Cuisine in Cambodia tends to focus on spices such as ginger, coriander, fresh garlic, lemongrass, and other similar spices to create bold flavors that will leave a lasting impression on your palate.
While you can take a trip to Cambodia to learn about and experience these flavors, learning to cook traditional Cambodian cuisine at home is much easier.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular Cambodian breakfast foods that you can make in the comfort of your kitchen.
Bai Sach Chrouk uses savory pork flavored with bold ingredients like oyster sauce and garlic as the main protein.
The dish also combines fluffy white rice and a delicious sliced-up egg omelet to create the perfect carbohydrate and protein balance to keep you full until lunchtime.
I love savory breakfast rather than sweet, so I loved this dish.
Baw-Baw Sat Moan, also called Borbor Sach Moan, is a delicious dish that combines chicken, rice, vegetables, and spices to create a breakfast porridge.
The fish sauce brings in a nice saltiness to help flavor the broth and the plain chicken, while the lettuce and bean sprouts bring in a bright freshness.
I love the crunch of the bean sprouts, as it adds more texture to the soft rice and chicken. I highly recommend trying this dish.
Kuy Teav uses an oxtail stock as the base for this dish, flavored with fish sauce, onions, coriander, and other spices.
When the delicious stock finishes cooking, beef, rice noodles, and a variety of vegetables get added into the mix to create the perfect breakfast soup.
Don’t let the oxtail stock scare you. I was nervous too but was pleasantly surprised with the flavor when I took my first bite.
Many of us choose doughnuts as our quick, go-to breakfast.
However, Noum Kong switches up the typical doughnut that we know and uses rice flour, coconut milk, and palm sugar to make delectable skinny rings. They also get topped with palm sugar and sesame seeds.
The crunchy, sweet outside pairs so well with the chewy inside. I love the slight coconut flavor and extra crunch they have from the sesame seeds.
Num Banh Chok typically includes rice noodles, a fish-based curry, and fresh vegetables.
The taste of this dish is very savory due to the saltiness of the fish and the bold flavors in the curry, such as chilies and turmeric.
I loved the spices used in the curry, and the dish was very filling overall.
Num Pang combines fresh bread, turkey or chicken, fresh vegetables, and fresh herbs and spices to create a flavorful breakfast sandwich. It’s essentially a Cambodian twist on a turkey sandwich.
I loved the addition of the sriracha mayonnaise, as it added the perfect amount of spice and creaminess.
The crunch of the fresh cucumber is also a great choice for texture and moistness, as cucumbers are 95% water.
If you’re looking for something that resembles an American breakfast, Pong Mouan Snol is the closest you can get.
The dish consists of an egg omelet with tender pork and cabbage filling that gets flavored with fish and soy sauce. I loved the addition of soy sauce to the eggs, as eggs can be rather plain.
This dish is almost all protein, so it kept me full almost until dinner time. One egg has six to seven grams of protein, so this omelet had at least 36 grams of protein due to six eggs!
Num Chet Chien is simply sugar and vanilla-flavored banana pieces wrapped in rice paper and fried. The crunchy outside of the rice paper and the soft, sweet banana inside makes the perfect bite.
I loved every bite of these little pillows of sugary deliciousness.
While this breakfast dish might be a little sugary, bananas are still a great source of potassium, with 422 milligrams per banana!
8 Popular Breakfast Dishes in Cambodia
Learn about traditional breakfasts in Cambodia and try these popular Cambodian breakfast dishes! We provide recipes so you can make them at home or try them abroad.
Ingredients
Instructions
1. Choose your favorite recipe.
2. Gather the necessary ingredients.
3. Prep and cook your recipe.
4. Enjoy!