The Key to Khmer Cuisine

By blending subtle flavors and spices, Khmer cuisine sets itself apart from the many other styles of food in Southeast Asia. It is similar to Thai cuisine, but is distinctive in creating full flavor without the use of chili. (Khmer cuisine was established before the introduction of chili.) The Khmer culture has mastered the use of herbs and spices to create flavor without the use of fats and meats as well. The hallmark of Khmer cuisine is prahok, a fermented paste made from a small fish called trey riel (Henicorhynchus siamensis). The grey or brown color, strong odor, and intense flavor can intimidate the uninitiated, but prahok is the cornerstone of Khmer cuisine: even the national currency is named after the trey riel. It is so desirable that farmers from outlying provinces will travel great distances to trade rice for it. Prahok is used both as a condiment and as a main element in a variety of Khmer dishes, and it accounts for a large portion of protein in the Khmer diet.

Traditionally, the production of prahok is a community affair. Surrounded with hundreds of pounds of tiny fish, men and women remove the heads, guts, and scales, while children use their feet to crush the bodies of the small fish. The fish can also be processed by a machine, rather than crushed underfoot, but machines fail to remove the bad fish and tend to not process all the fat, which is crucial to prahok flavor. Once processed, the fish pulp is set out to dry in the sun for a day; then it is packed in plastic bags or jars to ferment over weeks or months to produce the signature pungent punch. The result is a spicy mash-like paste of which a little goes a long way. The best quality prahok may be fermented for as long as three years.

The history of the Khmer is written in their food. Many dishes and sauces are similar to those of their neighbors in Thailand. Stir-frying from the Chinese culture and curry dishes from India have all added to the taste of Cambodian cuisine throughout the centuries. There are also traces of French cuisine from the time when Cambodia was part of French Indochina. (The baguette, or the long French bread, is a part of the cuisine and has come to be Cambodia’s national bread.) A typical meal consists of at least three or four separate dishes. Each meal usually includes a sweet, sour, salty, and bitter sauce, to satisfy each taste bud. Rice is a staple eaten at most meals. When prahok is not used as either a paste or dipping sauce, it is most likely to be replaced with kapi, a fermented shrimp paste.

Khmer culture suffered a crippling blow during the purges of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Nearly two million Khmer people were killed, tortured, or worked to death in labor camps, leaving little possibility for economic growth. During those brutal years, prahok was scarce, along with most other food, and many people starved. The Khmer Rouge regime affected the entire culture of the Khmer people. A significant amount of information was lost, and even the Khmer cuisine was affected by policies that did not allow traditions to be passed on. The social and economic effects of that period lasted decades.

After a long slump, Cambodia’s economy took off in 2006, climbing nearly 10 percent in the past three years, compared to the previous annual average of 2 percent. Stimulated by tourism and industrial expansion, the rapid growth created overnight millionaires, leading to a large wealth gap and increased food prices. Today there are nearly 2.5 million people struggling to survive on less than one U.S. dollar a day, unable to afford one of the most important components of their diet. The price of prahok has increased so rapidly that farmers in the countryside and even city dwellers cannot obtain the nutrients that prahok provides.

Prahok also struggles to survive the effects of global warming. After record catches in 2006 and 2007, the numbers of trey riel have plummeted because of rising water temperatures. With the drop off in the numbers of prahok fish, prices for the paste have more than tripled, rising to nearly 50 cents a kilogram from around 12 cents, putting a basic commodity out of reach for many.

The future of prahok in the diet of the Khmer people is unknown, as the true impact of global warming and rising wealth gaps is still unfolding, but the Khmer people have faced severe hardships before, and their culture has always survived.
Kayla Starr is a journalism student at Suffolk College and an intern at Cultural Survival.

Dietitians and doctors debunk some commonly held beliefs about the fruit.

The durian season is in full swing, but those who are also health-conscious may find themselves thinking twice about joining in the feast or holding back.

After all, the fruit has a "bad name", said Ms Bibi Chia, principal dietitian at Raffles Diabetes and Endocrine Centre.

It is said to be fattening, high in cholesterol and "heaty" .

Here, she and her colleagues dissect five commonly held health beliefs about the king of fruit.

1 People with high cholesterol should not eat durian as it can worsen their condition.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

(per 100g of Malaysian durian, or about three seeds)

Energy 160kcal

Protein 2.5g

Total fat 2.8g

Saturated fat 0.85g

Dietary fibre 3.1g

Carbohydrate 31.1g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 8mg

The good news is, you won't find a trace of cholesterol in durians.

The durian also contains monosaturated fats, which may help to lower one's level of triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein, or "bad" cholesterol, said Dr Abel Soh, an endocrinologist at Raffles Diabetes and Endocrine Centre.

But, Ms Chia said, the durian also contains a small amount of harmful saturated fat, which is linked to heart disease.

2 The fruit is heaty and can cause coughs and even fever, if you overindulge in it.

It depends on whether you go with the Western or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective.

The concept of "heatiness" stems from TCM. Durian is considered to possess a "warming" property, said Mr Chew Hong Gian, a TCM physician at Raffles Chinese Medicine.

"For people whose body constitutions are predisposed to heatiness, overindulgence in durians can induce a phlegmy cough, sore throat and constipation," said Mr Chew, adding that fever may also result.

In Western medicine, said Dr Michael Wong, deputy medical director of Raffles Medical, while it is "scientifically" possible that eating durians causes a slight increase in one's body temperature, this does not constitute a fever or lead to coughs or respiratory infections.

The rise in body temperature is due to metabolic and chemical processes that occur when the body digests the dense fruit, he said.

3 Eating durian together with alcohol can be lethal, and taking it with milk can be dangerous, too.

Scientific evidence has not conclusively supported this link, said Dr Wong. Instead, some people suffer from heartburn and bloatedness after feasting on durians, due to the relatively high content of fibre and carbohydrate. This may then be worsened by alcohol intake.

In TCM, drinks with a high alcoholic content have aggressive warming effects, said Mr Chew.

"(When such drinks are) taken with durians, which are also warm in nature, these effects are accentuated and can unsettle the body's natural yin-yang balance."

This can aggravate existing medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, and pose severe health risks, he added.

4 Pour salt water into the husk and drink from it to regulate the "heatiness" from eating durians.

There is some truth in this - in TCM, salt water is believed to help reduce toxins and heatiness.

"It can moderate the undesirable effects of eating durians," said Mr Chew. But there is no need to drink it from the durian husk.

5 Diabetics can eat durians without much worry and the fruit does not taste sugary.

The fruit actually has a high sugar content, so people with diabetes will need to be careful how much they eat.

The flesh around three durian seeds can contain between 20g and 30g of carbohydrates, said Dr Soh. This is equivalent to the amount of sugar in half a can of regular Coke (20g) or a bowl of white rice (30g).

Ms Chia said diabetics should limit their durian intake to just one or two seeds a day.

Cambodian Cuisine Out of the Shadows

Virtually wiped out during the Khmer Rouge, it's time for a Cambodian food comeback: how a clutch of chefs is rediscovering ingredients and cooking styles.

By Leisa Tyler on September 19, 2014

The last fifty years have been a tumultuous time for Cambodia’s national cuisine. It was almost wiped out by the Khmer Rouge, the radical militia that took over the country in the mid 1970’s and aside from burning cookery books - considered bourgeois- killed an estimated two million citizens. After, economically depressed, Cambodia fell into the shadow of neighbouring culinary heavyweights, Thailand and Vietnam. It is now in the midst of a comeback. Pushed along by a handful of chefs keen to highlight the uniqueness of its scope and pantry, dishes like chien chuon – fish with ginger and fermented soya beans - are making their way back onto the menu.

Noted, some of its ingredients are a little gruesome; fish left to rot in the sun for six months is considered a delicacy. But matching contrasts - sweet and bitter, salty and sour- with less chili than neighbouring Thailand and Laos, strong Indian influences and a delicacy refined through the royal courts, Cambodian cuisine holds its own. The trend surfaced in 2005 when Meric, an upscale restaurant at the former Hotel de la Paix in Siem Reap, started adding old Cambodian dishes to their menu- some which hadn’t been seen for years.

“There was virtually no history on Cambodian food at the time and all ‘Cambodian restaurants’ were serving the same 10-15 Khmer dishes”, then restaurant manager Rinna Kan says. “And even fewer tourists were willing to try local food”. Meric inserted the more unusual dishes – like green mango salad tossed with local snake and chicken cooked with ambarella, a sour fruit related to the cashew - into a tasting menu so people wouldn’t have a choice other than to try. It was a bold move that before long gave other restaurants the confidence to step up their game. Meric has now been reinvented as the Dining Room and the Hotel de la Paix as the Park Hyatt.

Chef Pisith Theam’s father was a chef in Phnom Penh but burnt all of his books, notes and recipes when the Khmer Rouge took control, before changing his name and moving to the countryside. Theam has started to document the recipes his father can remember for the Dining Room, which includes dishes like locally caught tuna doused in Kampot green pepper and a mango and green tomato chutney. At the Raffles in Siem Reap, dishes once found in the royal courts have been given new life for the aptly named Restaurant Le Grand. Banana flowers, the astringent pinkish - purple buds which are dry on the palate, are sliced finely and added to whole wild river prawns and smoked fish. Grilled beef is tossed with lime, pepper and chili. It’s fresh and lively, although it would be nice to see only locally produced foodstuffs, rather than beef imported from Australia.

“People think there is nothing to Cambodian food, but there is. It’s the original Thai cuisine”, says chef Kethana Dunnet, perhaps not entirely correctly but definitely controversially. Cambodian born Dunnet was living in New Zealand when the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in 1975. Lamenting at how restaurants watered down dishes to suit tourists, she built her restaurant Sugar Palm with a menu based on her mother and grandmother’s recipes, who died under the Khmer Rouge. While the menu is heavy on the usual suspect dishes, like fish amok curry cooked in a coconut shell and it’s extremely well done; Dunnet’s grilled eggplant salad, smoky and nutty and topped with fried pork and garlic, is worth the plane trip alone.

Romdeng, one of a chain of restaurants run by non-governmental organisation Friends International to teach impoverished street children kitchen and front of house skills, isn’t shy in their outlook. As well as serving rare dishes like saroman, a Muslim lamb curry heavily influenced by early Indian traders, they also serve the Cambodian delicacy, tarantulas: big, fat, hairy, black spiders, and which they sell out of, every day.

prahkeitouj wrote:If the beef is cooked, it'll be a bit harder than marinated. But normally we don't cook it because we use lemon juice instead of cooking it.