“Many of the people own their houses, but possess no tables, benches, basins, or buckets.
An earthenware pot serves to cook the rice, and sometimes earthenware stove for making sauce. Three stones are buried to form a hearth; ladles are made from coconuts. For serving rice, they make use of pottery dishes from China or copperware. To hold sauce, they fashion leaves into little cups which, even when filled with liquid, let nothing escape. "Chiao" leaves are also used to make little spoons for carrying liquid to the mouth; these they throw away when the meal is finished. They also keep beside them a tin or earthenware bowl filled with water for rinsing the hands, since only their fingers are used in eating rice, which is sticky. Wine is drunk from metal goblets, but poor people content themselves with earthenware cups. Every person dining in the houses of the nobility is given silver plates, and sometimes even gold ones.
At royal banquets a great number of food utensils are used, fashioned in a very special manner. Mats from Ming-chou are laid on the ground, and in some houses skins of tigers, panthers, deer and so forth, are laid down, as well as rattan mats.
Food is protected by cloth, and in the King’s palace use is made of double-woven silk spangled with gold, all of which are gifts of foreign merchants.
To hull the rice the Cambodians do not employ grindstones, contenting themselves with bruising it with a mortar and pestle.”
Chou Ta-kuan
Chinese envoy writing back to the Emperor in the 13th Century
These paragraphs from the celebrated account of Chou Ta-kuan on the customs of the Khmer Empire are the only available written description of the home and kitchen of ordinary Khmers at the height of their king’s power in the late 13th century. Chou Ta-kuan was part of a Chinese mission and spent a year between 1296 and 1927 at Angkor, the centre of power of what the Chinese knew as Chenla.
He returned to China to write Notes of the Customs of Cambodia in which he tells of the lives of the Khmer king and his people, from what many scholars say is his Middle Kingdom perspective. His keen observations are most valuable nonetheless.
The only other description of ordinary life in the Khmer Empire can be seen on the south wall of the Bayon temple, built in the 12th and 13th centuries during the reigns of Kings Jayavarman VII to Jayavarman VIII. All the monuments of the Angkor Empire serve religious purposes or honour rulers and their ancestors. The carvings on the south wall give us a glimpse of how food was prepared, what utensils were used, and how the cuisine was enjoyed. Many of the utensils and cooking techniques seen carved into the stone can still be found in homes throughout Cambodia today.
On the south wall the bas-reliefs even show a busy restaurant and a few steps away a scene shows people dressed in Chinese attire cooking a deer. An Angkorean kitchen is believed by some to be located at Wat Athvea, four kilometres south of Siem Reap city.
The structure was built during the reign of Suryavarman II (1113-1150), one of the greatest Khmer kings who initiated the construction of Angkor Wat. Villagers from nearby communities believe the temple, located by the Siem Reap River, once housed a kitchen which catered to the Khmer kings.
The villagers point to loose stones from the temple, which have fallen over time, and describe them as the kraya cham-en meaning "the preparation of the royal meal".
The villagers talk about brick stoves and a wall where meat, baskets of ingredients, and utensils were hung. There was never a roof over the structure so as to allow the smoke to escape quickly. Local people say this is what they were told by their parents, who in turn were told by their parents.
Professor Claude Jacques argues that there is no archaeological evidence a kitchen has survived the centuries since the Angkor Empire. The reason for this, he says, is simply that anything that was not to honour the gods was built of perishable material – even the kings’ palace. He says that was because men are mortal and will cease to exist one day and so too are the materials relating to his life. The gods, however, are immortal and thus stone was used to honour them forever.
The professor believes that the only glimpses of the ancient cuisine are those in the writings of Chou Ta-kuan and those on the south wall of Bayon. The Khmer kitchen today, as it is found in the countryside, is usually detached from the main house. It is close enough to be of easy access, but far enough away and airy to ensure smoke from firewood and undesirable odours do not disturb the main household.
The most important utensils found in the kitchen are:
- The mortar and pestle to make the kroeung
- A bamboo sieve for filtering the prahok stock and ripe tamarind juice
- Various earthen stoves providing the different intensities of heat required to cook different dishes
- A coconut grater
- Earthen pots for cooking rice and soup, and for storing water
- Jars for storing prahok and kapi, and other ingredients, and
- Loose bamboo baskets for storing vegetables.
In many kitchens aluminium pots have replaced earthenware. Utensils are usually hung on the walls of the kitchen so they are in easy reach. The frying pan is also commonly found these days since the Khmers adopted frying from Chinese cookery. Traditional Khmer cooking is centred on boiling, grilling and roasting.
In some houses, there is also a bigger mortar for grinding rice, and flat round bamboo trays for separating the husk from the grain. There are not parts of the kitchen, however, but considered part of the household possessions.
