The fried rice flour cake is a staple among the cusines of Asia and can be found in many forms! Probably my favourite of the fried flour cake variety would be be Bot Chien from Vietnam. Regular readers will know I really have a big thing for Vietnamese foods.
You can read about Bot Chien here, oh how I miss Saigon – although foreigners are not going great when it come stop visas right now.
In Cambodia though they have taken the fried rice flour cake down a sweet variety and I am a bit partial to a Khmer dessert!
Khmer Deserts
I’m generally not one with too much off a sweet tooth, nor would I say desert man, but I have been really surprised by the range of weird and wonderful Khmer deserts. These have included custard and pumpkin and even ones that have included duck eggs and Khmer jelly made from seaweed – much better than you would expect.
You can read about my 5 best Khmer desserts here .
It was though on a trip to Siem Reap to watch football that I was to stumble upon a fried rice flour cake!
Fried Rice Flour cake AKA Nom Chak Chol AKA (នំចាក់ចុល)
This tasty morsel is apparently one of the harder Khmer desserts to make, although make it some do. Basically what makes this fried rice flour cake so hard to make is the dough is a bit like pizza, so overdo it and it gets too hard, undergo it and t is sour. Therefore much like a steak you need Nom Chak Chol cooked medium! Well I have mine blue, but that is another story.
To read about the best all you can eat steak in Cambodia click here
Nom Chak Chol – what is it and how does it taste? Well as we have established it is fried rice flour cake, but of the sweet rather than savory variety. It is a bit like z pizza in that it is dough like.
So to cook it you add oil to the pan throw in the dough – the dough though contains already contains sugar, usually palm sugar, coconut and maybe even some fruit, there are numerous recipes and way to do the dish online – such as the video below!
And the Nom Chak Chol Fried Rice Flour cake taste test?
Not my favorite of desserts in Cambodia, but very good all the same. If done right it is not to hard and breaks almost like an oily cake. Yes an oily cake – oil and dessert aren’t always theist of bedfellows.
To read about palm sugar click here.
When’d one right though it can look and taste great – look out for the locals lining up for it to see if it has been done right. It is made everywhere, but to me is a firm Siem Reap favourite of mine!