One of the best things on our trip to Cambodia in March was a street food tour in Phnom Penh led by Urban Forage. They provided a great guide and a tuktuk and driver. It was an amazing chance to try all sorts of casual snacks and meals, the kind of stuff that always looks so interesting but too intimidating to try on my own. Places were vetted for food safety for delicate Western stomachs and our guide did a great job teaching us about the food.

It was so fun and delicious! There’s some photos here and here. Cambodian food is roughly similar to Thai and Vietnamese food, but is its own thing.

First up was the “famous grandma noodle shop”, a home cooking restaurant with the kind of fish noodle soups I loved in Cambodia. This place was a restaurant with a choice of items but also very casual. We had both a chicken noodle soup and the fish noodle soup, both “curry” flavored but clearly Cambodian, not Thai. The rice noodles are super fresh, made that morning, kind of gelatinous and stuck together. The soup had such deep delicious flavor. And lots of fresh ingredients to liven it up: limes, basil, a bunch of unfamiliar herbs like fishwort.

The second place was a sidewalk stand near Wat Botum Park. Rice crepe with turmeric, stuffed with chicken and sprouts, dipped in fish sauce / lime juice. Also a rice flour ball with chives in it, fried, dipped in coconut cream. it reminded me a lot of dosas and idlis. Very yummy and seemed like solid daily food.

Our third stop was for a baguette with crispy pork belly inside, some herbs, also a fresh carrot pickle. Similar to banh mi. We enjoyed it, all nice and fresh, but at this point we started to realize we were in for a long haul of lots of food.

The fourth place was in the Russian market and served barbeque. Various kinds of pork cuts, we had spare ribs. Very crispy fried and quite fat. Was too full to enjoy it all but it tasted great.

Fifth was 54ល្ងាចស្រស់ (on Facebook) a restaurant with general Khmer foods, lots of beer, and a live band. Food was a mix of things, all pretty good. My favorite was a squid salad-like dish. This was where we had the stunt food, insects. One big tarantula was OK but silly: legs were delicious like soft-shelled crab. The spicy crickets were pretty good beer snacks. The place was a bit touristy but honest, a place I could imagine going even without a guide.

Absolutely full of food and beer, sixth the guide took us to a roadside stall selling a sweet dish. A rice crepe stuffed with fresh coconut meat and a rice candy, some sweetened condensed milk. Quite tasty in its simple freshness. It was a little like this video labelled num lon ong chek.

Our final stop was a return to Western familiarity. The wild cocktail bar, a French-run place with coffee, drinks, and spring rolls. Good cocktails, nice outdoor seating.

Street food tours may be my favorite new tourist activity! We also did one in Saigon that was fun but not quite as good as this one in Phnom Penh. But in Saigon we also did a cocktail tour from this company, that was terrific.