| Elephant Walk | |
|---|---|
 Elephant Walk restaurant in 2010 | |
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1991 |
| Food type | French and Cambodian cuisine |
| Street address | 1415 Washington Street |
| City | Boston |
| County | Suffolk |
| State | Massachusetts |
| Postal/ZIP Code | MA 02118 |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 42°20′28″N71°04′14″W / 42.3411°N 71.0705°W |
| Website | elephantwalkboston |
Elephant Walk is a French and Cambodian restaurant established in 1991 by Longteine "Nyep" de Monteiro.
The working name for the restaurant in the early stages of construction had been "Cambodia Café", which was criticised by Bob Perry's mother Pat Perry as too literal, trite and boring. Instead, she suggested the name "Elephant Walk" as a reference to the 1954 movie of the same name and due to the importance of elephants in Cambodian culture and history. [1]
Longteine de Monteiro was the wife to Cambodian Ambassador to Taiwan Kenthao de Monteiro when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Their French diplomatic friends arranged for the family to move to France, where they settled in Beziers. There to make a living Longteine, who had previously learned French cooking and taken Chinese cooking lessons in Taiwan, opened a Cambodian restaurant Amrita in 1980, which became a success. After Longteine's daughter Nadsa got married in 1986 and returned to the United States in 1987, becoming a citizen in 1990, Longteine also moved to the United States. [2]
Elephant Walk was opened in 1991 in Union Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, by Longteine "Nyep" de Monteiro with the help of her daughter Nadsa and son-in-law Bob Perry. At the time of opening, it was Boston's only Cambodian restaurant and only one of two restaurants serving two complete menus. In 1993, Nadsa left her job as a travel agent and started working at the restaurant full time as a sous-chef. [3]
After the arrival of Longteine's elder daughter Launa and her French husband Gerard Lopez from France in late 1993, a second Elephant Walk restaurant was opened in Boston in late 1994. In late 1997, they opened a third restaurant Carambola in Waltham, Massachusetts, which served exclusively Cambodian cuisine. [3] Shortly thereafter, the original Elephant Walk restaurant was moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. [4] In 2005, a French menu was added to the Carambola's Cambodian menu and it was also renamed to Elephant Walk. [5] In 2013, the Elephant Walk restaurant in Waltham was closed. [6]
In 2014, after more than 20 years of operation, the Elephant Walk was moved from Beacon Street [7] [8] to 1415 Washington Street, at a former location of BoMa gastropub. [9] In 2017, the Elephant Walk in Cambridge was closed. [10]
The restaurant offers 2 menus – a French and a Cambodian menu. The French menu has included dishes such as steak au poivre , saumon à l'oseille , coq au vin , and canard à l'orange , [2] whereas the Cambodian menu has included dishes, such as rouleaux , nataing , b'baw mouan , salade Cambodgienne, nyoum sarai, loc lac , and mee siem. [11]
In 1992, Elephant Walk was named one of America's Best New Restaurants by Esquire Magazine who described it as "absolutely delicious and enlightening." [12] and since then it has become the most famous Cambodian restaurant in the United States. [13]
In 1998, Carambola was praised as "one of Greater Boston's most treasured restaurants" and "the most immediately satisfying and consistent of their restaurant ventures thus far" by Robert Nadeau of The Boston Phoenix. [14]
In 2022, the Elephant Walk in Boston was described as "one of the most unique flavor profiles in the city". [15]
In 1998, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Longteine de Monteiro's "The Elephant Walk Cookbook", a collection of more than 150 Cambodian recipes she co-authored with food writer Katherine Neustadt. [16] It was the first Cambodian American cookbook [17] and has become the best-known Cambodian cookbook in English. [18]
The cookbook was lauded as a "masterpiece" and "first rate cookbook" in an early review by The Austin Chronicle, who praised its extensive introduction of the lesser-known culture and history of Cambodia, as well as diverse and comprehensive selection of recipes covering "incredible range" of dishes "with clear, concise directions". [19]
French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices from France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In the 17th century, chefs François Pierre La Varenne and Marie-Antoine Carême spearheaded movements that shifted French cooking away from its foreign influences and developed France's own indigenous style.
Tex-Mex cuisine is a regional American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of Tejano people. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United States to the rest of the country. It is a subtype of Southwestern cuisine found in the American Southwest.
A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes.
California cuisine is a food movement that originated in Northern California. The cuisine focuses on dishes that are driven by local and sustainable ingredients with an attention to seasonality and an emphasis on the bounty of the region.
Prahok is a salted and fermented fish paste used in Cambodian cuisine as a seasoning or a condiment. It originated as a way of preserving fish during the months when fresh fish was not available in abundant supply. Because of its saltiness and strong flavor, it was used as an addition to many meals in Cambodian cuisine, such as soups and sauces. A Cambodian saying goes, "No prahok, no salt", referring to a dish that is of poor flavor or bland thus highlighting its essentiality in Cambodian cuisine.
Cambodian cuisine is an umbrella term for the cuisines of all ethnic groups in Cambodia, whereas Khmer cuisine refers specifically to the nearly-two-thousand-year-old culinary tradition of the Khmer people. Over centuries, Cambodian cuisine has incorporated elements of Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and more recently French cuisine, and due to some of these shared influences and mutual interaction, it has many similarities with the cuisines of Central Thailand, and Southern Vietnam and to a lesser extent also Central Vietnam, Northeastern Thailand and Laos.
Nouvelle cuisine is an approach to cooking and food presentation in French cuisine. In contrast to cuisine classique, an older form of haute cuisine, nouvelle cuisine is characterized by lighter, more delicate dishes and an increased emphasis on presentation. It was popularized in the 1960s by the food critic Henri Gault, who invented the phrase, and his colleagues André Gayot and Christian Millau in a new restaurant guide, the Gault-Millau, or Le Nouveau Guide.
Samlor machu is a Khmer term for a category of sour soups.
Craig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for The New York Times, he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography. Over the course of his career, he made many contributions to gastronomy and food writing in the United States.
Heston Marc Blumenthal is a British celebrity chef, TV personality and food writer. Blumenthal is regarded as a pioneer of multi-sensory cooking, food pairing and flavour encapsulation. He came to public attention with unusual recipes, such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge. His recipes for triple-cooked chips and soft-centred Scotch eggs have been widely imitated. He has advocated a scientific approach to cooking, for which he has been awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Reading, Bristol and London and made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
James Martin is a British chef and television presenter, best known for his television work with the BBC and ITV.
Jean-Georges Vongerichten is a French chef. Vongerichten owns restaurants in Miami Beach, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo, as well as New York's Jean-Georges restaurant and Tangará Jean Georges in São Paulo's Palácio Tangará, by Oetker Collection. He is also the head chef of Eden Rock, St Barths. Vongerichten is the author of five cookbooks, two with Mark Bittman.
Corn fritters are fried cakes of a dough or batter made of, or containing a featured quantity of maize (corn). Originating in Native American cuisine, they are a traditional sweet and savory snack in the Southern United States, as well as Indonesia where they are known as perkedel jagung or bakwan jagung.
Louis Felix Diat was a French-American chef and culinary writer. It is also believed that he created vichyssoise soup during his time at the Ritz-Carlton.
Samlor kako or Cambodian ratatouille is a traditional Cambodian soup considered one of Cambodia's national dishes. Samlar kako consists of green kroeung, prahok, roasted ground rice, catfish, pork or chicken, vegetables, fruits and herbs. The dish has been compared to French ratatouille or pot-au-feu.
The Green Elephant Vegetarian Bistro is a vegetarian restaurant serving Thai cuisine in Portland, Maine, that opened in 2007 in the city's Arts District. A second Green Elephant restaurant is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Both have received critical attention for their vegetarian dishes.
Joannès "Jo" Rivière is a French chef, restaurateur and cookbook author specializing in Cambodian cuisine. He has been regarded as the leading Western authority on Cambodian food.
Chef Nak is a Cambodian celebrity chef, culinary author, and entrepreneur.
Chha trob or dot trob (ដុតត្រប់) is a Cambodian dish made out of chargrilled eggplants with minced pork and fermented soybeans stir-fried in oyster sauce and garnished with spring onions. It is a typical dish from the Kampuchea Krom region in Mekong Delta.
Prahok ktis is a Cambodian dipping sauce made from prahok sach, minced pork, yellow kroeung, coconut cream, tamarind water, palm sugar, pea eggplants and kaffir lime leaves. Pea eggplants can also be replaced with green apples, unripe peaches or nectarines, cabbage or cauliflower.
The most widely known restaurant is Chef Longteine de Monteiro's Elephant Walk in the Boston metropolitan area, which serves a rather upscale menu of French-inspired cuisine, including dishes such as Crevette Kep Sur Mer (shrimp with lemongrass, tamarind, coconut milk, wild lime, asparagus, and more with jasmine rice). The Elephant Walk also offers cooking classes.
