Provincial Protein – A Guide to Subsistence Dining

Cambodian food has a bad rep, and quite deserved too for the most part, with cheap refined cooking oil, diabetes inducing sugar levels and liberal doses of that culinary crack- highly addictive crystal monosodium glutamate, MSG- the stuff that makes Chinese takeaway so unsatisfying 30 minutes after consumption.

There are, of course edible soups and a few nice dishes, Khmer and ‘fusion’ alike, amok, for example- the tikka masala of the region and about Cambodian as camembert. BBQ seafood is still BBQ seafood (with a little bit of sugar added for luck), but on the whole most ‘real food’ tastes a lot like those uncomfortable moments when too much warm crappy beer is swilled too quickly and a bit of sick rises up into your mouth.

Apologists will refute such `food racism (foocism??), and I will stand my ground, but one has to adapt to such things or slowly starve to death- after a while even the most reviled dishes can become almost palatable.

The good denizens of the city may argue over semantics and the quality of gravy to decide the BEST Sunday roast in town (does a monthly fare count?),where to source the juiciest burger in BKK1 or the most authentic pizza in the city (deep pan DOES NOT constitute pizza). Adventurous sorts and keerazy backpackers buy bags of fried bugs and prahoc, in a vain effort to convince themselves that they really are delicious and not anything like crunchy sugar oil with indigestible bits/rotten fish.

Cambodian people, are by nature a hungry bunch, and will consume just about anything of any size- often to the detriment of the local wildlife population. I’ve had the (dis)pleasure to experience the following snacks, and whilst I don’t condone animal cruelty (animal rights are low down on the scale of the Cambodian give-a-crap-o-meter) some of the following tidbits may cause some offence.

More : http://www.khmer440.com/k/2014/08/provincial-protein-a-guide-to-subsistence-dining-13/