CAMBODIA STREET FOOD - SNACK THROUGHOUT THE DAY - KOMPERS CHEAN

 If you stay long enough in Cambodia, you will be amazed how much food you eat there all day long. Snacks are not stigmatized, and for the few overweight people that we meet in the street, it would be a shame to do without!

Fruits, rolls or small dishes, you will find your happiness on a piece of sidewalk at random when you meet small itinerant merchants, around or in the markets, or in small stalls located on the street.
 
KOMPUH DOG, SMALL SHRIMP FRUGS

Kompuh Chieng are small shrimp pancakes. The shrimp are dipped in a batter, and the whole is fried on a spatula to give them their flat shape.

These snacks are mainly sold by street vendors around the markets or at the crossroads of the main traffic axes of the city.

NAME KACHAI, LITTLE RICE CAKES WITH HERBS

These are small rice cakes filled with a plant with a taste that oscillates between chives and garlic, sloek kachaï. The cakes are sautéed and then served drizzled with local vinegar and sweet chili sauce.

Round shaped cakes are usually filled in the middle with kachaï sloek, while for rectangular ones, kachaï sloek are mixed with the dough.

Count 1000 riel for a coin.

COATED EGGS, CANE OR QUAIL

Adored by Cambodians, hated by foreigners, the incubated eggs are tasted at the end of the day in small street restaurants, small chairs and small tables generally arranged not far from the markets.
Here you will find duck eggs, and smaller and speckled quail eggs. Half chicks, half eggs, if you do not look too much at the repulsive aspect contained in the shell, it is a fairly sweet egg flavor that you will taste, and that you will marry well with the aromatic shi-leaves available. and your choice of Ambel mrech sauce, the emblematic sauce of Cambodia made up of salt, pepper, sugar and lime, or even a sauce made with chilli and garlic.

Be careful to ask for eggs that have not yet been incubated too much, you risk ending up with a small chick completely formed and steamed in your spoon ...

Duck egg, the piece between 900 and 1500 riel.

MEAT SKEWERS

Bread with grilled meat is delicious. The beef brochettes are marinated in advance and flavored with lemongrass.
You will also find small pork skewers similar to the preparation similar to the famous Japanese yakitori tsukune, a kind of grilled meat stuffing.

Everything is eaten with buttered bread and a small salad of marinated papaya (pickles).

Count 1000 riel per skewer, 1000 for half a portion of bread.

PHAT LEU, TRIPES AND PORK EARS

You will find the Phat Leu on sale in the street in the afternoon and in the evening, at these same small itinerant stands that exhibit and offer Ti Kvay duck, Chhrouk Kvay glazed pigs and crispy pork belly Sach chhrouk Sa Siew ...

Lovers of tripailles will appreciate these small stands offering pork ears, brains, tripe - stomach and intestines - carefully prepared using the Phat Leu method, close to the preparation of Kho, and which you can nibble with some marinated vegetables, daikon, carrots or cucumbers… for a result quite similar… to andouillette.

We find the Phat Leu on the market stalls in the afternoon, boiled in a fragrant broth. There are mainly pork ears, lungs, and prohit, beef meatballs.

ALL

NAEM

Be careful, the Naem, whose pronunciation is close to the word nem - or imperial pâtés that we know in France, are not fried spring rolls. These are small pâtés with a slightly vinegar and spicy taste, mainly made from raw marinated fish flesh, - there are also pork meat.

You will find them in small sticks wrapped in plastic hung in packages of ten or so, or in small cubes, wrapped in banana leaves. These are often wrapped in an edible aromatic leaf, sloek kantout, which will give your Naem extra flavor.

Particularly famous are the Naem from Kratie - you will find some for sale in the morning along the Mekong near the bus stations - as well as the Naem from Battambang.

You will find them in small sticks wrapped in plastic hung in packages of ten or so, or in small cubes, wrapped in banana leaves. These are often wrapped in an edible aromatic leaf, sloek kantout, which will give your Naem extra flavor.

Particularly famous are the Naem from Kratie - you will find some for sale in the morning along the Mekong near the bus stations - as well as the Naem from Battambang.

BANANA, SWEET POTATO DONUTS

These savory banana or sweet potato fritters are lightly sweetened and sprinkled with black sesame seeds –lngor.

CAMBODIAN SPRING AND NEM ROLLS

The Kuong are the fresh spring rolls, composed of rice noodles, the nom bagn chok, salad leaves and some raw vegetables, rolled up in rice leaves (see photo, homemade rice leaves, put to dry before cooking. sale - Battambang).

They are found in all markets in the early afternoon, with meat - mainly pork belly, pâté or shrimp, sometimes dried. They are eaten with toek trey p’aem, nem sauce, fish sauce prepared with palm sugar, garlic, a little grated carrots and crushed peanuts.

Merchants in Kuong also sell Chayor, which is actually the Cambodian version of the Vietnamese fried spring rolls we know, the taste differing a bit from what we usually eat.

Grasshoppers, silkworms and other chewable insects

Appreciated by Cambodians as small nibbles to nibble, much less by foreigners in general, you will find street vendors or stalls not far from markets to get some of these leggy treats.

Choose from changrit grasshoppers, dokdu silkworms, kanteh long water cockroaches and aping tarantulas, which are fried and seasoned. You can ask for the equivalent of a small tin can - mouy kompong - for prices varying between 1,500 riel and 4,000 riel.
 
PROHIT DOG

A prerogative of Cambodian street food, prohit brochettes, these small pâtés and meatballs or fish that we find poached in the morning in kouy tiev soups, are found everywhere in the late afternoon and evening. on the sidewalks of Phnom Penh.

They are then eaten fried, accompanied by a few Chea, these very fragrant aromatic leaves, with Toek Mtes, a chili-based sauce that is quite mild and slightly sweet.

Beef meatballs, small fish pies, surimi, small corn on the cob, beans or green peppers coated with batter, tofu, sausages with a color and a rather unnatural taste, you choose the products that make you want and collect them a few minutes later while they are hot out of their frying bath.

Count between 500 and 1000 riel per piece.

NOM KROURK

Nom Krourk are small round cakes made from rice dough. They are cooked on the fire in these cast iron molds comprising small semi-round compartments. Before being turned over to form a ball, a little chives are added to fill the cupcake which will then be closed.

If in Thailand, these small cakes have a sweet-salty flavor, in Cambodia, it is as a salty snack that we eat Nom Krourk.

Count around 200 riel for the cake, 500 for the "large" Nom Krourk.

NOMPAO

Nompao are small brioches filled with meat, steamed. The brioche, white, has a bland, slightly sweet flavor that contrasts with the stuffing, enhanced by pepper, soy sauce and other ingredients, according to the recipes.

If, depending on the country, we find Nompao available in various flavors - like Nikuman 肉 ま ん with Japanese curry, in Cambodia, it is always pork and accompanied by a little hard-boiled egg with flavor and flavor. the smell a little acrid.

These nompao are generally sold by small stands installed on the sidewalk near the markets, or by street vendors, who store the buns ready to be reheated by the minute in their steam cooking system integrated into the cart.

Count between 1,000 and 1,500 riel per brioche.