Cambodia - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 67

you'll find dishes more like the ones the
locals eat at home. here are usually one or
two dishes on offer at each stall - perhaps
pigs'-organ soup, fried noodles or a tasty
filled baguette. If you're ordering soup, you
can pick and choose the ingredients to
taste. hese stalls are dirt cheap - you can
certainly get a meal for around $1
- though the portions tend to be on the
small side. Some baguette and noodle
stalls are open throughout the day, but
many more crop up around sunset.
Khmer restaurants are the next step up,
recognizable by their beer signs outside.
In the evenings, the better ones fill up
early on, and most places close soon after
9pm. Buying a selection of dishes to share
is the norm: dishes typically cost
$1.50-3. Some places have an English-
language menu although most don't, in
which case you'll just have to practise
your Khmer or point at what other diners
are eating.
Tourist restaurants are plentiful in
Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and
Sihanoukville, though standards vary
enormously. Menus generally feature
Khmer dishes alongside a range of Western
offerings (not always resembling what you
might expect to be served back home).
hese places generally cost a little bit more
than local restaurants, with mains at
around $3-5 (or $7-15 in more upmarket
restaurants). Western-oriented restaurants
tend to stay open later than their Khmer
counterparts, usually closing around 11pm,
or even later if they double as bars.

ADDRESSES
Many roads in Cambodia have no names,
and those that do are often known by a
number rather than a name, so for
example, 50 Street 125 means building
number 50 on Street 125. Throughout
the chapter, where street names are
nonexistent, we have located places by
describing their location or giving a
nearby landmark.

2

conditioning, which is in fact a bargain
considering the high price of electricity.
Prices given in the text relate to the cost of
the cheapest double room, but most
establishments will offer more luxurious
rooms as well. Camping is theoretically
illegal in Cambodia, but is a possibility in
some places - for example, on the beaches
and islands of the south coast. In the dry
season, all you need is a mosquito net and
hammock for a comfortable night's sleep.
Electricity is usually supplied at 220
volts, through plugs of the two-flat-pin
variety. Power cuts and surges are much
less common than they once were, but
not unknown.

FOOD AND DRINK
Cambodian food is heavily influenced by
China, with stir-fries featuring on most
menus. Some dishes are similar to hai
cuisine, although usually considerably
milder, with herbs being used for
flavouring rather than spices and chilli
served on the side rather than being
blended into the dish. Even curry dishes ,
such as the delicious coconut milk and
fish amok , tend to be served very mild.
Rice is the staple food, while noodles are
eaten more for breakfast - when they're
served as a soup - and as a snack. Hygiene
standards may not match what you're
used to, but produce is always fresh. At
street stalls though, given the lack of
refrigeration, it's as well to make sure that
the food is piping hot. If you have a
choice, pick somewhere that's busy.

KHMER FOOD
A standard meal in Cambodia consists of
rice, plus two or three other dishes, either
a fish or meat dish, and a steaming bowl
of soup. Flavours are dominated by fish
sauce, herbs - especially lemon grass
(particularly in soup) - coconut milk,
galangal and tamarind.
Cambodia's national dish, amok ,
features in various forms on virtually
every menu in the country - a mild
yellow curry with a rich coconut-milk
sauce traditionally baked in banana
leaves. he classic version of amok is
served with fish ( amok dt'ray ), although
chicken amok is now equally common.

WHERE TO EAT
he cheapest Khmer cuisine is to be found
at street stalls and markets , which is where