Author: andrei

For me, the defining characteristic of Khmer cuisine has to be its sourness. Cambodian food embraces tart flavours like no other country I’ve seen before. Diners screw up their mouths…

Guest post by Dom Bailey There are farm shops and there are farm shops. My closest sells ice cream. Nice ice cream, from the milk of the cows that fertilise…

I’ve been running the kitchen at a friend’s restaurant in Cambodia for the past couple of weeks. It’s the wet season, so there aren’t many customers about. But it’s been…

A competition to eat the “world’s hottest curry” has come under fire after all 10 contestants collapsed and had to be treated by paramedics. Restaurant owner Abdul Ali said he…

Words and pics by Dom Bailey Khmer food has never really been on my gastro radar. I’ve never reached for the phone book thinking “ooh I could murder a Cambodian”.…

George Orwell said pepper was good at getting rid of bed bugs, pointing out that it was worth putting up with the sneezing just to rid himself of the terrible,…

Guest post by Dom Bailey They’re out. Sprouting in the dark and damp places. Mysterious things. Here one minute, then they’re not. The essence of the woods, with colours and…

I’ve written a lot about how important soup is to Cambodian cooking. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a food that is so dependent on broths and…

I bought a huge, grapefruit-like fruit the other day that had thick seeds the size of pumpkin seeds, and thick, leathery skin. It was a pomelo – a fruit that…

Guest post by Dom Bailey Never look a gift horse in the mouth. Whatever that means. I wouldn’t know how to cook one either. But it’s that birthday time of…