Every year during the Pchum Ben holidays members of the family will get up early in the morning and start making Orn Som. It is popular Khmer snack, usually made for special occasions, but also found at local markets. It contains sticky rice, yellow beans and pork, wrapped in a banana leaf.
How to make Num Orn Som?
If you want to make it yourself, you just need a few ingredients. The most difficult to get might be a banana leaf, but it is an important part of the dish. First, you have to soak sticky rice in water over night. Then in the morning you wash the stick rice and let it drain, then mix it with coconut milk, some sugar and salt. Have a bowl with soaked and boiled mung beans and a bowl with slices of pork belly ready. The pork belly can be salted and you may want to add some garlic as well to make Orn Som.
You will now place a rectangle banana leaf on your kitchen table (you can also put aluminium foil under it). Then spread sticky rice like you would do it for a sushi roll. Press it slightly down, so it’s a flat surface. Next comes a layer of mung beans, flat as well and not extending over the stick rice. Now place a slice of pork belly over it. Cover it again with some mung beans and sticky rice.
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Make a roll and secure with strings
Now comes the tricky part: You have to make a roll out of it. If you use aluminium foil, then just hold both end of banana leaf and foil together, fold it twice and roll over. The traditional way of Orn Som however is to roll and fold carefully, and then secure it with strings. Nowadays many people use cheap plastic, but in the Cambodian villages Khmer families will still use strings made from natural material like banana leafs or water hyacinth. Once the rolls are done, you will boil them. If you do it at home it take about 5 hours to cook, in simmering water. Cambodians will use huge pots and heat the water over open fire.
For a holiday, Khmer will put the Orn Som into a basket and bring it together with other foods to the pagodas. Here it is either offered to the monks and they will have it as lunch, or placed on a certain table, where people then pick it and eat together. You can replace the pork belly with beef or even chicken, the latter isn’t as juicy as it should be. There are also sweet versions, where the meat is replaced with bananas and shredded coconut.
One of the most important religious festivals in Cambodia is Pchum Ben. It is translated as “Ancestors Day”, but actually lasts up to 14 days. The festival marks also the end of the buddhist lent and the rainy season. Monks will now again be allowed to travel and asking in the villages for alms.
Our host Phanny will give travelers the rare opportunity to join her and her family in the festival activities. This year the main activities are from 27.-29.9.2019.
You will join them at 8am in the morning and help preparing the food. Those dishes will later on given as offerings and donations to the monks, but also be your lunch. Once the offerings are prepared, the family will take you to the pagoda.
Go to the pagoda and honor the ancestors
During Pchum Ben offerings are made in the pagoda to the ancestors. Since there is no graveyard and -stone like in christian countries, prayer will we sent up to the ancestors world. Those who are not with us anymore play still an important role in the Khmer culture. It is expected that during Pchum Ben the gates of hell will open and the ghost can come to the real world for a while. To please them, monks in the pagoda will chant day and night. The families will please the ghosts with offerings, usually food. But is is common belief that also those relatives who are not in hell will benefit from the ceremonies. The offerings will be given to the monks, as kind of intermediates to the ghosts. In rural Cambodia some people will throw rice on the floor to give it directly to the ghosts.
Meditating in the temple during Pchum Ben
Your part will be that of an observer, but you can participate as much as you can. Phanny’s daughter Thyda will teach you how to pray (you are praying to the ancestors, so even for non buddhists its ok to do it without believing in a religion). But we leave it up to you. She will also lead you to the sand stupas, which are build in the temple areas during important religious festivals like Pchum Ben. It will take around two hours at the pagoda. Traditionally women wear a white blouse when entering a temple area, men a shirt and trousers. You don’t have to dress like a local, but should wear decent clothing, covering as much skin as possible.
Having lunch with your host family
After the offerings and prayers Phanny and her family will take you back to the house where you will have lunch with the family (it’s optional to have the lunch at the pagoda, but we need to know in advance).
It is a kind of hot-soup which was named from a forest. It is cooked with a combination of chicken and varieties of fresh vegetables like colorful tomato, green pepper, and sweet pepper, mixed with Khmer Kroeung and tamarind. For Khmer Kroeung, she uses lemongrass stalk, Kaffir lime, Galangal, Rhizome, and garlic. To make a yellow Kroeung, she added turmeric a bit over than others to get color and flavor. Finally, the soup is added with holy basil known as M’rah prov.
FRIED SWEET GOURD (KHUO NORNAOENG)
A very fresh fried tropical vegetables mixed (gourd and sweet corn) with chicken egg will bring you an unforgettable experience of Khmer food. After cooking, she added Kampot pepper and spring onion over the fried.
GRILLED PORK RIB (CHHA-EUNG CHHUMNY CHROUK-ANG)
A common right dish for every time meals such as breakfast, lunch or dinner. She could make it special by marinating the pork ribs with Kampot pepper (a special pepper from the southwest part of coastal of Cambodia), a little salt and sugar, oyster sauce and garlic, etc. Its smell will make you hungry!
COCONUT JELLY (CHA-HUOY DOUNG)
Hot and steamy would be a good way to describe the weather in Cambodia. Therefore, the coconut jelly is a popular dessert to help you cool down the heat inside your body. Mixed gelatine powder with coconut water and let it stand for a few minutes. After that top up it with coconut milk and leave in the fridge to set.
The dates:
27.9.1019
28.9.2019
29.9.2019
The price:
40 USD for single person
70 USD for two people
100 USD for three people
Included:
Transport from the host to the pagoda and back to the hosts house
Welcome snack and drink at the hosts house
Offerings for the pagoda
Lunch at the hosts house
Free tea and drinking water (and free refill).
Not included:
Transport to the hosts place
After booking we will send you a ticket with the location description and relevant phone numbers. It takes about 20-30 minutes from downtown Phnom Penh to the house, since it’s in the north of the capital.
Num pleae-ay, fake fruit cake, (នំផ្លែអាយ) is a sweet and yummy Khmer dessert consisting of a piece of palm sugar, wrapped in a layer of sticky rice flour. Before eating, you have to top it up with shredded coconut flesh to make it even more tasty. Desserts are an important part of Khmer food, but not always eaten after the meal. Instead Khmer citizens buy it as a snack.
Cambodian desserts are sweet and juicy
Making fruit cake is an old tradition
In ancient times, Khmer called this dessert នំបំពួនស្ករ [num bɑmpuən skɑɑ, dripping cake]/ នំបង្កប់ស្ករ [num bongkob skaa, embedded cake] or នំខំស្ក [num kham skaa]. They difference originate from translation into Khmer language, but also local varieties. Originally, people made it from sticky rice flour, rolled into a flat pancake and then put palm sugar inside, made a ball and then boiled it. Finally, they placed the Khmer dessert in a bamboo knot and topped on a slice of banana peel to sell in the village market. Even today you can see sellers with bicycles offering it in the village or sell it mainly in the morning at the market.
An ancient Khmer dessert
But sometimes, because of the thin crust of the cake, the juice of the palm sugar leaks out, and then cake has no taste. So, house-wifes changed the cooking technique and stopped filling the palm sugar inside. They cooked only rice flour, then grilled it and placed it in the banana leave. When you want to eat it, you have to dip the Cambodian dessert in honey or palm sugar liquid and sprinkle with chopped coconut flakes. Recently, people started cooking this cake by putting the piece of palm sugar inside again, but it does not place in a bamboo knot like before.
Because the cake had a ball shape and something like a seed inside, locals called it for a long time a tree fruit cake, even if it wasn’t a actual fruit. But the name still remains as a fake fruit cake, នំផ្លែអាយ. or Num plea-ay.
Keeping the Cambodian tradition alive
The whole family helps preparing a Khmer dessert
The tradition of making it is fading. The recipes and manuals are orally traded most from mother to daughter. But since many young women are less interested in cooking (and young men never actually were), those traditions are on the risk of extinction. At DINE WITH THE LOCALS our host preserving those traditions. Ms Phanny in Phnom Penh is a new host, who always made the fruit cake for her family. Now she makes the Khmer dessert for special occasions, but when you are lucky, she will tell you how to make this Khmer desserts as well.
Not only in business and food, also in tradition you can see how many families in Cambodia have Chinese roots. There will be celebrations for Chinese New year, but also today, August 15th., is an important day. Families in Cambodia get up early morning to prepare all the offerings and make specials version of food in their homes. Its time for the Hungry ghost festival or Sen Kbal tek in Cambodia
Offerings from the ghosts in a Cambodian home
The days is called Hungry Ghost Festival, often also written Zhongyuan Jie (中元節), Gui Jie (鬼節) or Yulan Festival, and it is also a Chinese version of the Pchum Ben festival in Khmer culture. Another name is Sen Kbal tek (សែនក្បាលទឹក).
Old story about Buddhas advice
One legends says that a student of Buddha students, Maudgalyayana, is kind of the founder. of the festival. He achieved the state of abhijñā and used his new found powers to search for his deceased parents. The story goes that he saw his mother in the realm of the hungry ghosts. So he went down to hell, took a bowl, filled it with some food and gave it to the ghosts and his mother.
But before they could get it in their mouth, the food turned into sizzling hot coal bricks. The student then asked the Buddha for help. He told him, that the mother’s sins were quite significant, and it needs 1000 monks to make offerings. A good day for that would be the 15th of the 7th month in the lunar calendar. And to be on the safe site, he added, prepare as much as you can, make it look nice and don’t forget fruits, incense sticks and candles.
Day off for the hungry ghost festival in Cambodia
And of course the Buddha was right. The 1000 monks showed up, took the offerings and created enough power to free the mother from her sufferings. So to prevent something happening to your ancestors, families get up early and start cooking all the food. They present everything at the front door of a house or in the lobby. Khmer-Chinese families also show their wealth by big offerings, while at the same time pleasing the ghosts. In some Cambodian families all members come together for a – sometimes vegetarian – meal. Some seats are reserved for the deceased and remain empty, but will served with food.
What happens to the offerings? The family will either divide it with its members or give food to poor people in the neigborhood or in the village. The 1000 monks will not show up anymore, and Chinese family rarely invite them. Another reason: since we started the rainy season, monks will likely stay in the pagoda, because it is too hard for them to walk outside for the alms giving. So Khmers go to the temples and feed the monks, until after Pchum Ben Day.
It is common that members of the family take a day off from work, but it’s deducted from annual leave since it’s not a public holiday in Cambodia. Some businesses will also be closed at least in the morning for the celebrations. You will see kind of the same offerings during the Pchum Ben festival in Cambodia, which is in 2019 at September 27th and counts as a public holiday. Many workers will leave Phnom Penh and head to their hometowns for this event.
A special experience for travelers
From next year on we will offer a special experience for the Chinese hungry ghost festival. But for this years Cambodian version of the festival, we can offer you a ver special and spiritual experience. You will help a family wit the preparations for the festival, then go with the to the pagoda and watch the praying (or pray with the family, up to you). After the prayers and religious ceremony you will go back to the house and have a great meal all together.
The first time I came to Cambodia was 2004. I was a tourist, had no clue about the country and the culture. The first thing I did after leaving the airport in Phnom Penh was to go straight downtown and look for a local restaurant. One of those with red or blue plastic chairs and metals tables. I ordered a noodle soup as my entree to food in Cambodia, and boy was it good.
Cambodian food is generally not well known around the world, and even within the country. Most travelers may have heard about Beef Lok Lak and Amok, but that’s pretty much it. What is less known: Khmer food goes back further in time than Thai and Lao food. Let’s get into our time capsule and travel back to the year 810. It’s the early years the reign of King Jayavarman II., the founder of the Khmer empire and god-king. He was also Hindu, and influence from India is still visible in Khmer food. The way of cooking, both for the common people and the royals, paved the path for the cuisines in the whole region.
Khmer food is rather sweet than hot
Often people wonder, why Khmer food is less spicy as in Thailand and Laos. The answer is simple: when Cambodian food was developed, the Khmer people did not know about chilies. They came way later from South-America (like the papaya). There is also reason to believe that the famous Thai dish Som Tham, a spicy papaya salad, is a copy of a Khmer version made from mango and rice field crabs.
Spicy mango salad Khmer style
Different regions, different taste
Food in Cambodia is as in many countries diversified by regions. There is no single dish to feed them all. People in Siem Reap fir example make a nice Prahok, the fish paste, and add red ants to it. Kuyteav is eaten on Phnom Penh with many more ingredients than in other places, and sometimes with the soup in the side. It‘s origin is Chinese, like many other dishes with noodles. You can eat Num Banh Chok sometimes with green curry and fish, sometimes with a red curry and in Kampot As a rice noodle salad with fried spring roll, like some Vietnamese dishes.
Travelers often mistake Samlor with a soup. Although it has the same appearance, locals eat Samlor always with rice. Everything else is called Sup, and influenced from China and Europe. The most typical Samlor is Samlor Machu, because it is full of all kind of flavors. There are not many dishes in the world which taste sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami at the same time. Most Samlors have the Kreung paste as a base, made from lemongrass an other ingredients. Then again, the recipes vary from family to family and village to village. There are vegetarian options and some with pork ribs (our host Yem Panha cooks it with you in Battambang), Khmer Krom uses fish and tomatoes, and Samlor Machu Siem Reap contains bamboo shoot and little freshwater shrimps.
Food in Cambodia: stir fried, fried or boiled
While Samlor takes a bit to be prepared, stir fried dishes are easy to make. They were introduced by Chinese business people from Hokkien Tsha, who moved to South-East-Asia. Those chines immigrants had as much (if not more) influence to the food and economy than Indian predecessors. What gives stir fry a Khmer flavor are the ingredients. Some food on Cambodia is made with young ginger, other uses tamarind, fresh crabs (like in Kampot and Kep) or beef cubes like in Beef Lok Lak. Cha Kuy Teav is popular in Cambodias south, with fried flat noodles and strong dark soy sauce.
Char Khnei (fried ginger) is quote popular with both locals and tourists, and best made with chicken meat. In
Fried chicken with ginger
At many places where you eat breakfast you can find rice with barbecue pork and a scrambled egg on top. If you are brave, then try Phak Lov, braised and caramelized intestines. It is very popular as a side dish in Cambodian beer gardens. If you pass by main streets in the evening, you will most probably see a cow half on a big BBQ. It is grilled there since the morning and then cut on demand, either for take away or for having at the restaurant.
Beef Lok Lak is a salad
And then there are salads. The most ancient salad is the mango salad. Khmer use green shredded mango, not the ripe ones. The dressing contains lime, sugar fish sauce, chilies, Gallicanism shallots. Most important is the salty crab mixed with the salad right before serving. It goes well with sticky rice. The „pleah“ is a salad not for the faint hearted: Beef is mixed with prahok and herbs, some lime and pepper, usually served with rice on the side. And last but not least you will find Beef Lok Lak sometimes hidden in the salad section. The reason is that it is served with salad leaves, cucumber and tomatoes. The story goes that Vietnamese chefs invented it to please the french occupiers. They thought french people like salad and beef.
The heart of Khmer food: Prahok
If there is one thing that is really typical for Khmer food, than it’s prahok. The name stand for a fish paste made from small sweet water fishes called Trey Riel. When you make prahok at home, you just cut the fishes into pieces ad put then in a basket. They usually the kids crush them with their bare feet, the same way as it’s done with grapes in France. Once it has the consistency of a paste, it has to dry out in the sun for one day. Finally the paste gets a lot of salt and goes into big jars.
A good prahok may ferment for years, but most people just wait for a few weeks. As many fermented foods prahok was always used as a protein source in times when fish harvest was low. The name of the fish (Trey Riel) and the name of the Khmer currency are the same. It is said that the fish was once so valuable that it became kind of currency.
The queen of Khmer food: Amok
There is no restaurant in Cambodia for tourists that doesn’t have amok on the menu. Traditionally amok is a fish dish, but some place now offer it with pork or chicken as well. In particular cooking classes cheat a bit on the more expensive fish. It is similar to Thai steamed fish cakes. How is it made? It is not too difficult, but requires some time and tools. The basic recipe contains fish cubes, eggs, fish sauce and palm sugar. Then you mix it and season carefully with kroeung, a curry paste concoction of freshly pounded spices, including lemongrass, tumeric, galangal, kaffir lime zest, garlic, shallots and chillies.
Many versions available
Fish amok is a popular Cambodian food
While restaurants steam amok this days in professional steamers, the traditional way asks for a banana leaf. One ingredient responsible for the authentic taste is noni leaves. This plant grows usually in local gardens and in front of houses. The fruits later become quite stinky. For amok, you take only the young leaves and shred them. These days restaurants add beans and carrots to amok, mainly to stretch it and save money by replacing fish. There are attempts to use tofu or mushrooms for vegetarian option, but without much success. TV-Star and Chef Gordon Ramsey once visited Siem Reap and learned, that amok needs to steam for 40 minutes. While this is true for a family home, in restaurants you don’t want to let people wait for such a long times. Amok made in 20 minutes is a great and tasteful dish.
History of Khmer desserts
Khmer cuisine also has a vast variety of desserts, and one of the most famous is the layered cake, Num Chak. The family of one of our hosts make it every day to sell on the market. Sareth father is in charge. First he grinds rice to a fine powder. Then he shreds pandan leaves to small pieces. Then he mixes half of the rice powder with pandan leaf powder. The other half is on a seperate bowl. He adds coconut milk to both bowls and some palm sugar. Now the mixture has to boil for about 15 minutes. Then he carefully fills the white mixture first in a bowl floating on some cold water. This is the first layer. Once it cooled. He adds a layer of green mixture and so on. We have a video from the production site.
There is also some interesting history, as one of our facebook friends told us about the dessert:
Influence from Portugal
„Look up “Bebinca” in Gao, the former Portuguese Colony of India. It is likely the origin of Thai Kanom Chan, which get all the influence from the Portuguese traders and have became part of the Siamese royal court. Majority of Cambodian royalty during King Ang Doung regime, to King sisowath we’re educated in siam. There were records and mentioned about Siamese royal chef in khmer court at that time. Nyonya community in Malacca, Penang and Singapore also have “Kueh Lapis” which carried the influence from the European traders once the cultural community was formed.
Kanom Chan in Cambodia is only known during the latter centuries (early 20th century) and wasn’t embraced into the society, as only certain family knows how to do it. As the result, most Khanom Chan in Cambodia contain a name that aren’t translatable in khmer language as well as a product of a struggling recipes.
The point is “the resemblance of Thai and Khmer “Khanon Chan” has this connected histories through the latter centuries of Portuguese influences and the growing power of Siamese court over the neighboring country, it didn’t go back far as most people will claim.“
Most important tools to make Cambodian food
When I was watching my neighbors in Siem Reap preparing food I was surprised that they only need a hand full of tools in their kitchen. They cook food every day, and at Dine With The Locals we want to follow this local way of cooking. That’s why we are beyond the classic cooking class – authentic food and tools, real homes and families. This way, we don’t use much plastic and most waste is natural from left over food and vegetables.
So, what are the 5 basic tools you need when you preparing food in a Khmer home?
The mortar
A wooden board
A cleaver
A asian spoon
Gas stove
The mortar – in every home and cooking class
The mortar is something like the Asian food processor. It is environmental friendly, since it needs no electricity. I remember when I tried to cook Khmer food the first time in my home. To make the Khmer spice paste Krueng I added all ingredients in my blender and mixed them together. When I showed the paste to my neighbors, they were shaking their heads and laughing. Then the gave a me a wooden mortar and told me, to start again. and indeed, it makes a huge difference. Once you smash minced galangal, lemon gras, kaffir limes, turmeric and lemongrass together, you see the difference immediately. The fibers are longer and the paste has less liquid.
A mortar made from wood
A traditional mortar is made of wood, and can contain around 1 liter. We buy them on the local market for 9 Dollar, and a good product lasts a few years. In more modern kitchens you find mortars made of stone, usually smaller than the wooden ones. The advantage is that you can crack more solid ingredients better, liker pepper and peanuts. The pestle is from the same material as the mortar, either wood or stone. You can find ceramic mortars as well, however they are more common in pharmacies or as decoration.
A wooden board
While western regulations require now plastic sheets in different colors when you cut vegetables, fish, meat or chicken. Cambodia has all-in-one. Every family owns a wooden board, usually like a disk with 30 cm diameter. It’s best to cut ginger and garlic with a cleaver, but also to slice fish open and make beef cubes for Beef Lok Lak. The wood is local wood, and a family buys the board either on a local market or from a passing-by vendor.
A cleaver
A good chef – like a barber – owns a selection of good knives. But they are expensive in Cambodia, and the cleaver is kind of a Swiss knife for the kitchen. You can cut carrots with it, but also smash garlic gloves. These days families purchase cleavers from Thailand or Vietnam. Cambodia doesn’t have a big steel industry and many homes rely on imported goods from neighboring countries.
An asian spoon
It’s also called a Chinese spoon and has a different shape compared to western spoons. Typical is a thick handle extending directly from a deep, flat bowl. You can shave fish meat when you make fish balls with it, but also use it to taste a Samlor or to add more sugar to a dish. Like most tools it is multi-purpose use.
Gas stove or charcoal burner
There are usually two ways of heating food in Cambodia: The old way is to use the charcoal burner or Asian clay oven, the modern way is to fire up a gas stove. The latter is getting more popular now, since it doesn’t emit those toxic gases the charcoal has. also, the gas bottles can be refilled easily. Nearly ever mom and pop shop has a exchange service for used gas bottles.
Summary: Khmer food is a new world to discover
Cambodian food is popular in some US-States due to a lot of refugees there. Florida is one state where you find a lot of Khmer restaurants. In Europe it is still rare. But of course the best way to try Khmer cuisine is to buy food in Cambodia from local restaurants. And of course, if you want to make it yourself, meet at the same time local families and have a great time together, check our host list at Dine With The Locals. It’s ever growing in Cambodia and hopefully soon in other countries.
When we first met Ms. Vannarith in her house in Siem Reap, we went straight to her kitchen in the back of the small worden house to see how she makes her famous fish balls. It’s located in the outskirts of the Angkor forrest, a small path leads to the plot of land covered by big trees. The ancient ruins of Angkor Wat are only a few hundred meters away.
The concept of a kitchen differs from western ideas, in Asia it is more an area rather than a room. Cooking food in Cambodia outside has many advantages, the biggest is that the smoke and smell stays outside. Also, being outside while cooking in Cambodia gives you a much better experience – and less sweating.
Shaving fish meat from the skin
Have a seat, please
So it wasn‘t a big surprise when we arrived and saw Vannarith and her mother sitting on a low table. Whenever you eat with locals, expect this kind of setup. This kind of furniture is common in Cambodia, and has many purposes. People sit and chat in the shade, use it to have a nap or sit there and prepare food. Tradition commands an open house in a village, where everyone can come by and have a chat and a snack.
How to make fishballs
Vannarith bought some fish at the local market. Mostly the fish comes from the nearby Tonle sap lake, one of the biggest lakes in the world. It‘s a vital reservoir for Cambodia, for fresh water but also for fishing. In recent years the water levels dropped, and usual the flooded areas included the floating villages in Siem rap were left dry for many month. Nowadays the price for fish has increased to 10 USD for a Kilogramm of better quality. And yet, the fishes are smaller and smaller, as Vannarith‘s husband Chan Nith explains.
Vannarith cuts the fish open and cleans it of the guts, then carefully slices it into two halfs. She then turns the fish filet with the skin on the bottom. Now she carefully shaves the fish meat from the bones and put‘s it in to a plastic bowl. This is quite a time consuming task, since she avoids to break the fishbones. But that’s is on of the most important parts of how to make fish balls in Cambodia.
Breaking up the protein
Once enough fish beat is in the bowl, it get‘s seasoned with salt, pepper and sugar. The latter might sound strange, but Cambodian cuisine is know for being sweet and nearly every dish requires at least a tablespoon of sugar. Traditionally you would use palm sugar, but Vannarith takes refined sugar this time – it‘s cheaper now.
Cooking in Cambodia: Fishballs
Then her mum takes over. The most important part of making fishballs in Cambodia is to break the protein. When you knead a dough to make bread, you are mainly breaking up the flour to get the gluten out. This is something like a glue, that keeps the dough together later, but also makes it smooth. In meat the same job is done by proteins when they break up. But other than in life, a breakup must be done with force. so Vannarith’s mother smashes the big ball of fish meet on the bowl, kneads it a bit, takes it in her hands and smashes it back again. This process takes about ten minutes, until the texture is smooth and even. Once you know the craft of smahing the dough you really mastered how to make fish balls.
Reuse of plastic bags
While Vannarith ignites the little gas stove, her mum fills the fishball dough into a plastic bag. She uses the same plastic bag where the vegetables were sold her in at the market. We love it, a great way for a plastic free Cambodia. Some drops of cooking oil will prevent the meat from sticking to the plastic. Then she forms a knot and makes sure, there is some pressure in the bag. She turns the back upside down and hold the tip of the bag in one hand, while she care fully cuts it with a small knife. Now she squeezes the bag a bit and out comes a string she cuts when it is about 2-3 centimeters long. This string is then thrown in the cooking water.
Fermented radish is the secret ingredient to make fish balls
Cambodian Fish ball soup
Vannarith minces some garlic, ginger and kaffir lime and ads it to the water. Some salt, pepper and seasoning will make it more tasty, before the special ingredient comes to play. A Siem Reap style fishball soup needs fermented radish. The brownish root is cut into small slices and added to the broth. Once the fishball are raising to the top, they be taken out in a separate bowl. For serving the fishballs are transferred to a small bowl and then she pours the broth over them.
When I was traveling through South East Asia 15 years ago, local food always was my main focus. Since many journeys were half leisure and half business, we mostly stayed in hotels. We had at least dinner there. but here and then we escaped and tried the local food next door. And sometimes we got invited to our guides or business partner‘s homes. We could experience what we call now beyond the cooking class.
Women selling honey at a local market in Siem Reap
Nothing is wrong with a cooking class as an activity in Siem Reap and other destinations in Cambodia. You usually go to the market, what for many tourists is an exciting experience itself. You indulge in exotics smells, watch Muslim women selling meat, jump aside when a motorbike drives between the stalls and may even help to catch a fish that tried to escape from the bucket.
With a tuk tuk full of groceries you head then back to the restaurant, hotel or a special place. Guest wash the food and prepare it for the actual cooking. Some hotels may even swap the food from the market with their own stock out of quality concerns. Then the cooking starts. You cut the greens, pound the paste and make nice decorations from a water melon and carrots.
Once the meal is done, guests sit together and the tour leader or guide gives further explanations about the food, the local life and when is the best time to grow and harvest rice. You learn a lot about a culture quite different from what you know in the west.
Why we want to go beyond the classic cooking class
At Dine With The Locals we go beyond the cooking class. We skip the market, because it saves time and many tourists have been to markets anyway. Another reason is that our hosts grow some of the food in their own backyard. Panha Yem in Battambang runs her own organic farm. You harvest some of the vegetables used in your meal with your own hands. Nue Thai in Siem Reap has a small garden, but shows you how the galangal plat looks like, let you pick a custard apple and make tea from jasmine flowers or lemongrass. If you like to eat eggs at Vannarith‘s home, you have to go to the chicken sheds behind the house and get some.
Prepare food with the family is more than a usual cooking class in Siem Reap.
As it is custom in Cambodia, every host offers three dishes. Those are most of the time the families favorite Cambodian food. Quite often families trade a recipe from generation to generation, with little variations. For example Samlor Chi. You will not get this in a restaurant, and its not mae in cooking classes. Samlor Chi is a soup with chili paste, garlic, ginger and coconut milk. Then you add fish, eggplant and pumpkin i. We invite guests to make the paste for themself, so they get a better understanding what tools are used and how a traditional Khmer family prepares their meals.
Holistic approach to food experience
Experience means for us a holistic experience. The house we hosts our guests is not just a nice decoration or background for pictures, but it’s home for our guests during their time. Tourists in Siem Reap may know the history of the temples but not the history of the food they make in a cooking class that is different. Just look at Beef Lok Lak, a dish famous with tourists – at yet not a real Khmer dish, but from Vietnam. And although we don’t serve crocodile meat, we do have a host with a crocodile farm (they just breed and sell eggs and babies).
Food experience is a whole experience, from preparing a meal to eating it and talking about it. Why not trying it?
When it comes to Khmer food, many people don’t know much about it. It’s as hidden from the international cuisine as the temples of Angkor Wat were from the world for centuries. Khmer food is both unique (like prahok) and a blend of spices and recipes from other countries and cultures at the same time. It has its own subtle flavors, so it remind many of Thai dishes. But it lacks the extensive use of chili, what is often highly appreciated by western travelers when they want to eat food in Cambodia. One main reason is, that the Khmer cuisine has it roots centuries ago, long before chillies actually came to this part of the world. Thai food is actually a derivate from Indian and Khmer food.
Cambodia was always a poor country, although rich in culture. People used herbs and vegetables more than meat and fish. Fat is less used than in Thailand and Laos, and more similar to Vietnamese food. What makes the Khmer food so special, is a paste that stinks and is yummy all together: Prahok. You will find it in soups as well as in fried dishes, and some eat it just from the jar with some fresh vegetables. Whenever you eat with locals, Prahok will be on the table.
The history and importance of Prahok
Prahok contains fermented fish, and traditional Khmer use a small fish called Trey Riel to produce it. The importance of prahok and the fish is very much alive in the name of the Cambodian currency: Riel. Prahok was once important in the everyday life of Cambodians, that people from the inner land travel to places to buy Riel-Fish at the markets. It became kind of a currency and was sold for certain amounts of rice. The fish itself is called the Siamese mud carp in English.
It is native to South-East-Asia and usually found in the Mekong and the Chao Praya River in Thailand. The fish lives in freshwater and you can see it in the flooded areas in the wet season, often in rice fields and the canals dividing them. It migrates form Cambodia upstream to Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, and is also found in the Tonle Sap river and the Tonle Sap lake south of Siem Reap. When the Riel fish is not available, people often user other species as well.
Sarath’s family makes their own prahok with red ants and sell it on the market
In former times, Prahok like other food in Cambodia was made in the villages by all the people at hand, mostly women who stayed at home. First step: remove the head and the guts as well as the scales of the fish. Then fill the fish bodies into small flat buckets and let the kids crush them with their feet – a bit the same way grapes are crushed in a winery. Women take out those fishes who look bad and sick, so only the best quality is left. After a while, the fish becomes a pulp and needs to be dried first. You can see (and smell) it some times front of locals houses. The fish dries in the sun for one day. Then it will salted and put in jars made from glas or plastic. Like a good whiskey, Prahok gets better over the years, although four years is a maximum.
The Cambodian cheese
Since the fermented paste has a distinctive smell, foreigners named it the Cambodian cheese, although it is not as strong as the Lao Padek, a sauce made from fermented fish. The Khmer paste can be used as it is, but there are also many varieties. Some Khmer will add tamarind and palm sugar, others use chili to spice it up a bit. In Siem Reap Prahok contains even small read ants. Basically every village and family has their own secret recipe. You can try a spicy and yet delicious version at our host Sarath in Siem Reap.
As in many cultures, fermented food like prahok serves a purpose. When they are no fridges and times when not much food was available, prahok delivers important protein and amino-acids. Fermenting is a great way way to store food, from beer to the Swedish Surströmming.
The tradition of food in Cambodia
Prahok is probably the most unique and important ingredient in the Khmer cuisine. Most dishes you stir fry or boil as a soup, while meat best grill over an open fire. Most Khmer people use rice as a staple food, and then cooked one or two dishes along with it. The classic Cambodian meal contains three dishes, and that’s why all of our hosts are serving three dishes to our guests in Cambodia – plus additional fruits as a dessert
Fish was and is the main source of protein and you will find it in most dishes. Only chicken is as popular since it can be raised on the premises and reproduce fast. But climate change, logging in the forrest and a growing population and demand having an effect on supply and prices. Prices went up from 1000 to 3500 Riel per Kilo of fish in just two years. Also, the fishes are getting smaller and smaller, due to overfishing in the Cambodian rivers and the Tonle sap lake. Additionally, the dams build in China regulate now the amount of water that comes downstream, with huge impacts on the lower Mekong region. Higher water temperatures and less rainfall have an impact too.
New trend: vegetarian food in Cambodia
What comes handy is that some people change to vegetarian diet. Cambodia produces an excellent tofu, sold at markets and supermarkets. The tofu is firm and people fry it or even used for desserts. Some of our hosts also offer a vegetarian option now for our guests. Also, since an outbreak of Swine-flu outbreak in Vietnam, many people avoid pork meat for now.
But the Khmer cuisine offers more than just meat and fish. There is Kreung, a paste from different spices, mainly galangal, lemongrass, ginger, garlic and turmeric. You mix it with vegetables and then stir fry or cook it. Use it with or without coconut milk, or just combine with roasted rice powder and make Kor Ko, one of the most famous Cambodian dishes.
There are attempts to create a vegetarian version of prahok, but for now they are not really convincing, Best results are for now green jackfruits and mushrooms sauce.
Cooking is passion, and it doesn’t matter if you do this at home or as a professional chef. We focus on food in Cambodia and the traditional way of cooking. The recipes at our host families were handed down from generation to generation, from the grandparents to the parents to the children. Dishes at our hosts are also prepared the traditional way, often on open fire, using ingredients from the garden or the own farm. When you visit our host, you will learn how Khmer homemade food is prepared and cooked in a very authentic way. And of course we and the hosts are happy if you want to help cooking. So we take you today on a food tour in Cambodia and show you how to make delicious local food.
One of the main differences to western cooking are the kirchen and the tools. Many of our hosts cook outside the house, what is still common all around Asia. Even modern houses have the kitchen outside, nowadays behind under a tin roof. The reason: ventilation systems aren’t known here and you don’t want to have the smell of cooking in your house. Some of our hosts do have a kitchen room, but will always open all doors and windows then get fresh air and the feeling of openness.
While in houses and apartments the use of gas is more common, on the countryside most families still use wood or charcoal. Both is cheaper for them, and charcoal can be bought from passing by vendors with long trailers. Wood is mostly collected from the ground or from dead trees. When you eat with locals, it is also common to help each other and cook together.
How to make Tuk Meric
Authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe
Our host Srey Moch makes a delicious Beef Lok Lak, one of the most famous meals in Cambodia, even if its not a traditional Khmer homemade food (it came from Vietnam, and you can read more here). What makes the difference is the sauce on the side: it is a mix of lemon, salt and pepper, called Tuk Meric. Some families like Srey Moch’s use a dash of fish sauce and sugar and some minced garlic and chili in it as well. The beef itself comes already with a sauce (made from oyster sauce, soy sauce and onions), but will be dipped in the side sauce as well. You can also try to just eat the rice with the lemon-pepper-salt-mix!
Homemade Khmer food 101: Pork balls
Soup with handmade pork meatballs
There are many ways to make a vegetable soup with pork balls, but our host Vannarith has a special recipe. Usually you would just like season minced pork and form it to small balls. But when we talk about homemade Khmer food, the pork balls aren’t just rolled. The pork will be minced and them smashed on a table of wood board, picked up and smashed again. The reason for this process is to break the proteins, what enhanced taste and texture. If you come a bit more early, Vannarith will show you how it’s done properly, and you can even try it out yourself. You will see that the shape is also different, they aren’t formed like perfect round balls, but a bit more flat.
Soup with papaya (Sngor Sup Lahong )
Papaya soup with pork rib is one of the homemade Khmer food
In Cambodian cuisine you see the use of fruits as vegetables quite often. The mango salad is made from green or sour mangos, so is the papaya salad. Our host Panha Yem in Battambang cooks Sngor Sup Lahong, and one important ingredient is green papaya (Khmer: lahong). You may only know papaya as a sweet orange fruit, but in most dishes Khmer homemade food is made with the, not ripe state. It will be cut into cubes and then cooked together with pork rips. The soup itself is clear and the meat and papaya giving it the distinctive taste. It is common that you eat the soup together with rice and other dishes. Most food comes either as it is cooked or together, but there is no concept of courses (only fruits will be served last.)
When I was a little girl, having Beef Lok Lak on the dinner table was a rare occasion in Siem Reap. It was considered a special food in Cambodia, and it was expensive. When we had a ceremony or a birthday, then I walked with my mom to the market. She carefully selected the best beef from the muslim butchers. Back home, the beef was marinated following the authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe and then kept cool in our ice box, since we did not have a fridge at that time.
What is Beef Lok Lak? You might have wondered why this simple dish is so nowadays popular and you can find it in every food tour in Cambodia . Beef Lok Lak is a beef stir-fry set up with onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce , served with rice and a fried egg. To make it even more tasty Cambodians would dip the beef in sauce made of pepper, salt and lime juice.
Authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe made without tomatoes
The dish is originally part of the Vietnamese cuisine, where its called called “Bò lúc lắc”, Bò means “beef” and lúc lắc means “stir” or “shake” It originated from the influence of Chinese and French during the period of the Indochinese colonization, when Vietnam was under Chinas rule for a nearly a millennium. Some historians say, it was then brought to Cambodia to please the French occupiers. The idea was that when they eat with locals food the like, the tensions will calm down.
Barangs (French foreigners) were known as people who like to eat beef and salad, both food that was not popular with Vietnamese or Cambodians. To give it as Asian touch, the soy sauce and oyster sauce was added. That’s how the authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe was developed. There are – as with any other most famous Cambodian food – different varieties. Some used deer they hunted from the nearby forrest, others used wild boar.Lok Lak then traveled then trough Cambodia and eventually gain it’s popularity among Khmer citizen. The Khmer dish got well-known in Cambodia because of it tastiness, elegance set up and it is convenience to cook.
Want to cook with locals this dish?
Beef Lok Lak: A food for special occasions
Tomato or no tomato?
There is a division about the use of tomato sauce. The authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe doesn’t have any, but in many restaurants its added to increase the taste and sweetness. Also, Vietnamese refugees brought the dish to America, where ketchup is added to many dishes. That might be a reason, why many restaurants catering to foreigners offer this version. Also the fried egg might be a modern addition as well as replacing the rice with french fries (often called Beef Lol Lak Barang). But a homemade Beef Lok Lak, the way our host Naysim in Phnom Penh make it, the sauce is only made with the original ingredients.
Follow the link above if you want to try making authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak it as well.
Authentic Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe:
In a large bowl, mix beef cubes with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, fish sauce and ground black pepper and minced garlic. Marinate at least 20 minutes or up to one hour.
Cook the jasmine rice for 30 minutes
Make the dipping sauce, combine ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Decorate two dinner plates with sliced tomatoes, cucumber and onion. Set aside.
Place the lettuce leaves on a separate platter.
Heat oil in a wok over a high heat and stir-fry beef until cooked. Divide between the two dinner plates.
Fry two eggs sunny side up
Ingredients:
300g beef steak, sliced
1 teaspoon fish sauce
¼ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoons palm or brown sugar
2 garlic cloves (finely sliced)
1 teaspoon black pepper
vegetable oil
1 cup jasmine rice
2 eggs (optional)
For the Cambodian Beef Lok Lak dipping sauce
2 juice from 2 limes or lemons
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
splash of fish sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon water
Decoration:
1cucumber, peeled and finely sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
½ Onion (finely sliced)
A few leaves lettuce
If you want to cook beef lok lak or other Cambodian food with a family, please check the list of our hostslist of our hosts in many cities like Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Battambang. You will have a authentic cooking class you never forget and make friends with a local family.
We just came back from the Tripadvisor APAC Summit 2019. We learned a lot about improvements we can do on Tripadvisor but also recent trends in the travel industry. Tripadvisor’s sole focus is on the customer experience, a strategy that we share. Working in the travel industry means you are memory creaters. You can use the latest technology, but it’s worth nothing if the products you provide are not special and well crafted.
Thomas and Thyda at the Tripadvisor APAC 2019 summit in BangkokChart about why going online now
We believe in online first
That’s why we are carefully selecting our hosts, training them if needed in basic hospitality and food preparation as well as in delivering additional value with experiences. We are creating a network of hosts in Cambodia (and hopefully soon in other countries), but we see us as part of this network.
We also believe in the future of online. Many talks with experts in the tourism industry confirmed our online first strategy. We met a woman from Thailand who offers her tours only online and gets all bookings through Tripadvisor. While we are also using other channels, we believe that we can be part of Cambodia 4.0 and support the country and it’s people to start the digital transformation.
The view from the AVANI+ Riverside Bangkok hotel during the TripAdvisor Experiences APAC Summit 2019.
Traveling is great, and if you are on your own, it’s even better. You make new friends, you can arrange your own schedule and you are independent in what you are doing. We want to give you some tips about being a solo traveler in Cambodia. Our 5 things to do in Cambodia are carefully curated from us. We live here, and we know exciting places, some very exclusive and off the beaten track.
1. Learn Apsara dance in Siem Reap, cook and share a meal with a former dancer
A solo traveler in Cambodia at host Srey Moch learns Apsara dance basics
Srey Moch is one of our hosts in Siem Reap. She was a Apsara dancer for a long time and even performed in Tokyo the ancient art of the Khmer dance. She will tell you the basic of the amazing hand and arms movement (and legs to if you want). Equally exciting for a solo traveler in Cambodia is cook a local meal together: Fried fish, the classic beef lok lak and bitter melon filled with minced pork. Vegetarian options are available too. More about her on our host page.on our host page.
2. Chat and dine with a Khmer artist in Phnom Penh
Vannak Khun is a Khmer artist, renown for his photography art and his sculpture. His work was exhibited in Paris and Tokyo, and he is one of the few contemporary artists in Cambodia. You cook with one of the most popular Cambodian dishes: fried chicken with ginger. another dish you prepare together with your Cambodia host is a Khmer fish soup with onions and mixed vegetables. While having dinner or lunch together, have a chat with Vannak Khun about his life as an artist, his oversea trips and his lovely cat. (Vegetarian options available, more information here)
3. As a solo traveler in Cambodia cycle along the Siem reap river
When in Siem Reap explore the city from south to north on a bicycle. There is no need to book a tour (although or friends at Siem Reaper have some great guided tours), every solo traveler in Cambodia rent a bike everywhere in Siem Reap. If you have a smartphone and internet access, here is our tour suggestion: Look for a place called Angkor Wat Put and cycle there. You will soon be in the rice fields and villages. From there you turn west until you reach the river. Now go all along the riverside. You cross a local market, pass by Cambodian schools and temples (and feel free to take punctures or talk with the locals).
Go further north and stay right off the river. On Road 6 you have to do a bit of a go around, so on Road 63. Then the landscape changes and you will enter the Angkor forrest. You will pass through small palaces where poor people live in huts and tin roof flats. Look for the infrastructure they build and have a stop at the small market. For this tour you don’t need a ticket. You will go all the way straight until you reach a red bridge on your left. Cross the river here and go back south until you reach the Royal gardens. The tour takes about 2-3 hours and is for sure one of the things to for a solo traveler.
4. A solo traveler at a organic farm in Battambang in Cambodia
Rice harvest at the organic farm in Battambang, A great experience for solo travelers in Cambodia.
Cambodias second biggest city is becoming a favorite spot for solo travelers and people interested in local culture. There is a famous bamboo train (take the old one, not the new), the Battambang bat cave (watch the leaving at sunset) and many galleries to visit. And there is Yem Panha, a young Khmer woman passionate about organic farming and a healthy lifestyle. She will take you around her farm in the south of Battambang, explain the concept of organic farming and how it is done in the Kingdom of Wonders. You help her picking some flowers and harvesting vegetables. After your first experience as a Khmer farmer you prepare with her the meal. Three dishes are on the menu: an omelette filled with organic veggies form the farm, Tuek Trey Pa-Em, a famous Cambodian dish served with bacon or fish and Sngor sup Lahaong – papaya soup with pork rip.
5. Follow the work of Cambodias most famous architect
When it comes to the work of Vann Molyvann, no other architect came even close to his amazing work, mainly in Phnom Penh. His building, most of them made in the 60s and 70s are outstanding pieces of contemporary art of this era. He started what is still known as the New Khmer Architecture, supported by then King Norodom Sihanouk. some of his work is already destroyed, most recently the famous White Building in Phnom Penh. He died 2017 in Siem Reap, where he spend his time after retirement. Vann Molyvann is also now a role model for young Khmers.
Our small tour takes the solo traveler in Cambodia a to his most important works, Just get a tuk tuk, tell the driver the locations an negotiate a price. Should not be more than 10 USD.
Chaktomuk Conference Hall; the most iconic building, used now for cultural events.
Independence Monument: Build to celebrate Cambodias Independence, it is a landmark in the city’s heart (also opposite the Prime ministers residence).
Olympic Stadium: still used for sports events and sometimes concerts, it is almost hidden now behind some modern developments. On weekend join locals for doing some exercise there.
Royal University: The university is located on the way to the airport, but worth a visit. You an enter and chat with Khmer students about university life and their dreams for their future.
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