Sweet sticky rice with coconut milk is a common Cambodian dessert in Phnom Penh restaurants. “Sticky Rice and Mango” is steamed sticky rice topped with warm coconut milk and seasonal fruits. Commonly is the sweet and sour Southeast Asian specialty – Golden Diamond Mango. Some restaurants will use local brown syrup instead of coconut milk, and the whole plate of sticky rice will shine like a brown-red gem! Whether it’s coconut milk or palm syrup, the dedicated balance between sour and sweet in this dessert will let you clean up the whole plate!
Rolled Banana Cake is particularly popular during the Khmer New Year in April and Pchum Ben Festival in October. Although many people call this kind of dessert “Cake”, baked cakes such as the “banana cake” are different. The traditional method is to mix sticky rice with banana and wrap it in banana leaves to steam a long-lasting sweetness. During the holidays, Cambodians always bring this traditional dessert to temples or directly gift them to monks for praying.
Seaweed jelly is a kind of colorful jellies mixed together with ice. Although it looks like an artificial pigment product, they are natural jellies made of seaweed. The most authentic way to eat is to add jelly with sago, mung beans, soybeans, and shaved ice with coconut milk. From the appearance, the jelly ice in seaweed is a bit like shaved ice often eaten by the Chinese, but the unique taste of those jelly is the unique taste of Cambodia.
The banana is peeled and wrapped in the dough, and then fried until it becomes golden and crisp. This is the most common home-cooked snack in Cambodia-fried banana. Most countries in Southeast Asia have fried bananas as a homemade traditional snack. Most Cambodian families plant bananas and most Cambodian mothers can cook this kind of fruity dessert.
Cambodian pumpkin custard is a dessert from Phnom Penh. It is influenced by Portuguese merchants and inspired by Eastern and Western cultures. Making the pumpkin custard is not complicated, but it requires certain skills to succeed. It is very challenging: dig out a medium-sized pumpkin, pour the egg, coconut milk, coconut sugar, and other condiments, and steam it. The pumpkin size will affect the steaming method and taste, and the successful custard will steam the sweet aroma of the pumpkin into the custard and keep the custard soft and tender without destroying the appearance of the pumpkin.
The rice dumplings are as white as snow, but this snack has a dark nickname called Husband Killers because of betrayal, the wife made this snack and choked her husband to death. Besides the legendary revenge, Num Plae Ai can be sweet, the sticky rice skin is wrapped with coconut sugar, after steaming, sprinkle with coconut shreds and lightly bite, the golden brown syrup which is turned into the water the heat will flow out!
Breakfast not only reflects the social lifestyles but also experiences historical and cultural changes. Nom Korng is Cambodian donuts, also called “ring cakes” by locals. This kind of dessert is made by kneading sticky rice into strips then circled and deep-fried, and topped with brown sugar. Although the donuts are spread all over the world, Nom Korng still retains its original. In Cambodia’s local markets, there are some sellers shouting “Nom Korng dol chnganh mok houy”, which means “A delicious ring cake is coming now !”.
Roasted Honeycomb should be classified as an exotic delicacy. The roasted honeycomb can be grilled by wrapping it in plantain dishes or tin foil. Some people even grill it directly on the fire. Roasted honeycombs in plantain dishes are more common and can be seen in the streets and alleys of Cambodia. The small vendors pushed the carts, and there was a small stove on the cart. The honeycombs placed on the stove were wrapped in banana leaves, when we pass by, it still emits a tempting BBQ smell. With the promotion of this food, many rural farmers began to engage in artificial breeding and collecting honey. However, most people still like to go to the wild to collect this pure natural flavor. Therefore, the price of roasted honeycomb will be more expensive than other local snacks.
Cambodian’s first breakfast was Khmer noodles (Nom Pajok). The Khmer noodle soup consists of Khmer noodles with ginger-flavored, green curry or coconut milkfish soup, topped with mint leaves, bean sprouts, banana blossoms, cucumbers, and other vegetables. This typical spice came was introduced from ancient India in the past few centuries. As early as the first century, the Funan era was established in Cambodia, taking Hinduism as the national religion. It was deeply influenced by Indian culture. Along with the introduction of curry spice, there are the Khmer language, writing system, and religious beliefs that have influenced today.
There are many unique snacks in Cambodia, such as pickled fruits, raw clams, chilly and salt-smeared fruit slices, etc, but some street snacks are so nonmainstream that they are so creepy just thinking. It is especially recommended for foreigners who want to experience exotic cultures’ advanced versions. Cambodians get used to with those tastes, but they are among the top three extraordinary street snacks that ordinary people have played!
“Balut” is the most horror food on the global terrorist food list. Many people mistakenly think that the baluts are unique in Vietnam. In fact, there are edible traditions throughout Southeast Asia and parts of China. The eating methods are slightly different in each region, but mainly the balut that has been incubated for about 15 days can be shelled and eaten after being boiled in boiling water. Because it is an egg with fertilized eggs, half a month is enough to see the shape of the duckling. It has complete blood vessels and a roughly shaped body. If it is incubated for a few more days, it can sometimes be late for bones or feathers. In Vietnam, people believe that eating balut can supplement the nutrients needed for the study. In the Philippines and Cambodia, high-quality baluts are regarded as a supplement for women’s confinement and are sometimes used as a beauty product. Normally, it is often dipped in ingredients such as salt, pepper, lemon, Vietnamese coriander, and pickled garlic slices. Some people will add condiments such as shredded ginger, chili, and fish sauce, and mix the taste with a little sugar. These ingredients are mainly to eliminate the faint fishy smell of balut, so sometimes the sellers will recommend their own ingredients, such as banana slices, lemongrass, and so on. Besides the special ingredients, the particular stores will use a special tray to set up the baluts because the delicious soup is the essence of the whole balut, and it is convenient for the guests to break the eggshells and dig out the meat.
Cambodian stinky fish (Prohok) is made from fresh mudfish and other caught freshwater fish that are taken out of their organs and added to a salt-cured sauce. After pickling and muddying, you can directly add coriander, lemon, and other spices to eat, and you can eat it with green mango. It can also be wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for bibimbap or green vegetables. It is an indispensable key ingredient for many Cambodian cuisines. Cambodians always say “no salt, no stinky fish” which means that the dishes are not tasty. In the fishing season, the fresh fish must be exposed to the sun for a whole day before being picked, and it can be opened and eaten after 20 days. However, in the authentic method, it takes 3 years for the quality to be good to have the top-fermented taste. Because of the strong “scent” of stinky fish sauce, locals call it Cambodian cheese, and this taste is also the main reason why foreign media listed stinky fish as the world’s 13 most terrible food. The finished product of stinky fish pickled looks like ordinary fish pieces. Nothing is attractive because the offensive of stinky fish is not attractive, but in smell “The stimulating gas makes my tear flow” and “the sauce that impacting my soul. ” and “this is not something that can be described in superficial terms like the taste, it is an attack. “ Do you think the durian taste is so strong that you can’t stand it? Compared with Cambodian cheese, the taste of the king fruit is just a small thing.
Some people say that trip to Cambodia without trying entomophagy is incomplete. You can find small vendors of entomophagy in the streets and alleys of Cambodia because these protein dishes are very popular with the general public! It is said that such snacks did not appear in history; Cambodia is rich in products, and insects are not actually the food source of the early Khmer people, but because of chaos and famine, people have opened up the types of ingredients in their recipes. Now Cambodians love to eat entomophagy is no longer because there are limited food sources. Cicadas, bee pupae, scorpions, etc. are all popular products on the stall. The seller fries them crispy, even if they are piled on every plate. It is as high as a hill and often sold out within a few hours. Many young people in Cambodia like fried crickets with Angkor beer. When they want to gather, they will be swept at a stall. The most representative of fried giant tarantulas are often seen in movies. The poisonous spiders that came out of the cave have 8 legs like crab meat, and the delicate taste of the abdomen is conquered by the powder. In recent years, due to over-exploitation of food capture, the massive reduction in production has attracted attention and even made headlines. Due to the short supply, the great tarantula in early 2000 only cost 300 riels (around 0. 08 dollars at that time). Now a bit larger than a chi’s palm cost at least 1 dollar each. The price in non-production season is almost equal to a day’s salary. However, for those who are good at this, the “super delicacy” wrapped in minced garlic and salt, freshly caught and fried, hot and crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside is beyond measured by money. It is also said that compared with the fried insect dishes in other Southeast Asian countries, the Cambodian tarantula is a traditional snack that is only available locally, so you must try it. Food used to satisfy hunger during the war and is now loved by locals and tourists from all over the world, fried giant tarantulas have become the hottest specialty snacks on the streets and alleys.
