Fish steamed in a coconut-milk custard scented with lemongrass, galangal and turmeric, often set in a cup of banana leaf — the dish Cambodia is best known for.
Kroeung and coconut
The flavour of amok comes from kroeung, the herb paste at the heart of Khmer cooking. It is pounded by hand from lemongrass, galangal, fresh turmeric, makrut lime zest, garlic and shallot, and the yellow version used for amok owes its colour to the turmeric.
Pieces of firm fish are folded into the paste together with coconut milk, egg, fish sauce and a little palm sugar. The mixture is spooned into small cups folded from banana leaves, often lined with the leaves of the noni tree, and steamed until it sets into something between a curry and a soft, trembling custard.
It is finished with a spoonful of thick coconut cream, slivers of makrut lime leaf and a few slices of red chilli, and eaten with plain jasmine rice. The word amok refers to the steaming technique as much as to the dish, and chicken, snail and vegetable versions exist as well.
A cuisine built on fresh water
Fish has long been the main source of protein in Cambodia. The Mekong and the Tonlé Sap, the great lake that swells and shrinks with the monsoon, supply freshwater species in enormous quantities, and amok is traditionally made with them rather than with sea fish.
Amok is labour-intensive, so at home it is often kept for celebrations and guests. In restaurants it has become the dish visitors are steered towards first, and many tourist-oriented kitchens serve a looser, soupier version in a coconut shell; the steamed, sliceable custard is the more traditional form.
Telling it apart from its neighbours
Steaming food in banana-leaf parcels is common across mainland Southeast Asia. Thailand has hor mok, a similar coconut and curry-paste custard that is usually hotter and redder, while in Laos fish is steamed in leaves with herbs but generally without the coconut milk.
The combination of a yellow, turmeric-rich paste, coconut and a set, spoonable texture is what marks the Khmer version. If it comes up in the game, guesses in Thailand, Laos or Vietnam will land close; Cambodia sits between all three.
