One dish that is readily available and cheap is chicken noodle soup. Unfortunately the couple of times that we tried it, it had very little flavour and even less meat. It does however feature a peculiar, dark brown, jelly like substance which has a really pleasant flavour. It was only on a market tour that I discovered it was congealed chicken blood. I must admit, I found the texture a little bit hard to stomach, but it added a little bit of excitement to an otherwise bland dish. (see full image) 
"BBQ's" can be found on every other street, but not the type that your used to sparking up in the summer months. 'Khmer BBQ's' feature a bowl of bubbling broth, surrounding a raised metal griddle. The idea is to cook your noodles and veg in the broth and grill the meat in the centre. The Khmer BBQ's in Siem Reap were a little out of our backpacker budget, as many of them feature in Lonely Planet and offer exotic meats such as crocodile, zebra and ostrich. Khmer Kitchen is at the top end of the price range, as they are able to boast that Mick Jagger has dined with them.(see full image)
We found a Khmer BBQ restaurant in Phnom Penh which was a little more suited to a backpacker bank balance. Menus were unavailable as only one dish was on offer: we just couldn't work out what it was. We had a conversation in very broken English, and I confidently concluded that we had ordered a fish dish. We were both very surprised when the platter of goat meat appeared at our table, including goat heart, liver and kidneys. Upon leaving, we finally noticed the huge sign donning a picture of a goat hanging above the restaurant. We had clearly walked in with our eyes closed! On the same street as the goat grill, is a restaurant called 'Asian Cafe'. Located away from the river bank, the prices here are significantly cheaper and it was one of our eating highlights in Cambodia. From Singaporean background, the chef here serves a variety of Chinese, Malaysian and Cambodian dishes and we enjoyed it so much that we went more than once.
Overall, dining in Cambodia was more expensive that we had anticipated. With a slightly bigger budget, I'm sure this blog post would have been much longer. But, don't be deterred, the temples are amazing and it's ancient and modern history leave a lasting, albeit morbid impression (see full image). After the spoils of Thailand, it's easy to forget that Cambodia is a newly developing country, recovering from years of hardship: so if you're eating like the locals, it may be out of necessity rather than for the gourmet experience.
