Cambodian cuisine

Features of Khmer cuisine

National cuisine Cambodia similar to the traditional cuisines of neighboring countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, China. However, it is still somewhat different. It is not as spicy as in Thailand, as is usually expected, but sweet. The use of curry seasoning in dishes brings Khmer cuisine closer to Indian, and various versions of rice noodles closer to Chinese. The influence of the French colonists is seen in the manufacture of excellent bread, rolls and crispy baguettes, which are baked everywhere.

Coriander and lemon balm are used in the preparation of almost everything. Chili peppers have not gained as much popularity as in Thailand, Laos or Myanmar, and are added at will. Hemp is used as a seasoning. Once it was sold directly in the markets, until the authorities banned it from trading. But, despite this, the Khmers believe that if you add hemp to a foreigner's dish, he will definitely want to eat again soon and will come to this particular restaurant. And they believe for good reason: many foreigners are specifically looking for such places. And you will not necessarily be informed that this rice will cause you a feeling of euphoria after a while, and then hunger again.

It can be said that Cambodians eat everything. Usually the Khmer lunch includes three or four separate dishes, each of which includes the entire taste palette: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy.

Very popular in the daily life of Cambodians are a variety of soups, which are prepared on the basis of meat, fish and chicken broths and seasoned with various spices, dried roots and vegetables. Soups are accompanied by vegetable salads and a variety of additives from dried shrimp, fish and meat. Moreover, fish can be added to meat broths and vice versa. Soups are not expensive at all and therefore are the main food of the poorest strata of society. Shavings of dried seafood are served as an additive to soups. It can also be found in the composition of soy flour cutlets, in which various chopped vegetables and spices are also added. Cutlets are an inexpensive dish, one of the favorites on the Khmer menu, as well as soups.

On the streets of Phnom Penh, you can observe a kind of field kitchens, where they wash, clean, cut, boil, fry, and then pour and lay out the future meal in cellophane bags. It is often possible to observe local residents with a set of cellophane bags tied with an elastic band, in which it is possible to recognize broth, rice, vegetables, sauce, etc.

Along with soups, the basis of the Cambodian diet includes fish and a variety of seafood. There are a lot of fish dishes: sour fish soup "dtrai-chin-nyung", baked fish with rice "nom-tri", fried fish "trading", steamed fish "dtrai-chorm-hoi", fish curry "amok" with coconut milk sauce, fish sauces "nyokmam" and the famous pastes from specially processed fish under the general name "prohok". Pasta "prohok" is a specific product, not intended for foreigners, so you are unlikely to find it in restaurants. To make pasta, small fish along with giblets are crushed, allowed to spoil in the heat, covered with spices and infused. As you can see, it is quite simple to prepare, but the smell coming from it is unbearable. The Khmers use this paste in most of their dishes.

The main dish of the Khmer is rice "baai". More than two hundred varieties of it are grown in Cambodia. There may be a lot of delicious dishes on the table, but if there is no rice on it, then the Khmers remain hungry. Even simple boiled rice, without spices, has a pronounced taste and aroma. When cooking rice, a large amount of vegetable oil is used: palm, peanut, coconut, walnut, with the addition of fresh herbs. Rice is usually used as a side dish, but fried rice with soy and pork "un-som-chro", rice with bananas "un-som-che", rice with herbs, meat, fish, seafood "baicha", cabbage rolls made from rice baked in bamboo leaves are also eaten. And they also make sweets from rice, a variety of rice desserts, for example: cakes made from rice and soy flour with the addition of sweet juice of various fruits; pies are baked, and rice with a high sugar content is made into rice wines.

Noodles are in second place in popularity. It can be rice, barley, starch, white, golden, brown and completely transparent – glass.

Everywhere you can find all kinds of noodle products typical of Southeast Asian countries - noodle soup with greens, meat, fish or seafood "kiteou" or "Kitev", fried rice noodles, rice noodles with fish sauce "tukchi", as well as many types of noodles with spices. Noodle soup is an everyday dish for Cambodians and can even be consumed for breakfast.

Vegetables in Cambodian cuisine are widely used in combination with meat, poultry or fish as part of salads, which are eaten both cold and hot, but always with some kind of sauce. Local salads are quite original - they are usually prepared from meat or fish with various greens (lettuce, lemon balm, saffron, etc.) and vegetable oil. Often fruits and fresh or pickled vegetables are added to the salad, and they are harvested for processing at different stages of maturity, which gives the final product a completely phenomenal taste. Almost all vegetables are subjected to heat treatment. But cooks try to bring them to the degree of readiness when the original products still retain the taste, aroma and all the useful qualities of fresh.

For dessert, in addition to fruits, all kinds of fruit puddings, ansam-chruk cakes, Norn-bye and nom-com pies, felai cookies, pies and ice cream are often served.

Popular dishes

Amok is one of the most popular dishes among tourists. This is poultry, fish or shrimp meat with curry sauce with coconut milk, plus some vegetables. Sometimes amok is served in coconut and with rice as a side dish.

Kuytheav - noodle soup (usually served for breakfast). It can be made with pork, beef or seafood. Flavorings are added as desired and may include lime juice, ground chili, sugar, and fish sauce.

Samlar machu - sweet and sour soup of pineapples, tomatoes and fish.

Bi cha - rice with pork cooked on an open fire. Served with pickled vegetables.

Loc Lac- pickled meat, poultry or fish with sauce from the famous Khmer green pepper.

Kdam - crab. The town of Kampot in the south of Cambodia is famous for pepper crabs. A very tasty dish.

Where to eat

You will have no problems with meals in Phnom Penh and the resort towns of Cambodia. There are many small restaurants, cafes and eateries where you can taste national cuisine.

Prices in restaurants even in the capital are not high. All prices in the menu and calculation in dollars. Change can be given in riels. You can eat for two with drinks from $ 8.

You can buy food in stores or supermarkets to, for example, have lunch or just have a snack. There are a lot of baked goods, ready-to-eat meals in packages, just an incredible amount of all kinds of juices, carbonated drinks, alcoholic beverages. The prices there are no lower than in Russian supermarkets, but also the quality is of a decent level: you can buy anything there. Prices for the price tag in both large supermarkets and small stores, by the way, are also in dollars.

In some hotels, breakfast is included in the price, usually very light. Sometimes it is profitable and convenient not to look for a place to eat early in the morning.

Exotic food

Insects, frogs, rats and other "bastards" are an undoubted delicacy among Cambodians. Insects are not so popular among tourists, except that they arouse genuine interest upon closer inspection. And it's not always possible to find such exotics on the shelves. If you want to find insects, you will have to look in places where there are not so many tourists. Frogs and rats can be tasted in many cafes and restaurants.

The variety of dishes amazes and surprises. These are "a-ping" spiders fried with salt and garlic, grasshoppers, beetles, frog legs, insect larvae and bird embryos, dried cuttlefish and fried small birds (up to sparrows). Food is not for the faint of heart, but you can try it once or twice, it looks a bit like seeds (especially larvae, grasshoppers, beetles).

Insects are cooked, as a rule, in a frying pan in a large amount of hot vegetable oil and seasoned with various spices and seasonings. At the exit, they turn out well-fried, golden and look, at least, appetizing.

The use of insects in the diet of Cambodians is also explained by the fact that insects contain the necessary trace elements that are absent in other products. This gap is filled by insects.

Drinks, booze

In Cambodia, as well as in neighboring Vietnam, freshly squeezed sugar cane juice is widespread. If you manage to meet a special mobile machine on the street, through the press of which sugar cane shoots are passed, then you can try this refreshing drink. Its taste is pleasant and sweet, without aroma. It is served with ice, which in most cases is made from untreated water, therefore, to protect yourself from intestinal infections and disorders, give up ice.

Khmer's favorite soft drinks also include "samrong" (infusion of seeds of the tree of the same name), "tektnot" palm tree juice or "tekdong" coconut milk, soda with lemon juice, juice from bamboo shoots, as well as fresh juices or juices with ice and syrup. A kind of local drink "dtyuk-roll", made from fruits and egg yolk, quenches thirst well. But it is not easy to meet such a variety of local drinks in tourist areas.

Green tea is consumed everywhere, both hot and iced, but coffee here is usually not of very good quality.

The country has a well-established beer industry, as beer quenches thirst well and helps to endure the heat. The local beer here is relatively inexpensive ($ 1.5-$2 per bottle) and quite high-quality. I am especially pleased that there is practically no difference in the price of beer bought at a supermarket and ordered at an inexpensive restaurant or cafe in the very center of the capital, Phnom Penh. The best varieties are considered to be "Angkor" (Angkor) and imported "Tiger" (Tiger) and "Heineken". Beer is bought mainly by tourists.

Local whiskies are also produced, but they taste quite peculiar, and therefore are not popular with tourists. In large cities, you can buy many types of imported alcoholic beverages.

Cambodians themselves prefer palm wine. This is a product for domestic consumption and it is sold, as a rule, on tap in cellophane bags. Tourists are not recommended to use it, because for an unprepared stomach it can result in unpleasant sensations (fermentation in the stomach, vomiting, etc.).

You can buy tinctures with snakes, scorpions, other reptiles, as well as tinctures on different roots and fruits. It is very interesting to bring such a bottle home with you as a souvenir. Moreover, if you drink the contents, you can pour cognac or whiskey into the bottle again, and it will brew again.

Fruits

From abundance exotic fruits can turn your head: pineapple, mango, durian, guava, pomelo, papaya, rambutan, mangosteen, camerine, li-chi, longan, jackfruit. And from their appearance on the fruit ruins there will be an insistent desire to try and try. Fruit prices are low and may vary depending on the ripening season.

In Cambodia, there is no clear division between vegetables and fruits when using them as ingredients. Green mango in a salad with salt, pepper and cucumbers is a vegetable. And the slices of golden juicy mango melting in your mouth, served for dessert, are without a doubt a fruit. The same story with pineapple. In fish soup or stewed with pork pineapple is considered a vegetable. Vegetables here are considered banana flowers, green papaya, breadfruit ovaries (jackfruit).