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| Ban Chow (Khmer Pancakes) at SAN restaurant |
Now
let me just tell you there are many different pancakes out there, and I
personally think that the best one is the Cambodian pancake—of course. It’s
savoury and not sweet like most pancakes and is eaten with heaps of salads. We
call the pancake Ban Chow in Khmer, which is a thin, bright yellow crepe filled
with either minced chicken or pork and bean sprout.
Making
these is an art and requires a lot of patience. Believe me when I say it requires
patience because making one piece takes at least two to three minutes, and when
you make a lot for the whole family (especially one as big as ours) it usually
takes at least the whole morning. (We make at least one hundred pieces of
pancakes and it’s a whole lot of preparation in itself.)
Ways
of Eating These Delicious Pancakes
There
are at least three ways of eating these healthy, delicious pancakes. You have
to eat them with the SAN sauce. Without this sauce the pancakes would be bland.
So here’s how to eat them properly.
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| SAN Sauce |
The
first and most popular here at SAN restaurant is to drizzle the SAN sauce over
the pancakes and eat it with a fork and knife, like we do with most things. I
think this is very prime and proper.
The
second is to tear the pancakes off with your hands and dip the pieces of pancakes
into the SAN sauce before eating.
Thirdly,
you can tear the pieces of pancakes up, mix them with salads, and pour the SAN
sauce all over them. Afterwards give them a good toss and then enjoy, using
either fork or a pair of chopsticks.
The
last method is the official way of eating Ban Chow. It is supposed to be eaten
like a salad—adding lots of lettuces, cucumbers, Asian herbs, crush peanut, and
last but not least, lots and lots of chilly flakes. It’s even better when you
add lots and lots of fresh chillies. Yum!
I
do hope that next time you order Ban Chow here at SAN restaurant, you’ll try
eating it the Cambodian way and that is to toss everything together and just
enjoy the light, healthy food. Some people say the flavour is very delicate,
and I do agree. This is a special food in Cambodia
So
there, that’s Ban Chow for you. I do hope you will like these pancakes as much
as we do, especially the Ban Chow fanatic Miss Wanitta Praks who wouldn’t have
survive the ordeal of her days if it were not for the famous Ban Chow.
Cheer,
Alexia
Praks
