Food and drink

What have we been eating and drinking so far in Cambodia?

Cambodians seem to eat anything and everything! We have seen Cambodians buying little plastic bags of deep fried crickets from the ladies balancing big cane baskets on their heads, and crunching into them like they were potato chips! However, both of us being soft, we have stayed away from these kinds of delicacies, including the deep fried tarantulas and the really big insects that look kind of like giant cockroaches.

Lots and lots of restaurants around Phnom Penh do western food, including tonnes of pizza, pasta, burgers and English breakfasts. Mostly we try to stick to the Cambodian food, although we have had a few "relapses". The breads and pastries here are amazing. Most mornings (if I am up before midday) I will have a fresh plain French baguette and a glass of the iced coffee or tea they do here (both really strong and made with tonnes of ice and condensed milk). Cambodian people often eat pho for breakfast (noodle soup, usually with beef) which I have had a few times (although I'm more likely to have it for lunch). Paul can't come at noodle soup for breakfast so he usually has omelette or scrambled eggs. If I can find the ladies walking around with the baskets of fresh donuts and sugary pastries on their heads then I will have those. Yummy!!

We have found that the cost of eating lunch and dinner can range from very cheap (just US$1) to very expensive but you can usually get an average meal for US$3 - $4 and a very nice meal for $10. How well we eat depends how much money we have left at the end of the day! As we are supposed to be sticking to a budget of only US$20 per day this sometimes isn't much!

As for traditional Cambodian food, I can safely say that our favourite is amok fish (a kind of steamed fish curry). I think it has coconut milk and lemongrass in it. Whatever it is, it is really yummy. There are tonnes of other yummy Cambodian dishes, lots of which seem to have Thai or Vietnamese flavours (but without the Thai spice!!). We have of course eaten lots of noodle soup, fried rice and fried noodles as sometimes this is the only thing on the menu that we can afford! The couple of times we have had western food we have ended up paying more. A large pizza here in Phnom Penh costs around US$8 - $12 but you could get a burger for less.

Cambodia pretty much has any kind of drink that you could want. We have continued to drink a lot of coconuts as they are really refreshing when it is hot. Diet coke always tastes amazing when I get really hot. Our new favourite drink is iced lemon juice. It is literally water with fresh squeezed lemon and tonnes of ice and sugar. Mmmmm. Cans of drink are usually US$0.50 at the supermarket and can be up to three times that at a restaurant. Luckily lots of the hostels come with a minibar for their US$15 price tag so that we can stock them with tonnes of supermarket drinks. Most non-alcoholic drinks will be US$1 at a restaurant.

As long as you go during happy hour, alcohol can be quite cheap here. You can usually get Angkor Beer for US$0.50 per can and cocktails for as little as US$1.50 or US$2. Still, at US$20 per day we still can't fit in many cocktails, especially as Paul's birthday celebrations have blown the budget right out of the water!!! - N