Foto Friday # 45

The main accompaniments for a good Pho, Cambodian style.

Street Food - Part 1

Doh !!! I had completely forgotten to write about the wondrous street food we have encountered on our travels so far. These have mostly been fantastic, though with everything you always get some dodgy street food, that could leave you in the toilet for the best part of a day or two. Touch wood this will not happen to us, it hasn't so far. But we have had some bad street food. Rule of thumb, if a stall is busy, then 99 tiimes out of a hundred it will be good and the food is fresh. 

One of the best street stalls we encountered early one was in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Just a little stall with a girl deep frying various bits and bobs. She had a few low seats around two equally low plastic tables. I noticed the constant crowd of people always there from the balcony outside of our hotel room. So one day we walked behind the hotel, and decided to have a closer look. She had what looked like an array of sausages and meats, most were recognisable. 

We sat down, and pointed to a few bits and bobs. Quite a lot of different type of sausages, bit of smoked tofu, some spiced chicken wings. These were then deep fried. We were given different dipping sauces for the different bits we had. The sauces, some were hot, some were sour, but all worked quite well with the different bits we had. A salad was provided also which I ate. We were quite happy with what she had cooked for us, and it was quite a bit, as we repeated some of the sausages again, with some different ones. We noticed an animal, which I thought was some form of bird, but actually tuned out to be a frog. Why not we say. Have to say it was damn nice, little bloody bones though. One nearly got tuck in the back of my throat. After getting whacked on the back by Lina, who seemed to enjoy it, the bone was dislodged. 

All this for a few dollars, excellent. This would have gone fantastic with a bottle of cold beer. But hey ho. Until the next update ........ 

Hello Moto ...

What do you do as a cuisine when your two closest neighbours are the super stars in the region. Not a lot you can do really, apart from sit back and be enjoyed when people come across you. 

Khmer cuisine will never reach the dizzying heights of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine has. But in its own way it is kinda a star in its self. 

Phnom Penh, compared to Bangkok is still asleep. But it has a charm that Bangkok lost many years ago. Its recent history is horrendous, and is really amazing that everyone still manages to have a genuine smile on their faces. 

We decided to check out what Khmer food was all about. So wandered along the river front in Phnom Penh and found a nice place called the Khmer Borane Restaurant. Thankfully they turned the fan on us as we sat down. It was pretty humid that night. 

They had a montage of dishes, some Thai, some Chinese, some Cambodian. We opted for fish cooked in palm sugar and a chicken curry with Khmer potatoes. The curry was Thai style but lacked the heat of Thai food, and also lacked a lot of chicken. The white fish steaks were cooked really well and due to the palm sugar were kinda sweet. 

I do not think Khmer food is going to dazzle us, but it will keep us happy until we hit Vietnam. 

Siem Reap seems to have a better selection of restaurants than what we found in Phnom Penh, or maybe we were looking in the wrong places. 

One of the highlights was Amok with either chicken or fish. The best one I had in a simple place, and it was served in a green coconut. 

We ate well in Cambodia but they do not do picante food very well. 

Next stop Vietnam ..... Bring on the chilli's ....