by

Khmer Cuisine- Ingredients & Popular Dishes

Everyday Meal (Rice)

Everyday Meal (Rice)

Everyday Cambodians eat rice with at least 3 separate dishes of stir fries, curries, soups, or salads. Rice can be steamed Jasmine rice, sticky glutinous rice eaten with papaya salad, or porridge with braised pork. Rice is also processed into various kinds of noodles popular for lunch. They have noodles in soup, stir fried noodles in dark sweet sauce, thick rice noodles in gravy sauce, thin fresh rice noodles eaten with curries, small rice noodles wrapped in rolls and fried as spring rolls, or noodles added with bean sprouts, sliced carrots, and cabbage lavished with sweet fish sauce.

Chicken Curry

Chicken Curry

Bun Nuoc Leo (Fish noodles)

Bun Nuoc Leo (Fish noodles)

Spring Rolls

Spring Rolls

  

The art of cooking Khmer foods lies in balancing different savors to satisfy their tastes: salty, sour, and sweet. Unlike its neighboring Thai and Burmese cuisines, Cambodians are not too fond of hot food. Chili is served on the side for individuals to add depending on their tolerance level. To add the hotness in food, they use peppers more. The main herbs used in Khmer food are turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir leaves, and cilantro. Sour ripe tamarinds are used as soup base for their popular sour soup called Samlor Machu. Learning from Indians, they learned how to blend cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, turmeric, and cardamom into an aromatic paste called Kroeung to make Amok and stir fries. 

Tamarind Paste

Tamarind Paste

Herbs

Herbs

Kroeung - Spice Paste

Kroeung - Spice Paste

Mortar & Pestle

Mortar & Pestle

Vegetables like winter melon, bitter gourds, luffa, cabbage and long beans are boiled to eat with Prahok, salty fermented fish paste. Prahok is placed on banana leaf and grilled on coal fire before using mortar and pestle to mix it well with shallots, garlic, palm sugar, and lime juice. Other vegetables like mushrooms, cabbage, broccoli, snow peas, bamboo shoots, bok choy (oval-shaped cabbage with white stalks), morning glories or kang kong are stir fried. Together of these are called Chha. More unique vegetables are banana blossoms, purple in color, are sliced and added to noodles or made into sour and sweet salad.

Banana Blossom (Flower)

Banana Blossom (Flower)

Banana Blossom Salad

Banana Blossom Salad

Trey Ngeat

Trey Ngeat

Chha

Chha

As mentioned in my last blog, fish is the most common meat in Khmer cuisine and abundant. Grilled sun-dried catfish called Trei Ngeat eaten with plain rice porridge is very popular for breakfast. They can also be eaten with savory green mango salad and steamed rice. Pork, chicken, and beef are stewed, grilled, or stir fried. Pork is used to make sweet reddish Khmer sausages called Twah Ko resembling Chinese sausage or Singaporean Bak Kwa.

Cockles

Cockles

Snails

Snails

Sour Prawn Soup

Sour Prawn Soup

Twah Ko

Twah Ko

Seafood includes prawns, squid, shrimps, clams, and cockles. Lobsters and crabs are quite expensive, so they are not as common and can only be enjoyed by middle class and rich Cambodians. Roasted ducks are eaten during festivals. Unusual meats like frog, turtle, spiders (seasoned with soy sauce and pepper) are enjoyed as everyday delights in Cambodia.

 

 

 

Desserts are combination of tropical fruits like durian, mango, banana with sweet sticky rice steamed in coconut milk. In Cambodia, durian earns the title of King fruit. Mangosteen is queen, sapodilla prince and milk fruit princess. Others are pineapples, papayas, rose apples, watermelons, and rambutans. Fruit shakes are called Tuk Kolok.

Now, what are some popular dishes and desserts? Enjoy having a look at this menu and remember to order your favorites when you are in Cambodia! 
Bon appetite!  
 Linibel
 

744 thoughts on “Khmer Cuisine- Ingredients & Popular Dishes”

  3. Of course, your article is good enough, slotsite but I thought it would be much better to see professional photos and videos together. There are articles and photos on these topics on my homepage, so please visit and share your opinions.

  6. I came to this site with the introduction of a friend around me and I was very impressed when I found your writing. I’ll come back often after bookmarking! totosite

  8. I came to this site with the introduction of a friend around me and I was very impressed when I found your writing. I’ll come back often after bookmarking! safetoto

  12. mscwin รวมความบันเทิง ไว้ทุกรูปแบบ ที่ pgslot เว็บไซต์ของพวกเราการพัฒนาระบบนั้นพาไปสู่ความนำสมัยที่เดี๋ยวนี้นั้นท่านไม่สามารถที่จะหาได้จากที่ไหนอีกแล้ว pg slot ตรงนี้ที่เดียวในโลก กับแสงสีเสียง ภาพคมชัด เกมสนุกและมีในเลือกเล่นมากกว่า 1000 เกม

  21. Very efficiently written information. It will be beneficial to anybody who utilizes it, including me. Keep up the good work. For sure i will check out more posts. This site seems to get a good amount of visitorsmobile app development company

  22. Whatever solution or combination of solutions the operator chooses, the Sports Broadcasting brand ensures the world’s bst quality.
    gazatv
    가자티비

  37. This is a good post. This post gives truly quality information. I’m definitely going to look into it. Really very useful tips are provided here. Thank you so much. Keep up the good works 가자토토
    먹튀신고

  43. I like what you guys are up also. Such clever work and reporting! Carry on the excellent works guys I?|ve incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it will improve the value of my website. Feel free to visit my website; 카지노사이트

  44. I’ve been following your web site for some time now and finally, I decided to write this post in order to thank you for providing us such a fine content!! 바카라사이트

  48. I have been looking for articles on these topics for a long time. 카지노사이트 I don’t know how grateful you are for posting on this topic. Thank you for the numerous articles on this site, I will subscribe to those links in my bookmarks and visit them often. Have a nice day

  49. I came to this site with the introduction of a friend around me and I was very impressed when I found your writing. I’ll come back often after bookmarking! 카지노사이트

  50. This is this year’s research feeling! With this subject, why can’t other people explain it like this person? After reading an article that is too busy to brag about myself, I feel refreshed when I read an article for readers like this. 토토사이트

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *