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 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Cambodian cuisine

Cambodian cuisine is an umbrella term for the cuisines of all ethnic groups in Cambodia, whereas Khmer cuisine (Khmer: សិល្បៈធ្វើម្ហូបខ្មែរ; lit. 'Khmer culinary art') refers specifically to the more than thousand years old culinary tradition of the Khmer people. Over centuries, Cambodian cuisine has incorporated elements of Indian, Chinese and more recently French cuisine, and due to some of these shared influences and mutual interaction, it has many similarities with the neighbouring Thai, Vietnamese and Lao cuisines.

Khmer cuisine can be classified into provincial, elite and royal cuisine, although the difference between the royal and popular cuisine is not as pronounced as in the case of Thailand and Laos. The royal and elite dishes use more varied and higher quality ingredients, and contain more meat, while the provincial food is made from simpler and more accessible ingredients.

Because of Cambodia's geographic location, rice and fish, especially freshwater fish, are the two most important sources of nutrients in the Cambodian diet. Rice is a staple food generally eaten at every meal. It is believed to have been cultivated by the ancestors of the Khmers in the territory of Cambodia since 5,000 to 2,000 B.C.

The advanced hydraulic engineering developed during the Khmer Empire allowed the Khmer to harvest rice and other crops three to four times a year. According to the International Rice Research Institute, there are approximately 2,000 rice varieties indigenous to Cambodia bred over the centuries by the Cambodian rice farmers. One of them – "Malys Angkor" (ម្លិះអង្គរ, Mlih Ángkô) – has been regarded the world's best rice.

Khmer cuisine shares some similarities with Indian cuisine as they are both part of the Austroasiatic-speaking group. However, the Mon-Khmer subgroup continued to migrate eastward into Southeast Asia thousands of years ago making them indigenous to the region. The trace of Indianization can be seen in their coconut-based dish similar to curries (ការី, kari), as well as boiled red and white sweets. The Chinese began arriving into the Khmer Empire in the 13th century, bringing their cuisine with them, from which Cambodians adopted their noodles for their Kuyteav and stir frying technique for dishes that are classified as Chinese-influenced dishes in Cambodian cuisine.

The culinary influence of the Khmers is present in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam due to the indigenous Khmer minorities still inhabiting those countries. (1.4 million Khmers in Thailand; 7,700 Khmers in Laos and 1.26 million Khmer Krom in Vietnam) From the 9th to the 15th century the culinary influence of the growing Khmer Empire spread beyond the borders of modern-day Cambodia and into what is now Indonesia. The Khmer palace food developed into a refined royal cuisine and through the Khmer royal cooks brought to the Ayutthaya Kingdom influenced the Thai royal cuisine. New Zealand Cambodian chef Kethana Dunnet has even dubbed Cambodian cuisine "the original Thai cuisine".

In the 17th century, the Portuguese and Spanish began introducing new food crops, such as tomatoes, papaya, pineapple, corn, potato, sweet potato, cassava and chilli from the Americas that were incorporated into local dishes, while the French introduced pâté, salads, wine, coffee, asparagus and baguettes.

In the decades after World War II, many Cambodian urban middle-class and elite families employed cooks trained to prepare French dishes, and the children of these households often did not learn cooking themselves. The transmission of Cambodian traditional culinary knowledge was even more disrupted by the subsequent war, starvation and refugee crisis in the 1970s and 1980s. 

In 1975 when the Khmer Rouge gained power the rice production in Cambodia had dropped by 84% in comparison with 1970, and the policies of the Khmer Rouge (such as the ban of private cultivation of food crops, ban of foraging, ban of private ownership of foodstuff, ban of private cooking and ban of private eating combined with the unattainable rice production quotas, forced labour and insufficient food rations) resulted in one of the deadliest famines in modern history, during which from 1975 to 1979 an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million Cambodians perished (10–20% of the country's population).

With the fracturing of the Khmer society in recent years, like many of its cultural treasures, the finest of the traditional cuisine of Cambodia – both simple and elaborate – stands to be lost forever. Most of the people who cared deeply about food have been killed, have fled the country or have died of old age. At this point, I wouldn't know where to begin to look for the old women who used to guard the secrets of the best spice mixes for curry, preserving them for future generations to enjoy. I assume that these women are all gone.

— Longteine de Monteiro, "The Elephant Walk Cookbook" (1998)

Nowadays, more and more Asian fast food chains (such as The Pizza Company, Lotteria, Pepper Lunch, Yoshinoya and Bonchon) and Western fast food chains (such as Burger King, KFC, Krispy Kreme and Carl's Jr.) are entering the Cambodian market, especially in Phnom Penh, and fast food is becoming increasingly integrated into the Cambodian food scene, particularly among the younger generation. In 2004 Malis, the first Cambodian fine dining restaurant in Phnom Penh, was opened.

 Since the early 2010s there has been an emerging grassroots culinary movement in Siem Reap termed "New Cambodian Cuisine" loosely consisting of six Cambodian chefs and restaurateurs (Pola Siv, Sothea Seng, Pol Kimsan and Sok Kimsan, Mengly Mork and Pheak Tim) experimenting with and modernizing traditional Cambodian dishes. More recently, mobile applications dedicated to Khmer traditional recipes have also been developed, such as "Khmer Cooking Recipe" downloaded more than 100,000 times on Google Play and "Khmer Cooking"#

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking