How Do You Like Your Eggs? Fertilized or Unfertilized?

“Cambodia is pork with rice. Soup with rice. Noodles with rice. Cambodia is rice with rice.” –Katie Muller

In Cambodia, if you haven’t eaten rice, you haven’t eaten. Linguistically, it doesn’t make sense to ask someone, “Hope howie nov?” (Hope = eat, howie nov = already) It is imperative to use the word bai, rice. (Hope bai howie nov?) Rice is more than a food here; it is a daily staple with which each meal is served. By my rough estimation, I’ve eaten around 500 bowls of rice in the past year. Everyone laughs when I tell them that the year before Peace Corps I remember eating rice only twice, but here I eat it two times a day.

So, the real question is, what do people eat with their rice? Generally speaking, Cambodians consume inexpensive and fresh local products. Breakfast, the one meal often eaten outside the home, is usually rice with pork or rice noodles with beef. Second only to fish in terms of cost-effectiveness, pork is frequently served with lunch and supper as well. However, these later meals usually include fish or, less often, beef or chicken. Either fried or boiled in soup, vegetables are the main component of the second and third meals served around noon and 7:00 pm in my family. Occasionally, noodles or eggs will be eaten as well.

The use of chopsticks is generally reserved for noodles, although they can be used when eating some meat dishes, especially at restaurants. Spoons are the utensil of choice for almost everything, but forks may be used to help guide food onto the spoon (but NOT to place food in the mouth). Much like elementary and high school, knives are never given.

While I wouldn’t say I’m impressed by Khmer food, I do have several favorite dishes which are truly delicious and fulfilling. By far, my favorite meals include noodles, especially fried yellow noodles (think fried Ramen). My family has learned that I don’t exactly adore white rice, and when we eat noodles, they don’t give me any rice at all! Fried rice and fried vegetables are tasty, especially accompanied by locally grown black pepper. The three best truly Khmer dishes, though, are curry with Khmer noodles (or bread), fatty pork wrapped in lettuce and dipped in a slightly spicy peanut sauce, and thinly-sliced beef in a salad of shredded greens with chopped peanut. Finally, the variety of fresh fruits is spectacular.

While most Khmer food is palatable, there are some things I’ve eaten which I don’t care to try again. Although some volunteers claim that prohok, a fermented fish paste, is the most disgusting Khmer food, I’d have to go with fertilized duck eggs. Even though prohok has an awful smell and taste, spooning the feathers and developing body of a small bird into your mouth is far more repulsive, in my opinion. (However, I can’t say the flavor was bad…) While frog legs were pretty good, I didn’t enjoy eating the entire frog stuffed with some kind of cooked leaves. Also getting negative reviews are ant soup and durian moon cake. While I occasionally eat an ant, mosquito, or some small insect with my rice at night, a soup full of ants was a little much. As for the moon cake, not only did it contain the odorous durian fruit, but it also included an (unfertilized) egg which had been hard boiled then left to bake in a pile of salt for a few weeks before being so thoughtfully incorporated into my Pchum Ben holiday treat.

Having a very positive relationship with my family, I am fortunately never served any of the foods mentioned in the last paragraph except prohok which is sometimes added into soups. My host mom thoughtfully ensures there is something I will like at each meal, be it fried meat, vegetables, egg, potato, or noodles. I only rarely eat fish or seafood, but once in a while I’ll try. In Cambodia I’ve come to adore vegetables, and I’ve tempered my love for meat. I eat much healthier now than ever before, and it’s noticeable in my weight loss, now over 40 pounds. While not every meal is enjoyable, especially choking down bowl after bowl of rice, I’m comfortable with what I eat, and I’m especially appreciative of the care my family takes to ensure I’m happily well-fed.

Today my parents took me out to breakfast for rice noodles with bean sprouts and partially cooked beef (and a hunk of fully cooked beef on the bone). Also pictured (clockwise from left): large glass mug with hot water to sanitize chopsticks and silverware, small glass for tea (free!), toothpicks, and condiments (sugar, lime, and slightly spicy/tangy sauce) Price: $1.25

Also from breakfast, this is iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk. (Stirring before drinking is highly recommended.) Price: $0.50

Today's lunch featured the third dish of my "truly Khmer favorites." I didn't ask, but I think (hope) those are frogs on the top left with some kind of fish. The top right is leftover bamboo, carrots, and leaves.