Eating in Cambodia is wonderful. Not only are there fantastic foreign restaurants for the visitor tastes, but there are also local cuisines by the millions. Literally every province here has a different cuisine and some different delicacy to excite anyone's taste buds.

My friend Nop Kong took me shopping before we went to h is house for lunch when I was up in Siem Reap (near Ankor Wat.) The first market we encountered was off the beaten path (quite literally) and we drove his motorcycle down the one pedestrian wide lane to look for fish.

What I encountered more than just the fish still flopping in the plastic pans the vendors had laid out in front of them were some unusual vegetables. You've read that my favorite food in all of Cambodia is morning glory stems in oyster sauce. These water lilies come a close second. They are stir fried in with chicken, beef or other vegetables and sauce to add a pungent kick to an entree or to a soup.

On the road between the two markets we visited, I noticed these little structures in almost every farm. I hadn't the foggiest notion what they might be so I asked. Note that there are flourescent lamps on top of each structure and that there is a pool of water in the plastic sheeting on the ground. At night a second plastic sheet is strung between the posts and the lights are turned on. Crickets attracted to the lights jump up, hit the plastic sheet and fall into the pool of water and drown. The farmers collect them, fry them, cover them in a little bit of salt and palm juice sugar and voilà the perfect movie watching or soccer game snack.


You can buy any number of delicacies from the provinces delivered fresh every weekend near the riverfront in Phnom Penh. Strolling couples and families pick up (front row) newborn chicks, locusts, shrimp, (second row) cockroaches, crickets and another bug (don't expect me to know everything that hops in Cambodia), garden snakes, clams, quail eggs and snails.

This particular stand is very popular because the snacks are from all over Cambodia. It takes several hours to get to Phnom Penh from many of the provinces and the bugs and animals must be eaten fresh or they don't taste good. So, these are brought in plastic bags by farmers coming in from the surrounding provinces to sell produce. Call them a by product of vegetable cultivation. Mind you I don't eat much meat... Bugs are meat.