05 Must Try Dishes in Siem Reap – Explore the Flavours that Cambodia has to Offer

When translated to English Bai Sach Chrouk means Broken rice with Pork. This dish can be bought at street food stalls all over the city for very cheap and is often consumed for breakfast. Made using scrambled eggs, succulent pork slices and rice, itis one of Cambodia's staple food. The pork served with this dish is normally slow cooked to perfection but some of the Khmer restaurants use garlic and coconut milk to marinate the meat. Once all the ingredients are cooked thinly sliced pork and scrambled eggs are placed on top of broken rice and is accompanied with a bowl of chicken broth to add extra flavour to the dish.

Stir-fired beef or Lok lak varies in flavour based on the chef who prepares it. The dish is normally served along with fresh tomatoes, cucumber slices, lettuce and red onions. The beef gets its distinctive flavour from being marinated overnight in soy sauce, lemon, fish sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. If you don't eat beef the restaurants are more than happy to substitute the meat with pork, chicken or even tofu if you're a vegetarian. Similar to most dishes that you'll try in Siem Reap, lok lak is served with a fried egg, rice and a zesty brown sauce.

Also known as stirring soup by the locals, Samlor Korko was only served to Khmer's royalty when it was introduced. As time went by the locals started cooking it and it has since become a popular dish offered at both Siem Reap resorts similar to that of Anantara Angkor Resort and local eateries across the city. The dish is made using pounded rice, a mix of vegetables like eggplant, green papaya, bitter gourd leaves and long beans with either fish or pork added as the meat option. The dish can be also prepared for vegetarians by replacing the meat option with vegetable stock and coconut cream.

Even though this curry is red in colour it does not contain any chilli, making it a milder version of a typical Indian or Thai curry. It is made using kroeung; a curry paste made using turmeric, lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime mixed with coconut milk. The is ideal for people who can't handle spicy food. The dish is also cooked using potatoes, eggplant, green beans and a slice of either chicken, beef or fish meat served with a French baguette.

This dish is made by cooking freshwater fish fillet that is steamed using curry and served in a banana leaf. It has a mousse like soft texture and unlike most of the dishes that are cooked in Asia, Fish amok is cooked using fragrant spices instead of spicy ones. The combination of kroeung and coconut milk that are used to prepare this dish further gives this dish its fragrance. While this dish can be found abundantly during the Water festival that happens in Cambodia during November, tourists who are visiting Siem Reap can also find it at many of the local eateries around the city at any time of the day.