Within ten minutes of my arrival in Kampot, I had rented a bicycle for a dollar and was off in search of food. This sleepy town has a handful of western places hidden within the often crumbling walls of old French colonial buildings, but I wanted to find a traditional meal in the street.
I also decided on the bus journey here, that February 1st would be day one of a month long challenge to write something every day about what I eat while on the road, what foods I discover in the markets and what local snacks I can manage to find. Thanks to my friend William Steffey for inspiring this writing exercise by sharing his own creative challenge to himself to write 10 new songs this month.
There is such a wide variety of food on offer here in Cambodia, and one of my favorites in every country in Asia are the noodle soups. I rode up to the first shop on the corner where a couple of local kids slurped down some soup. It sounded delicious.
I pointed at the thin rice noodles and sat in one of the red plastic chairs so endemic to this part of the world. Tiny napkins were strewn on the floor of this open air restaurant and would be collected later. A plastic basket containing the famous Kampot pepper, fish sauce, sugar, homemade red chili paste and other mysterious contents got my mouth watering.
The steaming bowl arrived with a tiny dish of quartered limes and a plastic cup of water to drink. I sipped it and realized it was actually a very weak tea which made me feel better about drinking it. Water and ice can still be questionable here, so knowing it was boiled made me feel better. Ice here is delivered in huge slabs and then chopped up into smaller bits, but not always safe for the more sensitive foreigner. So far, it hasn’t been a problem but I do really appreciate the bagged ice of Thailand in this heat.
English was not spoken at this family noodle shop, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter. The woman passed by to look and see if I was enjoying the soup a few times and just nodded and smiled. The breeze was enough to keep the flies from landing for too long, and the soup, after adding the right amounts of all of the local spices, was perfect.
The cost was $1, and 1000 riel. About $1.10. And yeah, they use US dollars and the local currency together. This country is beyond interesting, and the food I have had so far has been amazing.
Jumping back on the bike now in search of some of the famous Kampot pepper to take back home for all of my foodie friends.
