NHUM - Recipes from a Cambodian Home Kitchen

If you had the opportunity to travel to southeast Asia and try Cambodian food this book is for you.

Having been in Cambodia for more than twenty years, I am a great advocate for Cambodian cuisine. I was delighted to receive my copy of Chef Nak's NHUM, and find it superior to any other Cambodian cookbook in my collection. A favorite dish of mine is Beef Kamtumtet with crispy shallots. Kamtumtet is a Cambodian vegetable for which kale can besubstituted. I’ve watched many guests in Cambodia and in the US smile on first tasting this light dish, perfect for a summer meal. At first I feared I would not be able to cook many of the recipes when I’m out of Cambodia because ingredients would be hard to find. In fact, most ingredients not available at my local grocer’s can be found at nearby Asian markets, or ordered online at sources like Amazon. I’m inspired not just by her first book, but by Chef Nak’s vision that Cambodian cuisine can take it’s rightful place with Thai, Vietnamese, or French and Italian cuisine as a global favorite.

We have been anticipating to purchase this Cambodian cookbook in the United States for awhile and couldn’t be more thrilled to finally have a copy. We are a huge fan of Chef Nak aka “Julia “Nak” Child :) after have discovered her on YouTube. The cookbook is more than I had expected! The recipes and ingredients are very simple and the book and photography are stunning!! Can’t wait to try making some of my favorite Cambodian food and also some new ones. If you are looking to try out cooking Khmer cuisine look no further, Nhum is a must have to add to the collection of cookbooks.

The book is beautifully presented. English titles also written in Khmer with a phonetic pronunciation. The recipes are some of the same dishes my mom cooked for me growing up. It was always hard to record her meals bc everything was a palm of this or a pinch of that, this is a perfect starting point to tweak them based on our versions. Plan on buying as gift for my brother!

It sounded so great we bought a copy for our son's Cambodian in-laws, who spent an hour telling us about their family's version of many of the dishes. Some of them reminded them of dishes they make, others they hadn't had in a long time or a few they had not seen before. This earned us a couple of delicious dinners at their house. Beautifully and lovingly illustrated; reverently written.

Great cookbook with beautiful photos and detailed recipes. You can tell it was written with love and passion. One of my favorites in my cookbook collection.

This is a great everyday food Cambodian cookbook - so sad we can’t order more!

Some recipes are a hit or miss and can be very different from the authentic version. I was a little disappointed that the clams picture used in the stir-fried section did not have a recipe in the book because those are sooo good. There are no noodle dished like Nom Banh Chok or Phnom Penh noodles. Nor were there any grilled recipes like Sach Ko Ang with pickled veggies or Tilapia with Nhoam Svay which are some of the best Cambodian dishes ever. As for the recipies in the book, I have tried a handful of them so far. The pork belly with spring onion was good but the shrimp felt out of place. The Prohok Khtih tasted way off. It uses way too much shallots and wasn't as savory as I remember it to be. The order of cooking it seemed off because adding coconut milk at the end made the dip way too watery but overall it was still good. Other than that I really like this book because Cambodian cookbooks are hard to come by. I even attached some pictures of the dishes I made from the book.

I have skimmed it so far but I love the information. After living in Cambodia I was keen to try out for myself some of the dishes that I ate out in the community cart seller and small Cambodian cuisine. I must have if you have been to Cambodia.

This cookbook represents not merely a collection of recipes, but an archetype—an ideal against which all others might reasonably be measured. Its structure is orderly and deliberate; the layout is clean, coherent, and functional—each element serving a purpose, as it should. The photography is striking, but not gratuitous—rather, it elevates the content without overshadowing it. Of the many cookbooks I possess—and I possess more than most—this stands clearly at the pinnacle in terms of design, utility, and aesthetic integrity. Do not hesitate to acquire it. But know this: once you engage with its precision and clarity, your former favourites will pale in comparison, and perhaps that will unsettle you.

Habe ca. 10 Rezepte probiert, wir sind bis jetzt von jedem Gericht begeistert. Geschmacklich sehr authentisch! Die Rezepte sind nicht kompliziert. Manche Zutaten gibt es natürlich nur in Kambodscha (essbare Blumen, Kräuter ohne englischen Namen, Prahok) aber für die meisten Gerichte reichen die Zutaten, die man in Deutschland in einem gut sortierten vietnamesischen Laden finden kann.

Beautiful Khmer recipe book. The recipes are spot on and the photography is brilliant. There’s not much Khmer recipe books out there but Chef Nak and Nataly totally nailed it. It has all the recipes I grew up eating and I can finally make these dishes for my family. Highly recommend

The recipes in this book is great. It reminds me of all the dishes I grew up with as a child. Can’t wait to cook the recipes in the book.