Anchor Beer at Khmer Family Restaurant

After our temple hopping adventure and sampling of crispy bugs and spiders at Pub street, I gave in to my friend's request of us trying a local drink. After all, what is the point of being there without having a little feel of Siem Reap's popular night life.

We had to travel early in the morning, and to her disappointment I upbraided that we would be drinking one glass each only. I don't like drinking, I don't find any sensible reason to why people drink alcohol. But Cambodia's naming of its beers quite fascinated me somehow.

Khmer Family Restaurant was one of the many picture-perfect rooms, drenched with Indo-Aryan curtains and outrageous mix of Oriental and Dravidian paintings and displays.

Talking about beer stuffs, I remember the Americano seated beside us in the plane. He was too loquacious and he got us into a travel conversation like we were on a quiz bee competition. He mentioned something about Cambodia's beers, he said most of the country's beers have no effect like you can have unlimited buckets and pales and can still walk straight and not be drunk.

Anchor Beer is brewed by Cambodia Brewery in Kandal. Anchor is not a Cambodian beer as it originated in Singapore, but it was what the waitress offered when we asked for draft beer. It’s pronounced Anne Chore which differentiates it from Angkor beer. Locally, the correct pronunciation would be “aing churr” which approximates the words “barbecued sick” in grammatically nonsensical Khmer.

Cambodians speak understandable english and most shops and restaurants accept US Dollar for payment. We had noodles which costs 5 USD each paired with draft beer for 1.5 USD. I was conceivably surprised when my noodles arrived on our table, the platter was big and full of green veggies. For a moment I thought I would not be able to finish it, but the beer perfectly goes with a meal, like after a sip I had to have a mouthful of noodles so I could not taste the bitterness of the draft.