Monday, May 19, 2008

Bada Bing Battambang

I'm really lucky to have co-workers who willingly accompany me on my food adventures. Most of the time, we find new gems. Today we did not. You can't win 'em all.

Battambang Restaurant (1806 S. San Gabriel Blvd., San Gabriel) is a nondescript building that is easy to pass.
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I wish we had.

I was excited to try Cambodian food, and the place seemed so promising. The complimentary iced tea was cool, refreshing, and fragrant.
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But then it went downhill from there.

Giggles' salt lemonade was disgusting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's salt lemonade. What did we expect? But Giggles has actually had and enjoyed this before at other establishments. This just sucked. Period.
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And none of us had any idea what that tan stuff in there was. Eeks.

I got boba milk coffee. The boba wasn't cooked enough. Badness.
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Giggles, Whipping Boy, and I shared Family Dinner A ($23), which consisted of three dishes.

The mam bo hoc nuoc dua (curry fish) came out first. Very very salty, but fairly tasty with rice. Whipping Boy noted that it was actually very beef-like, which was an apt observation. It was hard to believe it was fish!
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Next up was canh chua ca (hot and sour fresh fish soup). So so sour! Pucker City! And not in a good way! Maybe it's supposed to be really sour, but it was too much so for my liking. The fish in the soup, however, was indeed fresh and good.
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The third dish, bo nuong (beef stick), looked like it had potential -- beautifully charred! Sadly, the quality of the meat was subpar. Like sub-sub-submarine-way-down-in-the-sea-subpar. So very disappointing.
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None of us really got our fill, so we headed to a childhood favorite afterward, which was perfect for a hot day. It was time to re-scoop-erate!
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I thought this was quite the sight.
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But this little sign on our way out really made us laugh.
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We all agreed that if we went there tomorrow and the next tomorrow and the next tomorrow, we'd be 300 pounds. Love that sign.

15 comments:

  1. At least it makes for a great blog title! Although, I am groaning at "re-scooperate." Dork. :P

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  2. mmm...ice cream. despite the hids font in their new logo, i like how the 31 is cleverly integrated.

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  3. i'm amused that the restaurant was Cambodian since the food names were Vietnamese (canh chua ca, bo nuong, etc.)

    yummy i love baskin robbins. their ice cream cakes are so good. now i'm hungry. damn you weemo.

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  4. i am SERIOUSLY gagging at the salt lemonade with the beige mystery base.

    of course, i'm laughing my ass off at the dude in the ceiling, too.

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  5. Salt lemonade looked nastoesha! All that food looks super un-appetizing. Thank goodness for the BR afterwards.

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  6. agree about the "lemonade" crap at the bottom. gag-city.

    don't leave us hanging!! what flavor did you order at BR?

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  7. Is boba like tapioca? I've never tried it but since you mentioned it must be cooked, I decided it slightly resembles tapioca only darker. Do you eat it or does it disintegrate so you can drink it up? Is it flavored? Tapioca, to me, is much like tofu in that it will take on the flavor of whatever it is accompanied with.

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  8. Hmmm ice cream! Yum. Love the picture of the half hidden man. Boo to crappy lunch!

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  9. Aw, so bummed you did not enjoy your first Cambodian food experience. The place by my work is delish. A couple of my fave dishes of theirs are: Catfish Amok (chunks of catfish cooked in coconut milk wrapped in a banana leaf) & a watercress salad with a fish sauce-like dressing.

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  10. I'm so sad the Cambodian food was no good! I'm dying to try Cambodian!

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  11. the one in chinatown has better food but i always order only 1 dish - chopped up beef w/ fried rice & a sour salt/pepper sauce.

    sorry you had the beef sticks, those things are too tough to even bite off!

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  12. Baskin Robbins would be lunch enough for me. :)

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  13. I was gonna say the same thing as tam pham. Nowhere on the restaurant's name does it have Vietnamese, but all the dishes were in Vietnamese.

    Those brown things floating at the bottom of the salt lemonade are remnants of salty dried plums.

    Canh chua is my favorite soup! I can make it really good too ;-)

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  14. Please tell me the guy in the ceiling wasn't selling hot dogs.

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  15. sadness. that lemonade looks downright gag-worthy :/

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