- You gotta see the, like, caramelized
edges of that squid; it is a
beautiful, beautiful thing.
This looks unbelievably good;
a big plate of grilled
squid, a giant squid.
That squid is huge.
(upbeat pop music)
Hey everyone, it's Mark Wiens,
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,
and today, I'm taking you
on a street food tour,
Cambodian street food tour, in Phnom Penh.
And, we're gonna start by
going to central market,
so we are in the back of a tuk tuk,
which is one of the best,
and the easiest ways
to get around Phnom Penh.
Hanging out with Micah, and Ying,
and my buddy Joel came along on this trip.
- What's up, everyone?
- So, we're on our way
to central market first, which is
one of the central landmarks of the city,
and it's a big market.
It's actually called the new market.
(upbeat pop music)
Known for its pastel
yellow-colored dome structure,
Phnom Penh's central market
is a landmark of the city.
Inside, you'll find a
collection of mostly jewelry
and souvenir shops, but
the beauty of the market
for you and I, as food
lovers, is the open-air
outdoor section, where you'll
find a fresh wet market, and
an incredible food court where
you could spend hours eating.
Oh, look at these crabs.
Wow, the pinchers-to-body
ratio is fantastic.
There is an abundance
of things to walk around
and see at this market.
The fresh ingredients, and the wet market,
is fantastic to walk around and see,
but right next to the wet
market is a little food court,
where you can get pre-made food, and this
is the section that you're
gonna wanna come to,
to come check out the
food and start eating.
To begin with, we sat down at a stall
for a quick bowl of Bún Riêu,
a crab noodle dish with rice vermicelli,
shredded vegetables, and crab meatballs,
all submerged in a fragrant,
orange-colored broth.
It's not assembled until you order it,
and it comes to you piping
hot, and utterly attractive.
And, I had it in Vietnam
a couple of times,
and it's delicious, so
I had to sit down to,
and we're gonna try this first.
And also, just the
beautiful display of food.
It's like a little pyramid
of different ingredients,
the different noodles.
I think they serve a number
of different types of noodles
at this stall too, because
they have some other
boiled chickens, and those ovary eggs,
which look amazing too.
But, we went with the Bún Riêu.
There has to be like a
dozen different sauces
sitting before me, right
here on this table.
I'm not exactly sure which sauce to add.
I'm gonna ask her.
(speaking in foreign language)
Okay.
Alright, I just asked.
- More interesting--
- This is the sauce to add.
Okay.
One of the most notable
features of this bowl of noodles
is that it's an orange-colored broth.
Look at the color of that broth.
And then below here, there's noodles,
there's some fish cake,
I think two types of fish cake.
This is some sweet basil,
there's some okra in here,
and these are the chunks
of crab, I believe.
And then, there's also tomato,
there's tomato in here,
blood lump, and then sweet basil on top.
Let's just first taste this broth.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, it's crabby.
Oh, that's what I remember.
It's a very light broth.
- For having that much stuff in the soup,
it's surprisingly clean.
The broth is awesome.
- I think this is the shrimp
paste, or the crab paste.
I'm gonna go in for some of this.
Alright, that should be good, and then
I gotta go in for some chilis as well.
- Tamarind, always interesting.
- Sprinkle on a few chilis on here.
Oh yeah, and tamarind;
I think that is tamarind sauce.
Yeah, 'cause you can
see those tamarind seeds
in there, as well.
There's noodles on the
top, and even under here
there's all these vegetables,
the morning glory,
the shredded morning glory,
and the shredded vegetables down there.
What a beautiful bowl of noodles this is.
Alright, going in for some basil.
- [Joel] Some pickled ginger too.
- I like it with that added
shrimp paste, tamarind, chilis.
The crab flavor is so soothing.
I wanna grab that chunk,
which I think is crab roe,
some type of crab roe mixed with,
maybe mixed with something.
Oh, that's awesome!
Oh, that's like a crab meatball.
- [Joel] It's so rich.
- I forgot to mention,
there's even a pork chunk,
which I think is a pork knuckle.
It looks a little bit gelatinous.
But, there's so many things going on,
but I think the gem of the
bowl is that crab meatball.
That is just delicious.
Okay, okra.
The only thing I might do,
because I'm a little bit
obsessed with chilis, 'cause I think
I'll reach in for some
of this crushed chili.
Alright, and give this a whirl.
I think I will be ready to just devour
the rest of this bowl of
noodles, on that note.
Mmm!
That crab meatball is where it's at.
That is the ultimate bite
of this bowl of noodles.
Finished with that bowl of noodles,
and the combination of those chilis,
plus the hot broth,
in this market food court
that has zero air flow,
I'm just dripping.
You can see my arm just glistening.
How's that sweat?
- I feel like I just showered.
- That was a properly
good bowl of noodles.
All the different flavors,
that was delicious.
And, we are now walking down the market.
This is a squid section.
Okay.
We saw the gigantic squid,
and Ying loves squid, I love squid,
so there was no way we could pass this up
without trying one of these giant squid.
And, she has them pre-grilled over here,
but then she's grilling more, and then
(speaking in foreign language)
as you order it, she drops
it back on the hot coals,
and it's really hot; I can feel the flames
coming off of those charcoal.
We're about to eat a giant squid.
You gotta see the, like, caramelized edges
of that squid, it is a
beautiful, beautiful thing.
And then, as she was
grilling it, she brushed on
some kind of a fragrant oil as well,
so that also increased,
probably, the crispiness of it.
And then, as soon as it was ready,
then she chopped it
into bite-sized pieces,
and then I didn't know
she was gonna do this,
but they applied a beautiful oil
with, I can see fried garlic in there
as well as green onions,
chopped up in there,
that they just lathered
on top of the squid.
What a wonderful addition
to finish it off.
And then it's served
with a plate of veggies;
there's some green tomatoes on there,
there's cucumber, and then the herb there,
I think it's mostly culantro,
which is also known as
saw-toothed herb, and then I think
there's some Vietnamese
coriander in there as well.
And then it's served with a dipping sauce.
This looks unbelievably good,
a big plate of grilled
squid, a giant squid.
That squid is huge!
Okay, I'm going with
this piece right here,
on the top there.
Mmm!
Oh, the tenderness of
that squid is ridiculous.
Oh, and it's perfectly salty.
It's so fragrant with, I think
they're shallots actually.
I think that might be shallot
oil, fried shallot oil.
It's so fragrant; the
texture of that squid
is so soft, and so tender,
and it's not rubbery whatsoever.
It is awesomely good.
The sauce is good too, but actually,
I barely even noticed the
difference of that sauce
to that fragrant oil that's already
applied all over it.
And, I'm gonna follow this
bite with a green tomato,
and poke up some of those herbs.
That just is a complete
refreshing jolt in your
mouth, with those herbs.
We just finished off
that squid, without even
talking to each other.
That was one of the better pieces of squid
that I've ever had in my
life, and that was giant.
Incredibly good, and I think
what they did is that they
just cooked it perfectly.
They grilled it so it wasn't over-cooked.
If you get over-cooked
squid it can be all rubbery,
and not very good, but that was,
I was even trying to
like imagine in my head
what kind of texture that is.
It's almost like a chicken
thigh, or the dark chicken meat,
but more silky.
That was a treat, a real squid treat,
and if you come to this
market, if you love squid,
that's something you should consider
eating, immediately, as you arrive here.
Next step, we are stopping
for something refreshing
to cool down, and they have
lots of fruit shake stands all over.
We got an avocado shake, with
a little something special inside.
This little special
ingredient, that is along
with the avocado in this
shake, you can just smell it
within the humidity of this market,
and it's one of my, well, it is definitely
my favorite fruit, the king of fruits,
I'm talking about durian.
So, this is a combination
of avocado and durian shake.
Whoa, that's thick!
Wow!
The thickness of that; it's so creamy.
That's like cream on top of cream.
The avocado and the durian,
and then it's like, it's very, very smooth
from the avocado, but
then you've got that,
yeah, the durian just dominates
in the flavor department,
it just takes over.
It's so thick, rather than
being like a drinkable smoothie.
It's like a pudding that you almost
need to use a spoon to eat.
You almost can't do it with a straw.
There's a popular Cambodian
street food snack,
and you see it surrounding the market,
and you see it all over Phnom Penh.
And, they have it right over here.
I'm gonna go taste it for the first time.
Wow, there's a couple different types.
Clams, this one, or what is this one?
What's the difference between them?
This one is spicy.
- [Man] Yeah.
- [Mark] This one looks the most spicy,
because it has the chilis
ground up in there.
This one--
- [Man] Oyster Cambodia.
- Cambodian oysters.
(laughing)
They have a couple of different clams,
and I think they're sun-cured;
they dry it in the sun.
And then, they're also salt-cured;
they're just coated in salt.
This one?
- Yeah.
- Alright.
Can we please have one can of this one?
I'm gonna see if he can
show me how to eat it,
but I saw it, that you kind
of like bite it in your mouth,
because they're pretty,
they're shut pretty tight,
and then just coated in
lots and lots of salt.
(laughing)
Okay.
They're shut pretty tight,
so you gotta bite it.
(mumbles)
Wow, I just got a
mouthful of salt on that.
If you can, you gotta like, have a really,
razor-sharp tooth.
- [Man] Oh, lose that,
another piece of one.
- And it's juicy in there.
Mmm!
Oh, that is attractively good.
It does have the consistency of an oyster.
It's kind of slimy like an oyster,
and it has a little bit
more of a bitterness to it.
I can see why these are so popular,
such a popular snack.
This time, let me do the
Cambodian style opening method.
(upbeat pop music)
It's a little tricky to
open them with your teeth.
I haven't gotten down the method
of opening it with your teeth.
They're shut really tight.
I just completely failed
opening these with my teeth.
Okay, there we go; I got it open.
Okay.
That's it, right on the side there,
and then you just kind of wiggle it open.
Wow, that is, those are tasty.
This is a really popular
Cambodian street food
in Phnom Penh, and people just come here,
and you'll just see people,
probably friends of the owner
of this street food cart,
but they'll just come and,
they'll just grab a clam
and walk around.
Thank you very much.
- Good?
- It's really good.
Goodbye.
But yeah, it is hilarious;
people will just walk up,
and they will just grab
a couple clams, and then keep on walking.
- A girl just came straight across
the row, and--
- She grabbed a,
she just grabbed a clam--
- Grabbed one.
- And then jumped in the tuk tuk.
We are walking outside of
the central market now,
and onto the streets.
And then, a little bit away, there is this
grilled meat skewer, I think they're beef,
grilled beef skewer, in
baguette sandwiches, that
looks irresistible, so that's
where we're walking to next.
(upbeat pop music)
There are few things in the
world that make me more excited
than grilled meat on a skewer.
And, in Phnom Penh, one of
the classic afternoon snacks
is a handful of grilled meat
tucked into a Cambodian baguette.
This place is fantastic.
They have a selection of
different meat skewers.
I'm not even sure, but I think it's liver,
and then they have regular meat.
But the main skewer that
I'm most interested to try
is the, like, kebab meat
style, the minced meat.
When they're grilling it, you can actually
smell the lemongrass,
coming out of the fumes,
out of that smoke, from the grill.
If you eat it here, they
don't assemble anything.
They just leave it all separate.
They give you the meat on a plate,
they give you the papaya salad,
and they give you all the loaves of bread,
and which, by the way,
they toasted on the fire,
and you can see it
absorbing the meat fumes.
So, that bread is gonna
have a meaty aroma to it,
taste good as well.
Yeah, this is great, so we can assemble it
all on our own.
I'm gonna get some help here.
Okay.
Hold the meat skewer.
Oh, let it pull off the meat.
Okay, and also this one?
(speaking in foreign language)
Okay, double meat.
- Yes, that's awesome.
- Put all that meat in
there, and then salad.
I think it's papaya salad.
Oh, yeah, stuff in the papaya salad.
Yeah, this is some kind of a chili sauce.
It looks like a sweet chili sauce.
Oh, yeah, oh, fantastic.
Okay, Micah,
Micah is joining us for this sandwich.
This is just the type of
bread that you can feel
just collapsing in your fingers;
it just sort of like,
it just sort of yeah,
it just completely collapses.
Mmm!
Oh!
Yeah, the minced meat is where it's at,
that's like, those are like little kebabs,
and they are so fragrant,
with smoke and lemongrass.
Oh man, that's good.
And then, what I like is
that the bread is very light.
It's very, very crusty,
it's the type of bread
that when you chew down,
you can almost like
stab your gums, because
it's so sharp and crusty.
We immediately have to
order more of those,
those lemongrass kebabs.
Okay, next up, I think
this is grilled liver.
I'm not totally sure,
but let's just try this.
It's a little bit dried out,
but it is good, it's creamy,
but a little bit dry, in my opinion.
But I think those
lemongrass skewers, which
is their specialty, I think
that is where it's at.
That's what you have to order.
Finished off that first sandwich,
and we finished off the liver.
Liver was good, okay, but
we had to eat more of these kebab-like,
little minced meat packed onto,
they're actually, look like
little chopstick skewers.
Mmm!
Oh, it's so fragrant, it's so juicy,
a little bit oily,
a little bit sweet and
salty, and so lemongrass.
You can really taste the
lemongrass and garlic in there.
- Ooh, hot, man!
- You know, and you could
just eat these like saute.
- Yes.
- Okay, I decided to make one more order
of the meat skewers.
A couple more of the minced meat,
and a couple more of
the whole meat pieces.
We gotta have something to fill into these
airy little loaves of crunchy bread.
Last sandwich, and I think we can utilize
the rest of this meat.
Joel, three skewers,
three skewers of meat.
Oh, yeah.
Stick them all into here;
nestle it into that
cracker, cracker baguette.
And then, or sandwich it into that bread,
and then stuff it with the
green papaya, on this side.
Oh, yes.
Okay, finish this off,
and then chili sauce, chili sauce it.
Grab that chili sauce.
Oh, they have a whole chili.
Yes, yes, please.
I'm gonna squish this down, and then
try to pull out the sticks, one by one.
Oh!
When I did that, and then
when I squished the meat,
you could just see the oils and the juices
just squeezing out of that kebab.
Okay, one more.
Oh, wow!
The meat is really clamped on there.
Okay, one more.
Oh, and you can just feel that, oh, wow.
This is a beauty; it is just stuffed,
jam packed with meat,
and salad, and chilis.
Mmm!
It's such a well-balanced
combination of ingredients.
At first I thought we were coming here
just to eat a little sandwich, but that
ended up turning into a
little bit of a meat fest,
'cause it was so good.
We just wanted to eat
more and more skewers.
From here, we're gonna take
a little rest this afternoon,
and then eat some more food this evening.
Yes, there are definitely
vegetables you can eat
when you're in Phnom Penh,
but to be honest, when
you're walking around
and eating spontaneously,
throughout the city,
meat of some kind or another, seems to be
what really stands out,
what's easily accessible
on seemingly every street
corner throughout Phnom Penh.
When we set off in the
morning, I had no plans
for it to be one of those all-meat days,
but by a streak of
unplanned dining, somehow,
that's what it turned into.
The next Cambodian street
food this afternoon
is grilled, dried, grilled buffalo meat.
And, there's just a
sea of meat right here,
that's drying, on the table.
After the meat is dried,
and then she grills it on a,
it's a really, really low
fire, so you can see it
kind of dehydrates the meat,
and then she actually
has to hit it with a,
it's like a bat, against a wooden stump.
So, that might be some pretty
tough meat right there.
(patrons chatting)
We didn't exactly know what we were doing,
and we had a little bit
of a miscommunication, but
we ended up ordering half a kilo.
And, half a kilo of this meat is like,
it's like the family pack, definitely;
you could feed the whole neighborhood.
He grabbed a giant pair of scissors,
an ancient, iron pair of scissors,
and chopped up some of the
beef into bite-sized pieces.
They serve it with some pickles,
and this is kind of just a
hang out, afternoon meat spot.
Wow!
Okay, it's definitely chewy,
but that flavor is awesome.
Oh, it's salty, it's peppery,
it has this amazing meaty flavor to it,
and yet it's not too gamey tasting.
To accompany the dried
buffalo, and he said
it makes it more tasty,
there's a plate of pickles.
There's some, I think
this is morning glory,
that looks like finely-shaved lemongrass,
and then I think radish and carrots.
Oh, yeah!
Oh, that very finely-shaved lemongrass.
That was so good, we
finished it off, and we need,
we need him to chop up some more.
It's so addictively good, and it has that
kind of texture to it, yeah,
where you just don't wanna
stop eating, for sure.
Some more freshly-chopped
beef, and look at that,
look at that cross-section; that's just,
that is just pure, condensed meat,
and I'm gonna eat it this
time, with some chilis on it.
Just kind of scoop up
some of those chilis.
Oh!
That meat is just so condensed,
It just releases flavor.
My jaw is a little bit sore,
and I got a little bit of dried
buffalo stuck in my teeth,
but that is some seriously tasty meat.
There's just so much
street food in Phnom Penh.
It's a street food paradise, for sure,
and you can just walk from stall to stall.
So many interesting foods, so
many delicious things to try.
This is a great food city.
(upbeat pop music)
This is a serious meat joint, right here.
In the evening is when the
huge Cambodian barbecue
meat stalls emerge;
a symphony of rotating meats,
slow hissing from the coals,
with a cloud of smoke
pouring onto the streets.
As a meat lover, this
is where you want to be,
when you're in Phnom Penh.
I have a soft spot in my
heart for grilled meats,
and rotating meats, and this
beautiful meat stall,
grilled meat stall, here
in Phnom Penh, is something
I could not walk past without
ordering, and so we decided
to order some grilled meat.
What a stunning shop this is!
I just got splashed with duck,
as he chopped that up expertly.
This guy is a meat master.
He's doing everything; he has
a friend who's helping him
hack everything, but he's
literally doing everything:
grilling the meat, maintaining the fire,
chopping up the meat.
He is a grill master, to say the least.
(speaking in foreign language)
That is a meat cart that even
the most dedicated person
on a diet, would stop for,
and would break their diet for.
That meat is just, just impressive.
They have no seats at the meat stall;
most people just get it for take-away,
but luckily, he has a friend
right across the street,
right across the intersection here,
and she has a fruit cart,
a fruit smoothie cart,
and so he asked if we could sit here,
which is very, very kind.
And, she allowed us to
sit here, and we ordered
some soursop smoothies, to begin with.
Cheers, man!
- Oh, thanks.
Let's have some soursop smoothie first,
before we dig into the meat.
Oh, that's just pure soursop,
and I think she added coconut milk.
But, I asked her to put no sugar,
and no condensed milk.
Wow, that's good!
Let's begin with the duck.
Oh, it's so hot and fresh,
right off the grill,
and that golden skin is
stunning; it's stunning.
Mmm!
That could definitely be a free-flying,
free range duck, right there.
It's a little bit on the chewy side,
but it's so, the taste of
it is really, really good,
very natural tasting.
And it sort of has like a,
almost like a honey glaze.
Oh, yeah.
That's Vietnamese coriander; it's so,
so peppery, that goes well with the duck.
Alright, let's try the quail next.
I'm gonna, oh, yes, the whole thigh, and,
thigh and drum.
I think I'll go for the sauce on this one,
dip a little bit of sauce onto this guy.
Oh!
Mmm!
- Mmm!
- Quail is superb.
I think this is quail; quail or pigeon.
I think it's quail.
It's just like, the
darkest meat of chicken,
and like, condensed.
Oh, wow, it's good.
- [Joel] I can crush
right through the bones.
That's amazing.
- Some parts of it even
taste a little livery.
(upbeat pop music)
You can definitely tell,
this is not your average
farm-raised duck, right here.
We have come to the end of this day.
This has been, it's been a
little bit of a meat-heavy
street food day in Cambodia,
and it has been fantastic.
The food, the different variety of dishes
we've eaten today, and the
different meats that we've eaten
has been incredibly delicious.
Met a lot of friendly people as well.
Phnom Penh is just such a fantastic
street food-lovers' city.
I'm gonna end the video
for today, right now.
I wanna say a big thank you
for watching today's video.
Please remember to give it a
thumbs-up if you enjoyed it.
I'd love to hear from you
in the comments section,
and also, if you're
not already subscribed,
click subscribe now for lots
more food and travel videos.
Good night, from Phnom Penh,
and I will see you on the next video.
Oh, that was a great meat day.
