and pork. Although they must have used grease to fry the dough, I could not taste or feel the grease. The bowl had extremely strong flavours, surprising for such a small bite. The black sesame seeds really stood out.

For the appetiser of my dinner formule, I took satay. There were two beef ones and two chicken ones with a translucent peanut sauce. The flavour of the sauce was strong, but not too strong. The chicken satay was not special and needed the sauce, but the beef ones were juicy and tasted good even without the sauce.

When the food came out, there was a mysterious package.

It was a bamboo container with a plastic bag inside.

If you opened the bag, there was a purple-ish rice.

The beef had sweet bell peppers, onions, holy basil, peppercorns and beef. The basil added a nice flavour at the beginning, but by the end, it was too strong.

For dessert, it was the dessert of the day. This worried me. I expected a custard, which is traditional in Thailand (see below) and I do not like Asian custards. They have a strange texture that I cannot get over and this was no exception. There was hard bits of custard intermixed and this texture really did not agree with my mouth. I could only eat half.

My curiosity for Cambodian cuisine has been sated. What I ate tonight, assuming it is authentic, is the same as Thai food. I know that they share a border, but ... I expected something more different. Vietnam also shares a border and their food is a little different. Still, the food was relatively cheap for dinner and delicious. I definitely want to go back here another night.

This is also my last entry about a restaurant in France for a while.