Phnom Penh Restaurant Reviews: Bet Jeun Chinese Restaurant

Upon entering, the first thing that impresses me is the cleanliness of this place. Many of the low-budget Chinese restaurants in town have a relatively no-frills atmosphere. That is not to say that the food is bad. It is just that they tend to be rather generic looking, and each one seems to be as generic as the others. But this place has a certain simple charm. The Chinese shop-house is bright but cozy, with metal chairs and tables and pastel colored walls which create an uplifting effect.

The menu is a simple black and white two-sided laminated page in which the dish names are translated into English, Chinese and Khmer. “Fragrant Dried Shredded Pork” ($2.50), “Shredded Potato with Sauted (Pork) Meat” ($2.50) and “Braised Pig Knuckle” ($3.50) are some of the more interesting and expensive selections available.

I summon the waitress from her duties of filling dumplings at the back table. She brings an attractive pot of decent quality green tea with glasses of ice. This is a nice touch considering that most of the low budget Chinese places in town serve generic beer glasses of bland black tea. But this place is not the typical full-blooded Chinese run restaurants. The owner here is Khmer-Chinese, and the atmosphere has a warmer Khmer feel.

We start off with a bowl of the “Seaweed and Scrambled Egg Soup” ($1.50). With both of us being huge mushroom fans Tom and I are immediately drawn to the “Mushrooms with Sauteed Shredded Pork” ($2.50). To add some starch to the mix we opt for the “Shredded Potato with Sauteed (Pork) Meat” ($2.50), and for the greens we choose the “Dry Baked String Beans” ($1.50). We top it all off with a plate of “Fried Beef Dumplings” ($2.00). and the “Cold Mixed Cucumber ($1.50), which should add some nice raw vegetables to the mix.

The reserved waitress gives us a slight smile subtly implying that we have made some good choices and then scurries off to the kitchen.

I have known Tom since I first started coming to Southeast Asia around a decade ago. He was one of the first people I met here who I felt a sincere connection with. We are both Americans, but he is from a more rural area of the country (upstate New York) than I, who grew up on the outskirts of New York City. At the core Tom is a warm-hearted, down-to-earth guy, and although he is at times possessed by his appetites – as are most of the rest of us renegades who choose to live in foreign third world countries – he has a unique sense of humility which I find commendable. He has a keen ability to look at himself and a situation from a third person perspective, and is the first to attempt to make amends for his transgressions when he realizes that he has transgressed.

After years of horrendous experiences teaching English in ill-managed schools in Vietnam and Cambodia I finally took Tom’s (and a few others’) nagging advice to apply for a job at the university that he teaches at. He explained that many other teachers we both know had found a stable, manageable working situation at his university after numerous failed attempts at other schools – and that is saying a lot considering the personality traits of some of our mutual acquaintances.

Earlier in the week we both had the enlightening opportunity of being required to attend the school’s once-per-term staff meeting where we were graced with a lecture by a Cambodian “education official” who gloated for roughly an hour about how his EFL higher education empire was better than some developed countries’ due to the fact that it has now reached an enrollment of several hundred classes per term. This was, in essence, his sole reason for concluding that his educational institution was world class.

Since Tom has been a teacher at this school for several years – a quite commendable feat in and of itself -, he comments emphatically on the audacity of such a statement. The fact that the value of an educational institution would be judged solely on its enrollment statistics – with no consideration of the quality of the educational content or its resources was enough to send both Tom and I into a heated debate about the value of education. We talk about how the school over-enrolls students for which it doesn’t have enough classrooms to accommodate. Therefore they have to resort to renting out derelict Cambodian public school classrooms which are not air-conditioned and which have ancient whiteboards which are nearly impossible to erase, so the teacher needs to spend valuable class-time cleaning the board instead of actually teaching. Now I assure you that I have worked in worse situations than this, but this is supposed to be the highest quality school in the country, and they certainly have enough money to provide a more comfortable working environment. So although the school may have a “world-class” enrollment it means nothing when you consider its implementation of resources.

Another major problems with these “world-class” institutions is the curriculum. Although I have the luck of using an “academic writing” book which is fairly appropriate for my students (with a little tweaking on my part), the series of books they are using in the other courses are far inappropriate for the students. The world research literature on applied linguistics makes it clear that foreign language learning is a slow process which requires instruction material which is at (or just slightly above) the competency level of the students. In the end, an appropriate book keeps the students happy (because they are actually able to absorb the content) as well as keeping the teachers happy (as doing their job is not an impossible feat with grossly unrealistic demands imposed upon them). In this ideal situation everyone benefits. The students are happy,, the teachers are happy and don’t quit, and the school’s integrity and reputation increases.

A major problem is that the schools (for whatever reason) don’t want to hire the right people who can come in and develop the curriculum properly. That includes choosing appropriate books, a feasible pacing schedule for teaching the content in the books, and a functional placement system by which students are placed at the appropriate level.

“The bottom line is that it is all just one big sham” laments Tom. “All that matters to them is money.” He explains that last term some representatives of schools from America came to offer scholarships to students in his classes, but that the only real reason for this is just another international handout to keep the schools afloat. I am agitated by this statement and reply “Well, this needs to stop!”. Tom’s reply is that “it isn’t going to stop because the careers of the people working in the international development agencies depend on keeping this international welfare system going.” This to me is a deplorable state of affairs.

Modern industrial civilization (the one which most developing countries seem to be striving to emulate) has evolved primarily through the “Western Tradition” – a mode of thinking rooted significantly in the highly philosophically-oriented culture of ancient Greece. The Greeks valued knowledge for the sake of knowledge. To them the goal of life was to develop one’s sense of reason and awareness in order to transcend our animal nature and ascend into something greater. This potential to self-actualize is what separates man from the beings lower on the evolutionary ladder. Material gain was ABSOLUTELY NOT the end goal in the eyes of the Greeks. Instead it was to develop a society of citizens who could think critically, and use their heightened sense of reason to contribute to the higher good of their culture.

What is the true value of education if it is merely a means to material gain? The developed countries continue to pump billions and billions of dollars (primarily from their own taxpayers’ hard-earned income) of international welfare funds into developing countries so that their pseudo-educated “elite” classes can misallocate those funds via corruption, instead of investing in the most fundamental institution (education) which actually has the potential to lift their societies out of despair.

The average school teacher in the public school system in Cambodia earns far less than $100/month. They attempt to do their jobs in schools ill-equipped in infrastructure and resources. At the same time, the “elite” thumb their noses at the international community in an obscene and shameless display of ill-gotten wealth as their societies lie stagnant.

All of the world’s religions teach (in one way or another) that the ultimate goal in life is personal and spiritual growth. What kind of growth arises in the absence of strong government educational institutions whose function is to promote the intellectual and spiritual growth of its citizenry for the benefit of society as a whole? What good is education if it merely produces wealthy citizens who lack sophistication and moral integrity?

In my opinion, education is the foundation upon which societies are built and thrive. Its development should hold the utmost priority not only in developing nations, but in all of the nations of the world.

Just as we reach the point in the conversation where there is no more that can possibly be said the dishes begin to arrive.

The seaweed soup has a nice mildly salty broth and includes pieces of pork. This is the first time I have had this dish with meat in it. It is very tasty and I didn’t even feel the need to add soy sauce.

The “Mushrooms with Shredded Pork” is a fine dish with chewy white mushrooms, tender pork and slivers of red peppers. Unlike a couple of the other dishes at this place it is not overly oily.

The baked green beans are an excellent execution of this classic dish. The spicing is perfect, with a generous amount of garlic blending harmoniously with a soy sauce based gravy which creates a saltiness which is in all honesty quite addictive. I have to warn Tom that if he doesn’t get in on this dish right away I will likely compulsively finish it off myself. Just be forewarned that the dried red chili peppers in this dish are not for the meek. You can always put them off to the side and add some of the more mild chili sauce provided at the table.

The Potato with Sauteed Pork is a great fusion with the creaminess of the potatoes blending perfectly with the tender pork meat.

The beef dumpling are another star of this show. The spicing of the ground beef filling is perfect. The dough has a great texture and soaks up the oil nicely. These are by far the best dumplings I have had in Phnom Penh – and I have tried dumpling in at least thirty different Chinese restaurants here.

The cold mixed cucumber makes for a perfect crescendo to this meal. The cucumber slices are bathed in a savory vinegar juice with the added touch of cilantro. This is also an excellent antidote to the firey red chili peppers if you find them overpowering.

By the end of this meal we are completely satiated. The portion sizes of the dishes have been well thought out.

The experience at Bett Jeun has been one of the best I have had out of all of the low budget Chinese restaurants in Phnom Penh. The service is efficient. The spicing of the dishes is spot on. The place is clean and cozy and the prices are more than fair considering the quality of the food.

The only qualm that I have with the cooking is that a few of the dishes here tend to be a little oily sometimes – specifically some of the heavy meat dishes. I think this may also be due to the fact that they have more than one cook. So if you are not too fond of oil, just ask them to go light.

I would recommend Bett Jeun to anyone who is budget conscious and appreciates good home-cooked Chinese cuisine.

Bet Jeun can be found at #555 Monivong Blvd, Phnom Penh.

Frank Lancieri