Reathrey Sekong
Reathrey Sekong is a family-run Cambodian restaurant on East Indian School Road in Phoenix, Arizona, opened by Lakhana In in 2011.[1] Its long menu of homestyle Khmer dishes is known for keeping bold, traditional flavors such as fermented shrimp paste and prahook, fermented fish paste.[1][2] Phoenix New Times has written that the kitchen does not soften these flavors for American palates, as many other restaurants do.[2] It was listed as temporarily closed as of September 28, 2026.
History
Lakhana In opened Reathrey Sekong in 2011 to earn extra money and share the food of her culture with a city that, by The Arizona Republic's account, had no Cambodian restaurant at all.[1] The dishes she and her family cook are the homestyle recipes she brought with her from Cambodia.[1] In 2018 Phoenix New Times called it a one-of-a-kind Phoenix restaurant. Noting how little Cambodian food the metro area offered, the paper included the restaurant's soup at number 26 in The Essentials, its list of fifty dishes and food experiences it considered indispensable in metro Phoenix.[2]
Food
Soups are at the center of the menu. A thin, sweet-and-tangy pineapple soup is built on tamarind, with catfish, pineapple, yellow squash, tomatoes, lotus root, basil and fried garlic. A lemongrass soup, thick with coconut milk, holds beef, eggplant and celery, with jalapeño and a touch of prahook.[3][2][4] A Phnom Penh noodle soup, close to pho, fills its bowl with rice noodles, shrimp and pork in several forms, among them ground pork, intestine, liver and heart. A fourth soup is a mild red Khmer curry with chicken, potatoes, carrots, bamboo, baby corn and eggplant.[3][4]
The restaurant is also known for cha kreung, a staple of Khmer cooking. It starts with kreung, a paste of lemongrass, makrut lime leaf, shallots, garlic, galangal and dried turmeric that In slices and grinds herself. Cha is the second stage, the stir-fry: chicken, beef or tofu goes into a small, hot wok with oil, sugar, fish sauce, chiles and whatever vegetables are fresh and in season, then the paste. Slivered red onion goes in just before plating, and the dish is finished with fine slivers of makrut lime leaf.[1] In 2019 The Arizona Republic named it a "Killer Dish."[1]
Other dishes include num pang sandwiches, papaya salad with fermented shrimp, student noodles and pork chops.[3][2] The 2020 menu also listed a pleah beef salad of rare beef cured in lime and galangal fish sauce, a bok lahong green papaya salad with shrimp paste and salted crab, and desserts such as sweet rice steamed with coconut milk and jackfruit in a banana leaf.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Arizona Republic, Reathrey Sekong and its cha kreung (March 2019)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Phoenix New Times, A One-of-a-Kind Phoenix Restaurant for Anyone Who Digs Asian Food (April 2018)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Phoenix New Times, The Stupendous Cambodian Soups of Reathrey Sekong (December 2017)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Postmates, Reathrey Sekong menu (July 2020)