Cambodian Food & Cooking Classes

Cambodian cuisine is Southeast Asia's least-known great food tradition — a flavour palette that sits between Thai and Vietnamese cooking, using fish sauce, galangal, lemongrass, and the prahok (fermented fish paste) that is the foundation of Khmer cooking. Siem Reap's restaurant and cooking-class scene has developed rapidly since the tourism boom, and the cooking classes (which typically include a market visit, instruction in 3-4 dishes, and the meal) provide the most immersive introduction to a cuisine that most visitors have never encountered.

Fish amok (a coconut curry of freshwater fish steamed in banana leaves, seasoned with a kroeung spice paste of lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, and kaffir lime) is the national dish and the one every cooking class teaches. Lok lak (stir-fried beef served with a lime-and-pepper dipping sauce on a bed of lettuce and tomato), green mango salad, and the Khmer curries (milder than Thai, richer than Vietnamese) round out the standard class menu.

The Siem Reap restaurant scene ranges from the Khmer-fusion restaurants on the streets around Pub Street (try Cuisine Wat Damnak, Cambodia's only Michelin-worthy restaurant) to the street food stalls in the Old Market area (Psar Chas) and the roadside vendors selling grilled meats, noodle soups, and the nom banh chok (Khmer noodles with fish-based green curry) that is the traditional Cambodian breakfast.