CAMBODIA: Phnom Penh's Psar Thmei (grand market)

Cambodia's street food seemed to be the way to go. It was about a 3rd of the price of food in restaurants and 3 times more interesting. I'd been warned about Cambodians strange eating habits but saw nothing too bizarre amongst the food stalls. The first night I ordered some ginger pork. The pork included a grayish cut of pork that tasted crumbly and gamey. Luckily our meal at the grand market (Psar Thmei) proved to be much more delicious.

We chose an identifiable food for our first meal: big grilled prawns served with some fresh basil and other mystery veggies. I think Cambodians eat the entirety of the prawn but we plucked off the heads.

We were still hungry so we bought a spring roll (not pictured) and I found this:

It turned out to be sweetened banana stuffed inside sticky rice, wrapped in a banana leaf. The flavor of the banana leaf rubbed off onto the rice adding a slight vegetable taste to it. I'm a sucker for sticky rice.... I love its gummy texture and I'm almost guaranteed to like anything else paired with it.

Next we stopped at a juice stall. We both got fresh mango juice. They also prepared sugar cane juice by ginding up whole sugar canes to produce a bright green beverage.

The girl is crumbling up used sugar cane and our mango juice is on the bottom left.

The girls sitting across from us has this:

so Will had to try it. It was sort of like a deep-fried, bready dumpling filled with sauteed onions. It was served warm in a tiny bit of broth topped with chili peppers. I have no idea what these foods are called since everything is written in Cambodian. 

See Will's blog for more info on our excursions throughout Phnom Pehn, Siem Reap, and Battambang!