Cambodia: Lok Lak

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

I had a little difficulty finding a Cambodian recipe. There were so many things that looked amazing but I just could not get the ingredients locally or from a trusted online source.

Then I stumbled upon this Lok Lak recipe and the only special purchase I had to make was for the Kampot Pepper*, which I found easily on Amazon. Everything else I either already had or could buy locally. Hooray!

When I initially read the ingredients, I was taken aback by the amount of fish sauce, the salt, and the amount of limes. Fish sauce is salty enough that I omitted the additional salt and did not notice that it wasn't there. The fish sauce is very present, you really don't need more salt. I made no other changes and it was absolutely DELICIOUS.

All of the elements work together to create a meal just bursting with wonderful flavors.

You need the crisp freshness of the lettuce to add texture, the tomatoes add coolness and balance out the flavors of the meat. The lime sauce adds an acid kick to even further balance it all out. And the rice catches all the juice and liquid that escapes from the rest of the meal. So so good! I will definitely eat this again.

*I later found other recipes that just used regular ground black pepper and I'm sure that works just fine, maybe providing a little more "bite" to the dish. Kampot pepper is milder and has a slightly eucalyptus-ish/minty-ish scent and flavor. Those flavor notes were not that detectable in the final meal but the scent was very noticeable when grinding up the peppercorns.