Phnom Penh - first time to Cambodia
 

Three questions:

1). Any recent experience with Cambodia visa? Best to get it in advance or on arrival? I'm happy to bring passport photos with me at the airport if its cheaper.

2). What would you do on a day trip to Phnom Penh?

3). What foodie experiences are recommended in Cambodia?

cheers!
--Russ

(1) - on arrival (2) - getting the photos 1st will save you 1 or 2 $s. (3) - I'm not much into the genocide stuff. I find it much too sad. I'd do the Nat Museum and Royal Palace. (4) - my friends enjoyed the classes at Linna Culinary School.

thank you... I'm reading rave reviews of the Russian Market, so I'm sure I'll spend some time there.

will skip the culinary school, but would like to try some traditional cooking... someone mentioned they're known for a certain crab dish? I'm assuming other cuisine is similar to Thai?

The cuisine is very different than Thai. Much more liberal use of black pepper and largely a fear of (chili) heat.

Cambodia is the only place in Asia where I find the local food is something I prefer to not bother with.

I'm not sure what you mean in regards 'rave reviews' but the place is mostly a tourist trap.

I am currently on a three month gig in Kep, Cambodia. The dish you asked about is Kep crab sautéed with fresh green Kampot peppercorns. I finished mine about an hour ago and it was great.

That is probably the only dish I'd ever recommend in Cambodia. :D With 3 months in Kep send some up to PP will ya? ;)

that's the one!

the other recommended dishes were Amok and beef lok lak

For Cambodia cooking, you should look at the blog of FlyerTalk member (and Kiva Fellow) Linda Goldberg (aka giblet).

Her Moving to Cambodia site (and book) are great and her mybigfatface.com blog is top notch. Check http://blog.linagoldberg.com as well.

I love Cambodian food.

Ciao, dsquared!
I'm doing a re-make of a resort here. Come down for a weekend and eat some crab.

Do they call it Cambodian food or Khmer food, is there a difference?


I've been posting on CouchSurfing to ask locals to show me around and most seem to refer to Khmer cuisine.

this is great, found the 10 foods you must try in Cambodia on her blog link to CNN GO

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/e...#ixzz1ZpT2HA2l

Thai has a very near equivalent to each of those dishes.

I know of no locals who call anything Khmer... language, food etc is almost universally called 'Cambodian'. YMMV.

good to know so not to offend anyone

This is actually the oddity of it: I never feel that using the term Khmer offends anyone but when people ask me if I can eat local foods the question is always, 'Cambodian food' rather than Khmer food.

If you have any desire to eat local foods I'd come prepared with Cipro. And definitely get your Hep A/B shots.