Feb 8

Feb 8 They Eat...Kampot, Cambodia (Part 1 - Local Market Tour)

While Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are more famous for tourism, the riverside town of Kampot in Southern Cambodia is a relaxing retreat from busy city life. Before heading to one of the local pepper farms, we visited a local market to understand where people buy and sell everything and anything.

Local Market Visit

A must do in any place we go to is a visit to an open-air market. It is where you see locals interacting with each, understand what foods they eat, the fresh vegetables/fruits of this area, and well.. there is always a surprise or two. This time wasn’t any different.

We entered through the section selling household products: from kitchen colanders to shampoo and lipstick.

It was around 8AM and the market was busy with people buying and selling food. Even better, there was stalls with breakfast being sold - so of course we sat down. The soup was clear but filled with flavor. I had the thin rice vermicelli and Ian had thicker white noodles. Both were topped with bean sprouts, pork salami slices and chicken. I squeezed a lime into mine and enjoyed the entire bowl. Energy was needed for the rest of our day!

The next area of the market was all about snacks. I recognised some sweets I ate as a child during the Lunar New Year. There were donuts and Ian said, “wow, that looks really dirty!” (meaning - it is so fat and sugary, we should get some). Near all of this were big buckets filled with sauces… we asked what it was.. “palm sugar”.

So many fresh fruits were everywhere. We were particularly excited to see a fruit that we only know how to describe as a “naked kiwi”. The fruit is delicious and you must search for this when you are in Kampot. We have not seen it in any other city yet.

We made a right after the fruit section, and what did we find… many, many different colors of live chicken sadly awaiting their death.

So what happens when you are buying your vegetables to make dinner and suddenly you remember you had forgotten to buy a present for your kid? Well - buy him/her a pair of sneakers at the vendor right next to veg lady!

Our Final Stop at the market was for sticky rice cooked in banana leaf and freshly squeezed sugarcane juice. The sticky rice was cooked over hot coal so it had a great bbq flavor. The sugarcane had lime and some sugar added to it - very refreshing for the hot day!