Cambodian Cuisine is all about the contrasts—sweet and bitter, salty and sour, fresh and cooked.
Passing the recipes for Cambodia’s food through generations
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Cambodian food is very good. It is a mix of things that I really like and things that I am not accustomed to. The unfortunate part is that most recipes of the food that I like are rarely written down being as they are handed down from mother to daughter. So unless you have a very good interpreter, it is difficult to get exactly the same taste yourself. I also suspect that much like my friends, when you do get the recipe, maybe just one of two ingredients or steps in the preparation may be omitted, as I cannot recreate accurately some of the most delicious meals that we had when we were there. The way to cook and eat the food that I am not so accustomed to, is readily available.
Cambodian Cuisine
Restaurants, markets and street vendors are everywhere to be found throughout the country. The difficulty is in where to eat.
Restaurants, markets and street vendors are everywhere to be found throughout the country. The difficulty is in where to eat. You will also get freshness and the use of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and you can tell as they are bought each day from the vibrant market places and prepared meticulously with attention to presentation as well.
It is a combination of sweet and bitter, salty and sour, whether fresh or cooked and has some similarities to its Thai and Vietnamese neighbours. There are differences as well. Every meal includes rice and though noodles are used, rice is the staple. It is, however, the way that the Cambodians blend their pastes that signifies the differences.
pra-hok and kapi
There are two specific ingredients that give Cambodian cuisine its own uniqueness. One is a pungent fermented fish paste known as pra-hok and the other, the kapi, a fermented prawn paste. They do not smell the best but they do taste extremely good in a finished dish. This and the use of condiments makes Cambodian cuisine special.
Eating on the Streets
Another treat awaiting you in Cambodia is street food. Food vendors are literally everywhere and you can immediately smell the charcoal that flames and smolders all day in small clay stoves, wire-topped barbeques, and beneath woks and soup pots. Fish and various meats and vegetables are for sale all day long.
When you receive your meal or eat on the streets, you will often be given side plates of various greens, peppers and particularly the fresh green peppercorns that we loved. You will also be given limes and herbs and all of these are what make the dishes so special.
Often you will give the ingredients to make your sauce, and this is an art in itself. If Cambodians are sitting on a ubiquitous plastic chair near you, watch them and copy what they do as nearly as possible. That is what we did. Judging how much of each is the trick, but regardless you cannot really go wrong.
Cambodia was once part of the French Indochina colony, and the Cambodians love their coffee and really good bread. Men riding bicycles carrying baskets of long loaves of bread, baguettes are all over the place.
Fried Insect Vendors
Another delicacy that I may or may not have tried is from the fried insect vendors. Here you can get deep fried tarantula spider, crunchy grasshoppers, and cockroaches. These apparently are full of protein and very good for you but we left it to the Cambodian children to enjoy actually.
Another specialty is the red tree ants with beef and holy basil. Now I was nearly prepared to try this after they had attacked me at Angkor Wat but in the spirit of forgiveness, I didn’t.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are abundant in this country, including the rather acquired taste of the durian, which the Cambodians love.
These are just a few suggestions of what you should try; Bai sach chrouk: Pork and rice, Khmer red curry and green peppercorn prawns.
So a huge thumbs up for Cambodian food and if anyone has access to the fresh green peppercorns which we have been trying to find, send us an email please.
Also a huge thumbs up to the lovely Cambodian people. You may enjoy our Faces of Cambodia video
Wish I got to try more food in Cambodia. Worst part about traveling alone is not being able to share food.
Join with some local people and that makes the entire experience even more valuable
Ha ha, we got attacked by red tree ants at Angkor Wat, too. Something the guide books never warn you about!
Wasn’t it awful. I still remember it to this day, dancing around like a lunatic ..and it hurt.
Sounds really good! Even though I love exploring food and really enjoy Vietnamese & Thai cuisine, I actually know very little about Cambodian food but I’d love to try some and ideally in Cambodia!!
They are similar but different. We loved the food, it was such a good find. Thanks for the comment.
Great post! Loved the pictures.
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Thank you. Should have pulled my hand out of the road when Gordon took one 🙂
Looks like I would enjoy sampling the food in Cambodia 🙂
Most definitely. It was seriously a highlight amongst many other highlights 🙂
We haven’t been to Cambodia yet. I find that most places I travel, even if I get a recipe, I cannot remake the food, as our spices are different. We did take cooking lessons in China, and that was helpful.
Same, we have done the cooking schools in Thailand and studied everything meticulously and still cannot get it exactly the same. I think it is the spices and also the way that they mix the sauces.
Yum, that first picture with the pineapple looks delicious! My boyfriend and I love trying new foods when we travel, it’s one of the best ways to get to know a place. It’s so sad when you leave and know that you’ll never be able to recreate a meal like that again. We had pizza on the outskirt of Florence like that. It was so good I regularly say that if we ever win the lottery the first thing I’m going to do is jump a plane back there for some pizza. Great “C”, love follow along with your letters 🙂
Thanks so much. We thought that Florence had the best pizza until we went to Domolodossa a few weeks ago. They win hands down. Gordon is still raving about it.
Thanks for this – I will be in Cambodia at the end of this year and cant wait 🙂
Ive actually never had Cambodian food before, but it sure looks tasty! That dish in the pineapple looks divine! Cant get over that pig though!
Cambodian cuisine looks delicious. I love trying street food so would be right at home here though I’m not so sure that I’m game enough to try the tarantulas, grasshoppers and cockroaches!
We did not spend enough time in Siem Riep to really explore the food scene, but I do remember the cricket vendors. There were three girls selling them and every now and then would reach into their baskets to munch on their product. Hilarious! What a fantastic memory…great C!
I recently visited Cambodia but being a vegetarian I couldn’t really sample the entire range of the cuisine there. I did try some very delicious vegetarian Amok!
Thank you for introducing me to Cambodian cuisine! The peppercorns sound very good.
The peppercorns were so good. We have been trying to find a supplier here in Australia to grow our own. No luck so far. Thanks for commenting 🙂