Countryside Cambodia Street Food! Traveling through Cambodia can be both a rigorously demanding and very enjoyable experience – largely spending on the bus you end up on.
Part of any journey pretty much money anywhere is the food you get to try on the way. In China this is a literal hell on earth, you stop at roadside areas which just have packed hell on earth, mass produced. One might argue that the road-stop food in Cambodia is no less weird, but I have at least grown accustomed to it.
Heres 5 of the best roadside snacks you can eat when traveling around Cambodia
Countryside Cambodian Street Food – The cricket! (ចង្រិតបំពង)
OK, so I have written about eating bugs in Cambodia a lot and I have indeed tried about most bugs that are sold here. I am not I will add completely sold on bugs and many still gross me out, but the small crickets.
To read about eating bugs in Cambodia click here.
It is often said that small crickets taste like crisps and in fact they genuinely do. On a recent road trip they had even thrown in some chilli, so it was like spicy chips! Crickets don’t have any goo in them, so this snack works well.
Countryside Cambodian Street Food – The Quail with an egg (ក្រួចអាំង)
Roasted quail is no new thing and yes I get it they are really bony for the meat you get in return. It is though still a great roadside snack if you don’t mind chewing on some bone!
What makes Khmer quail ever so special though is that they cook it with a quail egg fixed to the top. The way it works it makes the shell of the egg eatable. You will regularly see this on roadsides and even on the street foods of the capital.
To read about street food in Phnom Penh click here .
Deep fried river shrimp (បង្គាបំពងស្រួយ)
Not one you see absolutely everywhere, but at least one I saw a lot on the way to Prey Veng and Svey Rieng. A farmed river shrimp that they have ready to be cooked – like you see it raw. It is then lightly breaded and you eat it whole. Yes that includes the head!
Truly a great snack and it certainly made our driver and his mate happy.
To read about Prey Veng click here.
Frog stuffed with pork
I have seen this in a few places when I have been on the road in Cambodia, but particularly remember it from a trip back from Pailin. You get a huge frog and you stuff it with pork and then eat it. As we know frog tastes like chicken, so you are treated to a real taste sensation.
This is a weird dish, but filling, so it works
To read about frog stuffed with pork click here.
Cambodian Balut – Pong Tia Koon (ពងទាកូន)
I recently learned the meaning of Pong after trying a rather nice breakfast muffin. I love ballot so when it comes to Countryside Cambodian Street Food this was always going to qualify.
So, Pong means egg, tia means duck, koon means baby. Put it together and there is no other way of saying this is a fertilized egg you are dealing with, fairly different to the Filipino variety (which I prefer), but still damned good.
To read about Cambodian balut click here.
And that is the countryside Cambodian street food scene. For new folk to the Kingdom it takes some getting used to, but when you are used to it you truly begin to love it.
Will I keep adding to this list, I think I might….