Kampot pepper is a seaside pepper, some experts say it tastes of lime blossom, others detect jasmine, mint or eucalyptus; they all agree, though, that pepper from Kampot, south-east Cambodia, is one of the world’s best. But it was nearly lost for ever: in the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge ordered that Cambodia’s pepper vines be grubbed up and replaced with rice paddies.

However, some farmers in the Kampot province kept alive the skills and traditions of pepper cultivation and in the 1990s started producing small amounts in the hillsides that run down to the Gulf of Thailand.
The best are cultivated using organic methods, some with crab shells as fertiliser to nurture the climbing stems, and fallen branches as supports.
Kampot black pepper goes well with fish and shellfish, but in Cambodia you can eat fresh green peppercorns still on their stalks: they are served all over the country but are at their best in their home province. The seaside town of Kep, near the Vietnamese border, is the crab capital of south-east Asia, and restaurants in its seafront crab market sell fried, freshly caught crab with Kampot pepper.