Name: Barbecued Frog
Time of Day: Late afternoon through evening
Location: All over Cambodia, these were in Battambang
Cost: 2000 riel (about 35p)
The Rest: Frogs are popular all over Asia and none more so though in Cambodia, where much to my delight they skin them (I'm still haunted by a Chinese dish that was just lumps of frog - body, hands and all - still covered with the amphibian skin). The markets of Cambodia are full of freshly killed and skinned frogs whose bodies seem completely oblivious to those two facts and carry on hopping around in a pointless bid for freedom. On the streets you see them deep fried in an orange batter, which never appealed too much, and in this form, splayed and stuffed. I'd saw these last time I was in Cambodia but failed to eat them and wasn't going to make that mistake again.
If I had to guess what the stuffing was I'd have said it would be minced pork but the first bite revealed I was mistaken as it was of an entirely plant based nature, consisting of crushed peanuts and lots of lemongrass. The frog itself was juicy and slightly sweet from the red coating and wonderfully smokey. I'm not sure if I was starving when I ate it but I found the whole thing utterly moreish and scraped every bone till it was clean.
A highly recommended snack.
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