Allow me to introduce the food I cook.

Banana bud sour soup

It’s originally a countryside food; however, it tastes very good.

I don’t know about others, but my family likes this soup with chicken; they just want vegetables much more than poultry, so you might be unable to see the meat inside the picture of the soup.

It’s easy to cook. First I boil the water by adding lemongrass and kaffir lime, then I put in chicken and wait for the meat to get tender (because my family members are old, their teeth are not strong). While waiting for the chicken meat to be tender, I cut the banana bud into pieces. When it is time, I put them into the pot.

The sauces I use are fish sauce, MSG, sugar, and lemon juice. It takes less than five minutes since the banana bud is naturally soft.

When it is cooked, I add sweet basil and culantro.

Fried green beans with minced beef

In Cambodia we call the bean ‘Hor Lan Tao.’ I don’t know where the name comes from; I call it following my family’s telling. In general, we fry this kind of bean with minced pork, but I want to change the taste, so I use beef instead.

It’s like other fried food. Just add frying oil, then minced garlic, then minced beef, salt, MSG, and sugar, and at last I put hor lan tao. Since hor lan tao is thin, I don’t fry it for very long, just about thirty to forty-five seconds only. 

I don’t like hor lan tao but I can eat it, especially as I heard it is beneficial for health.

If you want to try banana bud sour soup, you can find it in restaurants in Cambodia, but for fried hor lan tao, not all restaurants have it in their menu; however, you can still find it – just you need to spend time to search for it.