Tucking In in Cambodia

After tucking into the dishes of Cambodia last week, it made me realise that their dishes and our own aren't worlds apart. It's a tweak here and a slight difference there in the mode of preparation or the way the dish is presented.
(left: "Amok"which is usually made of fish paste; it strongly resembles otah without the banana leaf.)

After speaking with my Cambodian hosts Dr Kao Sambath & Ms Sokdearozet (left) at lunch at Kandal Restaurant and digging in, I know I'll be back for more Cambodian fare in the not too distant future. There's still so much more to taste in this fascinating land whose cuisine's more closely affiliated with Vietnamese than Thai.

Below are photos of the dishes on our table before we cleaned them up.
(clockwise from top left: "Kokouo" is a soup dish with pieces of pork, chicken or fish boiled with brinjal, green jackfruit and unripe banana or papaya - it tastes like weak mee soto soup, "Teok kreung" which is a refreshing salad with an accompanying bowl of fish paste in fish sauce that tasted slightly citrus and "Chartrap" which is a mashed up brinjal dish which tastes better than it looks.)