You may call them junk food but we call them Chilicious food. As you can see the red or green thing in that tiny bowl is called “Ambel Mateh” in Khmer that we mix chili pepper, sugar, salt and garlic usually. When you are in Cambodia you can see them pretty often in different places, especially at the bus stations, markets or even at your friends house. Some are not Ambel Mateh they are calld Kapi (made from shrimps) Teuk Prohok (Prohok is made from fish) Teuk Trey means fish sauce.
How do we eat this? We do use many many different kinds of fruits. We put just a little of the sauce or Ambel Mateh for a bite of the fruit or something like that as you prefer.
Almost every Cambodian, when they see this, it makes them mouthwatering and that’s true. It seems like Cambodian people like to mix the strong tastes like strong sour or strong sweet or salty or bitter plus the spicy taste from the chili pepper. You know what after eating we run for water that’s funny but because it’s our habit and it’s out favorite. Note that most of the fruits below are sour as they’ll become sweet when growing ripe.
When do we eat this? avoid eating at night anytime is OK. If you eat too much can make you diarrhea because of the sour taste.I recommend you to try at least a bite to get to know what taste we like. Enjoy your time 😀
Note: these below pictures are allowed to use from sister Khek Sivanet from her collection. So much thank to her.
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| this one is called Songvak, it is a very popular fish food product from Battambang province |
