🇰🇭 The cattle breeds of Cambodia

Cattle stand at the edge of Cambodia's food story. A Chinese visitor centuries ago noted butter and milk curds, and beef lends its name to a few borrowed dishes, yet rice and fish rule the table and dairy holds a modest place. Cattle keeping itself belongs to the countryside rather than to the kitchen record.

• A Chinese record of 7th-century Chenla lists butter and milk curds among local foods.
• Beef lok lak is thought to have entered Cambodia from Vietnam.
• French rule left Cambodia butter, condensed milk and the baguette sandwich.
• Butter and margarine are now favoured cooking fats in Cambodian kitchens.
• Cambodian American cooking gives beef a far bigger role than it has in Cambodia.

Cattle in Cambodia

Cattle keep a low profile in the surviving picture of Cambodian food. Rice and fish anchor the table, and the keeping of cows goes nearly unrecorded; what survives is a record of eating. A Chinese account of 7th-century Chenla describes a diet with plenty of butter and milk curds, both foods drawn from cattle, so dairy clearly had a place long ago. Beef arrived later in borrowed dishes: lok lak is thought to have come from Vietnam, and French rule left butter behind as a preferred cooking fat. Royal cooking uses more meat than everyday fare, though the kinds of meat are not spelled out. Cambodian cooking shares much with Central Thai and southern Vietnamese kitchens, but that shared fare rests on fish, spices and fermented fish paste rather than on beef.

Regions and communities

Beef's place in the kitchen varies by community. Lok lak, believed borrowed from Vietnam, is one such import that took root. In the Mekong Delta, Khmer Krom cooks traded dishes with Vietnamese and Chinese neighbours, though the exchanged fare leaned on spices and fermented foods rather than beef. The sharpest difference shows in the diaspora: since the late 1970s about 200,000 Cambodians have made homes in the United States, and their cooking gives beef and chicken a far bigger role than meals in Cambodia itself.

Milk, butter and beef

Dairy and beef sit at the margins of the kitchen. The oldest record, a Chinese note on 7th-century Chenla, lists butter and milk curds among the foods people ate. Butter later returned with French rule and is now, with margarine, a favoured cooking fat; it also tops baguette sandwiches along with pâté or sardines in oil. Condensed milk, another French import, goes into coffee. Beef appears chiefly in lok lak, a stir-fried dish that also comes in an 'English' version with fried potatoes. Royal cooking calls for more meat than home cooking does, and beef ranks with chicken as the meat that dominates Cambodian American tables.

Today

Fast food chains from Asia and the West have moved into Phnom Penh since the turn of the century, most popular with younger eaters. In the United States, Cambodian American cooking centres on meat, and past food deprivation has been linked to fatty meat and higher obesity rates. A 'New Cambodian Cuisine' movement of chefs in Siem Reap has been reworking traditional dishes since the early 2010s.