Phnom Penh Restaurant

About our food
Rice is one of the oldest grains in the world and a staple food of more than half the world’s population. Rice is by far the most important item in the daily diet throughout Asia.

Cambodian food is very much like Thai or Lao food, but less spicier , with a touch of Chinese influence.
Cambodian cooking is full of flavour. The herbs are selectively chosen for the right dish. Most of the herbs are imported from the Southeast Asian countries.

Thai cooking, like that of the whole Southeast Asia, is very much a taste-and-add affair. While the results are splendid, it’s very difficult to obtain recipes because most Thai cooks don't use them. It’s best to watch the cook closely, noting every move and taking careful and cautious notes. Cambodian and Thai food share the same healthy principle ingredient, except Thai’s are hotter and more spicier: Lemon Grass, Galangal, Garlic, Lime Leave, Basil, Parsley, Tamarind pods.

The way we eat
Almost always, eating Cambodian/Thai style will involve a number of people, usually a group of family or friends.Dishes are usually comprised of bite-sized potions, and meal service typically includes only a fork and a spoon. In fact a century or so ago no cutlery (apart from serving utensils) was used at traditional meals. The rice, whether ordinary or glutinous, was pressed into small balls with fingers and then dipped into the other dishes.European spoons and forks appeared during the nineteenth century, at first in the royal circles and later taken up by the general population; the custom today is to actually eat with a dessert-sized spoon, using the fork mainly to move food around on the plate. Almost always there will be a variety of dishes, for it takes more than one or two preparations to achieve the blend of flavours Cambodian/Thais like. An ample supply of rice is always the centerpiece. Traditionally all of the dishes are served at the same time. The Cambodian/Thai cook strives for a balance of flavours, textures and colors.Ideally, the meal offers a combination of flavours: sweet, hot and spicy, sour, salty and bitter. Sometimes several of these are present in a single creation, subtly blending, while in other dishes one flavour predominates. Most often, in addition to the obligatory bowl of rice, there will be a soup of some kind, a curry, a steamed dish, a fried one, a salad, and one or more of the basic sauces.There is generally enough food to accommodate any unexpected guests who may drop in. All the dishes are placed on the table at the same time and can be eaten in no particular order. Dinners at the table serve themselves only one or two mouthfuls of a dish at a time, allowing everyone to share the same dishes.The preferences of individual cooks will dictate how strongly the various flavours are emphasized. When using these recipes Western cooks may wish to alter them so that the flavours are sweeter, less salty or less hot.

Population and People
Cambodia's population stands at 12 million, of which the Khmer make up 90%. Other groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai and Burmese and various ethnic hill tribes, many of the latter living in the mountainous regions to the north and southwest. The Khmer account for 80 percent of agricultural workers, while the Vietnamese and Chinese dominate the business sector.

Language
Cambodia's official language is Khmer, and this is spoken by the majority of the population. However, Vietnamese and several Chinese dialects can also be heard. Unlike the languages of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and China, Khmer is non-tonal, but has also picked up and adapted many words from Sanskrit and Pali. Khmer has also borrowed many terms from Chinese and European languages, particularly French.

The roots of written Khmer derive from a South Indian alphabet. It uses thirty-three consonants, twenty-four dependent vowels, twelve independent vowels, and diacritic markers. Vowels may be written before, after, over, or under a consonant symbol. Unfortunately, 50% of the population is illiterate.

Religion
The state religion of Theravada Buddhism was first introduced to Cambodia during the days of the great Angkor kingdom and prospered. For centuries, monks were the only literate people residing in rural communities, and filled the important role of teachers. However, in 1975, the Khmer Rouge massacred the majority of monks and destroyed most of the temples and it was not until after the Vietnamese invasion that Buddhism was openly practiced.

Cambodia - A Brief History
Apsara

Cambodia's modern-day culture has its roots in the 1st to 6th centuries in a state referred to as Funan, know as the oldest Indianised state in Southeast Asia. It is from this period that evolved Cambodia's language, part of the Mon-khmer family, which contains elements of Sanskrit, its ancient religion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Historians have noted, for example, that Cambodians can be distinguished from their neighbours by their clothing - checkered scarves known as karmas are worn instead of straw hats.

Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the rise to power of King Jayavarman II in 802. The following 600 years saw powerful Khmer kings dominate much of present-day Southeast Asia, from the borders of Myanmar east to the South China Sea and north to Laos.

It was during this period that the Khmer kings built the most extensive concentration of religious temples in the world - the Angkor temple complex. This complex covers an area of 400 square kilometers in the province of Siem Reap. The area contains more that 100 temples and more than 1080 temples across the country. The most successful of the Angkor's kings, Jayavarman II and Jayavarman I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, also devised a masterpiece of ancient engineering: a sophisticated irrigation system that includes barays (gigantic man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as many as three rice crops a year. Part of this system is still in use today.

As the Angkor period ended, Cambodia's capital moved south to Longvek, then to Oudong, and finally to the present-day capital pf Phnom Penh. Among the main features of the post-Angkorean era, besides the movement of the capital, was a widespread conversion to Theravada Buddhism, illustrated on temple carvings, where Buddhist features gradually replaced Hindu features.

The 15th to 17th centuries represented a time of foreign influence, when expansionist Siam and Vietnam fought over Cambodia.By the mid-1800s, Cambodia, like most other countries in Asia, came under increasing pressure from European colonial powers. In 1863, King Norodom signed a Protectorate Treaty with France. In 1945, the Japanese briefly ousted the French. Encouraged, King Sihanouk campaigned tirelessly and in 1953 he succeeded in winning independence for Cambodia, effectively ending 90 years under French protectorate. King Sihanouk abdicated the throne to his father and took the reins of government himself as head of state.
Throughout the 1950s and 60s Cambodia was self-sufficient and prospered in many areas. However, the quagmire of growing war in Vietnam spread relentlessly, and in 1970, as war spilled over into Cambodia, Prince Sihanouk was overthrown by General Lon Nol.

On 17 April 1975, Lon Nol's weak-ended government was itself overthrown by the Khmer Rouge. They immediately emptied the capital of its residents and brought Prince Sihanouk back, only to hold him under house arrest. The ensuing four years "Reign of terror" under Pol Pot's democratic Kampuchea resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people.

In 1979, the Khmer Rouge was overthrown and the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea was established. In 1989 the Vietnamese withdrew the last of their troops and the government renamed the country State of Cambodia. The SOC ruled independently until the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991 created the United Nations Transitional Authority (UNTAC). Supported by the presence of some 22000 UN troops, UNTAC in May 1993 supervised general elections in Cambodia. A second general election was held in 1998.

Cambodia today enjoys a parliamentary system with one prime minister, Hun Sen. A constitution was adopted in 1993, the same year King Norodom Sihanouk returned to the throne. His Majesty remains a symbol of national unity to his people.

Geography & Climate
Geography
Bordering Laos in the north, Vietnam in the east, and Thailand to the west, Cambodia has the Gulf of Thailand on its 440km-long southern seaboard. More than 60% of its 181,035 square km is forested, with the north and southwest of the country consisting of tropical forest and highlands, while the central basin is fertile land dissected by the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers.

The capital city Phnom Penh sits at the intersection of these two rivers. The Mekong passes through the entire length of the country. From the northern border, it travels 500km south until it crosses the Vietnamese border in the south.

Climate
Cambodia's monsoon climate gives it two distinct seasons - a dry season from November and April followed by six months of rainy season. Rainfall is highest between May and June, and September and October. Temperatures can approach 40 degrees Celsius in April, while the coldest month is January.