MEAT AND FISH

Cambodia is a Buddhist country, but not vegetarian. Meat, or fish, however often in small quantities, are present at all meals in almost all dishes.

All types of meats are eaten, including beef, pork and poultry - duck and chicken. We also quite easily consume goat meat, in soup, and sometimes, small birds, snakes, or even insects, nibbled as snacks rather than full meals. Some stalls or food stalls stamped "Special Meat" also offer dog meat, never named such.

The fish traditionally consumed in the country are rather river fish, which together with rice constitute the basis of the Cambodian meal for a good part of the population, but we also find delicious sea fish and crustaceans all along the coast. Cambodian coast. We also fish in lakes and rivers for freshwater prawns, the largest of which, the Bongkong, are very popular with Cambodians.

EGGS

CHICKEN

CHICKEN - (SACH MENA)

Chicken is a very popular meat in Cambodia. The Cambodians differentiate between two types of chickens, the common chicken and the so-called “field” chicken Moan Srae, with yellow skin, leaner, with harder flesh than its colleague but with a more pronounced flavor. This chicken is particularly appreciated in soups, such as Sngao Chhrouk Sach Moan.

Chicken is everywhere, served from morning to night, fried or roasted, sautéed or in soup. It is often cut into pieces, including the bones, which sometimes makes it quite difficult to eat.

1kg of chicken will be sold at around 18,000 riel, Moan Srae chicken is more expensive.
The spit-roasted, honey-coated chickens you will find along the roads usually sell for between 15,000 and 18,000 riel, depending on the size of the chicken chosen.

EGGS

Cambodians like to eat eggs, especially Pong Ti duck eggs, possibly due to their higher nutritional quality than chicken eggs - Pong Moan.

Roasted chicken eggs street vendor

You will thus find chicken egg skewers offered by street vendors on motorbikes equipped with soundtracks announcing their passage - the “famous” Pong moan ang Phsom Krueng pises, omelets embellished with various ingredients (with onions, Sloek s' om or even a kind of salted fish Trey proma), fried eggs which have the particularity of being fried on both sides, salted eggs (eggs in brine) Pong Ti Pray.

Do not forget either the incubated eggs, duck or quail eggs, steamed, half chick, half hard-boiled egg, which Cambodians like to eat at the end of the day, embellished with various sauces and herbs. .

Turtle eggs, goose eggs and field chicken - Cambodia

Goose eggs are also found, recognizable by their size double to an average chicken egg, and the eggs of "Khmer field chicken", Moan Srae, are recognizable by their size on the contrary, one and a half times smaller than that of a classic chicken egg.

Rarer, turtle eggs, Pong Andaek, offer an astonishing texture: if the yolk cooks in the same way as any egg, the white of these eggs remains liquid even after cooking.
There are two main types of turtles in Cambodia, Andaet , and Kontyey.

These turtles live on land and in freshwater.

While the Kontyey turtle, recognizable by its relatively flat shell, is commonly eaten and readily available, Andaet turtle meat with a very round, somewhat scaly and very hard shell, formerly appreciated for its fine flavor of her flesh, is she forbidden to consume.
It seems, however, that the sale of eggs on a small scale is tolerated.