Where Philly’s Cambodian Community Leaders Go to Eat
"At the Southeast Asian Market, Philadelphians and hungry travelers from Maryland, Delaware, New York, and New Jersey meet and mingle among dozens of tents selling Khmer street food, fresh sugarcane juice, and tropical fruit smoothies, spices, and fermented shrimp pastes made by aunties and home cooks. On the shortlist of must-eats: grilled steak on a stick, deboned Cambodian chicken wings stuffed with meats and glass noodles, nom banchok (Khmer rice noodles in a light green curry with chicken and fish, topped with crunchy banana blossoms and a sugary chili crisp), ansorm chhrouk (tender pork belly and mung bean encased in sticky rice, best sliced and fried with fish sauce), Cambodian pork rolls, and steamed beef tripe and spleen with cabbage and cucumber salad and addictive anchovy peanut lime sauce. Move onto sweets like plae aie (sweet mochi-like balls stuffed with palm sugar and shredded coconut); coconut and black sesame rice cake; sweet banana sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and toasted on the grill; and crispy fried bananas fresh from a wok the size of a bass drum. The weekend market is open Saturday and Sunday from April through October." - Diana Lu
