Living in Cambodia has opened our eyes (and taste buds) to unique flavors and dishes. The local market is filled with tables displaying meats (cut or whole chicken, pig, & fish), turtles, oysters, insects (a local delicacy), fresh eggs, vegetables, and a variety of fruits. Fish oil is a very popular flavor in Khmer dishes with rice or noodle and a meat sauce.

Food carts are found at just about every corner as well as fresh coconuts. Several families will prepare foods to sell at their cart and set up plastic tables and chairs or stools for people to gather and enjoy their meal. I have personally struggled with the idea of purchasing anything from these carts as the food sits out for most of the day under the heat of the sun and for who knows how long, let alone all the extra pollution flavor that I’m certain comes with it when several motor vehicles are passing by. I’ve only been brave enough to enjoy a fresh coconut or sugar cane drink.

Phil introduced us to a bean and rice treat that is cooked and served inside of a sugarcane stick. It was sticky and interesting, not a lot of flavor to it. Then he was excited when he found duckling eggs to bring home. Not one of us was brave enough to give them a try either. Phil remembered them on his mission and confessed they didn’t taste the same as he remembers.

We have all tried some traditional Khmer foods like fried rice, sweet and sour soup, fish amok (which I really hope to learn how to make while I’m here), some beef lok lak, chicken lemongrass with pepper, sour curry soup, noodles and prawns, pork and rice (Phil’s favorite for breakfast), variations of banana (fried & sun dried), mango sticky rice, pineapple with veggie and dried shrimp salad (awful!), hotdog and crab pizza (signature pizza toppings), and a fried onion sugar treat. There’s no way to translate or explain a lot of what we’ve tried, but I’m proud of our kids for being open to trying most things.

The snacks here are unusual too. They have bags of Lays chips on the isles, but the flavors are bizarre, not to mention a bag of chips costs $6-8 American dollars! Flavors like, chicken, tomato, Texas tenderloin steak, roasted corn, seaweed, prawn, tom yum, spicy lobster, and shrimp. We’ve only tried the roasted corn because regular corn chips are difficult to find, they tasted like burnt sweet corn chips (terrible).

The fruits have been fun to try. Some we really like and other are flavorless, like dragon fruit. But we’ve made some fun smoothie creations with them. Phil has made a delicious mango sticky rice dessert and rice puddings. Our favorites have been mangos, jackfruit, sour sop, passion fruit, and a melon that is similar to cantaloupe. The bananas here are half the size we get in the States, and they taste sweeter, and the carrots are ginormous!

We have also come across some really great restaurants, a whole foods Backyard Cafe (my favorite!), a Georgian Cuisine with meat and broth dumplings, cheesy potato fritters, and ground chicken cutlets, & honey cake (so good!). Phil and I discovered Korean shaved ice cream, which was good and really cold. We love it when we can find some Mexican, Italian, and Western foods (anything different than chicken or fish with rice). We feel like we hit the jackpot in Siem Reip as there were a great variety of places to eat with very low prices, it was great! Most Western foods in Phenom Phen are extremely overpriced and don’t taste the same. They do however have their own take on Little Ceasars, KFC, Burger King, Papa Johns, and Pizza Hut. We’ve only tried Papa Johns, it wasn’t only expensive, but a large pizza was the same size as a medium in America and the flavor wasn’t quite the same.

At home we only have a cooktop, air frier, waffle maker, and rice cooker so our meals are mostly rice dishes with chicken, a few pasta dishes (minus the great fresh herbs and Italian seasonings), Mexican rice bowls, and an occasional Mac & Cheese. It gets old and there are only so many rice dishes we can make before we’re sick of rice too. We miss the variety of options in our menus, but we’re also learning to branch out a bit and see what other uses we can make of a rice cooker. I baked Phil a chocolate fudge cake in it for his birthday. The texture turned out great, but the ingredients were a bit bitter. We can’t get the same ingredients here as we could in the States, so my recipes are about useless!

Overall, Cambodia has given us the most unique food experience we’ve ever had!