5 Delicious Cambodian dishes to try on your next visit to the country.

Bai sach chrouk: Pork and rice

This is breakfast dish served on the streets on Cambodia. If you walk around, you can smell the delicious aroma of it being cooked at little street shops. It consists of rice and sliced BBQ pork cooked over charcoal. It’s often served with a pickled side salad and Asian tea. It’s simple, cheap, hearty and delicious.

Amok

You’ll find Amok offered at many of the restaurants in and around Pub Street and Old Market in Siem Reap as well  establishments alng the riverside in Phnom Penh.  Originally the dish is served with fish, but you will also be able to order it with chicken, beef or even vegetarian. Also included in the dish are  fresh coconut milk and kroeung, a type of Khmer curry paste made from lemongrass, turmeric root, garlic, shallots, galangal and fingerroot, or Chinese ginger.

Lap Khmer Beef Salad

Cambodian beef salad with think sliced meat that is seared and marinated with fresh lime juice. The salad is complimented with lemongrass, shallots, garlic, fish sauce, Asian basil, mint, green beans and green pepper. Often, the dish is spiced up with red chilis.

This is a traditional dish that is often served at Cambodian wedding parties and beer gardens.

Nom banh chok: Khmer noodles

Ancient folklore around this popular Cambodia dish suggests that these were the world’s first noodles. The dish is made from rice noodles topped with a green fish gravy, fresh green beans, bean sprouts, banana flower, cucumbers and other greens.

While on tour in the provinces, you can often see the local families laboriously making the noodles in the ancient ways. The dish often a breakfast food that you can find being sold at food stands. It also makes for a nice mid-afternoon snack, and at that time of day you can find it being sold by women walking around carrying the ingredients hanging off a pole across their shoulders.

Kdam chaa: fried crab

Kdam cha is a delicacy of the seaside town of Kep in Cambodia.  Fresh crabs are caught and processed immediately to keep their freshness.

Crabs are prepared with green pepper (Kampot) – one of the most famous Cambodian spices in worldwide and some flavorful garlic archives. A lthough Kampot pepper is internationally sold, only in Cambodia, you would be able to taste the distinctively flavored immature green peppercorns. Dark red of crabs with big sharks and fragrant will attract you from the very first time tasting this food.