A Journey To Cambodia In The Bronx.

Snack Pack Giveaway!!!

I have a lot to unload for this newsletter…so hang tight! New York City currently has one Cambodian restaurant and I was pretty excited to go and chow down there, but there was one small problem. When I did my research on the restaurant I found out that it was a Cambodian sandwich concept restaurant that wasn’t owned by Cambodians. I’m sure their food was delicious + no offense to the owners, but if I’m going to sit down, spend money and then go write about the meal for this series I want the experience to be led by the people who own the cuisine. Opting out of visiting the restaurant threw me for a loop because now I had to scramble to recreate a dish. 

A month ago I was working in Massachusetts where there is a sizeable Cambodian community. I had delicious soups and noodles while there, but one of the more memorable things I ate was a Cambodian fried spring roll. It was tightly rolled like a cigar, extremely crunchy exterior while the interior was still moist and juicy. When jogging my memory for dishes to make this tasty appetizer/snack was the one that stood out the most. I had the dish…now I had to find the ingredients!

Phnom Penh noodle soup I had last month in Massachusetts.

In my search for a spring roll recipe (which I found many, but decided to take a bit from each one to create my own) I fell down a Cambodian internet wormhole. I found so many amazing food bloggers, ingredients to try, and found the address to a Cambodian-owned Asian grocery store…15 minutes from my house!! This was like a holiday miracle in the middle of May. I hopped in my car, got stuck in traffic for 25 minutes (lucky me driving into 3 pm rush hour!), and then finally made it to Battambang Market.

Off of Grand Concourse + Valentine.

Battambang Market is a very tiny super random Asian grocery store located in the Bronx. The area that it’s located in is predominantly Latino and Black. They sell all kinds of Asian foods, especially hard-to-find Asian vegetables, herbs + spices. They also sell a lot of Cambodian ingredients and condiments. 

Cambodian is generally an umbrella term that is used for several ethnic groups that live in Cambodia. The cuisine that I’m zoning in on is that of the Khmer people (pronounced KH-MAI). The Khmer people make up roughly 90% of the Cambodian population. Cambodia has a vibrant history and also a devastating one. In the 1970s an extreme Communist regime called The Khmer Rouge created a totalitarian and xenophobic state that orchestrated genocidal purges of Cambodians claiming to purge for ethnic purity and political dissonance. This mass genocide resulted in the death of 25% of the population - roughly over a million people. It is a heavy burden of history that Cambodians still carry today. This is primarily one of the reasons why I wanted to visit a restaurant owned by Khmer people-human atrocities like genocide are ways of eradicating a people’s culture including food culture. I think it’s important to let people tell their stories the way they want to and this includes their preparation of food.

At the market, I went a little crazy and bought more than just the ingredients for the spring rolls, but also lots of snacks and condiments. The owner of the grocery store was the nicest little old lady who I told I was making spring rolls and if she had any suggestions or tips. She and the store attendant both gave me solid advice and told me that making the filling was easy and not to overthink it. I took my bags stuffed to the brim with goodies to my car and made better timing coming home this go around.

Definitely bought some things that I didn’t quite need but definitely wanted to try 😅.

This recipe is super straight forward and you really can’t mess it up. I used all 25 wrappers that came in my package and still had a lot of filling left. You can freeze extra unfried spring rolls in the freezer and you can do the same for the filling. I’ll be using my extra filling for pork fried rice. You can serve these with sweet chili sauce, soy sauce with a splash of red vinegar, or Vietnamese fish sauce.

What you’ll need to make these crispy spring rolls.

Khmer Fried Spring Rolls

1 pound of ground pork (feel free to use ground chicken here if you’d like instead)

1 cup green cabbage, thinly chopped

3 spring onions, green parts only

½ medium yellow onion, diced + extra moisture squeezed out

1 large carrot, grated + extra moisture squeezed out

2 small bundles of glass noodles, boiled and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

½ teaspoon black pepper

Pack of thin spring roll wrappers

1 egg, for sealing

Frying oil

In a large bowl, you will mix the ground pork, cabbage, spring onions, onions, carrots, and noodles together until well incorporated. Mix in the seasonings.

Meat mixture.

Take a spring roll wrapper and lay it flat in front of you like a diamond. At the point that is closest to you add about 2 tablespoons of mixture. Take the wrapper point and cover the meat mix tightly and roll once. Take the right point of the diamond and bring it to the center. Do the same with the left point of the diamond. Continue to roll the mixture upwards away from you until you get an inch away from the top point of the diamond. Take the egg wash and spread a bit on the top point and proceed to close the spring roll. 

Tightly rolled spring rolls are ready for frying!

In a medium frying pan pour enough oil that is deep enough to fry your spring rolls. Fry two spring rolls at a time. Fry the rolls for 4 to 5 minutes or until deep golden brown. Enjoy immediately while hot.

Getting golden brown!

Nice crunchy exterior!

Delicious insides!

There’s a giveaway too! If you like this newsletter you’ll be entered to win a Food For Thought. Snack Pack! Winners will be announced next week. You must be a subscriber to win.

This Snack Pack could be yours! A little sweet and a little savory. The fried onions + garlic are great toppings for homemade ramen!

Cook. Eat. Repeat.

Natalie 💗✨