Steve
02-09-2008, 03:13 PM
Foodie day in Cambodia.
Angkor Wat rewards the adventurous palate.
By Al Mancini/Las vegas City Life
AS MUCH AS I LOVE this city's great restaurants, there are times when I really enjoy eating dinner at the coffee table at home while watching TV. And while we enjoy cooking, my wife and I aren't always in the mood for the ordeal. The solution: our huge collection of take-out menus. Even if a place doesn't deliver, a 15-minute drive to pick up something interesting is well worth it when I've got a week's worth of unwatched shows on TiVo. So when I recently drove past a restaurant called Angkor Wat not too far from my house, its Cambodian name prompted an illegal U-turn to grab a menu for future reference.
Angkor Wat is owned by a family from Cambodia, and specializes in Cambodian, Vietnamese and Thai food. If you've never had Cambodian food (and I hadn't), rest assured that most of the dishes are extremely similar to Thai, Vietnamese and occasionally Chinese cooking.
Appetizers are basic and familiar. You'll find beef egg rolls ($4.50 for four), shrimp and beef spring rolls ($3.75 for two), chicken or beef on a stick ($4.25 -$4.50) and tempura shrimp ($6.75 for 10). In the noodle section, they offer three versions of the Vietnamese staple pho ($6-$6.50), three pad Thai options ($6.50-$7.50), two chow meins ($6.50-$7.50) and a handful of other meat or seafood dishes ($5.25-$8.99). There are eight different varieties of stir-fried beef, (all $7) including fresh ginger, lemongrass, or tomato and Thai chili. The stir-fried chicken section (all $6.50), is similar, but even larger. Seafood dishes include fried tilapia ($8), stewed catfish ($8) and stir-fried mussels with green onion ($8). And you can get chicken, beef or shrimp in either red or yellow curry ($6.75-$7.75), various varieties of fried rice ($6.50-$7.50) and several large, family-sized, hot-and-sour or tom yum soup pots ($10.99-$12.99).
I'll admit Angkor Wat is guilty of one of my pet peeves when it comes to takeout. I believe if a takeout menu says a place is open until 8 p.m., someone should be there to take an order when I call at 7:40. But restaurants inevitably close early on slow nights, so I wasn't able to sample their food the first time I called. Fortunately I was able to remedy that a few days later.
My wife and I opted to skip appetizers and split three large entrees. The first was an absolutely amazing order of stir-fried chicken with lemongrass ($6.50). It was a spicy dish, but the heat was cut nicely by the fresh taste of the lemongrass. Next up was an entrée listed simply as shrimp sauté ($8.50). It consisted of a dozen medium shrimp, sautéed in their shells in a lightly sweet red sauce, with just a touch of scallion. It was good, although I would have preferred it if the shrimp were shelled and able to soak up the delicate sauce. But it was well worth getting our hands dirty to get to the fresh, tasty meat, and the sauce was great over our white rice. (I just wish there had been a bit more sauce in the takeout container).
Finally, I decided to try their pho, despite the fact the hot broth and accompanying uncooked (or not completely cooked) ingredients aren't really the type of thing you should order as takeout. Moreover, to be adventurous, I opted for the "house special beef noodle" variety ($6.50), without even asking what it was. When I got home, I brought the tasty broth to a quick boil on the stove, transferred it to a bowl, and proceeded to season it with the limes, hot peppers and basil leaves that were included. I then began adding the main ingredients. The container contained rare beef, small balls of meat I recognized as spiced beef tendon, glass noodles and something I wasn't quite sure of. On closer inspection, it turned out to be tripe.
I'm embarrassed to admit that prior to this meal I'd never actually tried tripe, which comes from a cow's stomach. But I've never been afraid of offal (or organ) meat, so I decided it was worth a shot. I'm glad I did. While the meat's taste was overpowered by the delicious broth, its crispy noodle-like texture perfectly complemented the dish.
I should point out Angkor Wat has a large casual dining room, decorated in a Cambodian theme, with a friendly staff. So the next time I'm in the mood for their food, I'll definitely dine in. In fact, there's even a small TV that shows DVDs during off-hours, so I can pretend I'm at home eating takeout, without having to clean up afterwards.
Angkor Wat
5693 S. Jones Blvd.
257-1163
http://lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/09/06/eats_and_drinks/dining/iq_16399240.txt
Angkor Wat rewards the adventurous palate.
By Al Mancini/Las vegas City Life
AS MUCH AS I LOVE this city's great restaurants, there are times when I really enjoy eating dinner at the coffee table at home while watching TV. And while we enjoy cooking, my wife and I aren't always in the mood for the ordeal. The solution: our huge collection of take-out menus. Even if a place doesn't deliver, a 15-minute drive to pick up something interesting is well worth it when I've got a week's worth of unwatched shows on TiVo. So when I recently drove past a restaurant called Angkor Wat not too far from my house, its Cambodian name prompted an illegal U-turn to grab a menu for future reference.
Angkor Wat is owned by a family from Cambodia, and specializes in Cambodian, Vietnamese and Thai food. If you've never had Cambodian food (and I hadn't), rest assured that most of the dishes are extremely similar to Thai, Vietnamese and occasionally Chinese cooking.
Appetizers are basic and familiar. You'll find beef egg rolls ($4.50 for four), shrimp and beef spring rolls ($3.75 for two), chicken or beef on a stick ($4.25 -$4.50) and tempura shrimp ($6.75 for 10). In the noodle section, they offer three versions of the Vietnamese staple pho ($6-$6.50), three pad Thai options ($6.50-$7.50), two chow meins ($6.50-$7.50) and a handful of other meat or seafood dishes ($5.25-$8.99). There are eight different varieties of stir-fried beef, (all $7) including fresh ginger, lemongrass, or tomato and Thai chili. The stir-fried chicken section (all $6.50), is similar, but even larger. Seafood dishes include fried tilapia ($8), stewed catfish ($8) and stir-fried mussels with green onion ($8). And you can get chicken, beef or shrimp in either red or yellow curry ($6.75-$7.75), various varieties of fried rice ($6.50-$7.50) and several large, family-sized, hot-and-sour or tom yum soup pots ($10.99-$12.99).
I'll admit Angkor Wat is guilty of one of my pet peeves when it comes to takeout. I believe if a takeout menu says a place is open until 8 p.m., someone should be there to take an order when I call at 7:40. But restaurants inevitably close early on slow nights, so I wasn't able to sample their food the first time I called. Fortunately I was able to remedy that a few days later.
My wife and I opted to skip appetizers and split three large entrees. The first was an absolutely amazing order of stir-fried chicken with lemongrass ($6.50). It was a spicy dish, but the heat was cut nicely by the fresh taste of the lemongrass. Next up was an entrée listed simply as shrimp sauté ($8.50). It consisted of a dozen medium shrimp, sautéed in their shells in a lightly sweet red sauce, with just a touch of scallion. It was good, although I would have preferred it if the shrimp were shelled and able to soak up the delicate sauce. But it was well worth getting our hands dirty to get to the fresh, tasty meat, and the sauce was great over our white rice. (I just wish there had been a bit more sauce in the takeout container).
Finally, I decided to try their pho, despite the fact the hot broth and accompanying uncooked (or not completely cooked) ingredients aren't really the type of thing you should order as takeout. Moreover, to be adventurous, I opted for the "house special beef noodle" variety ($6.50), without even asking what it was. When I got home, I brought the tasty broth to a quick boil on the stove, transferred it to a bowl, and proceeded to season it with the limes, hot peppers and basil leaves that were included. I then began adding the main ingredients. The container contained rare beef, small balls of meat I recognized as spiced beef tendon, glass noodles and something I wasn't quite sure of. On closer inspection, it turned out to be tripe.
I'm embarrassed to admit that prior to this meal I'd never actually tried tripe, which comes from a cow's stomach. But I've never been afraid of offal (or organ) meat, so I decided it was worth a shot. I'm glad I did. While the meat's taste was overpowered by the delicious broth, its crispy noodle-like texture perfectly complemented the dish.
I should point out Angkor Wat has a large casual dining room, decorated in a Cambodian theme, with a friendly staff. So the next time I'm in the mood for their food, I'll definitely dine in. In fact, there's even a small TV that shows DVDs during off-hours, so I can pretend I'm at home eating takeout, without having to clean up afterwards.
Angkor Wat
5693 S. Jones Blvd.
257-1163
http://lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/09/06/eats_and_drinks/dining/iq_16399240.txt