Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples have been the center of an vast empire for hundreds of years. We do know who ruled the Khmer Kingdom, but we know little about the daily life of average people. For example the food secrets of Cambodia. The only clues we can get are from the carvings at the temples. And there, we learn about the history of Cambodian food and the way it was prepared.
When visiting the Angkor Wat archeological park you will see food and farming on each wall of the temples are different designs, carvings and descriptions. In this article we will show you some carvings that are a part of the Bayon temple and describe the lives of people in the past.
Farming in ancient Cambodia Times
Based on those carvings, we know that in the past Khmer people were occupied with hunting and fishing for a living. They also sold or exchanged goods for each other. But the carvings reveal some of the food secrets of Cambodia.
Bayon temple shows food secrets of Cambodia in carvings
Even in ancient times Cambodians used a cooking place that resembles the outdoor kitchens of today. A carving at the Bayon temple shows a group of people in the kitchen. Some are cooking rice (not really a food secrets of Cambodia), some are preparing ingredients for cooking and some are light up the fire. This carving not only shows us about people who are cooking but also shows us about what kind of materials people used. All of the tools such as stoves, pots and pans in ancient Khmer kitchens may have been made of clay or brass, depending on the era.
Farming in ancient Cambodia Times
In addition to carvings showing us cooking, we also have a carving that shows about eating . Now Let’s take a look at the next carving below. One of the less know food secrets of Cambodia is, that at the time of Jayavarman II. most Khmer dishes were developed. But one ingredient wasn’t available yet: chili. It came later from South-America, and that is one reason why Thai food developed later – is spicy, but Khmer food usually isn’t. We haven’t found any signs of chili plants in the carvings.
Food secrets in Cambodia: Ancient way of cooking in Angkor Wat
This carving shows the activities of people eating. It looks like a group of people, eating together at a party or family meal in different places. still today Cambodians often sit together in a circle on a bed or mat and use their hands for eating. But If we take a look at the carving on the right of the top in this part , we can see that a person is sitting on the short chair while other people are kneeling on the ground. So it might be that the higher ranking people sit seperated from the normal people.
This and what we know about the luxurious lifestyle of royals as well from trading with India and China suggests, that Khmer food had a lot of varieties. we don’t know if the fish paste prahok was developed yet, but it is likely. The kings cooks had everything regarding spices and meats at their disposal, and the surely used it.
These are just some of the carvings mentioned above. There are many other carvings that show stories about the living of the people. When you visit the Bayon Temple, take the time to explore those carvings. There are so many stories told.
If you want to learn more about the secrets of Cambodian food and the daily life of Khmer, Dine with the locals will give you experiences of cooking , eating and more activities with locals.
Khmer soups (samlor or samlar) are an important part of Cambodian food. There are different reasons: They can be made fast, only one pot and one fireplace is needed, and you can throw in whatever is available. We listed for you the 5 best samlor we think Cambodian cuisine has to offer. There are, however, lots of more soup recipes available.
Khmer soups are usually made from a clear broth or even water. However, samlor curry for example is a thick soup, while nom ban chock samlor trey is a classic breakfast dish where rice noodles and vegetables are added to the soup. We focus here on the clear soups and what we think are the 5 best Khmer soups you should try when in Cambodia – or cook at home.
We listed the recipes and ingredients as they are told us by our Khmer host families at Dine With The Locals. As in any food culture, those recipes are traded within families, so they differ. They also depend on the season and what is available on the market or in the backyard garden.
1. Samlar Korko
One of the most underrated dishes and yet popular in Cambodian families. What makes this soup so special is the palm sugar melted in oil and the roasted rice powder. Also, the use of young jackfruit slices might be new to you if you only know the sweet fruits.
Ingredients
Half cup Khmer kreung
tablespoon fish paste (prahok)
3 tablespoons of pa-ulr (rice grains, roasted and pounded)
Fish flesh, cleaned and sliced.
or 200g of chicken meat or tofu
Vegetables (pumpkin, green papaya, green banana, green jack fruit, long bean, eggplant, Khmer eggplant, chili leaf, bitter gourd leaf)
1 tablespoon of palm sugar
3 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 liter broth or water
How to make it:
Melt the palm sugar in hot oil in a pot, Once it’s liquid, add the krueng paste (here you can read how to make it). Stir until fragrant, then add the vegetables. Stir and let them brown a bit. Add the chicken and fish or tofu, the fish paste (prahok) fish sauce and water. Let it boil, then add the rice powder and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Somlor Prohor
This is one of the soups where gourd is used. We call this one of the best Khmer soups because we think gourds are often forgotten and we just know cucumbers and pumpkins. In Cambodia, gourd – and in particular the luffa gourd we use here – growing in backyards and on fences of many houses in the countryside.
Ingredients
Meat: snakehead fish or smoked fish
Vegetables: Luffa gourd, winter melon, taro, pumpkin, pumpkin leaves or Ivy leaves, mushroom, rice paddy herb (some regions use it, some do not) lemon grass, turmeric, and garlic or kreung paste.
Soup powder or chicken broth, fermented fish (in Samlork, we use fish sauce), brown sugar, salt, and Kreoung
How to make it:
Melt the sugar in oil and add the kreung paste as well as the prahok. Add water with soup powder or broth, the just add all the vegetables. Bring it to a boil, then lower heat to simmer it for 20 minutes. Don’t stir because the fish will break down. Finally, add the leaves and simmer it for five more minutes.
3. Bitter melon with pork (one of the best Khmer soups in Cambodian cuisine)
Stuffed vegetables are common in many countries. I remember from Germany filled paprika aka bell peppers, where we stuffed minced pork and rice in together with salt and pepper and then let it get done in the oven. In Cambodia, the concept of an oven is not common, dishes are heated on fire, gas stoves or a grill. This Khmer soups can be done with bell peppers or gourd as well.
Ingredients
3 small bitter melons
1/2 lb ground pork
1 small bunch bean thread soaked wash cut to tiny pieces
3 cloves of garlic pound to paste in mortar
2 tbs of dried shrimp soaked set aside
2 tbs of dried turnip wash set aside
1 tbs of soy sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube
½ tsp salt
2 green onions chopped for garnish
4 ½ cups water Best Khmer soups in Cambodia: Bitter melon soup with pork
How to make it
Peel the bitter melon, then cut into 8 cm long parts, then take all the seeds out and create a hole to stuff the meat inside. Mix the pork with garlic and pepper as well as the dried turnip and the bean threads and fill the bitter melon with it. Bring water to boil, add a cube of bouillon and the soy sauce. Add the filled bitter melon and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Add the shrimps and garnish with spring onions.
4. Beef sweet and sour soup with morning glory (Samlor Machou)
When you hear sweet and sour, you may immediately picture those two tastes together. But think about lemon juice with sugar. In Cambodia, sour and sweet go well together in the best Khmer soups like this one with beef. You can replace the meat with tofu and/or mushrooms or so called fake meat if you like.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 small bowl of lemongrass leaves
20 gr sliced beef
teaspoon of salt – 1 tablespoon of sugar
4 glasses of water
2 orange leaves Cut a knot about 1 inch long –
2 tablespoons ripe tamarind juice
2 spoons of fish sauce
1 bowl of fertilizer and sweet potato 4 peppers or can be put to taste
1 spoon of prahok
How to make it:
We assume you either know how to make kreung or you buy it at the market, so we will not include it in this recipe. First clean the morning glory and remove old leaves. Cut it in pieces and set aside.
Slice the beef and marinate it with the kreung paste, at least for 20 minutes. Fry the beef in oil for a few minutes, then move to a cooking pot. Add the water, some soup powder and 2/3 of the morning glory. Pound the other stems in a mortar or blend it. Let it simmer for a while, then add salt, prahok if you like, tamarind sauce and fish sauce. Finally, add the lemongrass – common in so many Khmer soups – to it. Let it simmer until it gets a dark green color.
5. Fish sour lemon soup (Sngor chrouk trei)
The word Sngor means just cooking, and while the word samlor means soup, different dishes and different names are also part of the best samlor soups in Cambodia. The last one in our list is simple, but can be found in nearly every household. One reason: not many ingredients needed, most can be collected near the house (at least at the countryside).
Ingredients
2 lbs (900 gram) of whole fresh basa, catfish or snakehead fish, cleaned and cut chunks
2 tablespoons of uncooked Jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
1 n lemon grass stalk, cut 5 inches in length and tied to bunches
4 cups of water
1/2 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
2 stalks of green onion, chopped
2 chopped hot chili pepper
1/2 cup of chopped mix herbs of sweet basil (chee korhom), and Asian coriander (chee xanghum)
1 fresh lime or lemon, sliced
How to make it
Cut the fish into cubes or thin slices. In Cambodia, fillet is rarely used, instead the fish is chopped up from head to tail. Add then fish, water, rice lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar black pepper and chili into a pot and bring to boil. Let it cook for 20 minutes – the rice should be soft. Add then the herbs and the lemon juice. Simmer for 5 more minutes and then serve with rice.
Conclusion – Khmer soups in Cambodia
Every restaurant in Cambodia offers Khmer soups. If you stay longer than two night, you should really try the variety of those dishes. Also, many regions make different versions of them. They can be eaten as a main dish – with rice on the side – or they are part or a large order of different dishes for a party of 3 or more people, as it is common in Asia when people go out for dining.
Since I was young, I liked the taste of sour food, from pickles to fruits and dishes. When I felt not well, I’d like to eat sour dishes – they made me somehow feel stronger and awake. The Cambodian sweet and sour soup (in Khmer called Samlor machu trey) is special, since it also contains chili. Once they kicked it, I sometimes started sweating – kind of natural body cleansing. Mostly I cooked this soup on Sundays when I was a student, when our family wanted to give my mother a break from daily house duties. Still, she handed me a list with ingredients I bought at the local market.
Cambodian sweet and sour soup
Soup was the first I ever cooked, I still remember– an easy one with potatoes and mushroom and carrots.
Cambodian sweet and sour soup is one of the popular dishes for Khmer
Cambodian cuisine is more diverse than some may think. If we talk about Khmer food and what people cook for daily life, we will think of one kind of Khmer soups (called Samlor). The Cambodian sweet and sour soup is one of the popular dishes, easy and fast to prepare and healthy.
People usedifferent kinds of vegetables and fish to make it, like rice fields craps or small shrimps, to make sweet and sour soup in many types. For the simple one we can use green papaya pieces, water lily, morning glory, the core of the banana stem and winter melon. Ifyou cook sweet and sour soup in Cambodia with kreung ( the traditional Khmer spice paste) and coconut milk, and you want to add vegetable, morning glory is a popular one to add, usually without shrimps.
Cooking Cambodian sweet and sour soup
We call it then samlor machu kreoung.The important ingredient that we should not miss is prahok, the infamous Khmer fermented fish paste, and sour fruit. Sour fruit could be tamarind, lime or lucidas fruit.
Lucida fruits are essential
One of the secrets why Cambodian sweet and sour soup is so popular lies in the ingredients. They are easy to find, often just around the house. The soup is an every day dish, found regularly on many lunch tables in Khmer houses. Enjoy our virtual cooking class here!
How to make sweet and sour soup (classic style)
Ingredients for classic Cambodian sweet and sour soup
Fish
Morning glory
Garlic
Galangal
Prahok or fish sauce
Salt
Sugar
Seasoning
Tamarind / lemon/krosang fruit
Rice paddy herb or holy basil
Chili
How to cook it
Clean the fishClean the morning glory
Clean the fish using first water and then salt and clean morning glory, then cut into pieces. (If you are vegetarian, use fried tofu cubes instead)
Peel of garlic, slice galangal, put tamarind into a bowl, smash it an add a bit of hot water to make sour sauce.
Put prahok in a bowl of hot water and pour into the pot while the water is boiling. If prahok is to intense, use fish sauce. For a vegetarian option use mushroom sauce. Then addtamarind sauce, garlic and galangal.
After the water boiled for about 10 minutes, add fish cubes(as well as crap and small shrimps, if you want to add).
Once the fish is cooked and soft add the vegetables, salt, sugar, seasoning and a bit of fish sauce.
Lastly, put rice paddy herb or holy basil, chilly and its done.
Sweet and sour soup in Cambodia with kreung spice paste
There is no right or wrong with using kreung paste for the soup, it just gives a more intense taste.
Ingredients:
Ingredients (for 4-6 people)
fish 1kilogram
lemongrass 4 pieces
Dried chilly3 pieces
Turmeric1 small piece (2 cm)
Galangal1 small piece (1.5 cm)
Kaffir lime 3 leaves
Lucidas fruit3-4 depend on size (can be replaced with lemon)
3 long peppers
Prahok 30g
Fish sauce 1 tablespoon
•Garlic 1 glove
Seasoning1teaspoon
Salt 1/2 tablespoon
Sugar palm 1/2 tablespoon
Steps to make it:
Clean fish with salt and cut to pieces.
Slice lemon grass, garlic, turmeric galangal add a bit of salt and punch until smooth.
Squeeze a lucida fruit into a bowl, add minced prohok, slice pepper into small pieces.
Mince and soak dried chilli .
Mix fish, kreoung, prahok, squeezed lucidas fruit or lemon,palm sugar, fish sauce and seasoning into a pot add a bit of water stir gently.
Start heating on medium heat, keep boiling for 5 mins then add 1/4 cup of water
Simmer until fish is cooked.
Add kraffir lime leaves to taste
Lastly add slices of peppers.
In Cambodia, a soup is usually served with rice. Some families will also add some herbs and fresh vegetables, whatever is handy. If you are invited or visit one of our hosts, you would pour the soup in a bowl, then get a small plate with rice. You can pour soup over the rice or just eat both separately.
It is one of the most important ingredients in Cambodian cuisine, used in stir fried dishes as well as soups or when meat is marinated. If you want to know how to make Kreung we can assure you: it’s quite easy and you should get all ingredients in supermarkets, asia markets or even in your garden.
Kreung is a main ingredient in fish amok, but also used in many soups like samlor korko. Another dish are stir fried vegetables with any kind of meat or tofu, where Kreung is then added.
Despite what the name suggests the spice paste is not spicy. There isn’t even chilli used when you learn how to make Kreung. It’s is related to the use of different herbs and spices. Kreung can be bought at the market – many Cambodians buy it there for daily use – but its much more intense in taste pleasing your palates when you make it from scratch.
Slice galangalThe ingredients for how to make kreungRemove the ribs from the kaffir lime leavesUse a sharp knife or cleaverall you need to make KreungLemongrass is essentialSlice the ingredients finelyYou can use a mortar or a food processorGrinding and poundingLearn how to make KreungKreung – the cambodian spice paste
How to make Kreung in a mortar
The traditional way of producing Kreung is in a classic mortar. It can be made of stone or wood – the result will be the same. You also need a good knife and a chopping board – in Cambodia is a wooden board in every household used for this task.
Ingredients for Kreung (sometimes also called Royal Kreung)
First you need to cut the lemongrass into fine slices. Remove the middle rib from the kaffir lime leave. Only use the white and bright green part of the stalks. Then peel and slice galangal, garlic and ginge as thin as possible. For turmeric you can use either the root or just a teaspoon of power.
Then place lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves in the mortar and start grinding. You can go in circles to ensure that the oil is released from the broken cells. Add the other ingredients and grind until it becomes a thick paste.
Make Kreung in a food processor
If you don’t have a mortar, you can use a food processor or a blender. You still need to cut the ingredients but it doesn’t have to be that fine. The best way how to make Kreung in a food processor is to start again with the hard parts and then add the other ingredients. Don’t use the highest setting.
Red and green Kreung
There are variants of Kreung, and the difference lies in some other ingredients. The green Kreung uses more lemongrass and less – or not at all – tumeric. For the red Kreung you replace the tumeric with chilli. use fresh chilies to get a bright color and a well developed flavor.
How to make Kreung while in Cambodia
If you want to learn how to make Kreung while traveling in Cambodia, you should visit our host Ms. Laum. She will show you how Kreung is used as an ingredient in the famous dish fish amok. You can book the cooking class in Siem Reap with her here.
When we talk about food in Asia, Khmer curry (Samlor curry) as well as Thai and Indian curry is one of the first dishes that comes into our minds. The Khmer empire ruled once over large parts of what is today south-east Asia. As you can still see at the ancient site of Angkor Wat (which was built as a Hindu temple first), the culture was influenced by the Hindu religion and Indian food. One dish that remembers one of the culinary roots is Khmer curry. It combines spices brought from priests and business people to the kingdom with local ingredients.
Khmer Curry: Homemade
Cambodian food – as you will see in our cooking classes at Dine With The Locals – has two major ingredients special to the country: Kreung, a spice paste, and prahok, fermented fish. But are part of a long tradition of food in Cambodia. Prahok was used not only to give the food a certain taste. It was a way to store protein – from fish – in areas where there was drought or not much access to rivers and lakes. The Khmer curry combines all of them into a mild dish, found nearly everywhere in the country.
Khmer curry is not spicy
Other than Thai curries, the Khmer curry is not spicy at all. The reason: When Khmer food was developed during the Jayavarman period, chili was not yet known in the region. It came later from South-America. Cambodian food is usually more sweet, because palm sugar is a main ingredient. Other spices used are lemon grass, galangal, ginger and other roots.
Simmer the curry for 20 minutes
Ingredients for an authentic Khmer curry
1/2 Chicken
2 big cubes of blood curd
1.5 cup coconut milk
Kreuong paste (make it yourself or buy a at the market)
Fresh chilli, soaked in water
1 Onion
1 Sweet potato
3 tbs red curry powder
1 tspPrahok
1 tbp Palm sugar
Fish sauce to taste
1 cup water
Oil
Vegetarian Khmer curry
6 small cubes tofu
1.5 cup coconut milk
Kreuong paste (make it yourself or buy at the market)
Fresh chilli, soaked in water
1 Onion
1 Sweet potato
3 tbs red curry powder
1 tbp Palm sugar
Mushroom saucee
Oil
How to make a delicious Khmer curry
As with the more yellow Indian curry powder the red Khmer curry powder is rarely made fresh anymore. Most people buy it at the market. The main ingredients are Chili Powder, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Star Anise, Fennel Seed, Fenugreek Seed, Coriander and Cumin, although some may change the list a bit. Most important is that only a bit of chili is used – it should not be too spicy.
Clean the chicken and blood curd (slice the chicken if you want)
Cut the sweet potato in slices, as well as the onion
When you travel through Cambodia there is no way you can avoid fish amok. It’s offered in most restaurants, but it’s not an everyday dish in families. We wrote a guide about this typical food – you will learn what is fish amok and how is it made.
What is Cambodian Fish Amok?
What is Fish Amok? (known as amok trey in Khmer)
Cambodia has so many well known traditional dishes. Amok is one of the national food examples of Cambodia. There aremany local ways of cooking this delicacy. Depending on the region, some traditional amoks are cooked steamed in a banana leaf basket or a simple wrap. Some use only little coconut milk while other put in a whole can. Also the steamers can be different.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok: a brief history.
Amok is widely distributed in Cambodia. It is a type of curry made from a basic kroeung paste such as lemongrass, ginger finger root, turmeric, kaffir lime, garlic and fish paste.
Following the history of Cambodia, where the capital was in the north without access to the sea, it is made from river fish or catfish. Because of the short distance to Angkor Wat most fishes came from the Tonle Sap Lake – Asia biggest fresh water lake
Amok was one of the Royal Khmer dishes in the past. It dates back to the Khmer Empire during the 9th to 15th centuries under King Jayavarman II.
During the Khmer Rouge regime, war happened in 1970 and had killed 1.7 million people across Cambodia. After the fall of Khmer Rouge many cultural traditions have been lost. The country wanted to reinstate them, and food played an important role. Then amok was brought back on the table again. Despite, Cambodians do not eat amok very often, they usually enjoy it as a celebration dish for special occasions only.
Fish amok: how to cook it
If you want to learn how to make fish amok, you can follow the recipes below. But a much better choice is to learn it from a local. Our host Ms. Laum makes the propabley best fish amok in Siem Reap. She knows how to extract milk from coconut flesh (because she also makes delicious waffles form it), has her own noni tree right behind the house and cooks amok in a very traditional way she learned from her neighbors in the countryside decades ago.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok Recipes
The home cooking version.
1. Make kroeung paste from lemongrass, ginger finger root, turmeric, kaffir lime slices (small and thin pieces) add some peeled garlic.
2. Slice catfish or river fish in medium pieces.
3. Soak dried red chili until soft and mince them well. Cambodian cuisine is less spicy, so if you are looking for a strong chili kick, just add a bit more.
4. Thinly slice the noni leaves (you can use kaffir lime leaves as well).
5. Once the kroeung paste is prepared, add some minced fish paste (BrorHok), minced chili and pound them together until well mixed, smooth and fine.
6. Coconut milk is one of the essential ingredients of amok. In the previous time people squeezing coconut flesh to get coconut milk. Nowadays, you can just get the ready one in a can.
7. Coconut milk and kroeung paste and noni leave are marinated together. Add some seasoning such as palm sugar and fish sauce depending on your taste. Add the fish in.
8. Once you have made your fish curry mix, you should spoon it into banana leaf basket.
9. Boiling the water in the pot, Steam amok in banana leaf basket for 20-30mins is well cooked, taste and serve immediately.
INGREDIENTS
– 100g noni leaves or kaffier lime leaves
– 1 kg Cat/River fish
– 1 Teaspoon fish paste
– 2 Teaspoon salt
– 200g Kroeung paste
– 1Teaspoon palm/white sugar
– 300ml coconut milk.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok Recipes Restaurant’s Cooked.
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper to both sides of the fish fillet.
2. Prepare mixed vegetables such as carrot, eggplants, potato, sweet potato, long beans.
3. Thinly slice the noni leaves or kaffir lime leaves.
4. Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat.
5. Stir kreung paste bought from the market until golden brown.
6. Add palm sugar, fish sauce, hard vegetables (the type of vegetable that takes longer to cook) and the fish. Cook and stir for 2mins and then add the coconut milk and water if necessary. Slimmer for a few minutes.
7. Half way through the cooking process add the remaining vegetables with noni leaves.
8. Once the amok is cooked, beat the egg in the bowl and add it in the amok.
9. Let it cook for a few more seconds. Add salt to the taste and serve in coconut fruit or banana leaf basket.
INGREDIENTS
– 300g mixed vegetables ( carrot, eggplant, potato, long bean..)
We had rough two years, but now we are back. Dine With The Locals will continue to connect travelers with local families in Cambodia (and in two cities in Vietnam) and provide great food adventures. We are finishing our process to update our lists of host and started to onboard new hosts.
Learn how to throw a Cambodian fishing net
Our food adventures are more than a cooking class
Say hello to Ms. Sokvy, who lives in the outskirts of Siem Reap, next to rice fields, with her husband and her kids. While Mr. Chantry is buy as a driver (he will pick you up and bring you back when you book with us), she is taking care of the house. We visited her recently and consulted the family regarding food and activity selection. Expect one of the best dishes in Cambodia, Tek Kreung, and lean how to make this thick soup (some call it a paste) made of pea eggplants and river fish.
You will also learn how locals go fishing (no animals harmed during this experience): Mr. Chantry will show you how to throw a fishing net. It is traditionally used for fishing in ponds, but also in shallow waters like the Tonlesap lake (Asias biggest lake).
Good bye to some great hosts
We had some amazing hosts during the last three years, providing authentic food adventures and great experiences. It’s no surprise, that some changed location and work during the pandemic. First of all, all of the host families survived the crises and are doing good. But some found new jobs, moved to Phnom Penh or other cities.
One hosts made a remarkable progress: Ms Hong Ginlai, who runs a food stall in Siem Reap. When we started with her, guests could prepare street food in the morning in a made shift stall. She later had to move – what turned out to be a great opportunity. She told us, that she has to pause now taking guests for food adventures because she is too busy. We could not be more happy to see her being so successfull. Watch our video and see what you have missed.
Finding more food adventures in Cambodia
After we have updated our current list of hosts we will find more soon. Ms. Sokvy is just the first. We are looking for more families in Battambang and in and around Phnom Peng now. To be a host at Dine With The Locals, a family needs to provide a menu with three local dishes as well as a interesting experience beside cooking with guests.
Ms. Kaum provides an amazing food adventure in Siem Reap
And one more thing: You may hav noticed that we had to increase our prices. This is due rising costs for food in Cambodia, but also for our operations. Host get the biggest share of what you pay, because our main goal is to eatable women to earn money in their home and provide a great food adventure for foreign guests.
Rice is something like the staple food in Cambodia. It is served at every meal. Most people eat regular cooked rice, but there are also variations, for example in delicious desserts. Another specialty is pot-fried Cambodian crispy rice with pork floss. Pork floss is soft, dried meat fibers from the pig. You find this dish on special occasions, but a restaurant in Siem Reap specializes only in it. It is not cheap: a large portion costs 10 dollars. Our host Vorleak researched a bit for you and made a step-by-step instruction how to cook Cambodia crispy rice at home.
Cambodian crispy rice with pork floss
How to cook Cambodian crispy rice with Pork Floss
First of all, you take normal rice and wash it three times. Then you pour it into a pot with a thin bottom. Take so much rice that it covers about one centimeter of the bottom. Then add water and boil the rice for about 20 minutes. The rice must become very soft. A gas stove or open fire is best.
When it is done cooking, take a wooden spoon and start spreading the rice from the center to the edge of the pot. It should form a rim about five centimeters high, but the rice must still cover the bottom. Spread everything smoothly.
Spread the cooked rice evenly
Now put the pot back on the stove and let the rice bake. First on the bottom, then you have to take the pot in your hand and hold the edges over the flame. Be careful not to burn yourself. It would be best if you kept swirling the pot until the rice has darkened and is clearly browned on the pot (but it shouldn’t burn).
Let the Cambodian crispy rice burn a bit
Meanwhile, crack two eggs and whisk them with salt, pepper and chili powder or homemade chili sauce to taste. Cut spring onions into small pieces.
Mix two eggs with chili and salt
Heat about 150 ml of oil. When it’s hot, carefully pour it into the rice pot (turn the flame back on) and swirl the pot so the oil gets everywhere. You need to keep doing this until the rice looks crispy. Then pour off the rest of the oil.
Add oil to the Cambodian crispy rice
Now take the eggs and pour them over the bottom of the crispy rice. Spread them evenly and let the mixture fry briefly until the egg has set. Now let the pot cool down a bit. Hold the bottom of the rice with a wooden spoon, tip the pot over and carefully catch the rice.
Poor eggs and onions on the rice and let it get solid.
Place it on a plate and sprinkle with Pork Floss.
Take the Cambodian crispy rice carefully out of the pot
The Noni tree (its scientific name is Morinda Citrifolia) is well know in Cambodia, but also all arround the world. Every culture has it’s own word for the green plant with the big green leaves. In Cambodia you can find two species: one grows forest and one grows around the villages. You can eat only the fruits from the domesticated species.
The fruit of the Noni tree
In the Cambodian culture the noni tree has many uses. You can use it as a traditional medicine, food or juice, also you can also use it as a cosmetic. The Noni tree fruit has green colour when it still young, then becomes yellow and at the end white when it is ripe. When the fruit riped it has a strong unpleasend smell.
Dried fruits are often grinded into a powder. Khmer people presse the seeds to extract oil from it. The latter is a complicated process and in many villages kept as a secrets between the elder.
In Cambodia we use the noni fruit as a traditional medicine and fr the famous Cambodian food called AmokFood in Cambodia: All you need to know. Khmer people believe that noni fruit helps a lot for health and protect from some illness. They like to use it for beauty as well. In the past Khmer people made a traditional medicine from noni tree, especially in the countryside.
Do you want to make Noni tree medicine?
Ok , then let me tell you how it made.
First you need some middle aged but nut yet ripe noni tree fruits. Clean them with water and keep keep the in the house to ripe a bit more. Then you need some sugar or honey ( the amount of sugar or honey depends on how many noni fruit you use). Put sugar or honey with noni fruit to make sure it mixes together well. Then put it in a jar and keep it sealed for 18 days to 20 days.
How to use Noni tree fruit drink medicine:
Drink a little amount before meals 3 to 4 times per day. As a traditional medicine it can help against aging and scars of acne. It is NOT recommended for pregnant women, people with kidney and liver problems. Some people will get a bad smell in their breath from eat.
How to use Noni for Amok
Fish Amok ist one of the most popular dishes in Cambodia. Pieces of fresh fish are mixes together with Kreung paste and coconut as well as chilli. But to make it special, you need noni tree leaves. Cut those which are full green (not dark, not bright) from a tree an wash them. Once you made the fish amok and it is in the steaming dish, cut the leaves into stripes and place it over the fish mix. Steam it for 20-30 minutes. You can see a video how to make fish Amok at our host Ms. Laum here.
Finely sliced noni leavesFish amok with noni tree leaves
If you want to make Amok by yourself, book our experience at Ms. Laum in Siem Reap.
I didn’t just want to get to know the country, but also the people. Travel takes you to other places and cultures, but what matters is people. When we first came to Cambodia 15 years ago, many locals still spoke French, and we could not speak a word of Khmer. But my wife had business partners in Phnom Penh, and through them we came into contact with local families. We were able to visit them at home and eat with them. Our guide helped us with translations. I will never forget the first time I eat with locals, having my lunch on the floor. I had no idea how to eat properly. Our host family explained to me with hand movements that I can also add the rice to the soup.
Learning how to eat with locals
15 years later I was back in Cambodia, this time in Siem Reap, to live here. We had lived in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand and I found many new friends there. In all countries, it has always been important to me to understand how people live.
Eat with locals and cooking at a organic farm in Battambang
When I arrived in Cambodia, I quickly got in touch with my neighbors. They live in small apartments that consist of a room with a bathroom and are about 40 square meters in size. In it lives a whole family. The men went to work in the morning, the women stayed at home. I asked them if they work too. Most said they needed to stay home, take care of the kids and cook food.
Support for families
I thought: If you cook anyway, why not make money with it? Let people eat with locals and pay for it. A friend brought me into contact with Sorida, with whom I started Dine With The Locals. Our first hosts were my neighbors. I thought to myself: They have beautiful houses, they are great at cooking and they are lovely people. They couldn’t speak English, but that only made it more authentic. I invited friends to test dinners and they were thrilled. “We would never have access to a local family,” she said. Precisely because everything was not perfectly prepared, they enjoyed it. I always enjoyed cooking with friends myself. Cooking is one of the essential cultural activities. A culture is also defined by the food.
Eat with locals: our first hosts
Activities beyond cooking
Today we have 15 hosts across Cambodia and two in Vietnam where travelers can eat with locals. We are still looking for new families, soon also in Laos. I visit most of them myself, cook together, explain our concept. We want to offer our guests more than just food. You will learn how to dance Aspara, what modern artists do, how to make a souvenir pendant from coconut palm leaves or what herbs and plants are used for cooking.
Our guests make an experience that I’ve always appreciated traveling: getting in touch with people and making contact, learning new things and making new friends.
The Royal water festival in Cambodia celebrates the end of the rainy season in Cambodia. It is one of the most important festivals in Cambodia and probably the biggest one. Every year millions of people celebrate the festival in Phnom Penh, while in Siem Reap it is a bit quieter. With the end of the rainy season, the current of the Tonle Sap changed in recent years. Since the Mekong is the lowest at this time of the year and its water level is lower than the Tonle Sap Lake, the water of the lake flows over the Tonle Sap River into the Mekong. As a result, the Tonle Sap River flows six months a year from the southeast (Mekong) to the northwest (lake) and six months a year in the opposite direction.
Book now your truly authentic food experience!Boat race during water festival in Cambodia
The festival is celebrated especially in the big cities with numerous events, in Battambang usually a few weeks before. But also in the country you will find meetings on the holidays, it is sung, danced, eaten and drunk.
Boat races to the water festival in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh
In Phnom Penh boat races take place at the water festival, attracting teams from many countries. The boats are classic Asian rowing boats, a team consists of up to 20 men or women. There are both rowboats and paddles. Up to 300 teams take part in the competitions. They are made up of organizations – like the police and the army – and also village crews. These often take days of travel to purchase at the water festival. Many teams are accompanied by their families and it is customary to pitch their camp next to the boat for the festive season. The water festival in Cambodia will be opened by high-ranking personalities such as Prime Minister Hun-Sen or the Cambodian King.
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Legend has it that the Water Festival celebrates the Cambodian Marine, which has won heroic battles on the rivers since the 12th century, especially on the Mekong. By the way, Cambodia also holds the world record of the longest dragon boat on a river.
If you want to escape the hustle and bustle in Phnom Penh, you can watch the quieter festival in Siem Reap. The races take place in the early afternoon, on the first evening there is a small firework display at 6.30pm. As in the capital, many small stalls are set up along the river, where you can buy treats such as fried insect pickled mangoes and grilled chicken. Food is a important part of the water festival in Cambodia.
Special dishes for the festival
One of the delicacies that specializes in the water festival in Cambodia is ambok. The young rice is still roasted with the shell and then beaten with a huge pestle. The shells are removed and the flat-looking rice mixed with coconut milk and bananas. This rice is usually only at the end of the rainy season to buy, because then was also harvested. You can also eat it with chilies or even roast with pork and dried crab in the pan. Our hosts are happy to show how these dishes are made when the ambok rice is on the market.
If you want to experience local food by yourself, join our hosts, cook and eat with them and learn what else they know to do.
On October 16, the World Food Day is celebrated. He recalls the creation of FAO, a United Nations sub-organization, which took place on that day in 1945. The FAO is responsible for nutrition and agriculture.
Today, the day is also celebrated by the World Food Program of the United Nations. The World Food Day is intended to draw attention to a proper diet, but also to the still existing problem of malnutrition in Cambodia.
Cambodians prepare for World Food Day
Every year there is a motto under which the World Food Day is held, this year it is “Healthy diets for a zero hunger world.”. This is intended to draw attention to the problems of malnutrition, which also exists in Cambodia.
While hunger is getting less and less in Cambodia, the problem of malnutrition is still there. Studies show that Cambodian children grow too slowly and are underweight for their age. Especially in rural areas, a balanced diet is difficult, but in many parts unknown. Children learn very early that rice makes the stomach full and is the cheapest staple. They eat very little vegetables and fruits, and protein is even rarer because meat and fish are expensive.
Word Food Day points to local issues
In addition, the fish in the Tonlesap Lake are getting smaller, and the lake continues to shrink in the dry season. Overfishing, especially of young fish, with a still growing population is a big problem.
The Cambodian cuisine is quite healthy. It offers a balance of vegetables and meat, and also provides carbohydrates. The many Samlor soups ensure that you get enough liquid and minerals. Local dishes and ingredients such as Prahok have been invented to preserve protein throughout the winter and dry season. The World Food Day aims to raise awarness about those problems.
Our host families are also encouraged to cookhost families are also encouraged to cook more complete dishes through our offer. We want to help them understand food as a common activity, as it once was. We also tell them about a good diet for children, which is a challenge if you can buy cheap sweets just around the corner. This is part of our activities during the World Food Day, but also all over the year.
As guests, you can also contribute by praising our host families for cooking and asking what they eat every day. If you kindly explain how important a healthy diet is – even if you do it in a few words and with your hands and feet – that’s a small step towards improvement.
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When it is done cooking, take a wooden spoon and start spreading the rice from the center to the edge of the pot. It should form a rim about five centimeters high, but the rice must still cover the bottom. Spread everything smoothly.
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