Wanted: Cambodian Noodle Joint in New York

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  06.27.07 | 3:26 PM ET

imageIf New York is the food capital of the world, why is a good bowl of kuy thiew so hard to come by? That’s the question writer Matthew Fishbane poses in a Salon essay examining America’s reluctance to embrace Cambodian cuisine. Recalling his days slurping noodles at sidewalk stands in Phnom Penh, he desperately searches the city for an authentic taste of fish sauce and lemongrass, but finds only one Cambodian joint on the Lower East Side, and its offerings don’t quite measure up.

He writes:

In New York, transplanted Hong Kong hands have a couple of Chinatowns to choose from. Colombians can head out to Queens for an oblea caramel wafer and yucca bread under the elevated train tracks. Eastern Europeans longing for a borscht can ride the F train to Brighton Beach. West Africans have the Bronx, North Africans have the East Village—and even the Uighurs, the Sephardim of the Silk Road, can find home cooking out in Rego Park. But for Cambodians (and nostalgic travelers like me), a taste of home remains elusive.

Fishbane’s conversation with a food studies professor unearths several factors that influence the relative popularity of some ethnic cuisines over others, including “ethnic migrations, world’s fairs, gastronomical proximity, aesthetic cachet and the location of U.S. military bases.” 

But in the end, he decides, it’s Americans’ lack of familiarity with Cambodian culture that seems to be the sticking point.

One final note: We wonder if Fishbane would have more luck in Southern California, in the Long Beach neighborhood of Little Phnom Penh.

Related on World Hum:
* Zagats on Chinese Cuisine: U.S. Needs ‘Dumpling Diplomacy’
* Bambi Roll, Anyone? Inside Japan’s Sushi Crisis.
* South Korea Develops ‘Five-Point Kimchi Scale’

Photo by Silly Jilly via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Tags: Food, Asia, Cambodia, North America, United States, New York, News and Briefs

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


2 Comments for Wanted: Cambodian Noodle Joint in New York

Travis Choma 07.01.07 | 1:30 PM ET

“If New York is the food capital of the world…”. I think London has displaced New York in terms of culinary diversity, Last I was there I had authentic Burmese food. And I bet you could find authentic Kuy Thiew there as well.

Adam in Mui Ne 08.14.07 | 12:07 AM ET

Cambodian cuisine unfortunately has an undeserved reputation for being bland. I think Americans also think of poverty and the Khmer Rouge days when they are confronted with the rare opportunity to sample it, and unfortunately that leads them to believe Cambodia couldn’t possible offer good food. Quite the contrary however. I think the food in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville is fabulous.

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