May 4, 2010SOURCE: Epicure
This spicy cuisine is stepping up for a turn in the spotlight, writes David Sutherland.
CHAN Uoy is excited. The part-owner and food director of Melbourne's only Cambodian restaurant, Bopha Devi (which is at two locations: Docklands and Yarraville), is rapt that a Cambodian cookbook, From Spiders to Water Lilies, has been released in Australia. Not just because it supports a great cause - homeless children in Cambodia - but also because it finally puts Cambodian food in the spotlight.
''In terms of tourism, Cambodia is only just now starting to emerge from its black hole, so our cuisine has not become as familiar to people as, say, Thai or Vietnamese,'' he says. ''People have for too long associated Cambodia with Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields. It's about time our great food got some exposure.''
Cambodian food has some similarities to the cuisine of neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam. It also has some marked differences.
Advertisement: Story continues belowThe most obvious is prahok, Cambodia's fermented salted fish, which grew from Cambodia's heavy historical reliance on its massive lake, Tonle Sap (meaning ''Great Lake''), and the Mekong River for freshwater fish.
''In the days of the Khmer empire, people salted and fermented the fish to preserve it,'' Uoy says. ''Over the centuries, prahok has contributed to the flavour of all sorts of Cambodian dishes.''
Prahok is used in everything from soups and salads to curries and stir-fries, and its distinctive salty-pungent flavour provides Cambodian cuisine with its most distinctive element.
''You could say it's an acquired taste,'' Uoy says. ''You either appreciate it or you don't. But when it's used correctly and in the right proportions, it can really enhance a dish.''
Prahok appears in various recipes in From Spiders to Water Lilies, which was produced by Friends International, a Cambodian-based charity dedicated to protecting vulnerable children. Apart from the other work the charity does to save children from poverty, slavery and abuse, Friends International also has a restaurant in the capital, Phnom Penh, where it teaches former street children how to cook, wait tables and run a business.
The restaurant - named Romdeng, meaning ''friends'' in Khmer - has become hugely popular, both with locals and tourists. It was the restaurant's head chef, Gutav Auer, who assembled the recipes for the book from his own collection and that of the restaurant team.
Uoy says the recipes that are featured in From Spiders to Water Lilies are ''quintessential dishes that encapsulate the essence of Cambodia''.
From Spiders to Water Lilies ($45) is available at cambodiancooking.com.au or from Bopha Devi Docklands and Yarraville.
CHAN Uoy is excited. The part-owner and food director of Melbourne's only Cambodian restaurant, Bopha Devi (which is at two locations: Docklands and Yarraville), is rapt that a Cambodian cookbook, From Spiders to Water Lilies, has been released in Australia. Not just because it supports a great cause - homeless children in Cambodia - but also because it finally puts Cambodian food in the spotlight.
''In terms of tourism, Cambodia is only just now starting to emerge from its black hole, so our cuisine has not become as familiar to people as, say, Thai or Vietnamese,'' he says. ''People have for too long associated Cambodia with Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and the killing fields. It's about time our great food got some exposure.''
Cambodian food has some similarities to the cuisine of neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam. It also has some marked differences.
Advertisement: Story continues belowThe most obvious is prahok, Cambodia's fermented salted fish, which grew from Cambodia's heavy historical reliance on its massive lake, Tonle Sap (meaning ''Great Lake''), and the Mekong River for freshwater fish.
''In the days of the Khmer empire, people salted and fermented the fish to preserve it,'' Uoy says. ''Over the centuries, prahok has contributed to the flavour of all sorts of Cambodian dishes.''
Prahok is used in everything from soups and salads to curries and stir-fries, and its distinctive salty-pungent flavour provides Cambodian cuisine with its most distinctive element.
''You could say it's an acquired taste,'' Uoy says. ''You either appreciate it or you don't. But when it's used correctly and in the right proportions, it can really enhance a dish.''
Prahok appears in various recipes in From Spiders to Water Lilies, which was produced by Friends International, a Cambodian-based charity dedicated to protecting vulnerable children. Apart from the other work the charity does to save children from poverty, slavery and abuse, Friends International also has a restaurant in the capital, Phnom Penh, where it teaches former street children how to cook, wait tables and run a business.
The restaurant - named Romdeng, meaning ''friends'' in Khmer - has become hugely popular, both with locals and tourists. It was the restaurant's head chef, Gutav Auer, who assembled the recipes for the book from his own collection and that of the restaurant team.
Uoy says the recipes that are featured in From Spiders to Water Lilies are ''quintessential dishes that encapsulate the essence of Cambodia''.
From Spiders to Water Lilies ($45) is available at cambodiancooking.com.au or from Bopha Devi Docklands and Yarraville.
2 comments:
khmer cuisine are as unique as khmer culture; however, there are some similarities with neighboring countries. similarities perhaps because let's not forget the khmer empire spread throughout the entire mainland southeast asia at its peak. thus, we do expect the empire's cuisine spread as well. i have no doubt that siem food, liev food and to some extent youn food, especially in the mekong river delta are fusion of khmer food and youn's strong chinese influence. i'm not surprised that over the years when khmer empire weakened, thus siem and neighboring countries gained independence and thus borrowed or adopted heavily from khmer original food of the angkor empire. i have no doubt about that i.e. khmer influence, not vis a versa, really. one has to keep in mind it was the khmer who were the dominant race at during the khmer angkor empire we all know of.
anyway, the other thing i noted in the article is that somebody, perhaps not a khmer person, mentioned the khmer word "romdeng" to translate as "friend". i don't think so, unless it was an old khmer word for friend. however, in modern day camobdia, the khmer word for "friend" is "mit". "romdeng" if i'm correct, it means "galangal", a kind of root khmer often use for cooking ingredient. i think it was a wrong translation as i often see in many khmer reltated books written by westerners. i get me wrong, khmer people are grateful that westerners have interest in writing about khmer and cambodia; however, i think it is wise to consult their books, especially the khmer words and their translation with an educated khmer individual(s) so the translation can be correct. if you ask any educated khmer person, i'm sure they all can translation khmer into english correctly for anyone, really. god bless.
tonle means river and sap is the opposite of salty, so Tonle Sap mean fresh water river.
Romdeng is friend with ginger but doesn't mean FRIEND.
Post a Comment