Psar Kandal Market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia:
narrow alleyways full of stalls crammed closely together, this is where the locals of Phnom Penh buy their food, rather than in shops and supermarkets. Cambodia is still a very poor country whose infrastructure has not yet recovered from the devastating Khmer rouge period, yet this open air market supplied food of a freshness and variety that surpasses Western food markets.
Banana flower, mini mangos, herb and spice stalls selling fresh galangal, ginger, chillies, turmeric; fish stalls with live fish in tanks and enormous aluminium basins full of squid and shellfish; egg stalls selling fresh and preserved eggs of all sizes and hues, meat and medicine and drink stalls. Everything was displayed beautifully in large baskets or on rattan mats.
As part of a small group attending a Cambodian cookery class, I was given a tour around and introduced to the ingredients I would be using later in the day, but you don’t have to be a foodie to appreciate the vitality of the place. Finish off by visiting one of the many cafes and small restaurants around the square.

Kandal Market near Wat Ounalom, Phnom Penh. Every morning.
Google map: bit.ly/f1pTmW
www.cambodia-cooking-class.com/

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Friends is a training restaurant which is training young people who have previously been living on the street a trade - be that catering or waiting. It is open from 11am daily and serves a variety of really good tapas - both western and Cambodian.

Near the national museum, Phnom Penh

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Because if you don't read it and you are moderately naive like me, 'Happy Curry' is just another colourful south-east Asian turn of phrase....rather than an opium & pot laced journey into neurosis and paranoia, culminating in a night sleeping with a knife under the pillow, keys stuffed in the top of the bedroom door and the contents of my backpack on the floor in order to wake me (like I ever fell asleep) when the cooks were going to come in and steal my kidneys. Not recommended eating by accident.

Surprisingly on the main menu of a Lonely Planet recommended hostel.

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