Street Food in Cambodia

I'm writing this back in Singapore after spending this past week in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The real reason for the trip was to join the throngs of tourists wanting to see Angkor Wat and its neighboring temples. I was able to combine this with a bit of (guided) mountain biking through the area and, of course, tasty Cambodian food.

This being a blog dedicated to interesting foods, I will tell you what I did (and did not) eat while I was there. I'm happy to tell you about the rest of the trip too -- just ask.


First, a bit on what I did not eat. Before I left home, I told the tour organizer I wanted to eat interesting local foods. As things worked out, I was the only person on this tour, so that didn't seem like too hard a request to comply with. I did get to eat delicious food, but there were a few things I didn't even want to attempt. The woman in the center photo, for example, runs a stand that apparently specializes in things I did not want to eat: watersnakes, frogs, crickets and other bugs. These were also common on roadside stands. Ditto chicken feet, also pictured here.

Ok, so what did I eat? Tasty stuff. Cambodia is, not surprisingly, a fairly poor country. It's possible to eat extraordinarily cheaply there, even when paying a tourist premium. Dishes at typical restaurants go for about US$3, with pricey places (cloth napkins, wine glasses, attentive service) closer to $6 or $7. Oddly, they use US dollars there (but only paper notes; change is made using riels, of which there are 4000 per dollar). My first night I had a fish curry (amok) with coconut milk and lots of lemongrass. It was good, but clearly not seasoned for even a weak Cambodian palate. I asked for some fresh chillies, which helped a bit. I also decided to eat more street food.

Street food is a bit elusive. It's sold by pushcart vendors who travel around. You never quite know what you're going to get or where. You have to jump at an opportunity to grab, say, a papaya salad or baguette, because you don't know when the next vendor will appear. And the prices start to escalate as you get closer to the city center.

I first went off in search of a baguette sandwich. Like Vietnam, Cambodia was a French protectorate for a while. And like in Vietnam, the ubiquitous rice flour baguette is the fortunate residue of this relationship. The sandwiches here are slightly different than in Vietnam. The baguettes are narrower, there is less meat (just a bit of pork), and a wider variety of pickled vegetables. This is the woman that sold me my first of a few baguette sandwiches, and she is the recipient of the only 100% tip I have ever given. She charged 1000 riels (25 cents) for the sandwich. I gave her 2000. It was worth it.

Next, time for a papaya salad. I had spotted a vendor earlier in the day, but didn't realize quite how elusive these guys could be. I vowed that I'd buy a salad from the next vendor I saw, and that's who is pictured here. He first took a chili, some salt and garlic and mashed them in a giant mortar and pestle. He then added green papaya, long beans, peanuts, green tomato, lime juice, some crawly things (shrimp, crab, etc.), an herb blend (Thai basil, rau ram, maybe others), and some fish sauce. Somehow he fit all of these things in his tiny cart, and produced a delicious salad that I enjoyed on a nearby park bench. Cost? 75 cents.

For dessert, a banana pancake. Perhaps another legacy of the French (they're similar to crepes, but made a bit differently), these are thin pancakes cooked with lots of butter (actually probably margarine, but we'll skip that detail), then rolled up with sweetened condensed milk and sliced baby bananas. Good, but not fabulous. Another 75 cents.

I did eat other meals in Cambodia, of course, but these were some of my favorites. I also picked up my share of street fruit -- one of my favorite features of Southeast Asia (see my guest blog entry on this topic from several years ago).