Fowl Food

The Japanese Friendship bridge (Chruoy Changvar bridge) that spans across the Tonle Sap river, is located just north of Phnom Penh. It is supposedly built by the Japanese government, as compensation for Japanese atrocities during its WW2 occupation of Cambodia.

Last nite, my staff brought me across this bridge to this particular place, full of restaurants. These makan places, ranging from big high-end restaurants to small local family-run eateries, span along the whole 2 to 3 km stretch of highway road.

Despite recent bird flu warnings from the Cambodian government not to consume any fowl dishes, we decided to checkout one of the local fave delicacies: Roasted Sparrows. Seen as the poor man's answer to the more expensive roasted pigeons, roasted sparrows are usually consumed in plates of 10 or 15, always with cold beer.

We had 2 plates of sparrows. Our sparrows were abit over-burnt but very tasty. The chau-tar-ness actually accentuates the delicate flavor of the birds. And like most local dishes, our sparrows were accompanied by huge plates of raw vegies and the mandatory salt&pepper-lime dip. We also ordered some beef balls, which tasted exactly like satay (without the ketupat & the satay peanut sauce). Click for pics: sparrows, closeup & satay. Note the little chau-tar sparrow heads (so cute!) and the juicy beefy balls (slurp!), yummy...