CAMBODIA: A very long bus ride.

Finally!

 Western-ish breakfast in an open air restaurant. A toasted, buttery baguette with a mixed veggie omelet and a side of fresh fruit (mango, pinapple, watermelon). We were decadent and ordered a thick chewy banana pankcake and 2 sickenly sweet iced coffees each.  We had been asking for no sugar in our coffee, then realized it tasted like motor oil without the sugar overload.

Then we embarked on a long bus ride to Battambang. If Cambodia had more than 2 paved roads the journey would have been 30 minutes. It took us 6 + hours. These 6 hours were spent on an old hand-me down bus that frequently stopped to load or unload passengers on the side of the road. It also blared cheesy 70s-era Chinese fight movies dubbed in Khmer. When the movie finished the ballads started. This would have been bearable but the failing sound system made it sound like a dying bird.

Sticky rice, beans and coconut shavings steamed inside some bamboo

I removed most of the "flossy pork" before eating.

Misery aside, we got to stop at an interesting roadside “food court” to pee and eat. Amongst the offerings were deep fried sparrow and fried cicadas. I chose the safe rice-in-a-stick and sweet, eggy cake with “flossy pork.”

CAMBODIA: Siem Reap

After Phnom Penh we went to Siem Reap it was super touristy due to its proximity to Angkor Wat. We were still able to eat some real Cambodian food ( I think!).  Cambodia uses US dollars as its primary currency with a splash of Cambodian Riel used in lieu of change.

Vegetable Amok

I ordered Amok a few times. Amok is similar to standard Thai curry but with a different array of spices. I imagine there is more fish paste in it than in curries from neighboring countries.

Cambodia was colonized by the French. Luckily the French left behind strong coffee and baguettes… the first real bread we’ve had in Asia! The pinnacle of Cambodian cuisine in our opinion were these sandwiches. Again, I’m unsure of their name but they are really similar to Vietnamese Bahn-Mi. It’s a toasted baguette filled with roasted pork/ pork skin, spring onions, thinly sliced, pickled cucumber, a few pats of melted butter and spicysweet chili sauce. Sometimes they throw in  a hunk of pate but the gelatinous texture threw me off a bit.

First Cambodian "Bahn-Mi" from a street vendor

in its preparatory stages

Will enjoying his 2nd dinner.

A close up of the pate

The blender juices in Cambodia are similar to the rest of SE asia but they often throw in a generous helping of sweetened condensed milk. I had a coconut “juice” that ended up tasting like a cocnut milkshake. It cost 50 cents.

 Taro Soup: Taro’s consistency is somewhere in between cooked radish and cooked potato. This soup was simple but flavorful. A plain chicken broth, tons of spring onions, fresh fish and hunks of taro.

 Here is another common sight in Cambodia (the coconut, not me):

excuse my sweaty head.

In lieu of water, which often is not potable, many people drink coconut water straight out of a young coconut. I pointed to this coconut, a lady hacked off the top with a huge knife, then stuck in a straw. Wasn’t coconut water a big thing at Whole Foods? I guess it was stolen from the Cambodians.

Green Papaya salad: The first bite was pungent. I didn’t know if I could finish. It was fishy and tart. With each additional bite I liked it more and more. I can’t be certain but I believe the shredded green papaya was topped with fish sauce, sugar and vinegar. There were also peanuts, chili peppers,  fresh basil and mint.