The Best of Cambodia & Laos

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CAMBODIA IN DEPTH
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EATING & DRINKING IN CAMBODIA
6 EATING & DRINKING IN CAMBODIA
Cambodian cuisine does not have the
breadth or depth of either Thai food or
Vietnamese food, although it has some
similarities with both. It is certainly less
spicy than you will find in Thailand. Rice
is, of course, the staple and most dishes are
cooked in a wok. Given the number of
rivers and the dominance of the Tonle Sap,
it also comes as no surprise that freshwater
fish figures quite large at the Cambodian
meal table. This includes the very Cambodian
ingredient of prahoc, or fermented
fish paste, that is beloved by Cambodians
but which many foreigners find a little too
pungent.
Breakfast for Khmers is usually the
ubiquitous rice soup. Main meals will
consist of a number of dishes served simultaneously,
almost always including a soup
of some kind. Cambodia’s signature dish is
amok—fish cooked in banana leaves with
turmeric and coconut milk. Like many
Cambodian dishes, it has a mildly lemony
taste. Another biggie is lok lak. It consists
of diced, fried beef served with fried eggs,
salad, and french fries or rice. A common
condiment that gives lok lak and many
other dishes a bit of added taste is pepper
mashed in with squeezed lime. It works
with chicken, beef, and pork.
There are five principal ingredients in
Cambodian cooking. Apart from prahoc,
lemon grass adds a distinctively balmy
flavor to many dishes, and you’ll often see
it growing in gardens. Kaffir lime leaves
are ground into paste and used like bay
leaves to flavor soup or sliced into thin
threads as a garnish. Galangal, a creamcolored
root, resembles ginger but has a
more subtle flavor. Again it is either
ground into a paste or added sliced to give
a slightly roasted flavor. Tamarind paste is
the dark pulp from inside the flat pods
that grow on tamarind trees. It was introduced
as an ingredient by Indian traders.
Khmers use it to darken soups and give
them a characteristic mixture of sweet and
sour.
The southern coast around Kep and
Sihanoukville is the place for magnificent
seafood. Kep crab in Kampot pepper is a
real treat but there is also steamed fish,
lobster, squid, and much other delicious
seafood. They will be cooked right in front
of you or even at your table.
Cambodians love fruit. Papaya, rambutan,
pomelo, melon, bananas, pineapple,
jackfruit, durian, and many others all play
a major and very healthy part in the
Khmer diet.
The imperialist legacy left its mark on
cuisine in Cambodia. As in Laos and Vietnam,
breakfast can be a fresh baguette and
delicious filtered coffee. Also popular are
baguette sandwiches with pâté and salad.
These can be bought from roadside vendors
pushing glass-sided carts.
While Cambodia has yet to see chain
restaurants on a larger scale, international
cuisine has come to its cities over the last
20 years. You will find Vietnamese-style
noodle soup pretty much everywhere and
Chinese food is also an integral part of the
scene. There is suki soup from North Asia,
burgers from everywhere, and lots of Thai
food. Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (but
particularly Phnom Penh) have some of
the best selections of restaurants serving
international cuisine in the entire region.
Whether you want Mexican tacos or Spanish
tapas on the riverfront, a perfect steak
au poivre in the shadow of Wat Phnom or
English fish and chips by Central Market,
Phnom Penh has it. This is partly a legacy
of the days when the UN was in Cambodia
and businesses opened up, catering to
the multiplicity of nationalities involved.
The last 10 years have seen an explosion of
new dining options and the competition
keeps standards very high.