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Pchum Ben Ancestors Festival, Battambang, Cambodia. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Pchum Ben, Cambodia – Feeding the Ancestors During the Hungry Ghosts Festival

Pchum Ben in Cambodia is the country’s most important Buddhist festival. Also known as Ancestors Festival or Hungry Ghosts Festival, Pchum Ben, which marks the end of Buddhist lent, takes place over 15 days towards the end of monsoon.

Pchum Ben in Cambodia has started! The Pchum Ben festival begins on the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Khmer lunar calendar. The Pchum Ben festival marks the end of Buddhist lent and the end of the monks’ monsoonal retreat, during which most monks remain at the temples to receive offerings, unlike the rest of the year when they do their early morning rounds to collect alms.

Dedicated to the spirits of the dead – ‘preta’ or ‘the departed ones’ in Sanskrit – Pchum Ben is a time when the spirits of the ancestors of Cambodian Buddhists return to wander the earth and the living must ease their suffering by offering the hungry ghosts some food to eat.

This year, the 15-day Pchum Ben festival period culminates in Pchum Ben Day on 27 September 2019 and a three-day national holiday. Many businesses close during this period, although business hours can vary dramatically.

While ceremonies occur throughout the period, most of them take place on Pchum Ben Day and over the three-day holiday when all Cambodians get time off work so they can travel back to their villages and hometowns and spend time with family — living and dead.

Annually updated, we first published the following account of our first experience of Pchum Ben in Battambang in October 2013, soon after we moved to Cambodia.

Pchum Ben — Cambodians Feed their Ancestors During the Hungry Ghosts Festival

It was probably because we’d spent several hours cycling through the lush countryside and sleepy villages around Cambodia’s little city of Battambang and I’d worked up an appetite that as we whizzed by a pagoda my senses alerted me to the mouthwatering aromas of a soup or curry simmering on a stove.

Following my nose I spotted several men stirring colossal woks and realised they must be preparing food not for a family feast but for offerings for Pchum Ben Ancestors Festival.

When the tantalising fragrances first wafted my way and I noticed the large gathering out the corner of my eye — at the same time as our guide Nyphea did and suggested we stop for a look — I forgot for a moment that Cambodia’s most important Buddhist Festival, Pchum Ben, also known as Ancestors Festival or Hungry Ghosts Festival, was underway and thought that the food being prepared must be for a wedding or other celebration.

Elsewhere in Cambodia, we’d only seen people carrying small aluminium pots and tiffin boxes of sticky rice to the temples. We hadn’t yet witnessed a feast of such fantastic proportions as we had that day in Battambang being prepared for generations of dead loved ones and the monks who would ensure the food reached the lost souls.

Pchum Ben is often compared to other festivals of ancestor veneration such as Christianity’s All Souls’ Day, where the dead who didn’t achieve the moral perfection required to reach heaven before passing are helped along by prayer.

It is also similar to Mexico’s Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos, held on November 2, where families build altars of photos, memorabilia, marigolds, candles, and sugar skulls, to honour the dead and take their favourite foods and drinks to their graves. Although celebrated on All Souls Day that commemoration has been traced back to an indigenous Aztec festival that is dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, whose role is to watch over the dead.

The rituals of Cambodia’s Buddhist festival have closer ties to Japan’s Buddhist Bon Festival, Korea’s Chuseok, and China’s Qingming or Tomb Sweeping Festival and Ghost Month — also known as the Hungry Ghost Festival — where offerings are made to comfort the dead in the afterlife to discourage them from haunting the living.

Pchum Ben also has some similarities to Phi Ta Khon, the Ghost Festival held in Dan Sai in the Loie province in Thailand, which we wrote about last year. Although Dan Sai’s Ghost Festival is held at the start of the monsoon season and is partly about calling for rain, Pchum Ben takes place over 15 days towards the end of monsoon.

In Cambodia, the period marks the end of Buddhist lent and the end of the monks’ monsoonal retreat, during which most (but not all) will remain at the temples to receive offerings, unlike the rest of the year when they do their early morning rounds to collect alms.

As we parked our bicycles inside the pagoda gates, all eyes turned toward us. The people were apparently as fascinated by us, and our curiosity, as we were intrigued by the rituals and customs of Cambodia’s unique festival.

Dedicated to the spirits of the dead – ‘preta’ or ‘the departed ones’ in Sanskrit – the 15-day Pchum Ben period culminates in a three-day national holiday, which this year takes place on 8-10 October. The period from day one to fourteen is called ‘Dak Ben’ or ‘Kan Ben’ by some, beginning on the first day of the waning moon and lasting until the fifteenth day, Pchum Ben.

While ceremonies occur throughout the whole period, most of them occur over the last three days when all Cambodians get time off work so they can travel back to their villages and hometowns and to spend the time with family, living and dead.

During the 15-day period, towns and cities across Cambodia begin to hum from as early as 4am when the sound of monks chanting the ‘sutta’ starts, and rituals take place such as walking circles around the wat and throwing rice-balls into the air or into an empty field to feed the hungry ghosts. Buddhists ask the monks to pray for their ancestors and in turn they sit and listen to the monks’ sermons and chants. ‘Pchum’, by the way, refers to a gathering while ‘ben’ is a ball of rice.

Mid-morning, the wats bustle with crowds to a background soundtrack of xylophone music and Buddhists visit to make donations of money and offerings of food that they have lovingly prepared. Sometimes the food is left on a long table, at other times it is passed directly to the monks in a more elaborate procedure that involves reading out the names of generations of deceased relatives.

Soon after we reached the Battambang gathering of an extended family and their friends and neighbours, as our guide Nyphea would soon learn, spaces were cleared for us on a shaded, ramshackle wooden platform.

Here, women assembled the offerings for the monks on pretty round trays, painted with flowers, each holding several identical bowls of the food the men were cooking – a hearty herbaceous soup, a chicken and vegetable curry-like stew, and, of course, fluffy steamed rice.

Impressed with the vast quantities of ingredients being combined in the huge woks and pots that sat on enormous wood-fired clay braziers, I had wanted only to watch what was being made and make some notes and Terence had simply wanted to make beautiful photos of the vibrant food: yellow capsicum, red chillies, fresh green herbs.

Instead, while admiring the cooks’ culinary achievements with such rudimentary apparatus, which we acknowledged with a thumbs-up and smiles and translations through our guide, we found ourselves being treated as guests.

An elderly woman with the shaved head and crisp white shirt of a devout Buddhist got up, gesturing for a few other women and raggedy-clothed children to follow, and invited us to take their place on the wooden platform.

The trim old lady would soon tell us she was 81 and still loved to dance and would later ask Terence to take her portrait by the gold stupa that contained her ancestors’ ashes. For now she was eager to know what we thought of the big bowl of curry that had been thrust into our hands to try.

I at first hesitated, because our guide had told us that nobody could eat the food on the trays, let alone even touch the plates, before the ritual had been performed in which the monks would bless the offerings, enabling the food to be sent onto the famished spirits. To touch the plate might interfere with their journey to heaven. I didn’t want that.

Once the ceremony was underway, the monks could eat the food, and after the ritual had finished the family, friends and neighbours would sit together and feast on what was left – hence the massive portions. For some reason, however, an exception was being made for us.

Could it be that they had detected how excited we were about the opportunity to witness the event and inhale the aromas that wafted our way? Because it seemed more than a gesture of hospitality or goodwill. They genuinely appeared to want us to eat and were eager to find out what we thought of their food

Terence and I each tried a little of the bowl given to us to share. It was good. It was very good. In fact both the stew and the soup were better than most meals we’d had in restaurants in our three months so far in Cambodia.

The chicken pieces were beautifully cooked – soft and succulent, not chewy and overcooked as they are in most restaurants — and the juices, both the broth for the stew and the herb soup, were light yet complex and perfectly balanced, not overly sweet as they tended to be. It was fantastic stuff.

We each ate a couple more mouthfuls. Just enough to show we were appreciative and had made an effort, but not too much, as we didn’t wish to appear greedy or disrespectful of the occasion. We offered the rest to our guide Nyphea and the smiling little urchins who had gathered around us.

And the adorable kids were urchins. For it has to be said that while these people had been incredibly generous, they were by no means well-off.

While some women and men wore crisp, laundered white shirts and freshly pressed trousers and long skirts and slipped off sandals at the entrance to the pagoda, there were just as many in ragged clothing and the children looked like they’d spend the morning playing in the dirt.

Nyphea explained that this was also a time for better off Cambodians to demonstrate generosity and kindness to the less fortunate of the living, as well as the dead.

With smiles and thumbs-up we showed the cooks that we had indeed loved the food that they had so lovingly and expertly made, and then we shared our bowls and spoons with those dirty little munchkins who followed us around practicing their English.

Those hungry ghosts were going to have a very good feed.

How to Experience Pchum Ben in Cambodia

  • The dates shift each year, however, in 2019 the 15-day Pchum Ben festival culminates in Pchum Ben day on 27 September and a 3-day public holiday. Rituals occur at homes and pagodas throughout the period.
  • You’ll have more opportunities to see rituals in the bigger cities of Phnom Penh, Battambang and Siem Reap.
  • Visitors are welcome at temples, but do respect customs such as removing shoes and leaving them on the steps and wearing long sleeved shirts and long skirts/trousers. If you sit down, fold your legs beneath you to ensure you don’t point your toes at others and especially not at the Buddha image.
  • If you’re presented with a tray or plate, you’ll be expected to make a donation, and even if you’re not, do look for a box so you can make a small donation.
  • If you’d like to participate in a ceremony then do so with a guide or befriend a local. Don’t attempt to do so on your own as there are rituals that are important to get right, such as the way you handle the food you’re presenting to the monk and how and when to touch the bowl.
  • If you are doing a guided tour during Pchum Ben, ask your guide if you could stop at a pagoda to see a ritual so he or she can explain what’s going on.
  • Keep in mind that some pagodas schedule days and times for particular families to visit for the ceremony during the holiday, so you could be intruding on an organised event – as we did!
  • Bear in mind that for the three days of the national holiday, government offices, banks, and all but the most touristy restaurants, cafes/bars and shops will be shut as staff are given leave to return to their hometown to spend time with their family. Plan to eat at the hotel, relax and laze by the pool, and get hotel staff to call ahead to make sure restaurants are open before going out.
  • Take extra care with valuables when wandering around the streets of Phnom Penh during the period. Unfortunately, bag snatchings and armed robberies increase during this time.

UPDATED: 24 September 2019

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About Lara Dunston

A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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Comments

  1. Tasmania Tours says

    October 12, 2013 at 11:06 am

    It has been nearly ten years since I visited Battambang (now settled comfortably back at home in Tasmania!). It is one of the most stunning areas of the world. Thanks so much for posting and bringing back memories :)

  2. Lara Dunston says

    October 13, 2013 at 12:16 pm

    Hi Richard – Tassie hey? The only place in Australia we haven’t been. Ye, Battambang is a beautiful part of Cambodia, albeit with a tragic past and considerable social problems, but there are a lot of organizations there doing great work to improve things. More posts to come on Battambang and Cambodia. Thanks for dropping by!

  3. Olga says

    October 19, 2013 at 3:58 am

    I must admit your blog is amazing, I simple love it. You have to come to Poland one day )
    I just started to write my, it is mostly about Europe. If you like to have a look you will find me here; upandroundtheworld.blogspot.com
    I would very much appreciated some advice, how to make it better as I am now in blog world.
    With my bet wishes

  4. Lara Dunston says

    October 20, 2013 at 12:15 pm

    Thanks, Olga. We’ve been to Poland a couple of times. If you check our destinations you’ll see posts on Krakow.

    The best advice we can give you is to write about your personal experiences of travel and places and your particular way of seeing the world, experiencing places and engaging with people. The world doesn’t need another general travel blog but people like yourself, who share the same way of seeing, taste, and style of travel will be interested in reading your blog. Best of luck!

  5. Carmen says

    October 21, 2013 at 9:02 pm

    Great post and brilliant tips at the end. We are going to be in Asia around that time next year so I certainly want to try and get to this festival because it looks amazing.

  6. Paula McInerney says

    October 23, 2013 at 3:16 am

    I like Cambodia a lot, particularly Phnom Penh and have enjoyed your articles to date. Battambang does indeed have a chequered past and I still think there are considerable issues there, as we experienced with gangsters ruling the town when we went. However Pchum Ben allowed you to meet the real people and experience their life. A great post that echoes how we like to travel as well. Thank you, Regards, Paula

  7. Alex | Partial Parallax says

    October 24, 2013 at 9:37 am

    Sounds like a very interesting festival to be a part of. I’m sure the food was amazing and the whole atmosphere must of just been great and something very different to the norm, sounds like a great time!

  8. Lara Dunston says

    November 7, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    Thank you! Or ‘okun’ (seeing we are in Cambodia). The great thing about it is that it’s not hard to experience – just make a habit of dropping into pagodas around 10am each morning during the period! If you do get to it next year make sure you come back and share your experiences and leave a link to any posts you write on it :)

  9. Lara Dunston says

    November 7, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    Thanks, Paula! We’ve spent a lot of time on and off in Battambang in recent months and, yes, it has a lot of social problems, but I have to say we haven’t seen any ‘gangsters’. Do you mean the gang of little boys addicted to glue-sniffing? There are about half a dozen of them and they do stagger around the streets, and it’s very sad to see, but they’re pretty harmless – too stoned to do any real damage. That aside, Battambang is a wonderful place, with lots of special people living there. More posts to come on it. Thanks for dropping by!

  10. Lara Dunston says

    November 7, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    The food was really delicious – it still amazes me how such simple home-cooked food can be so much better than much of the restaurant food. That’s not always the case.

    The ‘festival’ itself isn’t that spirited. It’s a fairly low-key affair but it’s fascinating to observe the rituals and listen to the monks chanting.

    Thanks for visiting us :)

  11. Rashad Pharaon says

    November 18, 2013 at 5:59 am

    I experienced the Hungry Ghost phenomenon when I was in Taiwan last year, how cool that it’s in Cambodia too. When I came outside of my building the streets would be filled with little tables offering fruit and treats to the “hungry ghosts.” There was also paper burning in large metal trash bins, I think – I never found out exactly what that symbolized. thanks for a great post!

  12. Lara Dunston says

    November 23, 2013 at 5:27 pm

    Hi Rashad, I’ve since discovered that there are more variations on the festival around Asia than I first thought. The offerings of fruit, incense, cigarettes, etc, arranged on tables that you see are not confined to the ‘hungry ghosts’ festivals either, but is an ongoing form of ancestor worship for Buddhists that usually occurs on the day of every new and full moon. Paper being burnt is part of the same ritual and is generally paper money. Thanks for dropping by!

  13. Eric Dunes says

    December 6, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    Hi Lara. Your post is great. I cant help but read until the very end. I like the festival and maybe wanna try it someday! Been to some festival before but this one looks interesting. Thanks for sharing!

  14. Lara Dunston says

    December 10, 2013 at 11:48 am

    Hi Eric – it’s definitely an interesting one to experience, because it’s so local – it’s part of the religious calendar in contrast to a festival on the tourist calendar. Thanks for dropping by!

  15. jean mathis says

    August 19, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    HI, Lara thinks for your pleasant account of the Pchum. I just want to mention that you have to make a clear distinction between preta and the departed ones. Pretas are lost souls trapped in the “interzone” I would say and this is why they come back to haunt the living, they could not return in the cycle of incarnation. The pretas are unknown spirits who died from brutal unwanted death (so the war period created allegedly a lot of these). They don’t have the same status as the the ancestors of the family.
    You will noticed that when people distribute the rice to the monks during the day et they do with spoons (that goes to one’s own known ancestors) an at the end of the row they use the hand to throw a riceball in a basket (this for the unknown pretas). This si why why Pcum Ben is the festival of all dead and not just one’s own dead. Cheers. Jean.

  16. Lara Dunston says

    August 19, 2014 at 9:53 pm

    Hi Jean, thanks for reading and thanks so much for your comments and clarification. I have to confess that we were more intrigued by the culinary customs. Just on your note about distributing the rice, we witnessed a few ceremonies in Siem Reap, Battambang, Phnom Penh, and Koh Dach. At each of those, they used spoons to distribute the rice into the monks bowls that were lined up on a separate table where they left money and they served the monks with various bowls distributed on trays and laid those trays down. The throwing of the rice balls was a separate ceremony yet again, late at night, as they circled the pagoda several times. Other rituals varied slightly between pagodas, towns and villages. The guide we had put these differences down to how spiritually educated and aware people were, pointing out when people knew Pali and appeared to know what they were chanting, and when they didn’t. Fascinating stuff. Looking forward to observing it all again this year. You haven’t left a link – do you have a website on the subject? I’d love to link to it, if so. Thanks for dropping by!

  17. Angela says

    September 19, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    In Sardinia we have the tradition to prepare dinner for the dead of the family on the night between the 1st and the 2nd of November. I’ve always seen my grandma leave a plate of spaghetti on the table before going to sleep, and my grandpa used to wake up in the middle of the night and eat it, I guess to symbolize and show that the dead actually ate it. I find it so fascinating to spot similarities in the traditions of two countries so far from each other and with such different cultures overall.

  18. Lara Dunston says

    September 24, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    Ciao Angela! That’s such a lovely story – thanks for sharing! I had no idea it was practiced in Europe. Is it only in Sardinia or elsewhere in Italy too? I wonder how many other European countries do that? When my uncle died unexpectedly in his 30s for the first month of morning when the family gathered my (Russian) Baboushka would leave a place for him at the family table in their house in the Western suburbs of Sydney, when we ate together. My Papa would even pour a shot of vodka for him and they would place a little food on his plate, but that was more about respect and to show that we hadn’t forgotten him. I guess it’s a little similar, isn’t it?

  19. Angela says

    December 16, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    Yeah, it does sound similar, in the end it’s always to show we miss the dead.. I don’t know if anywhere else in Europe they have the same tradition they have in my mother’s village, I’ve never even heard they have it in any other village in Sardinia itself. Not long ago, my cousin’s aunt, still from Sardinia but from another town, found this tradition so fascinating that she wanted to do it at her house, so on the night between November 1st and 2nd she prepared pasta and left it on the table for the dead before going to sleep. That same night she died, leading her fellow townspeople to whisper that this was not their tradition and she herself had joined her dead on that meal…

  20. Lara Dunston says

    December 16, 2014 at 4:10 pm

    That’s such an extraordinary story — like something out of a Garcia Marquez novel!

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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

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If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

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#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

#recipe #recipes #vietnamesefood #cambodianfood #asianfood #southeastasianfood #ricenoodles #rice #noodlebowl #meatballs #igfood #igfoodie #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #writingacookbook #writingacambodiancookbook #patreon #patreoncreator #grantourismo
It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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