Last night, my friend Ngan took me to the most incredible Cambodian restaurant called Angkor. Angkor is on a quite little street on the UES – on 64^th Street between First and York – not usually the street one has in mind to grab a bite to eat. Yet, when you enter, it’s special.  The vibe lacks that anxiety that is often present in restaurants re’s such a relaxed vibe in this restaurant  sometimes present in restaurants inherent in many restaurants (albeit unknowingly) and you feel like you’re sitting in someone’s living room. They have had a complicated past, yet seeing my Vietnamese friend and the Chef -Linh soomething I could related to when I break it down to the many similarities between mIndian background and our Pakistani friends, knowing that theirs a history of them not getting along, yet they are very similar from their culture to their values the food they eat. Troubled history between these 2 countries that sit side by side, yet you would never know it when you saw them in this spirited conversation between the 2 of them.

I haven’t eaten Cambodian food before, but having eaten Vietnamese food, the menu felt familiar.  There were all kinds of colorful curries and fiery salads. But what was new to me, was the chewy-yet-crisp Banh Chao. In essence, it’s a savory, stuffed crepe, but it’s so much more than that. The crepe is made of an eggless batter of coconut milk and rice flour which makes for an altogether lighter and more fragrant crepe . Shaped in a half-moon and tinged with turmeric-gold, a surprise that awaits inside; a filling of aromatic stir-fried ground pork with shrimp and crunchy bean sprouts. Whilst I have dined with many people who cast the bean sprouts aside, in this dish they are important for their hydrating crunch.