Tuk Trey

Happy Cambodian New Year!!!!

I have thinking about my heritage lately. Currently, I am participating in CACO's Oral History Project in light of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal that is (finally) taking place. 24 years I have lived among survivors who have never told their story. This coming month, I will sit face to face with my grandmother and help her tell her story. A story that I've only heard bits and pieces of. One that will be hard to tell, but cannot be hidden in the shadows or brushed under the rug. I am eager and proud to be participating in this important part of my heritage.

If you don't know anything about the Khmer Rouge. Google it.

So I've been thinking about all sorts of it. Cambodian stuff. I Netflixed The Killing Fields and City of Ghosts. Y'know, just to get in that depressing "my peeeooplllee!!" mood. I called my mother. I almost lit a little incense in a little bowl of rice and left an offering of fruit and coconut soda on the back porch, like I did as a kid. And, as I often do, I started thinking about Cambodian food.

Since I have moved out of my mother's house, the food in my house has not been the same. How I miss the giant pot of long jasmine rice, always plentiful and waiting, aromatic and sturdy. If I was ever hungry I would open the fridge and leftover Kha would be waiting for me, a soupy sweet caramelized pork dish with hard boiled eggs. And on those lucky days I had the flu, Mee Maam(not Cambodian, just what I have called my mother), would make Ginger Chicken Babaw (In Chinese, Congee): Rice porridge, scallions, ginger, and fermented soybeans. Cambodian food for the soul.

I miss it, badly.

Most of all, I miss a very potent dish, something that is not for the fainted hearted. Amok. To be... cautious... is a Cambodian seafood quiche. To be frank, it is a salted fish custard that is served with cabbage and other sorts of crudite. To me, its fucking delicious. I am also sure I can convince other people it is delicious too.

So, why is there no Cambodian restaurant in Portland?

This led me on a google adventure. I looked up recipes, compared them to how Mom makes it or Maht-Yeay(actual Cambodian, what I call my grandmother). I reminisced and tasted by reading, completely indulging in the recipe as if i were shoveling it into my mouth. There wasn't enough. I wanted Cambodian food.

And then I stumbled upon this old article:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_drink/2007/06/26/khmer_food/index.html

very interesting. and also, just more drive for my whimsical fantasy of the future.
There is no silly judgemental write-up I can offer you on some "divy" Cambodian restaurant. Perhaps one day there will be.

Soor S'Day Chnnam Tmeay

Also: Tuk Trey = Fish sauce