Phnom Penh: Mekong Mornings Food Tour with 15+ Tastings

Taste your way through Phnom Penh with 15+ tastings, exploring two great markets, street vendors and local eateries for a deeper dive into Khmer food.
Before the midday heat settles over Phnom Penh, the city is already eating. Market stalls groan under tropical fruit, herbs and wriggling seafood, pots of broth steam beside the pavements and vendors turn rice, coconut, fish and fragrant kroeung into the dishes.

Over four hours and 15+ tastings, we're diving into two of Phnom Penh's great markets, Psar Kandal and the iconic Central Market, alongside street vendors and local eateries to discover how the capital really eats. This isn't just a run through Cambodia's famous dishes. We'll explore the ingredients and techniques behind them, from handmade rice noodles and bamboo-steamed cakes to market snacks most visitors wouldn't know to order.

Begin outside the National Museum of Cambodia before plunging straight into Psar Kandal, one of the city's great everyday food markets. Dodge baskets of herbs, vegetables and fresh seafood as we hunt down seasonal exotic fruits.

Then attack our first mid morning snacks: nom kong, Cambodia's crisp, chewy doughnut, and golden nom kroch, fried until crisp around a sweet mung bean centre.

Follow the locals to breakfast. Num banh chok is one of Cambodia's defining morning dishes: soft rice noodles tangled with fresh herbs and vegetables beneath a fragrant Khmer-style gravy.

And we're not stopping at eating them. Track down a vendor steaming nom putu bambu, soft rice cakes cooked inside tubes before being showered with fresh coconut, before taking a glimpse at how Cambodian noodles are prepared.

That's breakfast dealt with. Now things get serious. Pull up a chair for amok trey, tender fish folded into coconut and aromatic kroeung, the fragrant pounding of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and other aromatics that forms the backbone of countless Khmer dishes. Follow it with samlor machu moan, a bright chicken and lemongrass sour soup, before tackling beef lok lak with its punchy Kampot pepper and lime dipping sauce.

There are 15+ tastings to conquer, so we're only getting warmed up. Cambodia spent almost a century under French influence, and one particularly delicious souvenir is bread. Tear into nompang pâté, the Cambodian baguette, French baking technique thoroughly commandeered by Khmer appetites.

Then dive into the vast yellow-domed Central Market, one of Phnom Penh's most recognisable landmarks. We'll weave through the market and surrounding streets in search of more local favourites, including nom kong Kampong Cham, a crisp, intensely savoury shrimp cracker.

Save some room for the sweeter side of Cambodian cooking. There's num koum, sticky rice with coconut and sesame, and num bot, its savoury cousin filled with mung bean and pepper.

Our final bite doesn't disappoint. Ta-pae is fermented rice paired with fresh coconut. Sweet, gently boozy and completely different from where we started, it's a fitting end to a morning spent discovering just how many directions Khmer cooks can take a handful of staple ingredients.

उपलब्धता की गारंटी के लिए जितनी जल्दी हो सके बुक करें। जल्दी बुकिंग पर विचार करना विशेष रूप से तब महत्वपूर्ण है जब आप सार्वजनिक छुट्टियों या सप्ताहांत जैसे उच्च सीजन के दौरान यात्रा की योजना बना रहे हों।

इस यात्रा को आप यात्रा शुरू होने से 24 घंटे पहले बिना किसी शुल्क के रद्द कर सकते हैं। यदि आप इसे 24 घंटे बाद रद्द करते हैं या यात्रा पर नहीं आते हैं, तो भी आपको गतिविधि की पूरी कीमत चुकानी होगी। पिक-अप या प्रस्थान में देर से आना यात्रा पर नहीं आने के रूप में माना जाएगा।