Rice, Fish and Edible Flowers
An Ancient Civilization, a Noble Cuisine
Angkor Wat
“The Cambodians have some two hundred different ways of describing rice of various kinds.” — Christopher Pym [1]
Cambodian cuisine, descended from the ancient Khmer society, is one of the world’s oldest cuisines. [2]
It is now in a period of revival and Continue reading
Fish Sauce, Nuoc Mam and Sea Ghost Fingers
The National Dish Is a Soup — Even at Breakfast
“Only the French imposed their own cuisine upon their Asiatic possessions.” — David Dodge [1]
“He was not yet Ho Chi Minh. It was 1917 and he was Nguyen Ai Quoc and he was a pastry cook under the great Escoffier.” — Robert Olen Butler [2]
Three Crabs Brand Fish Sauce
Vietnamese cooking is light and delicate, healthy, and remarkably varied. Its famous dishes can be very unusual and even have poetic names, like one for Crab Claws called Sea Ghost Fingers. Continue reading
The Honorable Concubine’s Favorite Fruit
First Food Shipped by Refrigerated Transport
“Eunuchs gallop up in continuous succession,
“Bearing delicacies for the Imperial kitchens.”
— Tu Fu, “Ballad of Lovely Women” [1]
It was the eighth century. The eunuchs were Imperial couriers, a kind of Chinese Pony Express.
Their saddlebags were crammed full of Continue reading
