The Food & Cooking of Cambodia: Over 60 authentic classic recipes from an undiscovered cuisine, shown step-by-step in over 250 stunning photographs; ... using ingredients, equipment and techniques

by Ghillie Basan

Ancient Cambodia was a kingdom with an Indian culture, which then expanded into Burma and Vietnam, later becoming a territory claimed by both Vietnam and Siam. As a result, the Cambodian cuisine has Indian roots, with strong influences from both China an

Genres: Cooking

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2007

About the author

I am a writer, broadcaster, and food anthropologist with fingers in several pies! As a single parent living off the beaten track in the Scottish highlands it is the only way to survive. In the media, I have been dubbed ‘The Original Spice Girl’ and ‘World Food Expert’ but really I’m simply a hospitable hermit! I love to live a little bit wild but I also love to share what I have.

I spent my childhood in East Africa and my teenage years in Scotland, followed by a Cordon Bleu Diploma in London and a degree in Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University. After working and travelling in Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, North America, India, Southeast Asia, and vast chunks of Africa as an English teacher, journalist, and food and travel writer, I returned to the Scottish Highlands. Here, in a remote part of the Cairngorms National Park I have gradually turned a ruined croft into a home where, snowbound in winter with a 3 mile cross-country ski to and from the car to bring in supplies, I have raised my children on my own.

Abridged from Ms Basan's website

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many remarkable similarities between the cuisines of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which are explicable not only by their proximity one to the other but by their history as part of French Indochina. In the first sense, they share commonalities with Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. In the second sense, they eat French bread and make French ice cream. Ghillie Basan's book on Cambodian cookery acknowledges the sharings and the distinctions. The book is wonderfully illustrated not only with a photograph for every finished dish but with step-by-step photographs, as well. The recipes call for ingredients which may be difficult to find in some areas; more suggestions for appropriate substitutions would have been helpful, 'tho they will be apparent to cooks familiar with Vietnamese and Thai cuisines. For the more ambitious cook, there are even recipes for things like making your own fresh rice noodles and making kroeung (Cambodian herb paste) from scratch.
I'm not so sure about the Durian ice cream.