Prior to dinner, our last decent meal was lunch at the Khmer Family Restaurant. We were definitely starving at 10pm since we also had this wonderful 1 hour Khmer (full body) massage. From our late sunset shooting, the tuktuk driver brought us to the old market. We saw The Red Piano before going around and thought it would be nice to chow there after a little snooping around the Angkor Night Market.

The (very) Red Piano

The breezy restaurant’s too cozy for dinner! Look at those beautiful lights and wooden fixtures! Here’s what we’ve had:

my Greek Salad
big salad (onions, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, cabagge, boiled egg, dressing) plus feta cheese, and green & black olives
$4.00

Jayvee’s (fantastic) Khmer Steak
$5.75

Can you believe the size of those (feta) cheese cubes? We got out food in less than 10 minutes which is another plus. Jayvee’s Khmer steak was very tender and the sauce’s texture was perfect (not too creamy nor runny). I loved his steak so much that I (errr) ate about 1/3 of it!

The Red Piano
50m North West of The Old Market
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Look what Jayvee and I found in the heart of the Angkor Night Market!

*drool*

shakers

More shakers plus mortars and pestles!

Booze with snakes and scorpions! Oh yeah!

TAMARIND???

I seriously almost lost it! I was totally confused what to buy and bring home! We ended up just buying the really delish Ratanakiri Cambodian Cafe Powder (or simply Cambodian coffee) that’s sold for $4 per 100g (x10, I kept 2 for myself and the rest were pasalubongs LOL).

Angkor Night Market
Siem Reap, Cambodia

After shooting the Ta Prohm temple inside and out, we finally had lunch at 2:30pm! *yay*

Khmer Spring Rolls
$4.00

Steak and French Fries
$4.00

Khmer Pork Rib
$5.00

I got the spring rolls (as usual) as I have this growing fascination over them for the past two months. Their version is meatier vs. the ones we’ve had in Viet Nam. I’m not definite if I was just hungry but didn’t really notice anything different about the pork ribs and the steak. It’s well, same old rib and steak to me sans the gravy!

Khmer Family Restaurant
Srahsrong Village,
Siem Reap, Cambodia

I enjoyed this breakfast so much because we woke up at 5am to catch this beauty:

…and went shooting ’til 9am! Before moving on with our shooting though, I was already f-a-m-i-s-h-e-d! Here’s what I’ve had:

Rice with Loc Lac Beef with Fried Plain Egg
$2.75

The loc lac beef is very similar to our beef tapa but saucier. One more reason why I’ll never forget this breakfast:

The best iced latte I’ve ever had
$1.25

I loved it a lot that I had another glass after my breakfast!

Five learnings from this breakfast:

• Cambodian coffee is similar to our Kapeng Barako but stronger and sweeter.
• “White coffee” is served with condensed milk and not creamer in both Cambodia and Viet Nam (I wonder why).
• Don’t shoot on an empty stomach.
• Don’t shoot on an empty stomach.
• Don’t shoot on an empty stomach.

Angkor Reach Restaurant
Just outside Angkor Wat…right side when the wonderful structure is behind you
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Our first decent meal for the day = a 15 minute late lunch

After crossing borders, the La Volpaia Pizzeria’s the first restaurant we saw that sort of “enticed” us to actually sit down and use the utensils to feed ourselves (we’ve been downing too much junk food in the bus). Here’s what we had for lunch:

My PENNE ALL’ARRABBIATA
Penne, chilly (No, that’s not a typo on my end. That’s on their menu!) in tomato sauce
$6.50

Jayvee’s SPAGHETTINI ALLA PAPALINA
Spaghetti, ham, egg in cream sauce
$7.50

Juned’s SPAGHETTI ALLO SCOGLIO
Spaghetti, clam, shrimp, squid in tomato sauce
$8.50

My pasta was very hot (temperature and flavor wise) that halfway, I had to swap with Jayvee. I loved it to bits but it we were in a hurry that I cannot chow everything down. His pasta was very creamy and heavy, something ideal for those stressful days in the office where come lunch time, you need some serious comfort food.

While my coffee was good, I didn’t get to enjoy it cause I had to chug it down like I would down a glass of soda.

Iced Cappuccino
$2.70

La Volpaia Pizzeria
20-22, Street 13,
Sangkat Wat Phnom, Khan Daun Penh,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia