Some useful Khmer words related to dining and drinking

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Below I will try to  list some important words for those who want to explore the Khmer kitchen (which I can only recommend)

សាច់

Pronounce: sat(ch)

This is the general word which is used for ‘meat’

Examples are:

សាច់គោ (Satkoo): beef

សាច់ជ្រូក (Sattchruuk): pork meat

សាច់ត្រី (Sattrey): fish

សាច់មាន់ (Satmoan): chicken

Apart from these basic meats there are many other ones like:

ទា (Tia): duck

ងាវ (Ngiaw): a kind of small shelves/mussels

កង្កែប (Koongkaeb): frog

បង្គា (Boongkia): small shrimp

Most of the time the meat will be served with គុយទាវ (Koeytiaw) which are a kind of white spaghetti noodles, with មី (Mii) which are yellow noodles or with បាយ (Baay) which is rice.

Rice is the most important food in the Khmer kitchen, the Khmer word for ‘to eat’ is ញ៉ាំបាយ (Njam baay) or literally: to eat rice.

The general word for all kind of potatoes  is ដំឡង (Domloong).

Vegetables are បន្លែ (Boonlae). The Khmer kitchen makes mainly use of local vegetables which I will list later in a separate topic. Many vegetables which are used in the Western kitchen are translated from their French equivalent or the word  បារាំង (Baarang) is added which literally means ‘French’ but is generally used for ‘overseas’.

សាលាដ (Saalaad): lettuce

ការ៉ុត (Kaarot): carrot

ខ្ទឹមបារាំងស (Khtum baarang soo): white onion

ខ្ទឹមស (Khtum soo): garlic

ប៉េងប៉ោះ (Peeng poh): tomato

All these ingredients can be prepared in different ways:

ស្ងោរ (Snao(r)): boiled

ឆា (Tchhaa): stir-fried

អាំង (Ang): grilled

ចៀន (Tchian): sauteed

When your food isn’t ប្រៃ (prai) enough you’ll have to ask for អំបិល (Ombil) which is the Khmer word for salt.

Black pepper is ម្រេច (mreet(ch)), Chili pepper is ម្ទេស (mtee(s)).

And when your food isn’t ផ្អែម (Pe-aem) enough you will have to ask for ស្ករ (Skoo).

Hungry is ឃ្លាន (Khlian) and thirsty is ស្រេក (Sreek)

And last but not least: when your Khmer friends order លឹង្គគោឆាអង្ក្រង (Lung koo tchhaa ongkroong) … Ask them and find out yourself!

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