Chapter One: The Flavors of the Heartland: The Cuisines of Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap
While the foundational principles of Khmer cuisine—a reliance on rice, fresh herbs, and fermented seasonings—are universal across the kingdom, Cambodia is not a land of uniform flavor. Its cuisine is a rich tapestry woven with distinct regional threads, each colored by local ingredients, history, and culture. To begin our journey, we explore the flavors of the nation's heartland by comparing the culinary characters of its three most significant inland cities: Phnom Penh, the bustling cosmopolitan capital; Battambang, the rich agricultural larder; and Siem Reap, the proud gateway to the ancient glory of Angkor.
Phnom Penh: The Cosmopolitan Melting Pot
The cuisine of Phnom Penh is a direct reflection of its status as the nation's largest, most diverse, and most commercially active city. It is a vibrant melting pot of flavors, drawing people and their local specialties from every province in the kingdom. The street food scene is vast and varied, and it is here that the influences of other cultures are most pronounced.
Due to its history and geography, the city's food has a strong and visible influence from both Vietnamese and Chinese cuisines. You will find countless stalls selling the Vietnamese noodle soup, pho, alongside the classic Khmer noodle soup, kuy teav. The city is famous for its own version of the latter, Kuy Teav Phnom Penh, a rich pork noodle soup often featuring prawns and other offal. The influence of the large Sino-Khmer community is also evident, with a huge variety of Chinese-style noodle dishes, dumplings, and roasted meats available. The palate of Phnom Penh is the most eclectic in the kingdom, a bustling and delicious fusion of all the flavors that have converged on the capital.
Battambang: The Kingdom's Rich Agricultural Larder
If Phnom Penh is the melting pot, then Battambang is the kingdom's rice bowl. As the heart of Cambodia's most fertile agricultural region, the cuisine of Battambang is defined by the exceptional quality and abundance of its local ingredients. The food here is often considered by Cambodians to be the most authentically "Khmer," a pure and robust expression of the nation's rustic culinary soul.
The province is famous for producing the highest quality Phka Malis, the world-renowned jasmine rice. It is also known for its sweet, green-skinned oranges, its delicious and fragrant pork sausages, and the quality of the rice paper used to make fresh spring rolls. The food of Battambang is less about foreign influence and more about celebrating the simple perfection of its own produce. It is a cuisine that is hearty, authentic, and deeply connected to the fertile soil that surrounds it.
Phnom Penh's food tells the story of many nations. Battambang's food tells the story of the soil. Siem Reap's food tells the story of the kings.
Siem Reap: The Keeper of the Royal Legacy
The cuisine of Siem Reap, my home, has a unique dual character, shaped by its glorious past and its bustling present. As the gateway to the ancient temples of Angkor, its traditional cuisine is deeply connected to the legacy of the royal court. This is the city most famous for celebrating the refined dishes of Royal Khmer Cuisine. It is here that you will find some of the most elegant and skillfully prepared versions of dishes like Amok, the steamed fish mousse that originated in the palace kitchens. The local food identity is proud, a reflection of its status as the former imperial capital.
At the same time, as one of the world's great tourist destinations, Siem Reap's food scene has also adapted to a global palate. Alongside the traditional restaurants, there is a vast and sophisticated international food scene. Many local restaurants will also offer slightly milder, less pungent versions of classic Khmer dishes to be more accessible to visitors. The culinary world of Siem Reap is therefore a fascinating dance between preserving the sacred, royal traditions for a discerning audience and adapting its flavors for a global one.
In conclusion, these three great cities of the heartland, while sharing a common culinary language, each speak with their own distinct and beautiful accent. Phnom Penh offers the exciting and diverse flavors of a cosmopolitan capital. Battambang presents the rich, authentic, and ingredient-focused taste of the nation's agricultural soul. And Siem Reap serves as the proud guardian of the kingdom's royal culinary heritage, skillfully presenting it to both its own people and to the world.
Chapter Two: The Salt and the Soil: The Coastal Cuisine of Kep and Kampot
The culinary identity of Cambodia's southern coast is defined by the perfect marriage of two world-renowned local products: the sweet, delicate seafood from the Gulf of Thailand and the intensely aromatic, globally celebrated pepper from the fields of Kampot. The cuisine of this region, particularly in the famous coastal towns of Kep and Kampot, is a testament to the idea that the finest meals are often born from the simplest combination of fresh, high-quality local ingredients. It is a world of flavor that is at once salty, sweet, spicy, and profoundly tied to the unique terroir of the Cambodian coast.
The Jewel of Kep: The Blue Swimmer Crab
The seaside town of Kep is, for all culinary purposes, synonymous with one thing: fresh blue swimmer crab (kdam). The town's famous Crab Market is a vibrant, living institution, built on stilts directly over the water. Here, visitors can watch as fishermen pull up woven baskets filled with live crabs, caught just hours before in the surrounding waters. The crabs are sold on the spot and can be cooked immediately by one of the many food stalls that line the waterfront.
The most iconic dish, a true pilgrimage for any food lover, is the Kdam Cha M'rek, or stir-fried crab with fresh Kampot pepper. The preparation is simple, designed to highlight the quality of the main ingredients. The fresh crab is chopped into pieces and stir-fried at high heat in a wok with garlic and a savory sauce. The crucial ingredient is then added: whole sprigs of young, green Kampot peppercorns. These are not the hard, dried peppercorns used elsewhere; they are soft, tender, and burst with a fragrant, mildly spicy flavor that is more aromatic than pungent. The combination of the sweet, delicate crab meat and the unique, explosive perfume of the fresh green pepper is one of the greatest flavor pairings in all of Southeast Asian cuisine.
The Treasure of Kampot: The World's Finest Pepper
Just inland from Kep lies the province of Kampot, home to a pepper that is celebrated by chefs around the world for its incredible complexity and aroma. Kampot pepper has been granted a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), similar to Champagne in France, which recognizes the unique quality of the pepper grown in this specific soil and climate. The local cuisine naturally makes full use of this treasure.
Different types of Kampot pepper are used for different dishes:
- Green Pepper: As mentioned, the young, unripe green peppercorns are used fresh in stir-fries, especially with seafood. Their flavor is bright and aromatic, not intensely hot.
- Black Pepper: The mature, dried black peppercorns are what the region is most famous for. They have a strong but nuanced heat and a deep, lingering aroma. They are used in countless dishes, from marinades to dipping sauces.
- Red and White Pepper: The fully ripened red peppercorns have a sweeter, more fruity flavor, while the white pepper (made by removing the outer husk of the red pepper) is more delicate and is often used in soups.
In Kampot and Kep, pepper is not just a final seasoning; it is a primary flavor component.
In the heartland, the kroeung paste is the soul of the curry. On the coast, a simple handful of fresh green peppercorns is the soul of the dish.
Other Coastal Delights
While crab and pepper are the stars, the cuisine of the coast is rich with other delights from the sea. The waterfront restaurants and street stalls of Kep, Kampot, and Koh Kong are filled with the smoky aroma of freshly grilled seafood. Whole fish, large river prawns, and squid are often simply seasoned with salt and chili and grilled over charcoal, served with a classic dipping sauce of fish sauce, fresh lime juice, garlic, and chili. The goal is always to highlight the freshness of the catch.
The region is also famous for its production of high-quality fish sauce and for its coastal salt fields, where sea salt is produced through natural evaporation. Furthermore, the fertile land behind the coast is known for cultivating some of Cambodia's most delicious durian, another unique flavor of the region.
The cuisine of Cambodia's coastal regions is a beautiful and direct celebration of its unique environment. It is a culinary world defined by the perfect, harmonious relationship between the salt of the sea and the spice of the soil. The simple, elegant dishes of fresh crab, grilled fish, and the world's most fragrant pepper are a testament to the idea that when ingredients are this fresh and this exceptional, the most profound and delicious cooking is often the simplest.
Chapter Three: The Taste of the Forest: The Highland Cuisine of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri
To journey into the highlands of northeastern Cambodia is to journey into a different culinary world. The cuisine of the indigenous peoples known as the Khmer Loeu ("Upland Khmer"), particularly the Bunong people of Mondulkiri, is ancient, rustic, and deeply connected to the rhythms of the forest. This is not the cuisine of the great, fertile rice paddies, but one born of necessity, ingenuity, and a profound, animist respect for the natural world. It is a food culture based on foraged ingredients, the bounty of the hunt, and unique cooking methods that utilize the forest itself as a kitchen. The flavors here are often earthier, more bitter, and spicier than those of the lowlands, offering a fascinating and delicious glimpse into the pre-Angkorian soul of Cambodian food.
The Highland Pantry: A Feast from the Forest
The foundation of the highland cuisine is not what is planted, but what is gathered. The forest is the primary source of ingredients, providing a diverse and seasonal pantry for those who know how to read it.
- Wild Vegetables and Herbs: The diet is incredibly rich in wild vegetables that are rarely found in lowland markets. This includes tender wild ferns, exotic mushrooms, and a variety of bitter leaves and flowers which are believed to have medicinal properties. Bamboo shoots are another essential ingredient, adding a crunchy texture to soups and stir-fries.
- Wild Honey: The pure, dark honey harvested from wild beehives in the forest is the primary traditional sweetener, used with a much lighter hand than the palm sugar of the plains.
The protein in the traditional diet was also often sourced from the forest, with wild pig and deer being a part of the cuisine, supplemented by fish caught in the clear, fast-flowing mountain streams.
The Bamboo Tube: A Natural Cooking Pot
One of the most unique and ingenious cooking techniques of the highland peoples is the use of bamboo as a cooking vessel. A thick, wide tube of green bamboo is stuffed with ingredients—perhaps marinated meat, wild vegetables, and a small amount of water or rice wine—and then the opening is sealed with banana leaves. This entire bamboo tube is then placed directly onto an open fire or propped on the hot coals.
The bamboo acts as a perfect, natural pressure cooker. The moisture inside steams the contents, while the outside of the bamboo chars, imparting a wonderful, subtle, smoky flavor to the food within. This method is used to cook everything from meat and fish to rice, and it is a technique perfectly suited to a life lived in and around the forest, as it requires no metal pots.
In the lowlands, the meal is cooked in a clay pot over charcoal. In the highlands, the meal is cooked in a bamboo tube in the fire itself. The vessel is a gift from the very forest that provides the food.
The Flavor Profile: Earthy, Bitter, and Spicy
The taste of highland cuisine is distinct from that of the central plains. While lowland Khmer food is often characterized by a balance of sweet, sour, and salty flavors, mellowed by rich coconut cream, the food of the mountains has a different character.
- Less Sugar and Coconut: There is a much lighter use of palm sugar and coconut milk, which are products of the lowland palm trees and are less available in the highlands.
- An Appreciation for Bitterness: There is a greater appreciation for bitter flavors, derived from the various wild leaves and vegetables that are a core part of the diet. This bitterness is seen as both a pleasant taste and a healthy, medicinal quality.
- The Heat of the Chili: The food is often intensely spicy, using potent, locally grown bird's eye chilies to add a sharp, clean heat to dishes.
A typical meal might consist of dry-land rice, a simple soup flavored with bitter leaves, and a fiery dip made with pounded chilies and herbs, served with grilled meat or fish that has been cooked over an open wood fire.
The cuisine of Cambodia's highlands is a precious and ancient culinary tradition, a direct connection to the land and the animist spirits that are believed to inhabit it. It is a cuisine of survival and deep ecological knowledge, born from the bounty of the forest. With its reliance on foraged ingredients, its unique bamboo-tube cooking methods, and its bold, earthy flavors, it offers a fascinating and delicious contrast to the more famous cuisine of the lowlands, showcasing the true and wonderful diversity of the Kingdom on a Plate.
Chapter Four: The Flavor of the Borderlands: Lao and Vietnamese Influences in Eastern Cambodia
While the heartland of Cambodia has a strong and distinct culinary identity, the nation's cuisine has never existed in a vacuum. Along its long eastern border, centuries of trade, migration, and cultural exchange with its neighbors, Vietnam and Laos, have created a fascinating and delicious borderland cuisine. In the provinces that line the Mekong River as it flows south from Laos, and in the delta regions that meet Vietnam, the food takes on a unique character. Here, classic Khmer dishes are enjoyed alongside specialties that show a clear and harmonious influence from across the border, a testament to the fluid and adaptive nature of food culture.
The Vietnamese Influence in the South and East
The influence of Vietnamese cuisine is most strongly felt in the southeastern provinces like Svay Rieng and Prey Veng, as well as in the capital of Phnom Penh. This is due to the long history of interaction across the Mekong Delta and the large community of Cambodians of Vietnamese descent.
One of the most beloved dishes in this region is Banh Sung, a testament to this shared culinary heritage. It consists of fine rice noodles, topped with grilled pork, fresh herbs like mint and basil, crushed peanuts, and crispy spring rolls, all brought together with a sweet and sour fish sauce dressing. While it feels perfectly at home on a Cambodian table, its origins lie in the noodle dishes of southern Vietnam.
Similarly, the famous Vietnamese pancake, Banh Xeo, a crispy crepe filled with pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts, is a very popular and common dish in this part of Cambodia. The Vietnamese emphasis on using vast quantities of fresh, raw herbs and lettuce leaves for wrapping and dipping is also more pronounced in the cuisine of this region.
The Lao Influence in the Northeast
In the northeastern provinces of Stung Treng and Ratanakiri, where the Mekong River enters Cambodia from Laos, a different set of culinary influences can be found. The food here shares many characteristics with the cuisine of southern Laos.
- Sticky Rice as a Staple: While most of Cambodia eats steamed jasmine rice with their meals, in these northern provinces, it is much more common for people to eat sticky rice as their staple grain, just as the Lao people do. The rice is rolled into a small ball with the fingers and used to dip into other dishes.
- Laab: The famous Lao meat salad, known as Laab or Larb, is a very popular dish here. It is made from minced meat, chicken, or fish that is cooked and then tossed with toasted rice powder, lime juice, fish sauce, chili flakes, and a generous amount of fresh mint and other herbs. It is a fresh, spicy, and fragrant dish that is a hallmark of Lao cuisine and is beloved in the border regions of Cambodia.
- A Shared Love of Spice: The food in this part of Cambodia often features a more pronounced chili heat, another characteristic shared with Lao cooking.
A dish does not know a border. A good flavor will always travel across the river.
A Shared Culinary Grammar
These influences have been so easily and harmoniously absorbed because the three cuisines share a common "culinary grammar." All three are built on a foundation of rice. All three prize the balance of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy flavors. All three rely on the savory depth of fermented fish products, whether it be the Cambodian Prahok, the Vietnamese Nuoc Mam, or the Lao Pa Daek. And all three celebrate the use of fresh, aromatic herbs.
The differences are often a matter of emphasis. Thai cuisine, for example, often balances all four flavors in a single, complex dish. Vietnamese cuisine often separates the flavors, providing a clean broth and allowing the diner to add the fresh, sour, and spicy elements themselves. Khmer cuisine often prizes a deep, savory, and herbaceous flavor profile from its kroeung paste. The cuisines of the borderlands are where these different philosophies meet and mingle.
The cuisine of Cambodia's eastern borderlands is a delicious testament to its history as a cultural crossroads. The presence of a Vietnamese-style noodle dish in Svay Rieng or a Lao-style meat salad in Stung Treng is not a sign of a diluted Khmer cuisine, but rather a reflection of its dynamic, confident, and enriched identity. It showcases how the Kingdom on a Plate has always been open to sharing its table and its flavors with its friends and neighbors.
Chapter Five: The Spice of Faith: The Halal Cuisine of Cambodia's Cham Community
The final thread in the rich tapestry of Cambodian regional cuisine is one woven not by geography, but by faith. This is the unique and aromatic world of Cham cuisine. The Cham people are one of Cambodia's most significant ethnic minorities, the descendants of the ancient mariners of the Kingdom of Champa. The majority of Chams in Cambodia are practicing Muslims, and their adherence to Islamic dietary laws, or halal, combined with their unique cultural history, has given rise to a distinct and delicious branch of Cambodian cooking. It is a cuisine rich with the fragrant notes of dried spices, a culinary tradition that adds another beautiful layer of diversity to the Kingdom on a Plate.
The Foundations of Cham Cuisine
The core of Cham cuisine is shaped by halal principles. This most notably means the complete avoidance of pork and alcohol in all of their cooking. Any beef or chicken used is prepared according to Islamic tradition. But beyond these religious requirements, Cham cooking has its own unique flavor profile that sets it apart from mainstream Khmer cuisine.
While traditional Khmer cooking, as we have seen, relies heavily on fresh herbs and rhizomes pounded into a kroeung paste, Cham cuisine is famous for its masterful use of dried spices. This is likely a legacy of the Chams' history as great maritime traders, connecting them to the spice routes of the Malay Archipelago, India, and the Middle East. Spices like cardamom, cloves, star anise, and cinnamon play a much more prominent role in their dishes, creating a warmer, more aromatic, and spicier flavor profile.
Kari Saraman: The Celebrated Cham Curry
The most famous and beloved dish of the Cham community is Kari Saraman. While its name includes the word "curry," it is vastly different from a typical Khmer samlor. It is a rich, complex, and deeply aromatic stew, most often made with beef, but sometimes with chicken or lamb.
The soul of the dish is its unique blend of dried spices. The recipe often includes star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and chili powder, which are toasted to release their fragrance and then pounded into a spice paste. This paste is then simmered with coconut milk, peanuts, and sometimes other ingredients like potatoes and carrots, until the meat is incredibly tender and the sauce is thick and fragrant. The resulting dish is rich, savory, slightly sweet from the coconut milk, and filled with the warm, complex aroma of the spices. Kari Saraman has become so popular that it is now beloved by Cambodians of all faiths and is often served at major celebrations and wedding feasts across the country.
The Khmer curry speaks of the fresh lemongrass in the garden. The Cham curry speaks of the distant spice islands across the sea. Both are now the taste of Cambodia.
A Cherished Culinary Identity
The unique dishes of the Cham people are a vital part of their cultural identity. They are the foods prepared for their own religious holidays, such as Eid al-Fitr, and for their community gatherings and weddings. In cities like Phnom Penh and in the riverside communities of provinces like Kampong Chhnang where many Cham people live, you can find street stalls and small restaurants specializing in their cuisine. These places are sought out by other Cambodians who wish to enjoy the unique, spice-laden flavors that Cham cooking offers.
The cuisine is a beautiful example of cultural and culinary syncretism. It uses the ingredients of the Cambodian landscape—the coconut milk, the palm sugar, the fresh produce—but infuses them with the distinct aromatic spices that reflect their unique history and faith.
The halal cuisine of the Cham people is, therefore, a vital and delicious part of Cambodia's diverse culinary landscape. It tells a story of history, of faith, and of a proud cultural identity expressed through food. By beautifully blending their own rich spice traditions with the ingredients of the Khmer land, the Cham community has created a distinct and cherished cuisine. It serves as a perfect final example of how the food of Cambodia is not one single thing, but a rich and beautiful collection of many different flavors, each with its own unique history and its own delicious story to tell.
