Our Culinary Guide to Siem Reap – Markets, Restaurants, Cooking Classes and More

Our culinary guide to Siem Reap covers all things gastronomic in Cambodia’s Temple Town from what to eat in Siem Reap and when and where to eat it, to Siem Reap’s best restaurants, cafes, markets, street food, cooking classes, and food tours.

Temples are at the top of every Siem Reap visitor’s to-do list and there are so many of them that few travellers think of anything else. They are sublime – but so is Cambodian food. Don’t believe us? Then cast your eyes over our culinary guide to Siem Reap. Prepare to salivate.

Our Culinary Guide to Siem Reap

The temples are magic – we’ve lived in Siem Reap for a few years and had visited a couple of times before we moved to the northern Cambodian city. We’ve scrambled loads of archaeological sites and we’re still not ‘templed-out’. However, there’s so much more to the city and surrounding province, that you’re really missing out if exploring temples is all you do. There’s eating, for instance.

We’ve been researching Cambodian cuisine since we moved to Cambodia in 2012, eating our way around Cambodia, and learning about the food from local cooks for a cookbook project. Expect to hear more about that in the future, but in the meantime here’s our culinary guide to Siem Reap.

Cambodian Cuisine

A culinary guide to Siem Reap needs to begin with an introduction to Cambodian food as there are so many myths about Cambodian cuisine and a lot of misinformation out there (chicken amok is not the national dish, for instance). Many restaurant reviews are misguided, often written by writers who parachute into town for a few days and rely only on hotel concierges for all their eating recommendations. (Do that and you’ll most likely only eat at tourist restaurants where the concierge gets a kickback.) Cambodian food is wonderful but to best experience it you need to eat widely.

Cambodian and Khmer cuisine (there is a difference) must be Asia’s most misunderstood and under-appreciated cuisines. Khmer cuisine refers only to the indigenous dishes of the country, while Cambodian cuisine covers these, as well as dishes that have their roots in or exhibit influences from the cuisines of China, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, and France.

While the influence of China and India is undeniable, the reality is that Cambodia’s cuisine is one of Southeast Asia’s oldest cuisines and more than likely influenced Thai cuisine and southern Vietnamese cuisine. The influence was two-way, with dishes, ingredients and produce travelling back and forth with missionaries, pilgrims, diplomats, traders, merchants, soldiers, sailors, and migrants. Historians believe that Southeast Asians were interlinked and interdependent through trade networks that linked Southeast Asian states and kingdoms with China and India as far back as 1000 BC.

Rice, found right across the region, is a staple, consumed at most meals. Poor families might eat only rice with prahok (Cambodia’s famous fermented fish, which locals like to a smelly French cheese) or a thin vegetable soup. If rice isn’t on the table, it will be noodles, generally rice noodles, but to a lesser extent egg and wheat.

Fish dominates (fresh, fermented, dried, smoked, grilled, and barbecued), although pork and chicken are also popular (mostly used in soups, stir-fries and curries). Cambodians also eat seafood, including squid and crab from Kep and Mekong langoustine from the Tonle Sap, or Great Lake, as well as beef, frogs, eels, and small birds such as quails. Street food and roadside snacks include everything from insects, spiders and scorpions to barbecued snakes and rice paddy rats.

Vegetables (eggplants, long beans, wing beans, potatoes, carrots, pumpkins) and roots (yams, taro, cassava, etc) are eaten in abundance. Vegetables are eaten crisp and fresh or wok-fried and in curries, soups and stews (samlors). Spices, herbs, rhizomes, dried fruits, flowers, and leaves flavour and garnish dishes. Cambodians especially love to use lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, galangal, shallots, garlic, and chilli peppers, which, when pounded together form the herbaceous curry paste called kroeung, which is the basis of many dishes.

Other favourite ingredients include Kampot pepper, ginger, finger root (also called Chinese keys), sawtooth coriander, various types of basil and mint, laksa leaves, rice paddy herb, fish herb (also called fish cheek herb or heart leaf due to its shape), tamarind, palm sugar, banana flower, lotus or water lily stems, coconut, peanuts, and sesame seeds.

Countless tropical fruits are eaten, in dishes or on their own, many of which are found in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. Expect to see a lot of pineapples, bananas, mangoes, papayas, jackfruit, durian, longan, lychees, and Pickled vegetables are a popular side dish while sour, under-ripe fruits are a beloved street snack.

While the cuisine of neighbouring Thailand is all about achieving a balance of flavours in the bowl, in Cambodia the balance is achieved across the table, so it’s acceptable for one dish to be spicy, while another might be salty. When it comes to flavour preferences, older Cambodians lean towards sour, bitter and pungent, although the younger generation prefers sweet.

Siem Reap Markets

Siem Reap is peppered with markets, from small, local, neighbourhood markets in the village-like suburbs of the city to big, busy markets such as Siem Reap’s best market, Psar Chas or Old Market, in the historic centre of town.

Hit the market around 7-8am to get a real insight into everyday life and sample a local breakfast. If you’re more interested in taking photos or shopping, then it’s better to go later when it’s quieter and the old ladies won’t be elbowing you out of the way.

While tuk tuk drivers might call Psar Chas (Old Market) a “tourist market”, take a look for yourself — while there are plenty of souvenir stalls, it’s the locals who are buying the fresh produce, especially the fruit, veg and seafood spread out on the ground by the small-scale vendors in the aisle between the shoe shops. They’re only there in the morning, so go early, although the permanent vendors are there all day until around 5-6pm.

The quality is so good at Psar Chas that it’s not unusual to see Siem Reap chefs shopping here, including Chef Joannès Rivière of Cuisine Wat Damnak. You can read about one of our market trips with Chef Jo on Fine Dining Lovers. You might also bump into us picking up some seafood or fruit and veg. The produce is so inexpensive that if you’re a chef or foodie you’ll be very tempted to swap your hotel for an apartment so that you can do some cooking.

Psar Leu, Siem Reap’s biggest market, is on National Route No 6 and it’s even more local and more fascinating if you can handle the ‘fragrances’. If you’re still half-asleep when you arrive, the prahok (an ingredient used in many dishes, such as prahok k’tis) and fresh meats will wake up your olfactory system.

There is some fantastic street food at Psar Leu, both early in the morning inside, in the wet market at the back, and in the late afternoon at the front of the market, including lort cha (stir-fried short rice noodles with pork, spring onions, and sprouts) and nom kachai (also written as num kachai and num kachay, they’re Chinese-style rice flour chive cakes).

On the opposite side of the road, toward the centre of Siem Reap, dimly-lit Psar Samaki is even grittier and more dimly lit and is worth a look if you’re a market enthusiast. Some locals swear the fruit is better at Samaki than other markets. In the late afternoon and evenings, stalls set up out the front selling everything from fried noodles to grilled meats.

Another bustling little market is Psar Polanka on the quieter upper riverside, which has a few good food stalls inside, while the mobile carts outside are the place to buy glistening, roasted char sieu duck and pork. One stall sells delicious num pang, the Cambodian version of the Vietnamese banh mi, a baguette stuffed with pork, salad, pickles, mayo, maybe some fish, and pâté, when it’s called num pang pâté.

See our comprehensive guide to Siem Reap’s best markets for info on other markets around the city.

Breakfast in Siem Reap

Soon after sunrise, breakfast stalls set up along the main roads and in the backstreets all over Siem Reap. For a typical Cambodian breakfast in Siem Reap hit the food stalls at the centre of Psar Chas, slap bang in the middle between the seafood and fruit and veg sections, and at Psar Leu, at the back of the market in the morning and during the day. Note that these food stalls close in the late afternoon, when the stalls at the front of the market are busy. Most of the cooks sell just one or two (or at most, three) local specialties and because the food is mainly made for vendors, it’s authentic and fresh.

At Psar Chas, the most popular stalls specialise in the quintessential Cambodian breakfast dishes. You’ll see bai sach chrouk, sweet, sticky grilled pork, slowly barbecued over charcoal, sliced up, and spread over a generous mound of white rice, with pickled cucumber and carrot, and chilli sauce on the side.

Locals will be slurping on the popular Cambodian rice-noodle pork broth soup, kuy teav (similar to Vietnamese pho and Thailand’s kway teow or kuai tiao), which is served with thin slivers of pork, beef or chicken (offal optional) and a mounds of greens, which might include chopped lettuce leaves, sawtooth coriander, spring onions, and bean sprouts. A small dish might be served on the side with a quarter of lime and black pepper and perhaps garlic. There will also be a condiment tray on the table so you can add your own extras.

You’ll also spot people eating Cambodia’s congee or rice porridge called bobor (also written as babor, borbor or borbo). Generally made with pork or chicken broth, it’s usually served with sliced spring onions, bean sprouts, and garlic oil. Sometimes you’ll find slice omelette or dried fish.

Nom banh chok is probably Cambodia’s most quintessential breakfast and you can find a stall on almost every street corner, produce market or tiny family-owned eatery serving it up at any time of day. The cold white fermented rice noodles are a cousin to Thailand’s kanom jeen and Myanmar’s mohinga, all of which share similarities. There are countless regional variations but generally the soup is a coconut-based fish curry (which leads to comparisons with curry mee and laksa), made with kroeung, and so distinguished by the yellow-green colour and turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir lime flavours. A warning: it’s often served cold to luke warm, never piping hot.

There will usually be a mound of fresh greens provided to heap on top of the noodles and combine, which might include finely sliced banana flower, sawtooth coriander, Vietnamese mint or Thai basil, bean sprouts, green beans, julienned cucumber, edible flowers, chilies, and so on. At some stalls, especially in villages, the vendor will place these in the soup for you, sometimes beneath the noodles and not provide a DIY bowl.

Expect to pay anything up to R5,000 or US$1.25 for these dishes. You may also see fried noodles, fresh and fried spring rolls, and Chinese-style chive cakes, although these are traditionally snacks served a little later in the day, and, a little later in the morning, you’ll see sweets sellers. The stalls at Phsar Chas are a tad more hygienic than those at Phsar Leu, Phsar Sammaki, Phsar Krom, and others. Having said that, I’ve never been sick after eating at any Siem Reap markets, however, it’s worth being cautious if you’re only in town for a few days.

If you’re worried about eating at markets and street food stalls, make a beeline for Malis restaurant which serves up the finest renditions of Cambodia’s quintessential breakfast dishes from as little as US$3.50. They offer what is probably the largest array of noodle soups you’ll see in one place in Siem Reap, including eight different types of kuy teav (try the signature Kuy Teav Malis, a pork and prawn broth with rice noodles), bobor (rice porridge, like congee), bay (Cambodian rice with grilled or roasted meats), lort char (short rice noodles), and nom banh chok, Cambodia’s favourite breakfast noodle dish.

If you’re heading to Angkor Wat for sunrise and want to have breakfast at the temples, skip Blue Pumpkin and the travel company/hotel lunch boxes and ask your tuk tuk driver or guide to take you to their favourite breakfast spot. There are loads of excellent street food stalls in Angkor Archaeological Park but for breakfast soups there is an excellent eatery, always jam-packed with Cambodians, on the road opposite the Angkor Wat causeway which leads to the airport. It’s the second shack on the right if you’re heading toward the balloon.

Cooking Classes in Siem Reap

A Cambodian cooking class is one of the things to do in Siem Reap, so our culinary guide to Siem Reap would be remiss without some Siem Reap Cambodian cooking class recommendations. A number of restaurants and hotels offer cooking classes in Siem Reap, from the more exclusive cooking lessons at five-star hotels such as Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor and Anantara Angkor Resort, which are excellent but expensive, to the more accessible, more affordable and outstanding cooking classes ran by restaurants, such as Chef Sothea of Mahob Khmer and the head chefs at Malis Restaurant. (See Best Siem Reap Cambodian Restaurants for links to all of these.)

We have tested out dozens of cooking classes in Siem Reap and found Chef Sothea’s Mahob Khmer class to be the most hands-on, most informative and most fun. Next best is Raffles, which is also very interactive. The Anantara class was more demo-style, and Malis Restaurant’s class falls somewhere in between, combining both hands-on prep and cooking with presentations of different techniques. All the dishes taught are authentic renditions of Cambodian classics, such as fish amok and beef lok lak.

All of these Siem Reap cooking classes are conducted by professional chefs and generally include a pre-class trip to a market to introduce participants to Cambodian ingredients and produce before returning to the hotel to get stuck into prep, cook the dishes, and enjoy them over lunch.

The Mahob Khmer cooking class is offered both at the restaurant and at owner Chef Sothea’s organic farm at his self-catering accommodation, Issan Lodge. Chef Sothea’s instructors (all chefs at his restaurant, Mahob Khmer) take guests on a stroll around their garden first to pick ingredients to use in the class. Wine and beer can be sipped during the class and it’s a very relaxed affair. Highly recommended.

Cambodian-Kiwi chef Kethana Dunnett, who owns Sugar Palm restaurant, occasionally offers a very special and rather exclusive Cooking with Kethana experience at her splendid Khmer timber home, set amongst the rice fields, which can be as participatory or as relaxed as you like. However, she only offers this on request and increasingly rarely.

We also did some basic Cambodian country-style cooking with a lovely local lady on a mat on the ground as part of Beyond Unique Escapes Day in the Life of a Village tour. They also offer enjoyable classes at their resort, Sojourn, which starts with a stroll around the predominantly rice-farming village of Treak, for an introduction to Cambodian ingredients and a peek into a local kitchen.

There are many more cooking classes offered by restaurants around town but not all teach authentic dishes. Stay clear of anywhere that has beef amok on the schedule. More on Siem Reap cooking classes soon in a post dedicated to the subject.

Cambodian Desserts in Siem Reap

Our culinary guide to Siem Reap couldn’t not include Cambodian desserts. Combining myriad textures, from silky glutinous surfaces and crunchy shaved ice to smooth medicinal jellies and creamy coconut milk, along with flavours that are exotic to many foreign palates (from yellow bean to durian) Khmer desserts are an acquired taste for many visitors. Sweets are often eaten as a snack during the day, especially in the afternoon, when you’ll find elderly ladies selling desserts that they’ve been up since the early hours of the morning making at markets such as Phsar Chas (Old Market) and Phsar Polanka (Upper West River Road).

Look out for a little old lady at Polanka Market selling one of my favourite desserts num plae ai, glutinous rice flour dumplings stuffed with palm sugar syrup, rolled in fresh grated coconut and sprinkled with sesame seeds, which swim in coconut cream or milk (2,000R or US$0.50c per serve of about ten balls). Pop them in whole so that they burst open in your mouth. Cambodian women jokingly call this glutinous sphere-like dessert genre (of which there are a handful of varieties) ‘killing husband’ because of the chance of the balls becoming trapped in the throats of drunk spouses.

Street Food in Siem Reap

What would a culinary guide to Siem Reap be without a guide to Siem Reap street food. Food is eaten on the streets throughout the day, but mostly early in the morning (soups, noodle dishes, and pork and rice) and in the late afternoon (fresh spring rolls, steamed buns, corn on the cob, prawn fritters, stir-fried noodles, chive cakes, etc) and early evening (fried noodles, BBQ ducks, small smoky grilled sausages and skewers, dried squid, etc).

There are street food streets and corners, permanent food stalls that appear at particular times, and mobile carts that you’ll see pushed or biked around Siem Reap. See this post on Footpath Feasting: Cambodian Street Food in Siem Reap.

But you do need to be careful where you eat in Siem Reap and other parts of Cambodia. It is true that poor water quality, low hygiene standards, lack of education, and the prevalence of communicable diseases make it more risky to eat street food in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh than, say, in Hanoi or Bangkok. See our Footpath Feasting post on How to Eat Safely in Cambodia. Risk-adverse travellers should consider doing a street food tour for your first outing.

Our culinary guide to Siem Reap would be remiss without a mention of Road 60, which is part local eat street, fun fair and road-side market with the focus on food. I’ll be writing more on Road 60 in another post but for now I’ll say this is definitely one for the culinary adventurous. Expect to see mountains of wok-fried insects, barbecues sizzling with skewers of offal, frogs, snakes, and small birds, and locals tucking into snacks such as duck foetus eggs with lime juice, pepper, salt, and chilli.

Also try one of a handful of smoke-filled local eateries on Wat Damnak Street (one block from the pagoda) in the late afternoon and early evening, for one of Siem Reap’s most popular street food snacks, sach ko ang jakak (1000r/US$0.25 per skewer), beef skewers that are generally marinated in palm sugar in kroeung (a paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, kaffir lime, garlic), and then barbecued over coals on a traditional clay grill. Locals love them with pickled radish and cucumber and chilli sauce on a buttered baguette. There’s another much-loved local barbecue skewer stall on a quiet lane perpendicular to River Road on the upper reaches of the river that sets up around 5pm; arrive earlier and you’ll only see tables and chairs stacked up.

More stalls start up about the same time on the streets around Phsar Chas, from Street 11 running by Pub Street up to Sivatha Boulevard, and in the other direction toward Pokamber Avenue, where they also dot the riverside. Aimed at tourists rather than locals, you’ll nevertheless find some decent fare, including everything from bowls of noodle soups, fresh coconut water, sugar cane juice, iced coffee, and fresh sliced fruit and fruit shakes, to crunchy insects, num pang (Cambodian banh mi; see above) and the ubiquitous ‘roti’ pancakes.

The roti pancakes are, in fact, a fusion of the thin French-style crêpes and the roti of Indian and Malay heritage typically found around Southeast Asia, and are a legacy of both the colonial days when Cambodia was a French protectorate (1863-1954) and the Muslim Malays and Indians that have made Cambodia their home. A backpacker favourite, they’re served with banana, and, ahem, Nutella.

You’ll also find vendors selling pickled and sour fruits served with chilli, salt and sugar (a favourite with local women and mostly sold by women bearing baskets) and nom pao, the Cambodian version of fluffy Chinese steamed buns, stuffed with pork, grilled eggs, and sometimes the sweet Siem Reap-style Chinese sausage (sold by men usually, in mobile carts boasting steamers and glass display cabinets).

Siem Reap Cafés Serving Cambodian Food

If you prefer the comfort of a Western style café with fans/air-conditioning, see our comprehensive guide to Siem Reap’s best cafés. If you’re in the Old Market area, you can’t beat New Leaf (on Street 9, behind Angkor Trade Centre) for delicious, safe, affordable and authentic Cambodian food, including good Cambodian soup, pork ribs, noodles, and curries. They also serve Western favourites, from steak sandwiches to burgers and salads if you’re ready for a change.

Cambodian Restaurants in Siem Reap

Our culinary guide to Siem Reap wouldn’t be complete without suggestions for the best Cambodian restaurants in Siem Reap. There are countless Siem Reap restaurants serving Cambodian food, but sadly most of them are offering up anodyne versions of local dishes that leave out the sour (chou), bitter (l’evign) and pungent (chat) notes that Khmer people love so much. See our post on Siem Reap’s best Cambodian Restaurants and the young Cambodian chefs elevating Cambodian cuisine for all our recommendations, however, here is a selection of the very best.

For authentic, traditional home-style cooking, served in a striking modern space with a design inspired by a traditional Khmer wooden house, Sugar Palm is the best Cambodian restaurant for traditional local food. The cooking is based on Cambodian owner Chef Kethana’s mother’s and grandmother’s recipes and everything on the menu is delicious, although you can expect the pungent prahok to be tamed down a tad when used, as it is at most restaurants. The Cambodian owner Chef Kethana is the go-to person when celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Luke Nguyen are in the country doing television cooking shows, and she really knows her stuff. Sugar Palm serves up a superlative version of Cambodia’s national dish, amok trei (also written as amok trey) or fish amok. Snakehead fish from the Tonlé Sap is combined with fresh coconut cream and a kroeung (paste) of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, kaffir lime leaves, and chili. Here it’s served in a coconut shell; it’s usually served in a banana leaf bowl (never in a ceramic bowl). While it strays from tradition, the shrimp amok is sublime. We also love Kethana’s fried spring rolls; prahok k’tis with crudites; smokey eggplant with pork; and her Cambodian chicken curry, which is easily one of the best in Siem Reap. The restaurant is one of the most popular in town, so book ahead. Open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner.

On the riverside, stylish Chanrey Tree offers slightly more refined traditional Cambodian dishes, including a few that you won’t see on other menus at restaurants at this level, along with some of owner Soann Kann’s mother’s recipes. Order the crispy sticky rice crackers with natang sauce, made with minced pork, shrimp, coconut milk, and peanuts, served with fried tempura-like frangipanis and vegetables; the char kroeung of frog’s legs (or pork, chicken or beef if you’re not a fan of the frog), stir-fried with a kroeung paste of lemongrass, turmeric, galangal, lime, garlic, and spring onion; and the free-range Khmer chicken, roasted with honey, rice brandy, young jack fruit and lemongrass, and served with a prahok dip and fresh vegetable crudites. The prahok k’tis at Chanrey Tree is also superb. There is air-conditioned seating upstairs in the traditional house, however, we prefer the alfresco tables in the front garden. There is a breezy back section too, however, this is currently a tad noisy due to the construction next door of a new restaurant. Also book ahead, as this has quickly become one of Siem Reap’s most popular restaurants since opening last year. If you forget to book you can take your chances. Soann’s adjoining French restaurant, Sokhak River, takes some spillover and offers both menus. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

If you’re curious to experience authentic Cambodian flavours re-presented in a contemporary style by a French chef, book a table as far in advance as you can at Cuisine Wat Damnak, where you can order one of two tasting menus for a wonderful introduction to contemporary Cambodian cuisine. In 2015 it was named the Best Restaurant in Cambodia, placing at #50 on the 2015 Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, and it creeped up the 2016 list to #44. While it dropped off the list in 2017, it’s still a must-do restaurant for foodies visiting Temple Town. Long-time resident Chef Joannès Rivière creates refined renditions of Cambodian dishes, some prepared with French technique, others cooked using traditional methods. The chef changes the menu every second week, based on the availability of ingredients that he finds at the markets. Hope that the Mekong langoustine in rice paddy crab curry is on the menu. Based on a traditional rice paddy crab brain soup, here it’s prepared without the shells used in the countryside (Cambodians love texture, especially anything that crunches), and with the addition of fresh coconut milk and sweet, meaty Mekong langoustines. Although an amuse bouche is always served at the start and a plate of exotic Cambodian fruits at the end, we recommend you opt for the six-course menu ($28) and pace yourself. The restaurant is set in an elegant Khmer timber house; book upstairs for traditional atmosphere, downstairs for air-conditioning in a modern space, and the garden terrace in winter. Open Tuesday-Saturday for dinner only.

For traditional Cambodian and more modern Asian-fusion tapas-sized dishes and sharing plates (pictured above), try Marum. One of Siem Reap’s best hospitality-training restaurants, Marum is ran by Friends International and is set in a timber house with vibrant art on the walls and alfresco seating on a terrace in lovely, leafy gardens. The menu is constantly tweaked, but if listed when you dine, sample the red tree ant fritters, barbecued pork ribs with apple and daikon salad, and the roast duck and pumpkin croquettes with citrus and hoisin sauce. Choose carefully as not everyone like the imaginative pan-Asian flavour combinations. Please don’t forget it’s a training restaurant so the student chefs are learning by experimenting and adapting in response to customer feedback. And because it’s a hospitality school, the student waiting staff are also learning and this is their first time working in a restaurant. They can be very shy and nervous, and their English is fairly basic, so please be kind, patient and speak slowly and clearly (yes, that does make a difference). If you’re concerned your order might not have been taken correctly or you’re having communication difficulties, ask politely to speak to an Instructor. Both are clearly identified by their t-shirts. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

Restaurants to Avoid in Siem Reap

It’s probably a tad unusual to include restaurants to avoid in a culinary guide to Siem Reap, but it’s important. If you want authentic, quality Cambodian and Khmer cuisine, avoid the tourist restaurants on and around Pub Street, which tend to offer tame renditions of local dishes and curries that are closer in flavour to Thai food, with which most visitors are more familiar.

Updated: January 2020.

If you’re looking for more eating and drinking tips, see our stories on Siem Reap’s best Cambodian Restaurants, Eating Out in Siem Reap (soon to be updated), Best Bars in Siem Reap, Best Cafes in Siem Reap, and Cambodian Street Food in Siem Reap from our Footpath Feasting series on street food around the globe. If you’re planning a Cambodia holiday, consider Savour Siem Reap, the bespoke culinary experiences I offer, or our Culinary Tours and Travel and Food Writing and Photography Retreats. If you used our Culinary Guide to Siem Reap, we’d love to get your feedback on our recommendations in the comments below.