The Khmer food of Cambodia can be a real treat. As tourists travel through the countryside or in cities, far away from Western restaurants with Pizza and Burgers. Instead we had the fortune to try the local food. The base of Khmer food is rice. Usually a pot of rice and a can of hot or cold tea with a glass full of ice cubes come with the food. Drinking water is rather expensive, that’s why most people boil the water from the tap (if there is no tab water they use the river water) and add tea leaves for the taste. The ice cubes are sold per piece and the salesmen drive from house to house and cut the sold parts off with a saw. These giant ice cubes are chopped into smaller pieces and stored together with canned drinks in big cooling boxes. Every time the shop owner needs some small ice cubes he chops some pieces off the big block with a small axe.
Some food will be freshly prepared, but in some of the street side restaurants it is prepared in the early morning and reheated once sold. Customers can either ask for their favorite dish or open the pots with the food and choose the dish that looks and smells best. That is what we did, because we did not understand any Khmer. The food for curios people: dog meat and bugs we ate plenty of rice with side dishes as grilled or boiled chicken. These dishes are simple, cheap and come with a spicy sauce and a bowl of chicken broth. The Khmer eat with fork and spoon. They push the food with the fork on the spoon. You will not find a knife on the table since the pieces are usually small enough to eat them in one piece or soft enough to chop them with the spoon. Some people also eat with the hands or with chopsticks. Meat usually comes with all bones and small animals sometimes even come with guts.
Since we travel along the Mekong River and around the Tonle Sap Lake, we found fish to be present in most dishes. Many families own a rice field that they harvest once, few families twice a year. They fish their own river food , hunt small animals as frogs, bats, squirrels, mice, rats and sometimes even deer or wild pigs in the forest and either buy or hold chicken. Bugs and spiders are local specialties as well. There are many cows in Cambodia, but they are used for transportation and plowing of the fields rather than for their milk. In different regions we found pot-bellied pigs, goats and goose running through the streets. In the local restaurants you will find fish sauce, soy sauce, fish paste (the smell is something I needed to get used to) a sweet and spicy sauce and sometimes vinegar on the table. In local houses the families often eat sitting on the floor. It is mostly the women who prepare the food. Restaurants will provide tables and chairs.
In Cambodia you have two options. accept that the local cleanliness standards are not as high as you may be used to it in other countries. Even though the saleswomen on the markets try their best to keep the flies away from their meat, there are just too many. I do not think that the water is always perfectly purified and I never knew how long the meat has been laying in the sun before I came and bought it. But the food tastes great and neither Roberto nor I had any stomach problems to fight with. In Cambodia anthelminthics (medicine against worms and parasites) are sold for a dollar. We took some just to be on the safe side. So don’t worry for food standards and dip into the exotic Khmer cuisine!
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