To understand the food of this coast, start at its markets, because that is where the day's catch and the region's flavours change hands. They are loud, wet, fragrant places, and some of the most purely enjoyable hours you can spend on the shore are among the baskets and the grills.
The crab market at Kep
The most famous of them is the crab market at Kep, where traders, many of them women who have worked these stalls for years, haul woven baskets of live blue swimmer crabs straight from the sea and sell them by weight at the water's edge. You pick your crabs, carry them a few steps to one of the waterfront kitchens, and have them fried with green Kampot pepper while you watch the boats. Few food experiences anywhere are this direct.
Kampot after dark
A short drive inland, Kampot's night market and riverside stalls are a gentler affair, a place to graze on grilled skewers, noodle soups and tropical fruit as the town winds down. The old market building and the daytime stalls are good for a wander too, piled with the salt, pepper and produce that the surrounding country is known for.
The pleasure of the stall
What the markets offer, beyond ingredients, is contact. This is where travellers and the working coast meet most easily, over a basket of crabs or a bag of peppercorns, in a mix of smiles and gestures and small transactions. You leave with your dinner, and with a clearer sense of how the place actually feeds itself.
How to be here
Go to Kep's crab market late in the afternoon, buy more crab than you think you need, and eat it on the spot. Browse Kampot's stalls after dark for the grilled snacks. Bring cash and an appetite, and let the markets, not the restaurants, write your menu.