I was doing some cleaning house this morning of my drafts, making up drafts, and lo and behold! Here are some left over pictures from my Cambodia trip! I was meaning to write about the difference between the food I had in Pursat, Siem Riep, and the capital, Penom Penh. As expected, [...]]]>

I was doing some cleaning house this morning of my drafts, making up drafts, and lo and behold! Here are some left over pictures from my Cambodia trip! I was meaning to write about the difference between the food I had in Pursat, Siem Riep, and the capital, Penom Penh. As expected, things are a bit different in the city. For example, for dinner, we had barbecue both nights in the big city. It’s a big treat and two different people took us out to dinner and both nights, it was barbecue. (More on that later) For lunch, there were the classic bahn mi-esque sandwich. Here, they have it dissembled, and you put it together with various cold cuts and ham variations. It comes with a pile of pickled veggies on the side, and various sauces, such as hot sauces, vinegar, and mustard. Delicious. We needed something to fill us up after the Russian Market.

While I was eating these sandwiches, Carlos, Sopeark, and Dalin and her sister were taking part in a delicacy of duck eggs with duck fetuses. Carlos, apparently tried some… bravely. I am both sad and relieved to have missed this. One, it would have made great material for my blog. However, that’s really just… I will come out and say it, DISGUSTING to me. I guess I can’t win them all.

Apparently this is a modern thing, but Asian countries LOVE their crustless white bread teatime sandwiches. You find these things with delicately filled egg salad or cucumber sandwiches EVERYWHERE in Japan. They are liked in Cambodia, too, and we ordered these as an appetizer/amuse bouche to a stew. The thing with these sandwiches are that they are cut in triangles or bite-size triangles, and never over filled with stuff. It’s delicate, the bread is soft, and this sandwich had all of those characteristics. I find it fascinating that Asian people love these tea sandwiches, obviously.

Breakfast food is a little different too. In Pursat, we would have no breakfast … since we had to put into silk dresses and caked on with 3 layers of crazy make up and fake eye lids. In Siem Reap, we would have noodles. In Penom Penh, beef stew is a favorite (AND INSANELY DELICIOUS!) breakfast dish. Second to the chicken, of course. Like the chicken, you need to make it in before a certain time or they take it off the menu. The stew is a hearty beef broth with spices and a hint of tomato. It’s filled with meat and you eat it with some pepper and lime over it, dipping a side of crusty bread. This is a meal anyone can really relate to. Yum!