Curry connects Cambodia with Thai¬land, except for the Thai’s generous usage of chili, while Vietnam and Cambodia share the sour soup. However, food that is absolutely genuine in its ethnicity to Cambodia is unique, flavourful, and quite different from foods normally associated with Cambodia.

Coconut is very popular in cooking. It is largely used in foods considered deli¬cacies, such as amok, the sweet coconut curry served inside a hollowed coconut, as well as countless sweets and desserts. While bitter herbs and dried salt fish make up the diet of the average Cambodian worker, it is by far the egg, which is most sought after to put on a dinner table. Eggs come in all varieties from all different kids of birds and they are considered fantastic as a treat! Quail eggs sell for a few hundred riel each and are eaten in droves with salt and black pepper. Fermented, aged duck eggs are also a big favourite, though they rarely appeal to Western palates. Several dozen boiled eggs will be bought on special occasions and eaten all at once by everyone involved.

The Khmer palate also relies heavily on salt. If a dish is had and it doesn’t taste salty then it is fair to say that the chef might not know how to cook proper Khmer food. The savoury soup kha stands as a beautiful dish made to salted perfection - a sweet red soup eaten with pieces of stewed beef, stewed pickled eggs, served over a generous helping of rice noodles or scooped out with warm baguette bread. Surprisingly, kha doesn’t have too many vegetables whereas much Khmer food is made up of mostly vegetables of all sorts in soups, stir-fries, or boiled and eaten with salt.

Given that Cambodia is a land connected by many different water systems, it is only logical that fish is a mainstay in the Khmer diet, and the Khmer people eat more fish per capita than in any other country. Prahok, dried salt fish, is the signature food of Cambodia. It would be very odd for an English speaking Khmer not to ask if you like prahok. It is considered so Khmer that if you can honestly talk about how you like it prepared and what foods it tastes good with, then you will have instant friends that will insist on going out to eat prahok with you. Personally, I really do like it, especially in ma chew, a sour soup with five or six kinds of vegetables and eaten over rice which makes it into a kind of porridge. Prahok can, and often will, be added into many different kinds of common foods although restaurants rarely serve it and if they do then the menu will say so.

If you want to stick to something not too odd, try the ginger stir-fry, finely diced and fried with a meat of your choice. The ginger gives the spicy-sweet taste that Khmer ginger is famous for! Also the Kampot pepper stands out among Khmer spices. The French loved the Kampot black pepper and to this very day there are restaurants in France that will take no other. There are many reasons why Cambodians consume so much salt and black pepper in their daily diet; one reason is that the black pepper is deliciously perfect and grown locally to suit local tastes at a decent price. Fish is also complemented by the pepper and makes it much more flavourful than the regular mud fish. Try dining Khmer and have real Kampot black pepper!