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Cambodian cuisine has absorbed and been influenced by many culinary styles of neighboring countries, especially India and China. Any dish, cooked in any way, uses a lot of spices (like Indian dishes) and fat (like Chinese food). But above all, Cambodian culinary culture still creates its own unique features, its own impressions and is enough to satisfy the most discerning diners.
From the familiar dishes to Southeast Asian tourists such as rice, sticky rice and fish, meat, vegetables, etc., in the meals of Cambodian people, there is also a dish called mam bo hoc. Different from the Chau Doc dish of Vietnam, the mam bo hoc dish here is quite salty, but has the fatty taste of fish meat.
Soursop fish sauce
The salty taste of the fish sauce comes from the process of salting it many times. The fish caught from Tonle Sap Lake are not eaten all, so people bring them home to clean and salt them, then after a few months they wash them and salt them again and save them for later use. The fish caught has firm, delicious and fatty meat, and is salted, gradually becoming incredibly delicious. For Cambodians, this is an indispensable dish. Fish sauce is also added to hot pot broth in meals at luxury restaurants for flavor, making many diners from far away eat forever without feeling full...
In addition to the fish sauce, when coming to Cambodia, tourists can easily find many places selling boiled duck eggs, the price is not expensive but very delicious. Moreover, the dishes made from Cambodian chicken and duck also have many unique features. Raised naturally in conditions without food, eating natural foods, chicken and duck meat is often naturally chewy and delicious. Duck eggs have more yolk than white, boiled to give a soft-boiled, red color as if just cooked, with a fatty, chewy taste, rarely any guest who eats it does not feel excited.
Cambodian eggs
The special feature of Cambodian cuisine is the sweet taste of palmyra palm. Living in a hot and dry climate, the palmyra palm tree lives long and is closely associated with the lives of Cambodian people. Palmyra palm leaves are used to make houses, palmyra palm juice is used as sugar and as a spice for dishes. Cambodian soups and desserts are almost indispensable for the sweet, cool taste of palmyra palm. Palmyra palm cake is passed from mouth to mouth and then becomes a specialty dish introduced to tourists by tour guides.
Palm sugar
The drink of Cambodian people is also palm juice. Palm juice is taken from the tree, drunk immediately, cools down the throat and deep into the heart, relieving the dry heat of this country. Palm juice is also used to make sour wine and is considered a specialty wine that no tourist coming here does not ask to buy.
Palm cake
Besides the delicious dishes that many tourists love, Cambodia also has many “unique” dishes that many diners do not dare to touch: insects. The insect market here sells many dishes from spiders, crickets, ant eggs to water bugs. Especially the water bugs (beneficial insects that live in many fields in Cambodia) is a popular dish with a spicy and aromatic taste.
Insect market
In addition, many tourists coming here also enjoy a fried spider with a cup of Angkor beer to enjoy the true taste of the "Temple and Tower" country. Putting a fried black spider in your mouth to chew, at first you feel scared, but the sweet, fatty, fragrant taste of the head and body mixed with the fatty taste of the whole intestine gradually spreads, gradually... permeates the taste buds, creating an irresistible attraction for tourists...
Traveling hundreds of kilometers on a few-day tour to Cambodia, in addition to attractive tourist attractions and world cultural heritages, Cambodian cuisine also leaves indescribable impressions in the hearts of tourists.
Cambodian cuisine has similarities and blends with neighboring countries, making diners from far away not find it difficult to eat but also keeps its own unique features that make them feel excited. Coming here, bringing back a little bit of the sweet taste of palm sugar, a little bit of the salty taste of fish sauce, a little bit of the fatty taste of duck eggs, a little bit of the strange taste of insects is like bringing back a little bit of Cambodia for yourself....
