Greetings. While I have had a hard time finding good places to get a vegetarian meal locally, I know there are some real gems around. For this reason I thought I'd start a resource: listings and reviews of local restaurants, geared solely with an eye to their vegetarian offerings. Here's number 1: Phnom Penh. I'll be putting this onto the Web over the next few weeks, and I will probably also post new reviews here. I'm hoping to have separate sections for reviews and (shorter) comments. Please let me know if you are interested in such a resource. I'd be grateful for any leads or reviews: I will make them available on the Web (URL's are welcome!). Thanks and enjoy, Ethan =================================== Phnom Penh ---------- My wife told me it was great, but first impressions leave a little to be desired at this tiny Downtown restaurant. It¹s clean but small and plain. It¹s also pretty well hidden! The very large mirror on the wall probably helps to avoid a cramped feeling, but it also puts a bit of a chill in the air. So here¹s what I recommend: don¹t go there for the atmosphere‹-go there for the food. We quickly found the the service to be friendly and efficient. The menu is simple, with one page each of Cambodian and Chinese fare. At the bottom is the amazing, wonderful, almost-unprecendented-in-Pittsburgh line, ³All Entrees are available VEGETARIAN². Good God, do you mean I can order anything that I want to? Sigh. It looks like I¹ve died and gone to veggie heaven. The Chinese side is full of the usual sorts of stuff: Kung Pao, General Tsao¹s chicken. Looks fine but we¹re feeling adventurous and tonight we both order from the Cambodian side of the menu. Melanie ordered the Moarn Chha Jee (Light brown spicy sauce with whole basil leaves, bell peppers onions, mushrooms and carrots). I got Moarn Chha Kreung (Hot lemongrass sauce with vegetables). If you are as cowardly as I am, you can order by number, or just point. They¹ll even tell you how to pronounce it if you ask. Each entree comes with a vegetarian spring roll and soup. The spring rolls are delicious, not oily, and come with a light, clear dipping sauce which was slightly sweet. They are tiny, and have a high ratio of wrapper to contents. It was close, but Chinese on Carson keeps the honor of my favorite vegetarian spring rolls in town. The soup was a spicy broth with mushrooms and cilantro; a delightful combination and an excellent tantalizer for the palate. We asked for vegetarian soup, and that¹s what we got; I don¹t know what it¹s called. I¹ve heard that the lemongrass soup is at least as good, and though the default version comes with chicken, it appears that a vegetarian version is available. Our soup didn't seem to have a meat or chicken broth, but language incompatibilities made it difficult to receive any assurance on this from the waitress. When the main dishes arrived, we were a bit sceptical, for they looked remarkably similar to one another. Both featured the same vegetables (green pepper, baby corn, mushrooms, carrots and onions) and had light, cornstarch-thickened sauces. But they had very different flavors. The Moarn Chha Jee had whole basil leaves and a delicate spicy taste, not much bite (none at all to my palate, but I like it hotter than some). The Moarn Chha Kreung which had a delightful lemongrass flavor, and was also quite mild. Both were delicious. We asked for and received some tea, which was rather like Chinese Jasmine. The same menu serves for lunch and dinner, with only the prices changing. The value is very good: vegetarian dishes are all $6.95 for dinner and $5.25 for lunch, including soup, a spring roll, and rice as appropriate. Other interesting Cambodian offerings include curry (red or green) and several rice-noodle dishes. It¹s not the place to take a date you want to impress but I¹d recommend it for an inexpensive and tasty lunch or dinner any time you find yourself downtown. And if you don¹t find yourself downtown too often, it¹ll serve as a good reason to get there. Phnom Penh (sorry, I didn¹t ask how to pronounce the name- but in my household, we just pretend that the initial ³Ph² is silent): 410 First Avenue (it's parallel to and between the Boulevard of the Allies and Fort Pitt Boulevard.) (412) 261-4166; 11am to 9pm, Monday through Saturday; delivery available. ==================================== Ethan _____________ Ethan Benatan [email removed] http://www.pitt.edu/~ethan
Pittsburgh, PA