My first encounter with this dish was in Holland, a restaurant named Cambodja City. I thought it was OK, bit bland, nothing to write home about. After that first experience I had a few more times but again, nothing special.
About 30 years later, I had this dish again, now in Vietnam, it blew me away, the clear broth from pork and chicken bones was so tasty and delicious. I had both the dry version and the wet version, the dry version had the soup aside (see photo) and the wet version was a noodle soup. When to get what? It depends on your mood, the weather, the time of the day or all of them. But I guess, should you feel under the weather, get the wet version and if you want a quick bite, get the dry one!
So what is this post about, this dish seems to have its origins from China, the Chaozhou people, see the netflix special about GuoTiao (rice noodles). I asked the people there, they tend to lean towards the direction of Cambodia. That seemed so far fetched, but then I had to remind myself that people are not always staying in one place, they move for all kinds of reasons and they bring their belongings and culture with them. This dish looks different in China (sorry hadnt tried it yet over there), so this is the evolved version which had travelled from Cambodia to Vietnam and now into my memories.
