Whole Roasted Cows in Cambodia’s Capital

Look there is a cow in the parking lot!

One of the wildest things Chef Danhi & I experienced in Phnom Penh was what I like to call the “Whole Roasted Cow District”; a street nearly lined and dedicated to restaurants featuring and serving a whole roasted young cow.

A fresh one is ready to serve

Although not full grown, these animals are far from veal and actually rather large. Impossible to miss, they stand, skewered from snout to tail on a long steel pole, rotating slowly over red hot coals, and not in the kitchen but rather, in the parking lot, smack in the middle of the restaurant’s entry way.

The cow on the table

Pieces of meat are sliced and torn from the beast to order arriving on the table in a variety of forms and accompanied by and intimidating duo of local chili sauce and a pungently gamey fermented fish paste with the consistency of paper mache. I mean, this stuff was so funky the flavor and aroma were beyond fishy; achieving a new level of funk, funk so alerter and advanced that it is no longer identifiable as an odor emitted by a fish, or fish product, or anything even remotely close to a fish.

The beef its self was mild in flavor when compared to its accoutrements but reeking of terroir, it tasted of the long hay like grasses covering the roadside grazing areas throughout and surrounding the city. At this type of establishment the end of service is rather obvious and determined by the amount of remaining flesh rather than the clock or reservations.

Closing Time

If you are in Phenom Penh and get a craving for a whole lot of beef, check out the “whole roasted cow district” for much more than a meal.