Food & Drink
Cambodian food is influenced by Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, but with less spice. Fish, soup, and salad are favourite dishes, incorporating coriander, lemon grass and mint flavours. Coconut milk is the main ingredient of many Khmer curries and desserts. Almost every meal is eaten with a bowl of rice. Nuts, bananas, coconuts, jackfruit, and lychees are often used in sweet dishes.
Popular dishes include:
- Amok trey - fish in a thick coconut milk with curry, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed.
- Ansom chek - a cylindrical rice cake wrapped in banana leaves filled with bananas.
- Ansom chrook - a cylindrical rice cake wrapped in banana leaves filled with pork and mung bean paste.
- Babar - a type of congee or rice porridge, plain or usually with chicken or pork served with fresh bean sprouts and green onions. (Babar Praey - salted Congee)
- Bai cha - a Khmer variation of fried rice which includes Chinese sausages, garlic, soy sauce, and herbs usually eaten with pork.
- Ban Hoaw - steamed Vermicelli noodles with mints, crushed peanuts, pickled vegetables, and bite size cut deep fried egg roll lathered in sweet fish sauce.
- Bok l'hong - a Khmer variation salad dish which may include shredded unripe papaya, string beans, roasted peanuts and cherry tomatoes. Fermented small crabs and chilli peppers with a savoury dressing of lime juice, fish sauce or prahok may be added.
- Caw - a pork and egg stew flavoured with caramelised palm sugar. It may or may not contain tofu.
- Cha knyey - a spicy chicken stir fry flavoured with julienne ginger root, black peppers, and fresh peppers or jalapeños.
- Samlor kari nom banh jok - a traditional spicy coconut curry rice vermicelli noodle soup dish with chicken served with fresh string beans, shredded cabbage, carrots, and unripe papaya. The soup is also used as a dipping sauce for fresh French baguettes.
- Somlar kari - a sweet, salty and spicy red coconut curry soup with either tenderised chicken or beef. The chicken curry consists of mainly onion, sweet potato and bamboo shoot. The beef curry consists of only crushed peanuts and dried ground Thai peppers and tends to be spicier than its chicken counterpart.
- Jroak sway - unripe julienned mango salad flavoured with fish sauce and peppers. Usually served as a side dish with fried fish and rice.
- Kuytheav - a traditional Khmer beef noodle soup dish served with fresh bean sprouts, chopped green onions and coriander.
- Lok Lak - stir fried cubed-cut beefs served with fresh red onions, lettuce and tomatoes dipped in a sauce consisting of lime juice and black pepper.
- Lou - Cambodian thick short noodles usually made with eggs and chicken, eaten mainly with fish sauce.
- Nom Banhchok - rice vermicelli noodles with raw vegetables. There are two different soups that can accompany this dish, a green or red soup. The red soup is made from tenderized chicken and a simple coconut curry. The green soup is made of grounded fish, lemon grass and krueng.
- Ngam nguv - a chicken soup flavoured with whole preserved lemons.
- Samlar machu - a sour soup with a tamarind base. Includes meat such as chicken or fish, tomatoes, pineapples, plus other vegetables and herbs.
- Yao hon or yaohon - a Khmer style curry fondue for beef, shrimp, spinach, napa cabbage, mushrooms but with a curry sauce instead of cheese.
