IMAGES: LUCY GILLMORE; GETTY
EAT
Five food finds
AMOK Cambodia’s national dish, this
aromatic, mild and creamy curry is traditionally made with fish,
although chicken, beef and crab can also be used, marinated in a curry paste of coconut milk and kroeung, then steamed in a banana leaf.
Kampot pepper is grown at La Plantation, a farm
NUM BANH CHOK
This noodle dish is a popular Khmer breakfast, the rice noodles swimming in a fish or
spicy chicken soup and topped with cucumber, crunchy greens banana flowers and fresh herbs.
POMELO SALAD
In Cambodia, salads oſten feature fruit rather than
vegetables (green mango is a
favourite), and a dish of pomelo, fried shallots, dried shrimp and mint leaves is a popular combination.
KULEN BLACK PIG
in the Phnom Kulen mountain range, north of Siem Reap,
free-roaming Kulen black pigs are reared organically and
sustainably, their diet of forest floor foraging producing a pork with a distinctive flavour.
KANG-KEP BAOB Not for the squeamish, this
snack of chargrilled frogs — their stomachs stuffed with minced
pork, frog meat, roasted peanuts, chillies, fresh kroeung and lime juice — is a common find at
roadside stalls and food carts throughout the country.
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nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel While in Kampot, I visit La Plantation, a
pepper farm part-owned by Luu. As I bump down a potholed track through clouds of red dust, La Plantation’s smattering of restored, Khmer-style buildings edges into view. The farm was set up by a French-Belgian couple, Guy Porre and Nathalie Chaboche, in 2013, and offers free tours, tastings and classes. Beneath a searing sun, my guide and I
wander among the pepper-strung trellises. As the colour of the berries changes, so do their flavour profiles, I learn: green pepper, fermented in salt, works well with goat’s cheese and caramelised duck; black pepper, the bulk of the harvest, has chocolate, mint and eucalyptus notes and complements game and charcuterie; while red pepper is fruity, floral and delicious when paired with fish, or ground over ripe strawberries. As Kampot pepper enjoys its renewed
popularity, Phnom Penh’s street food scene is also coming into its own. Back in the capital, I jump in a tuk tuk and sputter through its clogged, temple-flanked arteries to meet writer, guide and film location scout Nick Ray at the art deco Central Market for a street food ‘safari’. “Everyone has heard about the street food in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City,” he says, “but Phnom Penh’s should be just as famous.” We wander along aisles lined with dried fish: catfish, snakehead, squid. “Dried fish is
part-owned by chef Luu Meng LEFT: Amok, regarded as Cambodia’s national dish
salty but really good grilled and dipped in mango sauce.” The river crabs, he tells me, are fermented in salt for five days and then cooked with lemon, basil, sugar and chilli. We graze from stall to stall, tearing into
barbecued beef skewers with pickled young papaya at Phsar Tapang, and grab a street- side pew for a plate of lort cha, a dish of short rice noodles stir-fried on a sizzling hot plate with bean sprouts, cabbage, garlic, palm sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce, then topped with a fried egg. “Lort cha is a popular cheap lunch,” Nick
says as we tuck in. “The carts selling them all play different tunes, like ice cream vans.” It’s thirsty work, and so we round off our
tour with a tipple at the Juniper Gin Bar, which serves drinks from Phnom Penh’s first craſt distillery, Seekers Spirits. I go for the kaffir lime leaf-laced Mekong G&T. It’s packed with native botanicals such as lemongrass, pomelo, galangal and lemony Khmer basil. It’s Cambodia in a glass.
HOW TO DO IT: Singapore Airlines and Vietnam Airways fly from Heathrow to Phnom Penh via Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively.
singaporeair.com
vietnamairlines.com Audley Travel offers a bespoke, 11-day trip to Cambodia from £2,280 per person, including flights, transfers and accommodation, and can arrange chef-led cooking classes.
audleytravel.com
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