Give us this day our daily fish paste

I've held back from making too many "foodie posts," because I always make fun of people who post about food every 40 seconds on twitter or facebook. (Thanks for letting me know that your cereal this morning was a bit soggy, you made an amazing sandwich at lunch, and you're going to post a photo of every course at dinner).
BUT what a hypocrite am I...I'm going to show some of my favourite cuisine from the past 5 months, so if you get annoyed by food posts, (or easily grossed out,) I suggest you turn back now. Don't say I didn't warn you...Bon Appetit!

1. Dragun

One of my favourite dishes here--if not for the name that sounds like a mythical beast, then for the rich source of iron within these dark green leaves. 

2. Kaffai- Coffee Khmer style on the street, feeaturing ice and sweet condensed milk 

Make me go (o_O) 

3. Chicken Feet--Came home to my little sister gnawing on this the other day and she was generous enough to share. 

4. Jek (Bananas) 

deep fried with seseme, grilled on a stick, or steamed in rice and wrapped in leaves

5. Tarantulas--I already posted about these little buggers, but I've grown to love them. 

6. Sea Snails --served with pepper--requires some amount of slurping to eat

7. Crabs- usually pretty good, but sometimes pretty hard to get out of the shell

8. Every part of the pig- ears, snout, organs...

9. Doang (Coconut in many different forms). Coconut in red curry the best!

10. Palm fruit dessert-- Reminded me of the crocodile tongues in James and the Giant Peach

11. Aaaaaaaall kinds of soup

12. Fried Crickets and beetles

 

13. Dog 

(while working on the field in Pursat--the staff called it the neighborhood watch--I later found out that it was dog meat, and they all cracked up and started howling like dogs). 

14. Moringa seeds from World Relief's nutrition program

15. Green mangoes in chili salt, and many other mango dishes

16. teeny popcicles from an ice-cream cart--good way to make lots of friends

17. Mystery sweets- kind of like eating pudding-flavoured erasers. 

18. Rice every night. Dinner by candlelight when there is a blackout. 

19. Mien--means "rich" in Khmer, so its good luck to eat this lychee-like fruit

20. Pong tia Kohn (Eggs with the baby chick), usually served with lime and pepper, and eaten with a cute little spoon straight out of the shell, or just popped it into your mouth. 

This one was a little difficult to manage the first time. Be thankful for the PG picture. 

21. Salmal (Rambutan)-- wins the award for food that looks most like a muppet character 

22. Wine pudding--Don't tell Wheaton, but apparently there's a whole cup of wine in this thing, along with red beans and who-knows-what. Not the best. 

23. Green papaya salad- YUM. 

24. Snake meat...

25. Prahok- fermented fish paste sauce. The Mexicans have salsa, the Koreans have kimuchi, and the Khmer equivalent would be prahok, which they put in a lot of dishes, or use as a dip for cucumbers, and each Mama has their own secret recipe. 

26. I've enjoyed eating all of these things, and the one thing I did not enjoy at all was surprising to me- durian fruit. Tastes like an onion-flavoured banana soaked in gasoline.

...And much much more.