Having a birthday to celebrate and a hankering for seafood we went out to find the best seafood in Siem Reap.
It was not as easy a task as you’d think. Siem Reap has not been as affected as many other places by a coronavirus lockdown, but alas some restaurants are closed.
We found out that every seafood restaurant mentioned by Google wasn’t open and eventually decided to do the smart thing and ask the tuk-tuk driver.
We ended up at an outside place on Street 20 central Siem Reap. We knew the place was legit as in North Korean style it had pictures of fish, but no English name. Very Pyongyang nostalgia. The menu was filled to the brim with all manner of seafood, with us naturally starting with iced oysters. Slightly different to my previous Cambodian oyster adventure, but still extremely good. I opted for the hot sauce, with General Nic Somg-Dok going for traditional no sauce style!
Dish 2 was the biggest shrimp outside of North Korea I’ve ever seen. Having lived in China long enough I didn’t go into any of the peeling nonsense and they were eaten whole. The shrimp heads being a particular delight.
Following this we pretty much slammed everything available on the menu, clams, shellfish, a kind of kipper and of course crab.
We asked for extra garlic and was presented with a dish that would have scared if vampires. Again I’m used to China style and found the shell easy enough to bite into to suck out the crab goodness. Best crab I’ve had for a while.
So, the moral of this story? Don’t believe the lists on google, most of the places are closed. Instead head to Pteas pel – ផ្ទះផែ on Street 20.