Kuy Teav is a Cambodian rice noodle soup similar to but distinct from Vietnamese Phở. It’s a popular breakfast item across Southeast Asia – with local variants like Hủ Tiếu in Viet Nam, Kway Teow in Malaysia, and Kuai Tiao in Thailand. It’s usually made with pork stock. It uses different spices and rice noodles…
Tag: Food
ផ្លែទៀប | Sugar Apple
Also known as the Custard Apple or Sweetsop, I thought for the longest time that this was Milk Fruit but it’s actually Custard Apple. In Khmer, it’s called ផ្លែទៀប (plae tieb). It’s a sweet fruit with a mild citrusy taste. It has many large seeds that are smooth and quite solid. The outer shell peels…
Cambodian Spice Pack
This morning at the local market I picked up two of what I call ‘Cambodian spice packs.’ In traditional rural life, villagers wouldn’t buy these ingredients but would have them growing in their yards. Life is a bit different in the city – though many homes still have these growing in pots – so they’re…
Durian
The first time I had durian I was told, “it smells like hell but tastes like heaven.” Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It tasted like a rotten sweet onion. This was in Ohio in the year leading up to my first cross cultural trip to Viet Nam. Because of that experience I avoided eating durian…
Why do so many Cambodians have diabetes?
Cambodians have surprisingly high rates of diabetes. Why? Is it because they put a lot of sugar in their coffee? This is what one expatriate told me when I mentioned that I was excited to have Cambodian coffee again. To paraphrase “Be careful, you’ll get diabetes.” I normally drink my coffee black so it’s a…
Ugh. Food poisoning.
I’m very susceptible to food poisoning. Even back home in the United States. It was a challenge for me last time – living in a rural province – as I had major bouts of food poisoning every two to three weeks for my first two years. I lost a significant amount of weight because of…