Choice Eats Preview: Kampuchea Noodle Bar

Mark your calendars!

The second annual Choice Eats event is scheduled for March 31, and tickets are selling fast!

Tuesday March 31, 2009   6:30 - 9:30pm
The 69th Armory at Lexington Avenue
68 Lexington Ave @ 26th Street, NYC

Go here to read more and buy tickets.
 
Like last year, we've invited restaurants based on the recommendations of our food writers, Robert Sietsema and Sarah DiGregorio. And to whet your appetite, here's a preview of one of the participants, Kampuchea Noodle Bar.

This is what Sietsema had to say about the eatery in a 2007 review:

A child of Cambodian refugees, chef Ratha Chau formerly worked as restaurant manager at Fleur de Sel. Despite his never cheffing before, his cooking skills are prodigious. As with its Fort Greene predecessor, Kampuchea Noodle Bar offers a menu that spans Southeast Asia. As the chef explained one evening, "Cambodians have a cuisine that borrows from all the countries around us due to our central location." Indeed, the best things on the menu are the sandwiches called num pang ($7 to $9), which resemble Vietnamese banh mi. The one called Kampuchea (the Khmer name for Cambodia) layers pork pâté, headcheese, and ground pork on a freshly toasted baguette. Less organ-oriented and almost as scrumptious, another features memorable pork meatballs.

The sandwiches come slathered with a pink coconut concoction that's a dead ringer for Russian dressing. The same mayo recurs on the grilled corn ($6), a pair of sweet ears dusted with dried cheese, which seems more Mexican than Cambodian but is damn good nonetheless. There's an interesting papaya salad flavored with tiny dried shrimp rather than fish sauce, and a fantastic plate of homemade pickles--which you needn't order because a handful comes with most things on the menu.

Read the rest of the review here.