Cambodian cuisine combines the culinary traditions of many different ethnic groups in Cambodia, an important subset of which is Khmer cuisine, the nearly-two-thousand-year-old culinary tradition of the majority Khmer people.[1][2] Over centuries, Cambodian cuisine has incorporated elements of Indian, Chinese (in particular Teochew), Portuguese and French cuisine, and due to some of these shared influences and mutual interaction, it has many similarities with the cuisines of Central Thailand, and Southern Vietnam and to a lesser extent also Central Vietnam, Northeastern Thailand and Laos.
Khmer cuisine can be classified into rural, elite and royal cuisine,[3] although the difference between the royal and popular cuisine is not as pronounced as in the case of Thailand and Laos.[4] The Khmer royal dishes use more varied and higher quality ingredients, and contain more meat.[3]
Historical influences
2nd–9th century
Many spices in Khmer cuisine were introduced by Indian merchants around 2nd century. The Indian influence on cuisine among other aspects of Khmer culture was already noted by a Chinese visitor around 400 AD.[5] From South India through Java, Khmer royal cuisine adopted the preparation of curry pastes, adding lemongrass and galangal to the recipe.[6] According to Cambodian anthropologist Ang Choulean, the influence of Indian cuisine on rural Cambodian cuisine has been limited or even non-existent.[7]
A passage in the Book of Sui mentions that the food eaten by inhabitants of 7th century Chenla "includes a lot of butter, milk-curds, powdered sugar, rice, and also millet, from which they make a sort of cake which is soaked in meat juices and eaten at the beginning of the meal."[8]
9th–15th century
A bas-relief of the 12th/13th century Bayon temple depicting a Khmer outdoor kitchen cooks grilling sang vak and cooking rice and a wild boar and servers carrying away trays of food.
Between 9th and 15th century the culinary influence of the growing Khmer Empire spread beyond the borders of modern-day Cambodia into what is now Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.[9] According to Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan's account, onions, mustard, chives, eggplants, watermelons, winter gourds, snake gourds, amaranth and many other vegetables,[10] as well pomegranates, sugarcane, lotus flowers, lotus roots, Chinese gooseberries, bananas, lychees, oranges, and many other fruits were available in the Khmer Empire in late 13th century.[11]
Food crops and other plants were actively cultivated and harvested in tropical gardens both in and around cities and temples of the Khmer Empire. Archaeobotanical investigations at Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm have identified macroremains of rice, sesame, mung beans, crepe ginger, black peppers, long peppers, and either citron or kaffir lime rind, as well as phytoliths from plants of Cucurbitaceae, Mus, Arecaceae, and Canarium families,[12] while archaeobotanical investigations at 14th–15th century Angkor Thom have identified macroremains of rice, sesame, mung beans, pigeon peas, hyacinth beans, and yardlong beans.[13]
For centuries, Khmer Empire was the dominant Indianized civilization in the region and its influence also reached culinary arts. Khmer Empire played a mediating role in transferring the Indian culinary influence now fundamental to Central Thai cuisine.[14] The close affinity between Cambodian and Central Thai cuisine has been attributed to the extensive, centuries-long contact between the Khmer Empire and Ayutthaya Kingdom. The flavour principles of many Cambodian dishes, such as sour fish soups, stews and coconut-based curries, including steamed curries, are very similar to Central Thai cuisine, although Cambodian dishes contain much less chilli and sugar,[15] and more aromatic spices such as cardamom, star anise, cloves, and nutmeg, along with lemongrass, ginger, galangal, coriander, and wild lime leaves.[9]
Khmer cuisine has also influenced Thailand's Isan cuisine[16] and Khmer cuisine is very popular in the region's lower southern provinces of Surin, Sisaket and Buriram that have a large Northern Khmer population.[17] Khmer-influenced dishes of the Surin province include sanlo chek, salot rao or kaeng phueak, ang kaep bop, and som jruk.[18] As Thai tribes migrated southwards they were influenced by the Khmer practice of fermenting fish and adopted local ingredients, including prahok, which became imbedded in the Isan (as pla ra) and Lao cuisine (as padaek) from the time both Isan and Laos were part of the Khmer Empire.[19]
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