Sunday, November 6, 2011

Cambodian Savoury Pancake at Parap Market

Since arriving in Darwin I have put on weight, despite my wallet becoming thinner.  The culprit, duly, is Darwin's wonderful markets.  Never have i encountered so much authentic Asian cuisine Down Under, hawker style of course.  Given the seasonal closure of the Mindil Beach market, my weekly bout of confusion and resolution begins on Saturday mornings at the Parap market: at which store and with which cuisine do i begin my gluttonous grazing?  On this particular Saturday, after a few fried goods and succulent satays, with a double-shot iced coffee thrown in to keep the brain above the stomach's pit, my part-bolstered belly led me towards the Savoury Pancake stand.
I've eaten many Vietnamese pancakes - paper-thin crepes, small umbrella sized, atop which is heaped your choice of meat and a small garden of lively herbs, all doused in a Nuoc Cham dipping sauce.  Perfect summer food.  But never had I jagged my teeth into the Cambodian variety, so I was looking forward to comparing two interpretations of the pancake idea.
The ingredients were mixed together in a rectangular take-away container - egg, flour, mussels, prawns, squid and chicken mince, spring onions - then poured into a sizzling pan.
Once cooked, the pancake was folded over a handful of crisp bean sprouts and more slices of spring onion, then deposited in the above, not quite environmentally adept container.  A dab of chili sauce on the side, as well as fresh mint, lettuce, sliced cucumber and a container of a watery, sweet chili based sauce, and the pancake was ready for tasting.
What initially struck me was the substantial thickness of the pancake, which more closely resembled the European rather than the Vietnamese variety.  Putting all the meaty ingredients into the mixture added to this, but perhaps what was required was a larger pan.  The 'egginess' of the pancake suggested a mild cheddar in taste, which oddly sat in tandem with the low tones of the green-lipped mussels' ocean flavour.  Large, succulent mussels that were the gently crooning backbone of the many combinations involved in this dish.  Given all the ingredients, each mouthful would vary slightly from the previous, although held in a form of continuity by the cheesy-egginess of the pancake, the drag-strip of the hot chili, the mussels, a flash of mint and finally, when all the savoury flavours would subside, the certain sweetness of the poured container of sauce.
The prawns, not unlike someone from a small country town when first dropped into a thriving metropolis, lost themselves in the general melee.  As too did the squid strips, only sounding their presence via a substantial chewiness.  Sarah also found the mussels on the chewy side: perhaps her pancake was cooked longer than mine, elsewise Sarah's teeth are softer than my gnawers.
I was far from dissatisfied with my Cambodian Savoury Pancake, but admittedly I prefer the Vietnamese examples my past has numerously lapped up.  Unlike the latter, I feel I could readily make a similar pancake in my own kitchen, only with better quality prawns and squid.

No comments:

Post a Comment