Cambodia a country better known since the 1970s for bloodshed and turmoil than for its cookery, has nonetheless an interesting culinary history. It has been said that the work done by the cooks of the royal palace and of the aristocracy at Phnom Penh during the first half of the 20th century reflected the same capacity for taking pains and using highly developed techniques which had been displayed by the builders of Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s most famous monument, in the distant past. By all accounts, such cooks produced dishes of a visual appeal equal to or surpassing those of any other cuisine. This is now no more than a piece of history, and a piece which has been insufficiently recorded.
