A Food Tour In Siem Reap, Cambodia

Since we love eating so much, we decided to take a “Food Tour” while in Siem Reap, Cambodia. For $5 USD each we would to be taken around the “Old Market” in the centre of Siem Reap, be treated to a number of local delicacies, and receive a free beer with a plate of crickets and cockroaches to end the tour.

We met up with our new friend, Philippa, and our tour guide and walked over to the Old Market to start our adventure feasting on all things wonderful.  First stop was looking through the fresh meat section. This area isn't really for vegetarians. The smell is quite noticeable, as is the blood on the ground. We all enjoyed our walk through the fish section, holding your breath is a good idea, then headed to our next stop.

We sat down a local Khmer Dessert Stall. Lots of coconut milk, palm sugar and glutinous rice in a bowl served with fresh shaved ice. Very tasty indeed. We chose three different desserts and tried each of them. Yummy!

After the dessert, we moved on to the next food stall. This one was picked because Philippa is a vegetarian. We sat down to fried vegetables with fish cake. Not quite vegetarian.

Our guide ordered Philippa a fresh rice spring roll dish which he assured her was vegetarian. It arrived with prawns. “You don't eat prawns either?” Many laughs were had. Finally a vegetarian dish came just for her.

We moved on to the fresh fruits, vegetables and spices. Our guide bought a few different types of fruit for us to try. Very nice! He told us all about the different vegetables, and how the Khmer people dry their fish and pork sausages.

We left the markets and had a fresh sugar cane juice each and walked back to the hotel. It was time to try crickets and cockroaches. Hmmm. Luckily we had beer to wash it all down.

Andrew ate both the crickets and cockroaches… ewww. I just had a cricket. I just couldn't face the cockroaches.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon. We got to try some different foods, see some interesting things and experience the markets through a local Khmer's eyes.

UPDATE: Apparently these aren't actually cockroaches. They're water beetles. The guide called them cockroaches but language is always an issue.

Not quite the crickets we had in mind… Taken in Siem Reap.