What do they eat in Cambodia? A market in Cambodia in photos.

I posted today about our cookery course in Battambang, Cambodia. It was a fabulous experience. As part of the tour we visited the local market, something we do often, but on this occasion we stayed longer than usual and took more photos. I’m publishing these photos separately because sensitive viewers may find them a little unpleasant.

Here is a quick tour of Battambang Market, Cambodia, in pictures, it goes some way towards answering the question, what do they eat in Cambodia?

Fresh, live eels, fish and frogs writhe in bowls on the ground at the Cambodian food market.

As close as I want to get to the meat section. It was like an anatomy lesson in there. Every part of the animal is consumed in Cambodia.

Huge snails, with green mangoes for scale. Tiny water snails are hugely popular too, you’ll see them sold on the street freshly cooked.

Selecting live snake head fish for our fish amok, fresh from Tongle Sap lake.

Dispatched, gutted and scaled to order.

Water bugs or cockroaches? I’m not sure. We saw these cooked and ready to eat, right next to the tarantulas, crickets and silk worm larvae.

Snake, python, cobra and water snake. I have never seen this anywhere else in the world. Update, I now have in Sarawak Malaysia we also saw python for sale in local food markets.

Just as there is blood and gore in the meat section, there is beauty in the fruit, vegetables, herbs, flowers and spices. Occasionally jasmine or kaffir lime leaves mask the smells of fish and meat.

We found good food in Cambodia. Traditional Khmer dishes like amok and lok lak are truly delicious, lok lak featuring the famous Kampot pepper. I’m not a big meat-eater, so I find meat markets a little tough to take and reminiscent of my years in pathology.

My husband, the chef, loves all this of course and I think it’s great for the kids to see that meat doesn’t come into existence wrapped in plastic. From what I’ve read of the Pol Pot years, Cambodians ate anything they could get their hands on to survive. You will also see the French influence in Cambodia still, in baguettes, croissants and pain au chocolate alongside traditional dishes imported by the Chinese community. Of course, the huge tourist industry in modern Cambodia has brought everything from Italian to Mexican, you can find just about any cuisine you desire in large Cambodian towns.