Khmer Food

I suppose many are worried about whether I'm adjusting to the food here.  While the sanitary conditions are not even nearly close to the standards of the US or Japan, fear not, I have been acclimating very well. So far I've only gotten sick once and I think it's because I was adjusting to the water here rather than the food. It usually takes a couple of days to adjust and sure enough I was back to normal by my third day here.   

Other than that, I've been loving the food. To put it into simple comparison, Cambodian food is generally less spicier than Thai food and less “herb”-al than Vietnamese cuisine. It’s a lot of rice, fish and vegetables..which are all my favorite foods so needless to say, I've been enjoying it.  It’s a such a shame that Khmer (Cambodian) food has not been as pervasive as other Southeast Asian cuisines in the West! Another perk is that food prices are the cheapeast than in any other country I've been in. A nice three course meal at a proper restaurant is $5-10 per dish. An expat/tourist diner is usually $3-5 per dish.

 fresh spring rolls, Angkor draft beer, rice, and Khmer soup for about $7 at a nice restaurant

For locals and miserly souls like me on a serious budget, local restaurants and food stalls will cost you no more than $1.50. My currently favorite stand is located along my commute where they sell a set of rice, choice of dried meat (I usually get fish. It tastes exactly like 干物, absolutely love it), and Khmer style soup for a mere $1.50. One caveat is that I do not recommend this to the meticulously sanitary or even to those with weak stomachs as they just leave out pots of soups in the open all days to scoop into a double plastic bag. I have not gotten sick yet from this stall (knock on wood) so all is well. But then again, I have eaten at food stalls in India and survived through food in Bhutan so my stomach has been well trained.

 

 

For those curious sweet tooths, my favorite dessert from a food stand is the ice cream sandwiches. And they are literally, ice cream sandwiched between two pieces of bread:

 

Taro and Coconut ice cream are mounted on to a baguette (Cambodia was a French colony so they actually have pretty good bread here) and drizzled with condensed milk. I love how the sweet condensed milk seeps into the bread by the time you finish the ice cream. You can then scrape off the softened sweetened bread.  Not to mention it's a heavenly treat on a hot humid day. Best part: 50 cents!