I was hankering to try some cambodian style noodles. I thought I’d never had this before, but then remembered that I had some at Kirirom near Seattle. Sadly, that place is no longer open, but that’s ok, I’m thousands of miles from Seattle. New Phnom Penh is indeed open, and we headed out there to try cambodian style noodles for the first time… at least for my first time in Philly. H/A and his rainbow drinks, which he orders whenever he gets vietnamese/cambodian food. Is this cambodian? Is thish vietnamese? No idea, but he’s into it, and it is crazy looking.
None of us were cambodian, or vietnamese for that matter, so we had no idea what we were doing. When I ordered some noodles, they asked if we wanted bread. H/A talked with her, possibly in chinese, and eventually, they brought out this fried dough stuff. E said it looked like big churros, without the sugar and cinnamon. And it really did. It was basically fried dough that you could just eat on its own, or dip into soup. Greasy goodness.
H/A ordered a chicken and broccoli pan fried noodle dish. This really could have been found on the menu of many different restaurants – chinese, vietnamese, etc., but regardless of what kind of food this was, it was good!
E had wanted a sour seafood soup dish, but unfortunately, the ladies who worked there told us that the chef who could make that had gone home already. Oh yes, we were here on a sunday night, and we were the only ones here. And um, well, it’s not in the friendliest or safest of neighborhoods of south philly. Not that I’m an expert, but I’m just saying. So without being able to get that soup, the lady suggested shrimp and noodles, and E just agreed! And out came this dish with shrimp, chinese broccoli, and side rice noodles. I love food like this. Simple and hearty. Again, who knows what type of cuisine this is. Plain and simple, E found it delicious.
So indeed, I went with the soup, and I wasn’t sure which to order or what any of them were, so I just got the combination noodle. There’s no explanations on the menu either, so I really had no clue. I just took a guess. This is not pho. It’s got rice noodles like pho, and broth, and other stuff. But the broth is not beef based. It’s much lighter. This soup came with liver (um, I skipped), pork, fish cake, and shrimp. It’s a good broth, with a strong smell. There’s no need to adulterate it all, with hoisin sauce, or sriracha, or anything really. Just dump some sprouts in there, maybe put a squirt of lime in there, but that’s really it. It’s just fine as is.

The food here is super cheap. Super good, too. The service? Eh… well, it’s not one of those places you go to for the service. We got our water… way after we got our food. Most of the time, we were left to ourselves. The ladies went back into the kitchen and stayed there most of the time. I kind of think that when we came in, they were disappointed. They probably wanted to go home and here we go showing up and ruining their perfectly good sunday evening. But who cares, it’s a hole-in-the-wall joint in a scary neighborhood with good food. Come out and visit during the day, it’s fun!

New Phnom Penh
2301 S. 7th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148
(215) 389-2122

Welcome back to another installment of boozings, where we try all of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Next up we go to London Grill, for the Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em. It is a drink made with house infused chipotle mezcal, Victory Prima Pils, and a smoked tomato salt rim, served in a pint glass. This is another spicy ass drink on this list. Am I the only one who’s puzzled by the idea of spicy and smoky cocktails? I mean the bloody mary, sure, but all these drinks with peppery and smoky drinks are a bit odd to me. Maybe not so much the peppery and spicy, but the smoky throws me off.

Alright, so I didn’t really care for this. I had a spicy/smoky drink made with chili infused tequila at distrito and really liked it. But this one, with chipotle infused mezcal, not so much. Something just didn’t work for me. And believe me, I tried to like it, but I just didn’t. And it didn’t really go well with the pils either. I feel as though something chili infused needs to be smoothed out with some kind of juice, and not a beer. And it’s a really hoppy beer, so it doubly did not do it for me. So there, another one on the list I did not like. You can’t win ‘em all!

Ok, 13 down, 2 more to go! I’ve only got 2 left, whoa!

Modo Mio is a beloved BYOB in fishtown. I don’t really know anyone who hasn’t liked the place. It’s been open for a few years, and I have no idea why I waited so long to go. It was worth all the hype. [Apologies in advance for the worse than usual photos, but the lighting in there is terrible for non-flash photos!]

Since it was a BYOB, M made us some pre-dinner gin cocktails. We b’d plenty of our own b’s. We even offered a drink to one of the waitresses, but she refused! We all decided to do the turista menu, which allows you to pick anything from the antipasti, pasta, secondi, and dessert menus.

The bread was unbelievable. It’s served with a porcini olio, which was also beyond delicious. The bread is incredibly dense and wet and chewy on the inside. Things were starting off well.

Before the food started coming out, we got a little amuse bouche, which was a bruschetta with tuna puree. The bread was a bit too salty on the crust, but overall, it was a great little taste.

For the antipasti, a few of us got the cervello, the fried calves’ brains with walnuts and pickled fennel. Who knew fried brains would be so good?

I ordered the Polpo, the balsamic grilled octopus, crispy potato cake, with arugula pesto. Wow. Just wow. The octopus was tender and delicious, and the crispy potato cake, although not crispy, was so surprisingly good. People are afraid that octopus could possibly be rubbery. This octopus was the furthest from rubbery as anything possibly could be.

For the pasta, M got the Caramelli, fresh pasta candies (look how cute they are!) stuffed with buffalo milk Taleggio and hazelnut brown butter. The cheese was super creamy and delicious in here. So rich!

R and I both picked the Mlinzi, toasted fresh pasta with a rustic rabbit ragu. So good! The pasta was extremely firm, I guess that comes from the toasting. The ragu was made with sweet peppers so it had a surprising sweetness.

F’s lamb dish, the Agnello. It’s typically a braised lamb chops dish, but this night, it was a giant lamb ball, served with porcini and apple fritters.

Three of us got the Guancè, the veal cheek served chef’s choice style. The menu says “trust him”. It’s a good idea to do so. Delicious! Again, this is a bit on the sweet side. I think E would have preferred that it was less sweet. The cheek itself was nice and tender.

I was in the mood for something on the lighter side for my entree, so I went with a fish dish and picked the Razze, seared skate wing with apricot brown butter, almonds, capers, and lemon. It was exactly what I wanted! The fish was perfectly cooked and the whole dish was light. I don’t like capers so I ate around them, but I loved everything else. The apricot chunks were a really nice touch.

For desserts, the options included tiramisu, a flourless chocolate something, an italian style crepe with nutella, and I forget what else. A few went with just cappuccino or espresso. Because I’m into fruits in my desserts, I got the apple pastry. It was somewhat like an apple pie, but one that had shavings of cheese on top. It was nice and light and a perfect way to end this meal. Really, the entire meal and experience exceeded all of my expectations. The service was also good, provided by our very actorly waiter, Steve. The place is small, and you’re all definitely squeezed in. It’s also quite loud, so don’t expect a quiet and serene place that is romantic. It’s boisterous! But the food is some of the best I’ve ever had. I implore everyone to visit! I’ll definitely be back!