Have you ever eaten a single peppercorn? If you come to Kampot, you must! While I was waiting for my bicycle tires to be filled with air I noticed a large woven basket on the street filled with peppercorns drying in the sun. The tiny shriveled fruits were a deep dark color with a slight shine. The woman renting me the bike saw my curiosity and motioned for me to pick one up and eat it. I popped a tiny peppercorn into my mouth and magic happened.
The peppery taste hits the back of the throat with a gentle tickle, and the spice tastes like a mini explosion. It’s not dry or harsh, but more of a subtle yet very distictively peppery taste. I loved it at once.
My Polish grandmother and I both have a thing for pepper. The more the better. Everytime I visit and she has prepared a meal her first words after I take a bite, be it chicken soup, cucumbers in vinegar, pickled herring or baked potatoes, are always, “put plenty pepper!!!”
Kampot is home to this very delicious peppercorn, which you can find in a green color cooked with food, or dried in black, white, or red varieties. After tasting that tiny nugget of goodness from the basket drying in the street, I knew I needed more. I’d tasted the sweet nectar of the peppercorn and would not be content until I had some of my own.
I arrived at Kampot market, left my bike with the attendant for 500 rial, (about 13 cents) and was off in search of my newest local addiction.
The market had everything you could want from a public market, and more. Men and women seated at ancient manual sewing machines mending and custom tailoring clothes, metal smiths at work at their jeweler’s benches, ladies squatted over tin bowls filled with all variety and size of fish, some much more alive than others yet all very fresh. I saw the fabled crabs from this area, squid and prawns and giant conch.
At times you might feel pangs of hunger as you pass freshly baked baguettes, but at the next turn nausea and a cold sweat seem to take over. Pigs head and red meat hanging beside chickens being meticulously plucked of their remaining plumes, and every kind of exotic fruit with durian being a local favorite here with a foul smell that makes me wonder how anyone can get close enough to even put it into their mouth.
Walking in flip flops I felt the occasional splash against the back of my leg. This is what they refer to in some countries as a wet market. Water is pumped into some of the buckets and bowls which contain the live fish, and lots of the earthen floors are sloshy, fish gut strewn puddles. The excess water drains out in shallow gutters that run in rows in front of the fish venders seated on tiny wooden seats behind their buckets and tin bowls filled with fish.
Business is conducted directly with each seller. You find the goods you want and begin to negotiate a price. Needless to say, credit cards are not accepted. It’s and chaotic maze of things that often will send your stomach reeling with fish heads being chopped off on tree stump cutting boards, rows of hanging intestines and body parts you would be surprised could be consumed decorate the tin roof covered stalls letting in only enough air and sunlight to keep people from passing out in their pigs feet.
I’m fascinated, a grin across my face as I try to weave my way down each and every narrow, crowded aisle without stepping in fish guts, or worse. People smile and point me out to one another and I feel myself like a piece of exotic meat being studied for flaws. It must seem strange that I am this curious about things that for these market venders are just a routine part of their day.
I find the fresh peppercorns and not far away, the packages of dry peppercorns that I can easily take back to the U.S. Tiny packets sell for just $1 and larger amounts for $4. You can easily find the pepper in town as well in more fancy gift bags and packaging that looks like a proper souvenir. But if you really want to enjoy the buying experience head to the local market instead where no matter how many times you are splashed with fish guts, it will be worth it.
Here is a lovely dish from a local restaurant in town that served prawns cooked in the fresh peppercorns.
