Street Food in Cambodia

I would say, please eat street food to have an authentic travel experience!

When you tour the countries in South-east Asia, you tend to be skeptical of the food you partake on the streets. I have a weak stomach, so I am extra cautious of the food that I eat, especially on the streets.

But with an adventurous mind, I took some calculated risks and ate some of the food along the streets of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. I did not have any stomach upset of any sort throughout the entire journey and I was really grateful. :)

I think that as long as you avoid exposed food, weird insect-infested food and always insist on having food that is cooked on the spot, you are pretty much on the safe side.

That is also because I went to the trip with lots of precautionary measures this time...

I made sure that I took 2 probiotic pills in the morning and a multi-vitamin. And after any street food that I ate, I made sure that I take my probiotic drink. It really worked wonders for me! 

Back to the street food I had in Cambodia, our first dinner for the trip was spent along the streets at the junction just outside our hotel where there are a few stalls selling grilled food and we picked one of the crowded ones:

We sat on one of these tables with very small stools and ate along the locals. The locals were able to converse in English and we quickly settled in for dinner.

Cambodia food is pretty similar to its neighbours such as Vietnam and Thailand where they serve us many condiments such as salt, pepper, lime and yummy garlic chilli.

We asked for recommendations and had the grilled beef, grilled pork and grilled snails to share. They also served complimentary vegetables and rice to go with it.

The food is grilled on a roadside BBQ station with charcoal and it is char-grilled to perfection, much to the likes of Korean BBQ meat. The total cost of the meal came up to USD$2 which included the drinks we had. It was such a sumptuous and hearty meal for the price.

I did not feel that the food was unclean of any sorts. It was a good local meal that all tourists should enjoy seating in the midst of the young Cambodians. (;

Phnom Penh 

Near Teahouse Asian Urban Resort

Sangkat Chaktomuk, Khan Daun Penh, Daun Penh.

On and off the streets of Siem Reap's night market, we tried some of their local delicacies as well. 

We had this sausage filled with vermicelli and meat. I think I ate something similar to this in Thailand. It is grilled along the streets and costs a few cents.  

I really love this passion fruit juice that I had at Siem Reap's night market. I asked her to add the passion fruit along with honey and it was so good I had it on the both nights we spent in Siem Reap.  (;

We also had this sweet savoury dessert with coconut shreds and brown sugar. It tasted weird at first but I got kinda hooked on it after awhile. It had a pretty unique taste!

Even at night, the temperature in Cambodia was unbearable for us at 40 degrees Celsius. We had to get some ice cream to cool us down. We had the Korean ice-cream with twirly cones!

That kinda summarizes some of the street food we had at Siem Reap. We did not try many of the food along the streets because we packed our itinerary with restaurants and cafes to try out, so please look out for my other posts on that!

Siem Reap
Ang Kor Night Market
Khum Svay Dangkum, Cambodia

http://www.siemreap-nightmarket.com/

http://www.angkornightmarket.com/

We also had street food on our last afternoon at the Central Market in Phnom Penh. 

The famous fried insects that many locals rave about. But due to the influx of tourists and the massive amount of photo-taking, the stalls do not allow photos but I sneaked a photo here. And no, we are not gutsy enough to try them. 

As we only had 1 hour left before our departure to the airport, we were trying our luck to satisfy our craving at the Central Market. Fortunately for us, we made our way to the food section and we saw something similar to that of the Pho there!

The taste of the noodles resembled that of the Pho in Vietnam, but it was slightly lighter in the taste. They also had the various spices and herbs that is similar to the Pho noodles. 

We also tried the fried bee tai mak or rat noodles, which is the silver needle noodles. It tasted real good with an egg topped on it. For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_needle_noodles

The noodles were priced at approximately USD$1-2 each. Apart from the noodles, we also ordered the grilled fish to try. But it did not taste that good. It was heftily charged at USD$5 even though it was the bargained already. It was much of a tourist trap at the central market and we should have bargained more even for the food, but we were out of time. 

Phnom Penh

Central Market

Neayok Souk, Phnom Penh 855, Cambodia

http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh/phnom-penh-city-central-market-141.html

That concludes my post on the street food in Cambodia. We have had a variety of different food of all sorts and a foodventure to share about the streets of Cambodia streets and they food they offer. A highly-raved experience I would recommend!