Famous Sokuntheary Cambodian Snail Soup at Koh Pich Diamond Island Phnom Penh សុគន្ធារី ស៊ុបខ្យង

Cambodian_Sokuntheary_Snail_Soup_សុគន្ធារី ស៊ុបខ្យង

One of the dishes I wanted to try in Phnom Penh is snails or escargot. The former colonial masters love escargot while snails have been part of traditional Cambodian cuisine long before the French appeared here. There is a famous Cambodian snail soup stall on Koh Pich (Diamond Island) that is raging red hot now.

Stall name: Sokuntheary Snail Soup សុគន្ធារី ស៊ុបខ្យង

Address: Sopheak Mongkol Road, Koh Pich River Side, Diamond Island, Phnom Penh

Hours: 4:00pm - 12:00 midnight

Sokuntheary Snail Soup stall is a popular hot pot / mookata / seafood / steak kind of place by the riverside.

There is a row of 5 or 6 similar hot pot / mookata stalls along this stretch of riverside and most have snails on their menu. Sokuntheary Snail Soup stall has at least 3 or 4 times more customers than other stalls here. The other stalls sell the type of snail dish where it is simply boiled and its meat eaten with a spicy dip, you know, like the way we eat cockles in Singapore / Malaysia.

My photo doesn't do justice to the dish. The reddish tint came from the red canopy over the table

Coming here alone (Johor boh kaki 😂 ), I just ordered their signature escargot set.

For Riel 35,000 or around USD8.50 nett, we get a pot of 7 - 8 snails in soup and a large basket of fresh vegetables. Cambodian food stalls are very generous with their vegetables.

The snail soup is the hottest thing in Phnom Penh right now. Every table at Koh Pich had at least one set. The table next to me actually ordered two sets 😂

I like the cluck cluck sound the shells made when they knocked about together as the boiling soup churned in the pot 😄

The snails were large, slightly bigger than golf balls. The meat were dug out. The snail meat chopped and made into paste with minced fish and seasoning. The mixed meat balls were packed into the snail cavities and cooked by boiling in sweet savoury stock.

The meat “balls“ were light, soft tender with a slight spring to the bite like airy fish cake, but peppered with bits of tender crunchy chopped snail meat. The meat balls tasted sweet savoury with a bit of light peppery heat. They were delicious.

The soup was sweet savoury and became sweeter and more savoury after the snails and vegetables were put through it.

Sokuntheary Snail Soup stall bursted its seams - its customers spilling over to other stalls but the staff stayed attentive and responsive. They provide soup top ups on request.