From Bridge and Tunnel Club Just a gustatory memory: Cambodian Cuisine, in its former home on South Elliott.For many who have lived in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill for several years, the closing in 2006 of Cambodian Cuisine — which used to operate in the space at South Elliott and Fulton now occupied by the Smoke Joint — still stings.
The Cambodian restaurant, which closed in April 2006, was a divine aberration in the city’s dining scene, perhaps the only one of its kind. Its owner, Fey (Jerry) Ley, and his family served complex, inexpensive food that both neighborhood visitors and locals (including your resident Oral Fixator) swooned over.
Mr. Ley, a Cambodian immigrant who escaped the regime of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, rebuilt his life in New York City by working as a taxi driver, in a Japanese restaurant and at an electric company before using his savings to open Cambodian Cuisine in 1993.
And oh, what cuisine! The epic menu featured mostly undiluted versions of intensely flavorful Cambodian classics, from Machhar Srong Tuek Mteh (fried fish balls with a deliciously spicy sauce) to Ptahok Ktis Dip (a braised stew of chicken and vegetables in coconut milk, chilies, and lemongrass).
Mr. Ley’s menu also had a few slightly more Americanized dishes, like the Cambodian Chef Salad, which several Local commenters are still jonesing for more than three years after the restaurant decamped for the Upper East Side, and nine months after its Manhattan incarnation folded after only six months due to landlord hassles that allegedly put Mr. Ley into $1 million in debt.
Oral Fixation has been hard at work trying to track down Mr. Ley, who has been off the radar since his Manhattan restaurant disaster (the Web site, still somewhat functional, uses an awfully depressing past tense). We have a couple of good leads, though, and will hopefully be able to publish the salad recipe in the very near future, and invoke one of the high points in the neighborhood’s culinary history. Stay tuned.
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