Cambodia’s Most Debauched Night Market Is a Neverland of Booze and Food

[geovalin]

By Annie Merkley

In the Cambodian jungle, just off the alabaster sandy stretches of Otres Beach, there is a place like Neverland, where there are no rules nor regulations and people are partying. Hard. On Saturday evenings during the dry season, the dirt road in Otres Village, Sihanoukville, becomes a flurry of activity as the night market springs into action. Otres Market is a festival environment of live music, high-quality craft cocktails, and a parade of international cooking skills. The village is a mixture of locals and wayward foreigners that have come to set up camp and live far from the constraints of Western society, many of whom seem to have stepped right out of a Jack Kerouac or Hunter S. Thompson novel. There are no building codes or food safety supervisors here, giving people the freedom to create and cook whatever they feel like. People are reinventing themselves, getting as shitfaced as they want, and serving up incredibly delicious food. It’s where all the black sheep come to live and party from dusk until daylight. At the heart of Otres Market are Aussie mates Dave Allen and Andy “Salty” Mann, along with Salty’s Cambodian fiancée, Sothea Cheun, and her family. I sat down and chatted with Allen, Salty, and Cheun to hear about how Otres Market came to fruition.

Cheun grew up around food; her father was a farmer and a cook who catered large events. As a child, Cheun learned about ingredients for traditional Cambodian cuisine; and as a young teen, she moved to Phnom Penh to live with her sister and assist at the Italian restaurant where her sister was a chef.

“My whole life, I [have been] around people [who are] passionate about food. Watching, learning,” Cheun said. She smiled confidently and laughed, “Now, I season as I go along. I can just smell!” Cheun’s menu at Otres Market focuses on Cambodian cuisine, but changes daily or weekly depending upon what’s been requested, what’s in season, or what she feels like cooking. “If people have [a] request for frog or snake, I can do that,” Cheun said. Everything is sourced as locally as possible. A rooster crowed 20 feet away as Cheun pointed across the swampy pond and said, “That’s where we get our eggs.” The rice comes from her family’s farm in Pursat, a few hours away.

read more: https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/cambodias-most-debauched-night-market-is-a-neverland-of-booze-and-food

[yellowboat]

Otres is good fun, but there are not supermarkets if memory serves. Still a very nice area to live

[HarrySeaman]

There are several supermarkets (I can think of three off the top of my head) in Sihanoukville that stock many imported and locally produced goods for foreigners as well as for goods for locals. Then there is the Psah Leu Market for clothing, household goods, and food stuffs.

[soalbundy]

So where's the debauchery ? My tom cat can do better than that

[buythisdashcam]

There is only weed there, nothing else !

[SOTIRIOS]

......sounds like something.....

[charmonman]

Craft cocktails and international cuisine, no drugs and chocolate cake ... this is what passes for debauchery these days? I am so grateful I got to experience Thailand in the 80s and Cambodia in the 90s.

[TheKnave]

Douchey writing award, er, awarded.

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

There is only weed there, nothing else !

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