YummY! - Nom Pang (Cambodian Baguette) @ Street Side, Phnom Penh

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NOM PANG (CAMBODIAN BAGUETTE) STREET FARE

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

On my third night of my business trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia I was wandering the streets looking for something to eat when I noticed some well-patronized street stalls at a junction of Monivong Boulevard.

There were three stalls there, from right - a stall selling Nom Pang (Cambodian Baguette), second one was selling fried noodles, whilst the third one was selling blended fruit juices. Very often, in major Cambodian cities, one will find the combination of these three types of stall at street corners, or at the least the Nom Pang and fruit juice stalls.

These stalls were comparatively clean by Cambodian standards. The operators and servers even had orange T-shirts uniforms. The servers were friendly and chatty. And I was able to converse with them in my limited Cambodian, and they in their limited English.

I started off with the Nom Pang stall. Mai the operator was had a charming smile, and explained to me the way to order. Either a set or ala carte.

Nom Pang basically is a baguette sandwich, filled with minced pork lathered with the Cambodian version of kaya (coconut/egg jam) and served with pickles, fresh salad and slices of ham, and luncheon meat (Cambodian flavored, of course).

I ordered the standard set, and Mai was quick in whipping it up.

To go with the food, I went over to the juice stall to get some drinks. They had a wide array of fruits to choose from. A couple of blenders were there for alternate blending to provide faster service. There is even a gizmos to seal the caps onto the plastic cups for take-aways.

The fruits available were surprisingly many - durians, mangos, egg-plants, cikus, yam, honey-dews, papayas, jack-fruits, longans, oranges, apples, avocados, etc. What fruit to add to the mix is up to one's selection and individual taste. These are blended with ice and milk. I went for a mix of nangka, cikus and yam.

The Nom Pang set came, it was half a baguette, served with a few slices of meat, some fresh salad & pickles. The salad consisst of cucumber strips, spring onion and tomato slices. The pickles were a few mini cucumbers and shredded radish & carrot. 

Underneath the Nom Pang, were four slices of meat - a slice of processed ham, one slice of meat cake and two slices of luncheon meat. They were a bit tough and fairly tasteless, I think that some flour were mixed in when making them.

I peeled opened the Nom Pang proper, inside were a fair helping of minced pork buttered up with the kaya. The minced pork was salty and together with the sweet kaya made the combination what Asians would refer to as "1/2 salty - 1/2 sweet taste". The baguette itself was nice, soft on the inside with a thin layer of crispy crust.

The blended juice came in a medium-tall glass. The taste of the nangka (jack-fruit) and cikus (Manilkara zapota) were strong, and I could taste a hint of the yam. The yam however made the mix consistency thicker. Overall a superb drink!

Finishing the first set, I was still hungry. The amount of food from the set was more like a quantity for snacks or for tea-time repast. I ordered a couple more of the Nom Pangs - just the sandwiches without the extras.

Even after wolfing down three Nom Pangs, I was still slightly hungry. So I popped over to the noodles stall to see what they have to offer. They have fried noodles, this would be a bit to heavy for me as a top-up meal. Fortunately, they also sell sell pork broth. Not the normal pork, but what aficionados will term spare parts pork - broth with large intestines, etc. This is one of my favorites, so I ordered a bowl.

The broth came & it looks YummY! Inside were some deep-fried  soy-seasoned large pig's intestines, cubes of cooked coagulated pig's blood and slices of black Chinese mushrooms. Fried garlic and spring onion garnished the dish. I asked for more garlic and powdered pepper as I like my broth peppery hot. A delicious dish to complete my meal.

Prices :
- Nom Pang Set : 3,000 riels
- Nom Pang (x2) : 4,000 riels
- Pork Broth         : 6,000 riels
- Blended Juice  : 3,500 riels
                  Total : 16,500 riels  or USD 4-10 (at exchange rate 1USD = 4,000 riels)

Nom Pang Baquette Sandwiches Location Map (Google Map Link)

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