Veiyo Tonle--River Breeze--Restaurant and Cafe.

The Footprint Guide to Cambodia recommends amok, a popular Cambodian dish, which "consists of boneless fish mixed with coconut and flavored with spices--delicious--but being highly time consuming to prepare is not widely available, try it whenever you see it on a menu."

On my first night in Phnom Penh I decided to go down to Sisowath Quay and visit Veiyo, which the guide recommended as a place to try the dish.

Veiyo Tonle Restaurant and Cafe
237 Eo Preah Sisowath Quay (on the waterfront)
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
phone: +855.16.938.404/+855.12.847.419
fax: +855.12.861.878
email: 012847419@mobitel.com.kh
daily: 0600-late
free delivery available (within Phnom Penh), French and English spoken, English and Khmer menu.

Veijo, like many of the other restaurants on Sisowath Quay, offers al fresco dining facing the Tonle Sap. Service is attentive and friendly. The maitre d' chatted me up as I examined the menu, on display in front of the restaurant. I smiled, thanked him, and walked down the street as I wanted to gauge the price level of places in this, the most touristy of streets in the city. When I returned he remembered me, showed me to a table, and turned on a fan to stir the muggy evening air.

I searched the extensive menu for amok, which I had seen on the menu outside, and after looking through pages of Italian dishes, I found the page of Khmer specialties, with amok at $3.50.

The bite-sized pieces of fish were mostly boneless, in a delicate coconut sauce which went very well over the bed of rice which accompanied it. A star-pattern of basil leaves and pepper slices decorated the plate of amok but did not overwhelm the flavor of the dish itself, which was excellent.

It's been said that Khmer cooking is like Thai but less spicy. Amok seems to be a good example of this.

A half-liter of locally purified water was 50 cents, and a rather undistinguished papaya shake, $1.

FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia)

I'd heard this place did good breakfasts, and I'd looked in the night before, when it seemed like a very nice place to have an evening drink. So, on my way to the Grand Palace, I decided to give it a try.

FCC Phnom Penh
363 Sisowath Quay
Phnom Penh
Cambodia
daily: 0800-2400
phone: office: +855.23.210.142 bar: +855.23.724.014
email: fcc_pp@online.com.kh
Visa/MasterCard accepted with 3% surcharge; all menu prices in US$.
English menu.

I opted for "The Full Monty", basically an English cooked breakfast: English sausage, American bacon, a couple of eggs (fried or scrambled), fried tomato, fried mushrooms, a thick, hamburger-shaped patty of hash browns, and two big, thick slices of toast with butter and jam (not fried). A 12 oz glass of orange juice with ice and a pot of tea (or coffee) big enough for a couple of cups completes the offering, all for $7.50.

This is pretty steep for Phnom Penh, but the food, while not outstanding, is very filling. The eggs were scrambled with scallions, and the hash brown patty had them mixed in, which made them both fragrant and tasty. What really distinguishes this place, however, from its competitors along Sisowath Quay is its location: a second-floor (American; English first-floor) balcony with a great view of the Tonle Sap. It's far enough up that irritating street noise is muffled to a dull roar. This is a great place to sit, read the paper (both the two Bangkok English-language dailies, and the local English-language papers are available), and figure out what you're going to do for the day, even if the prices are high.

Service was provided by a waitress who had clearly gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, as her expression ran the gamut from peeved to surly. There was nothing wrong with the service (and I noticed that she was being peevish to everyone, fellow staff included) and other staff were quite friendly.

I mentioned breakfast was filling; remarkably enough, given that the portion didn't look particularly large, I am still not hungry seven hours later. Perhaps it's the heat.

The FCC in Phnom Penh has prepaid wireless net available. I saw a couple of people using their laptops this morning.

Flight note #1 (TO, BKK-PNH, 12 Jan 04)

(First in an intermittent series.)

I've been flying a great deal lately, and there have been noteworthy things about most of the flights. This flight, on President Airlines was noteworthy for the provenance of the aircraft, and possibly crew. Despite being operated by a Cambodian company, it was leased from Aviogenex, an air charter company based in Belgrade. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the 737-200, and the hour-long flight, while a bit bumpy, was uneventful. They even served us lunch.

It was amusing seeing all the interior signage in English and Serbo-Croatian (Roman letters, so does that mean it's actually in Croatian?) but not a bit of Khmer. The stewardesses I saw looked Khmer, but the English-language safety briefing definitely had a Slavic accent, as did the quick comment from the flight deck. I never did *see* the purser who gave the safety briefing, so she may well have been a recording.

It all brought back memories of flying Jugoslav Aero Transport, before the war, from Singapore to New York via Zagreb (a weather delay stop), Belgrade, and Ljubliana. That one will have to wait for a different flight note.