The saying that the flavour of prahok, known in Thai as pla rah (fig.), i.e. a kind of preserved fish, strongly increases if the fish is fermented... ‘until maggots appear’... is not an exaggeration to scare off foreigners, but a gross reality, as can be seen in these pictures.

Here, at the Phasar Prahok Khmer, the largest fish production facility in Battambang, in western Cambodia, both the crawling maggots and the overwhelming stench testify to the truth of the above saying.