By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
HERE’S an all-day breakfast with a difference.
Many of My Cambodia’s early diners opt for a noodle-thick Phnom Penh soup enmeshed with seafood, bean sprouts and coriander says the restaurant’s Karl Lim.
Alternatively they go for loc lac, a dish of diced beef cubes, lettuce and “red” rice that is stir-fried with egg and tomato.
Back in the kitchen is Karl’s mum Say Keav Liv, the head chef who cooks most of the south-east Asian influenced menu any time of the day.
The pair and two of Karl’s siblings opened Springvale’s first Cambodian restaurant Purple Orchid 10 years ago before expanding to the 50-seat restaurant My Cambodia in 2010.
Before that, Say had run a bakery in Springvale for seven years.
“We have always loved food,” Karl said.
“I grew up eating at the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants around Springvale.
“Springvale was the area with the fresh, quality produce and where language was not a barrier for (Mum).
“Being multi-lingual she could speak three or four dilaects of Chinese and Khmer.
“Speaking English wasn’t an issue dealing in Springvale.”
The family came to Australia in 1983 as refugees from Cambodia where Say cooked for hundreds of fellow prisoners in a Khmer Rouge-run prison camp.
She had grown up in the food-loving Cambodian province of Battambang, steeped in Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian cuisine.
My Cambodia is open seven days a week from 8.30am-9pm at 28 Buckingham Avenue, Springvale.
Phone 9540 3551.
