If you live in Vancouver or if you are planning a visit and love Vietnamese food, you have to make a trip to Phnom Pehn. This restaurant, like many great food stops, has a very unassuming exterior as soon as you walk through the door you realize something is different here. For one thing, from opening to closing, the place is packed (and there is generally a line)! So be prepared to wait for approximately 30 minutes for a table. Secondly, this is the most multicultural crowd you’ll see anywhere. Most customers are asian but they aren’t just Vietnamese but they Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Thai…..their commonality is that they all recognize great Asian cooking.
The food here is incredibly fresh and the tastes are tantalizingly harmonious. As a westerner, I frequently find Asian restaurants to be inconsistent with their liberal use of spices (especially chilis!)….they lack a harmony and all you get is that one note but not Phom Pehn. At PP the food is almost symphonic in it’s harmony! The shrimp is always cooked perfectly, the fried foods are never greasy and the prices are surprisingly reasonable for such high quality food.
Give it a try and you will quickly see why people flock to their door!
The highly respect economic journal released it’s list of the 10 most livable cities in the world using these criteria:
1. Availability of basic community needs (building, water supply, electricity, etc.)
2. Availability of public facilities (parks, sidewalks, houses of worship, etc.)
3. Availability of facilities to support the economic sector, social, political, and cultural
4. Availability of space and place to interact and develop
5. Comfort, safety, physical beauty, as well as the progress of development and environment-friendly technology
Number 5 in the top 10 was the City of Calgary in neighboring Alberta.
BUT, number 1…..Numero Uno…….was the great City of VANCOUVER!!!!!
Even though Vancouver has a mild climate on those days when our sunshine is a bit more liquid. Vancouver-ites love their coffee drinks. Here Daniel and Hugh are enjoying their afternoon espresso at the Nespresso coffee bar across the street from our office.
