Noodles · National Dish
Num Banh Chok (Khmer Noodles)
Photo: Thomas Wanhoff from Siem Reap, Cambodia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
The noodles are made by soaking and fermenting rice, grinding it into a dough, and pressing it through a perforated mold straight into boiling water — many villages still do it by hand every morning.
Fresh rice noodles are topped with a fish-based green curry gravy made from lemongrass, turmeric, and kaffir lime, then piled high with raw and pickled vegetables like cucumber, banana blossom, and bean sprouts. Vendors sell it from baskets balanced on shoulder poles, mixing each bowl to order.
Why it's made this way: Some food historians trace the dish back to the Angkorian era, pointing to carvings near Angkor that appear to depict rice noodles, and it remains closely tied to Buddhist ritual life, often offered to monks as alms.
Roughly what's in it
400kcal
18gprotein
55gcarbs
12gfat
Estimated per typical street-vendor portion — not lab-tested.
More from Cambodia
Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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