Samlar machu

Samlar machu, meaning sour soup in Khmer, is a traditional dish made with meat, fish, or seafood and vegetables cooked in a sour broth base. The soup usually contains seasonal local vegetables and herbs such as Cambodian water spinach, shallots, scallions, tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves, slek kantrop, hot basil, cilantro, and lemongrass. There’s also a version that calls for pineapples. Other key ingredients in this dish are minced prohok, a fermented fish sauce, and Cambodian kroeung, a type of curry, while the typical souring agents include krasaing fruit seeds, tamarind, or kaffir lime juice. Samlar machu is usually flavored with fish sauce, fried garlic, and chilis, and it is commonly eaten with jasmine rice for lunch. In Cambodia, the variations on this sour soup are limitless, and various vegetables and herbs can be used in its preparartion, depending on the region and the seasons.