Dining in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh seems to offer street food everywhere.  Especially popular are the fresh satay skewers of meat, often resting in front of the shop or stall, ready to be cooked and eaten on demand.

 Skewers are ready to go

Small restaurants, carts, or stalls gather together on a corner, all serve meals freshly made to order.

 Restaurants, carts, and stalls

 After visiting local markets, I also pass by and stick my head in a modern grocery store and find a lot of intriguing and interesting food products.

 Modern grocery store

I have several fabulous dinners in Phnom Penh, generally based around fish.  In one of the first, I order fish salad to start, followed by fish amok, a white fish in coconut milk seasoned with Khmer herbs.

Fish salad

 Fish amok, with great setting

Another dinner features satay (skewers) of marinated chicken with peanut sauce and fish with Asian pesto.

 Chicken and fish satay

The food in Cambodia is simple and tasty, with lots of Khmer spices that add a truly distinctive flavor, very similar to the flavors I found in Vietnam earlier this year.

A few other dishes along the way also catch my attention.  For lunch in Phnom Penh one day I have fish ball soup, a great mixture of fish in spicy broth with noodles and other tasty accompaniments.

Fish ball soup

In Singapore, on the way back, for lunch I have Lakhsa, a spicy soup of rice noodles in a broth of coconut, dried shrimp and anchovies, topped with laksa leaves, a dollop of [spicy] sambal spices, and half a boiled egg.  It is tasty and filling.

Laksa

And, of course, my last dinner in Asia this trip is at my favorite hawker stall in Singapore, tucking into half a roast duck and a Tiger beer.

 Half roast duck, Tiger beer

I eat well on all these adventures and Cambodia adds more variety and spice to my collection of tastes and experiences (growing larger all the time).