Not Too Sweet #5 and #6

Mekong

Khmer and Lao · September 12 and 26, 2026

Some of my favorite meals along the Mekong last year were in Cambodia and Laos. This menu took more testing than anything I've cooked for these dinners. The amok went through more than five versions before it set the way it should.

Cambodian and Lao cooking lean on a lot of the same ingredients: lemongrass, ginger, makrut lime, fermented fish, palm sugar, and Kampot pepper. One paste, kroeung, runs through the amok and both skewers. Everything comes out at the same time and the table eats family style.

The Mekong table with sach ang skewers, fish amok, rice, pickles, and tuk meric

The menu

On arrival

  • Nam khao, crispy coconut rice with sour pork sausage, peanuts, mint and cilantro, lime, and lettuce to wrap
  • Pegu Club, gin, Cointreau, lime, bitters

The table

  • Fish amok, white fish in coconut cream and kroeung, steamed in banana-leaf-lined bowls
  • Sach ang, ribeye skewers with kroeung and Kampot pepper, and pork collar skewers with kroeung, coconut, and palm sugar
  • Pickled green papaya and tuk meric, lime and Kampot pepper dip, with cucumber, long beans, Thai basil, and cilantro
  • Jasmine rice
  • Jungle Bird, blackstrap rum, Campari, pineapple, gula melaka

Dessert

  • Lod chong, pandan jelly, salted coconut milk, palm sugar, and jackfruit, in a bag with a straw

See the night on Instagram

The list

Hear what's next first.

The dinners are just for close friends for now, but I'm working on what's next. The list hears about it first, along with new recipes.

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