I’ve arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I’ve never been to Cambodia before so when I found out that I had to go to there for work, I decided to come a day early and have a little explore of the capital. The word on the street was that Phnom Penh was quite good for vegetarian food so I was determined to hit the streets and find something tasty.
I started the day a little worried when my breakfast capsicum, onion and tomato omelette came with ham (definitely not on the menu!) but I was still optimistic for Cambodia to show me some vegetarian culinary delights and soon set off to start my day of exploring. First stop, the Killing Fields. For anyone who hasn’t been, it was amazing and I’d definitely recommend it to everyone. An audio guide is included in your entry fee ($5) which takes you around the fields describing the scene at each designated stop, and giving personal accounts from survivors on the way. Although I knew basically what happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, I didn’t know nearly the scale of the atrocities, or how it even came to be in the first place.
Eating my noodle soup
Second stop was the Genocide Museum, but first a spot of lunch was needed to prepare us for what was to come. And this time I was determined to choose something that wouldn’t come with surprise meat. Just down the road from the Genocide Museum is a little local restaurant called Pho 45. It’s just a simple outdoor eatery and by the photos on the wall, serves noodles, rice and all sorts of meat dishes. We sat down and sign language ensured trying to portray the fact that we didn’t eat meat. The waitress nodded with a knowing smile and retreated to the open kitchen where we could see her grabbing loads of noodles and veggies and throwing them in a pot – turns out we were getting noodle soup.
The actual dish was very plain with not a lot of flavour but came with a side plate of herbs with what seemed to be coriander, cilantro, basil and what I think is commonly called rice paddy herb which has a lemony, citrus aroma. After adding in some of these, and then a dash of hot chilli sauce, I was happily slurping away on my soup. It was really fresh, with lots of carrots, lemon grass, and bean shoots, and with the added ingredients, had a lovely spicy flavour.
Chopping veggies on the floor of the restaurant.
And the great news was that for two soups and one coke, it came to $2.50. Can’t get much better value for money then that.
With bellies full, we headed back around the corner to the Genocide Museum. This is an old school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison. Apparently about 20,000 people were tortured and sentenced to death there, with only seven surviving. It was actually hard to get through it all as the photos of victims, drawings of people being tortured, and torture machines were hugely gruesome. A more confronting experience than the Killing Fields, and there were a lot of personal stories to read from Cambodians who worked for the Khmer Rouge, had relatives taken to the prison, or from one of the seven surviving prisoners.
After such an intense day, it was time for a massage and then onto my final meal. I wasn’t terribly hungry and unfortunately found myself in what I think is quite a popular tourist destination. Still, the restaurants looked nice, and although it was more expensive then what I wanted to spend, I decided just to grab something small – fresh spring rolls, one of my favourite.
Very plain fresh spring rolls. Minus the one that I ate before taking the photo.
Although they looked nice, quite disappointing to be honest. The rolls were indeed fresh, and filled with rice, carrots, green beans and lettuce but they didn’t have much flavour. Fine if you have a strong sauce to dip them into. However, these were served with a sweet chilli sauce full of peanuts. Again, it was a nice dipping sauce, but just didn’t go properly with the spring rolls. I think a strong peanut sauce would have been a better option.
So all in all, fantastic day sightseeing and would completely recommend the Killing Fields and Genocide Museum. Food-wise, breakfast gets a cross for having meat appear in my breakfast unannounced, and dinner wasn’t amazing either. But lunch was great and I think I learned my lesson to stick to the local restaurants rather than try something a little more fancy in the tourist area. Point taken. And happy news is that I still have a few more days to discover what other veggie delights this city has to offer.
My Vegetarian Adventures 