ILL TASTE MANHATTAN
Cambodian Cuisine restaurant doesn"t inspire confidence. A flat-screen TV dominates the spartan space, which was totally empty. Still, I was hopeful, because in my native Northern Virginia you can find fantastic pho or magnificent mee krob at virtual â??holes in the malls. Yet my cold spring rolls were slimy and bland, and my sweet and sour soup smelled mainly sour. I pushed both away, paid the bill and was walking west on 93rd toward Lexington when I spied a poster with hand scrawled lettering: â??Manhattan Clam Chowder? $4.00 pint. â??How"s the chowder? I asked Evan Kemp of the Holland Court Meat Market. â??Best in Manhattan, he said and went to the basement to bring me a pint. I looked around and didn"t see any meat, just filets of fish priced three times higher than my Upper West Side fish store. Kemp told me the meat is cut to order, which suits the tony East Side clientele. I spooned up the hot chowder, grateful that almost anywhere in Manhattan you can find culinary sanctuary. The thin tomato broth was peppery with an edge of smoked meat, which, Kemp told me, came from the potatoes being cooked in bacon fat. -- Holland Court Meat Market, Inc. 1423 Lexington Ave. (at 93rd Street) 212-289-8490 -- Got a snack attack to share? [Contact NBrand@aol.com](mailto:NBrand@aol.com)