My wife runs a restaurant in Siem Reap. A successful one, full on most days ;-) It is frequented usually by locals and its menu is more than simple – a single dish, Muscovy Duck Soup.
Now you may try to guess what the acronym in restaurant's name stands for :-) It saves us money for printing the menu and it saves our guests time while pondering which dish they would prefer tonight. On the other hand, each guest gets a different, personalized meal. How does it work?
You come over with your family or with a bunch of your friends. You get seated at the table with a burner in the middle on which a large bowl with duck broth is simmering. Around is a broad selection of ingredients, mainly vegetables, noodles and herbs&spices which you add to the broth according to your liking. As the evenings goes on the waitresses fill the bowl with more broth and should you run out of your favourite ingredient, she tops that one too. The pace of eating is peaceful and unhurried. Small, or not so small talk goes across the table. A variety of drinks is on offer to please every palate. Too soon it's time to go. See you again!
You may wonder what the difference is between an ordinary duck and 'Muscovy' variation (Cairina moschata). Well, for one you won't find a Muscovy duck in a supermarket. Rarely on a local market. The odd 20 pieces that we need for the evening meal in MDS restaurant all come from local farmers, dedicated to their traditional breeding. In fact, this involvement of the local people, in a sustainable way, is one on the great things about MDS restaurant – at least to my mind. For the really curious here is the link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovy_Duck
Looking forward to seeing you soon in MDS Restaurant,
Sela