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Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipes – A Series of Fresh and Fried Favourites. Banh Uot Thit Nuong stall, Hoi An, Vietnam. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipes – A Series of Fresh and Fried Favourites

These Vietnamese spring roll recipes have been a long time coming. We fell in love with Vietnamese food over thirty years ago when we became addicted to fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. We thought it time we shared some of our favourite spring roll recipes – fresh and fried, old and new, from north to south Vietnam.

Fragrant of the most mouth-tingling of herbs, mint and basil; crunchy from crispy sprouts and lettuce; sweet and savoury from our favourite combo of shrimp and pork; and served cool (perfect for a sultry summer’s evening) it was impossible not to become smitten with this perfectly-formed snack wrapped in rice paper when we first sampled them in Sydney in the mid-1980s, specifically the fresh Vietnamese spring rolls called goi cuon, or, more correctly, gỏi cuốn.

When Terence and I fell in love with goi cuon we fell in love with all fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, and with Vietnamese cuisine itself. Although it would be another couple of decades before we’d get to Vietnam and on that first trip to Vietnam we fall so head of heels with the country, the people and the food, that we’d ended up living there, first in Hanoi and then in Hoi An.

A bite into a fresh spring roll is a bit of a Proustian moment for me. It takes me back to that period several decades ago in inner-city Sydney when we were introduced to Southeast Asian cuisines by my intrepid young uncle who had travelled all over Asia; when Terence and I would take the train out to Cabramatta, home to Sydney’s Vietnamese community, to feast on Vietnamese food; and when we’d spend Saturday mornings at Paddy’s Market in Sydney’s Chinatown, buying Southeast Asian ingredients, including fresh fragrant herbs.

As I’m sitting here in Siem Reap busy planning our next Vietnam culinary tour, I’m already finding myself dreaming of rolling crunchy salad greens, sweet plump prawns and fresh noodles into rice paper wrappings on tiny plastic stools again, and looking for any excuse to make them now. Here it is…

Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipes – a Series of Fresh and Fried Favourites

Terence and I have my uncle Sandy to thank for introducing us to Vietnamese food three decades ago. It was soon after I got into uni and moved back to my hometown Sydney from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where I’d left my parents, sister and Terence. I lived with my maths school teacher uncle in his small flat on a leafy street in the historic inner-west suburb of Glebe.

Several nights a week after lectures, I’d join Sandy and his girlfriend, teacher mates, and his brother, my uncle Jerry, for games of pool and beers at the local pubs. After, we’d all head out for cheap eats at one of the countless ‘ethnic’ eateries, as they were called back then. When Terence joined me in Sydney six months later and we moved into a damp, dimly-lit, terrace-house basement flat in Balmain, we continued the ritual with my uncles and their friends.

In those days, we never called to book a restaurant. It was way before mobile phones. My uncle knew all the inner-city restaurants and Terence and I had our trusty Sydney Cheap Eats guide that we were working our way through. We’d wander along Glebe Point Road or head down to George Street to the Haymarket-Chinatown area and slip into a crowded, noisy Asian eatery my uncle frequented, hoping to get a table. If we couldn’t, we’d put a name down and head to the nearest pub for more beers and pool.

One of our favourite restaurants at the time was Lien, a simple, family-owned place with a long narrow dining room decorated in pink hues of musk and cooked salmon. It wasn’t far from our beloved old Valhalla, where we’d go to watch European art-house cinema and cult classics.

Lien was popular with local residents, especially academics and students from the nearby universities. They served Vietnamese, Thai and Malaysian and I can’t tell you why they offered all three cuisines, as we didn’t question such things back then. The owners were Vietnamese-Australians and they appeared to have some Malaysian- and Thai-Aussie staff, so we knew we were in safe hands.

In fact, the food we ate at Lien wasn’t all that different to the food we’d discover years later living and travelling in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia – even the stir-fry chicken that someone in every group always suggested tasted like cat, we’d later learn was Cantonese-influenced. And now that I know so much more about those cuisines, and their historic roots and connections, it actually makes sense. As I know now, ‘Lien’ is a Vietnamese name of Chinese origin which means ‘lotus’.

We all thought the food at Lien’s was great. We’d order a heap of dishes – it didn’t matter which menu they came from – and they’d go in the middle of the table and we’d share them family-style, as they were intended to be eaten. Everyone knew how to use chopsticks. My mother, who had lived and worked in Japan when she was young, taught me years ago as we used to go out for Chinese at least once a week.

We all had our favourite dishes at Lien, but among an array of appetisers that would also include satay sticks, there were always Vietnamese fresh spring rolls. When there was a big group, we’d order large portions of both the gỏi cuốn and bì cuốn made with shredded pork, no shrimp, rice vermicelli noodles, sliced cucumber, mint and basil, and wrapped in rice paper.

Years later when Terence and I were earning more money and dining out at more sophisticated Vietnamese restaurants than Lien’s, like Miss Saigon in Balmain, we still started our meal with fresh Vietnamese spring rolls. Light and healthy, the fresh aromatic wraps cleansed the palate and didn’t fill us up too much so we still had plenty of room for a few more substantial dishes that we’d order as mains.

When Terence and I began cooking Vietnamese food at home, I was always tasked with making the spring rolls because he thought I was better at rolling. I have my Russian baboushka and my mum to thank for my dumpling making skills and I think if you can make good dumplings you can make good spring rolls.

Whenever Terence and I test out Vietnamese cooking classes together, we generally share one place so we can take turns making notes and taking photos, and he always has me take over when it comes to making Vietnamese spring rolls.

The participants on the recent Vietnam culinary tour I hosted got to make a lot of Vietnamese spring roll recipes. I think spring rolls often get included in cooking classes because they’re so easy to make once you get the hang of the portion control and rolling. Guests on our recent Halong Bay cruise were making them tipsy during happy hour.

Also, the ingredients are readily available or easily substituted and Vietnamese spring rolls are just so versatile – you can serve them for lunch or dinner, as picnic stuffers or finger food, for a casual meal, or a fancy dinner party.

Around ten days into our 22-day trip my participants admitted to being a bit over the old Vietnamese spring rolls – they were bored with both rolling them and eating them. I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed. After thirty years of Vietnamese spring roll consumption, I’ll always have room for more.

I love that there are different Vietnamese spring roll recipes in every region of Vietnam and that these days the Vietnamese are getting creative with them. In Saigon a few weeks ago, we had fresh spring rolls with avocado, as well as roast duck, and another that was akin to a sushi roll.

And that’s why over the next weeks, I’m going to bring you some of my favourite Vietnamese spring roll recipes. I’ll add them here as I post them:

Our Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipes

Fresh prawn and pork spring rolls – classic gỏi cuốn recipe

Fresh Hanoi-style rice noodle rolls – phở cuốn Hà Nội recipe

How to make fresh rice noodle sheets for phở cuốn Hà Nội

Deep fried Hanoi-style spring rolls – classic nem rán Hà Nội recipe (these are the fried spring rolls that are used for bun cha)

More Spring Roll Recipes

You’ll find more spring roll recipes in these terrific cookbooks.

Vietnamese Street Food by Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl – the former owners of Hanoi Cooking Centre and authors of several Vietnam cookbooks have ten Vietnamese spring roll recipes in this book, which is one of our favourites. When we last met Tracey she was talking of writing a book 100% dedicated to spring rolls. Fingers crossed.

The Songs of Sapa, Stories and Recipes from Vietnam by Luke Nguyen – the Aussie-Vietnamese chef who splits his time between Sydney and Saigon and owns the excellent GRAIN Cooking Studio has half a dozen different Vietnamese spring roll recipes in this beautiful book that charts his discovery of dishes during his travels through Vietnam.

Street Food Asia by Luke Nguyen – you’ll find some spring roll recipes in this cookbook on street food snacks from Vietnam and beyond.

As usual, we’d love to hear from you if you make any of our Vietnamese spring rolls recipes. Please let us know how they turned out in the comments below and share a pic with us on Instagram.

Vietnam Visa on Arrival

Travelling to Vietnam? Click through to arrange your Vietnam Visa on Arrival through our visa partner, the most respected Vietnam Visa agent. Visa approval letters take just 2 business days, although urgent visas can be arranged in as little as 4 working hours and up to 1 working day. More visa information on this link. (Note: we earn a small commission that support this site, but you won’t pay more.)

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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. Jamies Nguyen says

    July 24, 2017 at 3:12 pm

    I tried that last year when I visited Vietnam. It was so much better comparing with what I ate in Vietnamese restaurant in the State. But the BBQ smell was all over my hair and clothes though

  2. Lara Dunston says

    August 1, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Pleased to hear you enjoyed it more in Vietnam, Jamies – but you didn’t like the smoky smell? I love the smell of smoke in a grill restaurant over here :)

  3. phuong says

    March 1, 2021 at 11:23 am

    This is such a great collection of Vietnamese spring rolls and I am Vietnamese. Thank you for sharing this. I hope you can come back to Vietnam again and eat more spring rolls. I wish to come to Cambodia one day also. I went to university in your hometown Sydney :) Keep up the great work!

  4. Terence Carter says

    March 1, 2021 at 9:50 pm

    Thank you Phuong, having studied in Sydney, I’m sure you know that there’s some good, authentic Vietnamese spring rolls there. We were meant to be in Saigon when the lockdown started for a food festival/conference…that never happened.
    Maybe by the end of the year?
    Cheers,
    Terence

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Lara and Terence are an Australian-born, Southeast Asia-based travel and food writers and photographers who have authored scores of guidebooks, produced countless travel and food stories, are currently developing cookbooks and guidebooks, and host culinary tours and writing and photography retreats in Southeast Asia.
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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!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
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

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#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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