Other additions, such as straw mushrooms or shredded green mango, are optional. The fish is cooked in a light lemongrass broth that’s seasoned with lime juice and fried garlic, making for a wholesome soup served with local herbs, including Asian basil and sawleaf coriander. They’re designed to showcase the main ingredient, in this case, fish from the Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s great freshwater lake. The soups known as sngors are simple and extremely versatile. Soups are a crucial element in Cambodian cuisine, and no meal is complete without one. Both are served with crunchy fresh vegetables. Another version of the dish, prahok kroeung ktis, adds a fragrant paste of root spices. It’s added in small quantities to bring an umami kick to many dishes, but in prahok ktis it has the starring role.Ĭooked with fresh coconut cream, palm sugar, and minced pork, the pungent prahok becomes mild enough for even trepidatious visitors to enjoy. Lina GoldbergĪfter rice, the most important ingredient in Cambodian cuisine is prahok, a mash of salty fermented fish. Prahok is a mash of salty fermented fish. The eggplant dip is served alongside local fresh or steamed vegetable crudités.īok trop pgnon was traditionally prepared for workers harvesting rice, because it was easy to pack up to take to the fields. The dish usually contains some form of fish, either smoked fish or prahok, although it can be made without it. Here, they are grilled and pounded with garlic, shallots, chilies and just enough sugar to take the edge off their bitterness. Trop pgnon are small, bitter pea eggplants, which grow wild in Cambodia. This delicious dish is usually served at weddings and other ceremonies and special occasions, and can be accompanied with fresh rice noodles, sliced baguette, or white rice.īok, which translates as “smashed,” refers to a style of food preparation that involves pounding ingredients in a large wooden mortar. The curry contains chicken, white radish, sweet potatoes, fresh coconut milk, and kroeung. Less spicy than the curries of neighboring Thailand, Cambodian red curry is made using large local red chilies that are remarkably mild, making for a rich but mellow dish. At upscale restaurants amok is steamed with egg in a banana leaf for a mousse-like texture, while more homestyle places serve a boiled version that is more like a soupy fish curry.Ĭambodia's version of red chicken curry is often served at weddings and special occasions. Traditionally the dish was made with either fish or snails, but now you can find chicken and even vegetarian versions. ![]() The curry is made with fresh coconut milk and kroeung. The addition of slok ngor, a local herb that imparts a subtly bitter flavor, separates the Cambodian version from the rest of the pack. In Siem Reap, it is served with a sweet sauce called tuk paem made from palm sugar and peanuts.Īmok is one of the best-known Cambodian dishes, but you’ll find similar meals in neighboring countries. Fresh cucumbers, banana flower, long beans, edible flowers, and wild leaves are heaped on top. The dish consists of fresh noodles laboriously pounded out of rice, topped with a fish-based green curry gravy made from lemongrass, fingerroot ginger, turmeric, and garlic. Nom banh chok is a beloved Cambodian dish, so much so that in English it’s sometimes called simply “Khmer noodles.” It’s a typical breakfast food, and every morning you’ll find it being sold by women carrying baskets of fresh rice noodles hanging from a pole balanced on their shoulders. ![]() Nom banh chok, or Khmer noodles, is a popular breakfast dish. ![]() The soup always includes two quintessential Cambodian ingredients – prahok, a type of fermented fish, and kroeung, a fragrant curry paste – and is then thickened with toasted ground rice. It can be made with almost any type of meat, but most commonly it’s a hearty soup made from catfish and pork belly. The ingredients list for this nourishing soup is versatile and easily adapted to whatever is seasonal and abundant it often includes more than a dozen vegetables. It has been eaten for hundreds of years and today can be found in restaurants, roadside stands and family homes alike. While amok is sometimes called the country’s national dish, and might be the one most familiar to tourists, samlor korkor has a better claim to being the true national dish of Cambodia. In fact, the only place you can experience all it has to offer is in the country itself. Cambodian cuisine has a long history and a diverse range of influences, yet it’s only now becoming known beyond the country’s borders.
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