China, Laos. French culinary specialists have also left their mark, thanks to which travelers enjoy freshly baked crispy baguettes. But the main principle of eating is “Nature gives - you can eat!”. The edible and the seemingly inedible harmonize in an unthinkable way on your plate.
Khmer cuisine for tourists is different from what the residents themselves eat. This is probably for the best, since Khmers literally drown food in rather specific sauces. Take at least prahok - it is prepared from ... rotten fish. The smell of this dish is able to knock down the most stable European gourmet. And it’s better not to buy food at dubious street stalls - it’s not known what kind of meat enterprising sellers will offer you instead of pork. The night market is an exception.
Soups
Traditionally Cambodian cuisine starts with soup. Usually, Cambodians eat spicy stew with meat, fish or seafood for breakfast, adding a lot of herbs and spices. Looking ahead, it is worth noting that with almost any dish in Cambodia they will bring you a plate with a huge amount of greens - mint, lemongrass, lemon balm will be constant companions of your dishes. Broths with noodles are also popular. Chefs put thin strips of dough in a special strainer and drop it into a boiling vat of broth for literally a minute. Then the finished noodles are placed in a bowl, poured with soup with meat or chicken, greens are added and enjoyed. Samla machu yuon is a sour soup, one of the oldest recipes in the country. The main component is the Indian date tamarind, which gives the broth sourness. If you get a chance, be sure to try samla-machu-banle - fish soup with tamarind and curry. The soup with pork, pineapples and the same curry is also very tasty. The stews in Cambodia are, of course, spicy, but not so hot as to burn the esophagus - rather, spices add spice to dishes.
Main courses
Since bread is not available in Cambodia, it has been replaced with rice, as in most Asian countries. The principle is simple: no rice on the table - the guests will remain hungry.
There are an unprecedented variety of rice varieties in Cambodia. Desserts, vodka and main courses are prepared from it, which we will now discuss in more detail. You can often see the mysterious baai-so on the menu - this is a banal boiled unleavened rice that is served with first courses instead of bread. They can be eaten with broth or added to soup if it seems too spicy. Bai cha - snow-white grains are mixed with pork or shrimp, soy sauce and herbs with garlic. Baicha is rice with seafood, and bo-bo is porridge on the water without a drop of salt. Tourists usually like cabbage rolls cooked in bamboo leaves.
In addition to rice, foreigners willingly eat amok. This is a bowl of banana leaves in which meat or fish fillets are baked with coconut milk. The resulting treat resembles a soufflé and literally melts in your mouth. Sometimes it is served in a coconut, then the flesh of the fruit adds originality to the taste. For piquancy, citrus peel and galangal (a plant like ginger) can be added. When ordering amok, keep in mind that the dish is very large, so calculate your strength.
Lok Lak is made from finely chopped marinated meat cooked in fish sauce and seasoned with lime juice and black pepper. It is offered to be tasted on a plate covered with lettuce and cucumbers. In memory of the French, loc lak is often eaten with fried potatoes rather than rice - but this is an exception to the rule.
The fish in the restaurants of Cambodia is always very fresh: they did not have time to catch it in the nearest river, as it appears on your table. Meat is rarely eaten here. But river inhabitants are steamed, fried, boiled, added to sour soup. And that's not counting fish sauces and pastas. For example, nom ban chok is an incredibly delicious dish of noodles covered in fish sauce. Sometimes, on the occasion of the celebration, red curry is added to it.
In Cambodia, you should definitely try local seafood, especially fried crabs. The famous black pepper kampot is added to the arthropod. Stingrays are no less tasty - they are usually served with a generous portion of greens.
Beverages
The most popular soft drink is bamboo juice. It tones and pleasantly cools, but at the same time quite sweet. You can always ask to add some lime to it. Tentnot is the sap of the palm tree, grassy and sour in taste.
Green tea in restaurants and cafes is served literally in liters throughout the meal - it is believed that it breaks down fats and promotes digestion.
From sweet drinks travelers like dtyuk-rolok - a cocktail of raw egg yolk, sugar and fruit. It is usually cooked in front of your eyes, so control the process.
Tourists willingly drink local beer of the brands Angkor, Phnom Penh, Kingdom and Cambodia, but it is better to refuse palm wine - a pleasant-tasting drink very strongly and quickly intoxicates the average European. But fearlessly you can drink samrong - a tincture of seeds.
Prasat Phnom Banon is the first wine in Cambodia to be exported and meet international standards.
In general, it is difficult to die of thirst in Cambodia - the main thing is not to buy coveted bottles of water from roadside vendors, who often pour gasoline instead of delicious drinks. Alcohol is better to buy in restaurants, large stores or hotels.
Dessert
Standard dessert in Cambodian cuisine are fruits. If pomelo, mango, guava, pineapple, papaya are familiar to us, then few people have heard about rambutan, mangosteen, camerin and durian. Rambutan is a fruit hiding under a bristling shell. Its juicy, sour pulp is somewhat reminiscent of lychee jelly. Mangosteen is grape, pineapple, cherry and strawberry to taste at the same time. Kamarin has a sweet and sour aroma, and there are legends about the smell.
For dessert, they often offer bananas, deep-fried or in sweet syrup. There are glutinous rice cakes on the menu of Cambodian cuisine. Tourists willingly buy jellies and puddings of various colors. Some put inside a steamed pumpkin.
exotic dishes
It is believed that the Khmer eat everything that crawls, flies and swims. There was even a stereotype that the inhabitants of Cambodia eat only fried cockroaches, boiled frogs and dried spiders. In fact, it is more of an entertainment for tourists. Certain restaurants have similar appetizers on the menu, but it’s unlikely that you will be able to taste the snake, because this cold-blooded animal is threatened with extinction due to tourists. According to reviews, cockroaches taste like unleavened chips, frogs - hard chicken, and snake meat - chicken fillet. Some take the risk of trying fried ants, which include red bugs, beef and holy basil. Ants cooked with ginger give the meat a pleasant sour taste. There are also tinctures of scorpions - but they are a big fan.
Some cunning local chefs add hemp to food under the guise of seasoning - it causes a feeling of euphoria, and then wild hunger. You should not order "Happy pizza" and necks with "magic mushrooms" - for the same reason.
Cambodian cuisine is quite spicy, but if you ask, they will make you a European version of the dish (less peppery). Local food is very spicy and mostly has a sweetish taste. In addition, aesthetes will be pleased with the design of local dishes.
The main Khmer food is rice, meat, fish, vegetables and greens. From meat they eat chicken, pork, beef and goat meat. Vegetables are eaten at different stages of their maturity, raw, pickled and pickled. The south of the country will delight seafood lovers. From the presented ingredients, locals prepare many different dishes, especially soups. For example, octopus is added to the classic Khmer soup in Sihanoukville. It costs about $2-$2.5.
Tip: all the water that you plan to use for drinking, making ice or brushing your teeth should be boiled first.
National dishes of Cambodia that are worth a try
Cambodian cuisine is very diverse, to appreciate its taste, you should try the following dishes:
Drinks Cambodia
Among the local drinks, the following are especially popular:
Food prices in Cambodia
Cambodia has very cheap seafood, especially shrimp and squid are good here. If you plan to stay in this country for a long time and want to cook on your own, then here are the prices for some products in Cambodia:
- beef - $5/kg;
- pork - $4/kg;
- shrimp - $5/kg;
- bread - $1 per loaf;
- milk - $ 1.5 per liter package.
The average price for a ready meal is $1-$3. You can have a full meal for $5, and for two - for $8.
For strong stomachs
Those who love to try exotic cuisine can enjoy spiders, snakes, frogs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, turtles, insect larvae and even sparrows in Cambodia. Tarantulas are best cooked here in the town of Skuon, where they are seasoned with garlic and hot peppers. The price of one spider is $0.2.
Subtleties of cuisine of Cambodia. What is a must try?
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Another specific Cambodian dish is Happy Pizza. The basis is an ordinary pizza, to which a special ingredient is added - hallucinogenic mushrooms or marijuana. You can try this pizza in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, and Sihanoukville.
And you can drink all this pleasure with a cocktail of snake blood and moonshine, to which the still beating heart of a snake is sometimes served as an appetizer.
Food in the tourist cities of Cambodia
Siem Reap has many restaurants and street cafes. Here you will have the opportunity to eat and national dishes and hamburgers and pizza. Authentic Khmer food is best served at karaoke restaurants. You can drink on the famous PubStreet. The only drawback of local establishments is that not everywhere there is a menu in English.
In Sihanoukville you can find establishments with any cuisine in the world. For example, on the beach "Victory Beach" there is a SnakeHouse, which is run by Russians. The prices here are not the cheapest - the average bill will be at least $15. This restaurant has its own small zoo.
Along the beach "Ochutel Beach" lined up endless cafes and food stalls. Seafood here can be enjoyed for $4. And Serendipity Beach often has Happy Hours, when you can buy a cocktail for $2-$2.5, and local beer for $0.5-$0.75.
Bai sach chrouk- This is rice with pork, a simple and most delicious dish. It is sold in street food stalls in the morning. Thinly sliced pork is grilled over charcoal to give the meat a natural sweet taste. Pork is sometimes marinated in coconut milk or garlic.
amok fish- The Khmer version of this Asian fish dish is distinguished by the addition of slok ngor, a local herb, which gives the fish a slightly bitter taste. It is fish mousse with coconut milk and krien, a type of Khmer curry paste made from lemongrass, turmeric root, garlic, shallots, galangal, and ginger root or Chinese ginger.
Nom ban chok- Consists of mashed rice noodles topped with fish curry, lemongrass sauce, turmeric root and kaffir lime (a subspecies of the citrus family). The dish is decorated with fresh mint leaves, bean sprouts, green beans, banana flowers, cucumbers and other herbs. There is a version of nom bang chok with red curry, which is served on the occasion of a celebration or wedding.
Khmer red curry- prepared with coconut milk, but without the addition of chili peppers. Curry is served with beef, chicken or fish, eggplant, green beans, potatoes, fresh coconut milk, lemongrass or crien. Served with bread, this is a relic of the French influence.
Lap Khmer- salad with lightly browned thinly sliced beef pieces. Lemongrass, shallots, garlic, fish sauce, Asian basil, mint, green beans and green pepper. Khul spice and a large amount of red chili pepper are added to the resulting sweet and sour dish.
fried crab- a feature of the seaside Cambodian town of Kep (Kep). Arthropods are seasoned with herbs and pepper grown in Kampot. Aromatic kampot pepper is known among all gourmets of the world. In dried form, you can taste it everywhere, but only in Cambodia you can taste the taste of unripe peppercorns.
fried ants- of course, we could not fail to mention at least one insect dish. This dish is not made from ants alone. It includes red ants, beef and tulasi (holy basil). Ants of various sizes, some barely visible, others almost 2.5 cm long, are long roasted with ginger, lemongrass, garlic, shallots and thinly sliced beef. A large amount of chili peppers gives the dish a delicious flavor without overpowering the slightly sour (thanks to the ants) taste of the meat. The dish is served with rice.
Drinks in Cambodia are less extravagant. Of course, if we are not talking about a snake cocktail, when the blood of this reptile is added to moonshine of dubious quality. And so you can try a galaxy of wonderful drinks:
- Samrong is a tincture of the seeds of the samrong tree.
- Tekdong - filtered coconut milk.
- Tektnot - juice from a palm tree.
- Dtyuk-rolok is a kind of drink made from fruits and egg yolk.
Here they sell good varieties beer, as well as rice and palm wines. There is also rice vodka, and all kinds of tinctures with scorpions and snakes - for an amateur, Cambodia maintains the image of an extreme country in this regard too.
Cambodia is a mysterious country increasingly attracting tourists to last years. And not only the cult building is of interest, but also the exotic Khmer cuisine.
Due to the fact that the state borders on several countries of the Indochinese peninsula, and in the history of Cambodia's development for a long time was under the strong influence of France and Japan, Khmer cuisine is an incredible combination of traditions from different cuisines of the world and its inherent sweet and spicy personality.
The local population here eats everything that can be found, grown, caught or caught. And they combine everything in dishes, without any rules. But often tourists who come here to taste exotic dishes are more picky and limit themselves to traditional dishes, excluding various treats from insects, rats and frogs. Although there is an opportunity to taste all this - there would be a desire.
The main dish, without which not one meal in the cities and towns of Cambodia passes, is rice. True, it is prepared, unlike neighboring countries, with a lot of oil and a small addition of spices, mostly spicy-sweet, such as coriander and saffron. Almost any oil is used - peanut, palm, coconut, nut. Rice can be served as a side dish for meat, fish, poultry or seafood, or it can be a separate dish flavored with one of the traditional sauces. 
The next common product after rice, as in most neighboring countries, is noodles. Rice, egg, barley, clear, starch noodles are used in soups and main dishes such as fried rice noodles with pork or Tukchey fish sauce. 
Soups, being nutritious and inexpensive dishes, are popular with local population, and traditionally they are cooked in hundreds of different variations, mainly in fish, meat and chicken broths. 
It is noteworthy that fish can be added to chicken broth soup, and seafood can be added to meat broth. There is nothing forbidden in the combination of products. Probably, this is the reason why this cuisine attracts tourists – to try something that is extremely rare in other cuisines of the world. A striking example of this is the popular dish among tourists - "Amok", which is poultry, shrimp or seafood with a sauce of coconut milk with the addition of curry and herbs, usually served with rice as a side dish. 
Since Cambodia has many reservoirs rich in fish, it takes pride of place on the Khmer table. Moreover, the fish is eaten in almost any form - boiled, fried, felted, and so on. It is impossible not to mention the traditional dish, which, being everyday among the local population, is not popular with tourists because of the strong, unpleasant specific smell - “Prokhok”. The dish is a paste of chopped small fish along with offal, which is allowed to spoil in the heat, falling asleep with spices. Such a specific product is rarely to the taste of tourists, so it is difficult to find it in restaurants.
But for those who want to try something specific, the menu often includes rat meat dishes. Why not a culinary extreme for a tourist?
In order to taste dishes made from insects, such as grasshoppers, beetles or larvae, which sometimes look quite appetizing because of the frying with the addition of a large amount of oil, you will have to go to places that are not as popular with tourists as the capital or other large cities.
The local population consumes insects in food in order to replenish minerals that are absent in other foods, that is, for them it is a kind of vitamin. Also common dish is an egg with a chicken embryo. Don't be afraid to buy it by accident! This is quite an expensive delicacy! 
traditional dish of insects are fried spiders "A-ping", cooked on fire with the addition of salt and garlic. Such a dish can be tasted in Skuon.
The influence of France, under whose protectorate Cambodia remained for a long time, in the local cuisine is reflected in the use of frog legs in many dishes, as well as in the recipes for fragrant and lush bread and buns baked daily in small bakeries scattered throughout the settlements.
Vegetables and fruits are used in food in huge quantities, and depending on the stage of maturity at which they were collected and the set of spices used, they can be added to main dishes. as well as sweet desserts. For example, green mango is used in a salty salad with vegetables such as cucumber and celery, while ripe juicy mango is used with syrup for a delicious dessert. 
Speaking of fruits, there is such a variety of them here that many have not only never been tried by tourists, but also have names that cannot be translated into other languages. 
With the so-called omnivorous Khmers, dairy products are consumed extremely rarely, with the exception of many types of cheeses.
The most demanding tourists will like the national one, because, despite its exoticism, it has a wide variety of dishes in its arsenal, from those familiar to European tourists, to "extreme" culinary dishes that you can try only here.
And now I propose to watch an interesting video about unusual food in Cambodia.
Photos of food from Cambodia broke all my records))) Of course, I am not a food blogger and I don’t go on gastronomic tours, but Khmer cuisine exceeded my expectations. I did not expect such a spicy and delicate taste. Yes, what to hide - I generally did not expect anything special from the local food.
When preparing for a new trip, I always study the local cuisine. This is a great way to learn more about the country. Cambodia is no exception. Before our trip to Cambodia, my favorite cuisine in Southeast Asia was Vietnamese. Yes, yes, not Thai) there are favorites, but they can be counted on the fingers. The second place of honor is occupied by Indonesian cuisine.
We started our acquaintance with Cambodian “sweets” at the entrance to Phnom Penh. Our bus made the scheduled stop. At home, at such stops, grandmothers bring their pies, fruits and vegetables directly from the garden, or there are shops with a similar one. This is the same principle in Cambodia. The bus does not have time to stop, as it is immediately surrounded by merchants and shouting in Khmer "Choose me!" offer local exotics!
Nature has generously endowed Cambodia with a variety of flora and fauna, so we can say that Cambodians eat everything. We have never seen such a variety of insects even in Thailand!
Although we guys are risky, we decided to give up the gifts of nature. For a snack, they preferred banal fruits. Took a whole pineapple and mango for a van dollar. It was one of the few times where we bought something for a van dollar. Now the tariffs have already been raised and the country's new feature is that dollar.
The national cuisine of Cambodia was formed under the influence of the culinary traditions of neighboring countries - Vietnam, Thailand, China, Laos. The influence of French cuisine is also traced. Cambodia was a French colony for a long time. Thank you French for the divine crispy baguettes. They are just as delicious in Vietnam.
So, what is worth trying in Cambodia:
Amok
Thailand has Tom Yum, Vietnam has Pho, and Cambodia has Amok. Amok is the most popular Khmer dish. classic dish- Amok Trey - made from fish, which is baked in banana leaves in a curry sauce and coconut milk. Just lick your fingers. The fish fillet melts in your mouth and you get a real gastronomic orgasm (sorry for the details, but it's true!).
Amok has several varieties. Instead of fish, you can order chicken or shrimp amok. The dish can be cooked on fire or steamed, thicker or thinner, with or without leaves. But be sure to amok will be rich, coconut and spicy.
Fish amok for $3.5
The dish is always served with rice, which is not at all surprising for Asia.
We love Indian cuisine very much, so we could not refuse ourselves and try Khmer curry. What can I say, it's delicious! Sweet and spicy flavors give vegetables and meat a very subtle taste.
Khmer curry with vegetables and chicken
Lok Lak
We are familiar with this dish from Vietnam, only there it is called Bo Luk Lak. These are fried pieces of beef served with a simple vegetable salad of onions, cucumbers and tomatoes. I want to note that Khmer cuisine is not spicy at all. The only thing is that Cambodians are probably very proud of their black pepper plantations, so almost all dishes contain a generous portion of black pepper from Kompot (a city in Cambodia where pepper is grown).
Lok Lak with chicken
When you don't know what you want, order seafood rice
A win-win option - fried rice with seafood
Street food in Cambodia
We came to Cambodia as tourists and we didn’t have the question “where to find cheap food”. Although, I don’t finish here, one day we decided to try street food! We found a cafe near our hotel in Siem Reap and took a chance. Almost any dish cost $2 there. Those "that dollar".
It is worth noting that you can’t count on frills in a street cafe. We are not the first year in Southeast Asia, as they say, so we wiped the table and appliances with wet wipes. The food was brought to us quickly. The choice in such cafes is simple: rice or noodles, noodles or rice))) You can diversify rice and noodles with meat (chicken, beef) or seafood.
There are also soups in Khmer cuisine, but we didn’t try them for the whole vacation) Either we forgot, or we didn’t really want to eat soup in the evening. In the evening I prefer to eat some kind of salad. Here, for example, Khmer Style salad of chicken, tomato and local greens:
The average price of dishes in a cafe is $3-5. This applies to both local cuisine and European. For breakfast, we always took a variety of omelettes, served with a crispy and hot baguette. Ever since childhood, I have been indifferent to bread. Thank you dad) maybe someday I will tell this funny story. But in Cambodia and Vietnam, I can't resist this airy bread! At the twenty-fifth frame, I got it into my head that these are “diet buns”)))
Night market in Phnom Penh
In Phnom Penh we went to a local night market. It's even on google maps. The name is outrageously simple - Night Market. Works every day. In addition to all kinds of clothes, watches, glasses and other things, there is street food. We weren't hungry when we got there, so we walked around and looked at what was on offer. The set turned out to be standard Asian: a huge selection of fish, seafood and meat kebabs with different sauces; several types of noodles and fresh juices.
Large selection of different skewers. It's mostly fish here. Huge shrimp are an optical illusion. This is a fish fillet in the shape of a large shrimp.
Prices at the night market are simply “ridiculous”. For example, these skewers cost $0.25-$0.50, papaya salad $1, fried rice or noodles with chicken/beef/pork $1.50.
For the first time we saw angry birds from fish With fantasy, everything is fine with Cambodians
Meat skewers
Cane juice is my love in Asia. To remove the cloying sweet taste, ask to add lime there.
That evening in Phnom Penh we went to some local supermarket. We were amused by pickles for 1.53 US dollars apiece.
On a par with Vietnam, alcoholic drinks in Cambodia are at very affordable prices. Beer in a cafe costs from $ 0.5 per bottle. We in Asia somehow lost the habit of alcohol, but in Cambodia we tried local beer.
Large selection of imported wines. A glass of white or red wine costs from 2-3 dollars, and the price for a bottle is from 5-7 dollars.
Cafe food prices
I took several photos of the menu with different dishes of both Khmer and European cuisine. Prices for breakfast in Phnom Penh
Main dishes and salads
Prices are indicated everywhere in American tugriks) They can be used everywhere to pay, so the question of currency exchange or what currency to bring with you to Cambodia itself disappears.
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