A tour of the food market in downtown Siem Reap:

Every type of dried fish imaginable

The shadows make it difficult to see, but live fish swim in a container on the floor underneath the shelf, and their recently killed comrades are for sale on top of the shelf

Piles of fresh seafood are kept cool, topped off with ice every few minutes

I love the fresh food markets in southeast Asia; I never tire of touring them, smelling the familiar and unfamiliar scents, listening to the bartering, seeing the high quality foods for sale. These diverse, enormous, crowded markets are amazing testaments to the care and attention that southeast Asians pay to their food. I believe that you can tell by the quality of a culture’s food by the quality of its markets. It is no wonder that some of the best cuisine in the world is from this region.