Caterpillar

<Caterpillar>

My dad saw it when he wait mom in front of her office. He saw this caterpillar. It looked very beautiful with green color and big eyes. I don't know it is really caterpillar or not. But I search on internet, it shown that it also has in Thailand.

Bomb Fruit

<<Bomb Fruit>>

It is the fruit which is popular currently. I saw many pagoda has it. First, We think it has shape similar to melon so maybe we could eat that fruit. But the people who known it they said that it called Bomb Fruit after they got rip, it will be explode. So if it explodes like this, how can we eat? Maybe it just plant for decorate the environment.

Cambodian Fruit Preserves

<Fruit Preserves>

I ever posted it one time in long time ago. Fruit Preserves is made by local fruit and vegetables. We made it during flood season because during that time, the flood come in the village and some vegetables or fruit will destroy. So we use their fruit to make preserves. And that season, there are many Buddha ceremony so we can use it to serve the guest who join the ceremony. We also sell it.

The popular place to sell this fruit preserves is pagoda. Many people came to join the ceremony so it will be big selling.

Once I heard from my mom, she told me that " During 60th and 70th century, her village made this fruit preserves to the king/queen or royal family/relatives. It is one kind of dessert which both good looking and delicious." But now a day, it is almost disappear and young generation did not know how to do it too.

In first photo, there are many fruits and vegetables mixing. The one look long and green, if it is raw, it is very bitter. Cambodian people use it for combine with rice wine, it would make wine good taste.

Second and third photo are papaya. There are many papaya fruit in one tree so if the flood destroyed it, it would remain papaya fruit so to keep it in long time, we decided to make fruit preserves in two way. One is look like photo, we called it normal fruit preserves and other one is dry fruit preserves that we can keep in long time than normal one.

And to make it more beautiful, before we cook it we also need to decorate those fruit more good looking. Mostly papaya is the easy one for decorate as flower because their meat a little bit thick. Winter melon is easy to decorate too. hmmm....all are easy, accept only one is the long and bitter taste.

Breakfast

It is very easy breakfast for every Cambodian people. Very simple, just grilled pork and fry egg. To make good combination of taste, we also added more cucumber pickle.

Vietnamese Noodle

<Vietnamese Noodle>

The noodle is very same to Cambodian Noodle but they use different ways from Cambodian. My sisters, they like it so much. But for me, I can't finish it even one small dish.

Dumpling Noodle

<Noodle Dumpling Soup>

Family's favorite food on weekend. My father, sister and me, we love meat. So the menu we selected, it would be have meat in side. Even we love meat but sometime we also eat vegetarian food :D

This food I think maybe Chinese food. And the ingredients are very similar to Chinese food. I mean the way of cooking and add some special flour. I like this dumpling the most.

Cambodian Traditional Cake

During Pchum Ben Day in Cambodia which conduct around 15 days. Cambodian people always make tradition cake for serve the guest or relative come to visit them.

Normally, we made tradition cake on 13th/14th of the celebration day. This traditional cake we called <Nom On Som>. We can add the last word with <Jrok / Jek> it mean the middle of the cake there are pork or banana.

For making cake, we should prepare in advance something such as banana leaf, tie, green bean and sticky rice. Banana leaf should put under the sunshine at least one day. To make it soft and easy to wrap the cake. And previous time, we use banana trunk to make the tie. We can slide banana trunk and put under sunshine too. It is very nature way to make cake but now a day we use plastic tie to tie up the cake. Green bean and sticky rice need to keep in water for one night to be ready for wrap together.

If cake that in side we use pork, we should put sticky rice is the first layer, second layer is green bean and the final one is pork.
<Sticky rice must be add some salt to make it tasty and pork also need to be put some sugar, salt and black peppers>

The first and second photo are cake make with pork. We called "Nom On Som Jrok".

The last photo is banana cake because inside we put banana. For banana cake, we no need to put green bean. And banana cake, there are two way to cook it, one is bold and other one is grilled. I like both style.

**I forget about coconut meat. We need slide coconut meat and mix with sticky rice. So coconut meat will make more delicious both taste and smell.

Cambodia food

Cambodian people always cooked food with all vegetable that easy to find in rural area. I said like this because in countryside, every house, they planted many kind of vegetables which they can use it to cook. It is fresh and without chemical. Cambodian Traditional cheese is Prohok which made by river fish. We can cook Prohok in some menu and can be eat with vegetables.

 One kind of menu that we can eat with raw vegetable or bold vegetable. The first picture is the start of my cooking Cambodia food. Because my mom, she can't eat raw vegetables so we decided to bold all vegetables (But some vegetables we should cook because when we eat raw it would make tasteless).

And to bold it to be delicious. During bold it, we should add a little amount of oil and salt. The oil will make vegetables still look fresh and salt will bring the sweet taste from vegetable. With both combination, it would make good taste.

This menu is called Teuk Kreurng. The main ingredients are fish and fresh vegetable. The sub ingredients are red garlic, white garlic, small eggplant, lemon, and peanuts.

First, we need to cook fish. The small eggplants, red garlic, and white garlic must fry it till their color became a little bit dark brown and we need to put a little bit oil (see the first photo).

 The fish, we need to cook it. It should be after cook, we take out fish bone and grind it. Normally, there are many kinds of river fish but some fishes are delicious for making this menu but some fishes, we can't use for making this menu.

<Grind fish like photo above>

The fourth photo is after fry red garlic, white garlic and small eggplants. We also need some raw garlic to make it tasty. After that all of those must be grind together with peanut before adding fish into it.
Don't forget the secret receipt is Cambodian Prohok. We should put Prohok but before add it. Prohok need to be steam.

We mix grind all together such as red garlic, white garlic, small eggplants, fish and peanuts. After that add Steam Prohok water and put lemon juice. Specially, don't forget add sugar and salt to make it more delicious.

Photo below is the finished one. You need to eat both at the same time. I think some people like spicy food, so feel free to add more red peppers as much as you like.

Cambodian Traditional Noodle

Cambodian Traditional Noodle

Cambodia is the ancient country which there are many thing that very special and unique. Sometime I don't like to be proud about our country because can make other person think negative points. But in some case it should be proud of it.

In photo above, I think if you ever visited Cambodia, you will heard about Cambodian Traditional Noodle. It is Cambodia Noodle which mixed with Yellow Soup (Somlor Broher). The soup is very common in Cambodia cuisine because normally we will use river fish to cook and combine with other flour which we easy to find in local market. The taste and the way of cooking, it is depending on everyone special technique. My mom's cousin, she is really good at cooking.

And the second photo is the same the first photo but it is different soup. The first photo, the color is bright yellow than second photo. Because the second photo, the soup was add more ingredients such as dry red peppers to make it more dark yellow color and sometime it is a little bit spicy than the first one.

We also can put Cambodian Curry to that noodle. It is delicious neither. But the popular is the first one, because it is very suitable with all the taste. We can add all vegetable to make it more tasty with red peppers powders.

Buffalo Robot

I got it as souvenir when I did volunteer work with Korean Teacher Team. It's similar to small robot which we can make it moving by pull its bottom. And it is also we can decorate to be something else (But I got the finish one; if it is not finished yet, I wish to make rabbit. But whatever I like it all ^^ ). And my co-worker, she got sunflower.

Small Plant

It is one kind of decoration small plant in the garden. Hmmm...I really like this kind of stuff which use the coconut skin and hang somewhere in the garden. I think it is not bad if we have creative idea to design beautiful place.

White Flower

I don't know this flower name because I just met by chance. I saw it look beautiful with their thin layers and with white color.

Sticky Thorns Flower

I met this kind of flower when I boated to the village which locate near Khmer-Vietname border. This plant was growing well near riverside. And I heard from the villagers, they said that this kind of plant is difficult to destroy and it also dangerous for river fish to produce new generation because once when the fish enter this plant area, it would be block by this plant's thorn so the fish will easy to die. After that, if where there are those kind of plants grow so the fish would be immigrate to other place and it will effect to people who living near river side because they live by fishing and rice farming. Furthermore, this plants is really die hard even once they die but if their root still have so they will grow again when the right time coming.

And this is that plant's flower. Sometime, I also confuse with other kind of flower because they shape and color are the same. The different is their size, this flower is a little bit bigger than one other kind of flower I ever known. People called this kind of flower is " Sticky Thorns Flower"

10 O'clock flower

Once again I posted the same flower but in the different color. I just met by chance at the new house place. In my thinking, It would be have more the same flower but different color.

But I prefer this one the most because they have purple white color which made it looks more attractive.

No Name Flower^^

When I stayed at one guesthouse outskirt of Phnom Penh. There are many small plants and many flower there. I just thought that maybe the guesthouse owner like plants very much. I have took many picture of some flower.

Long Bean

I have took this photo since I did volunteer work with Korean Uni Student. We went to visited one organization and did education with labor work.

In the Labor, we decided to plant Long Bean. So before we plant long bean, we need to do land arrangement. It was the hard working because we dug out the land to make the line to make space for them growing well. This picture was taken after planted it two day. The chemical product is very growing fast.

Watermelon

Cambodia Watermelon

It is family watermelon farming because they did not sell it. They just prefer to farm for their family and relatives. So they decided to planted without using chemical. And the result, watermelon has small size than market watermelon selling. But it is really delicious because of the meat has contain sweet and fresh smell even the skin is a little bit thick.

You can see picture below. It is look very fresh and delicious&.& Yummy^^

Small Mushroom

It is mush be not so clear, But I really want to post it because it is one kind of very small mushroom which we can step on if we can't see them. It look like very easy to grow and if there is one of them growing so there will be many of them start to grow nearby each other. it is similar to the pin or metal nail.

Hmm...I think my camera quality is now so low. So I need to update it.
In this photo, it is a little bit blur because of focus point.

Mushroom

This mushroom, I have seen when I and my relatives went to watermelon field. I saw it just only one and I did not know its name neither. I wondered that this mushroom can eat or it contains poison. Actually, it is really weak because it can't stand alone without grass supporting. When I pulled out the grass nearby, it went falling down. And at the same time, I saw other kind of mushroom. there are very small mushroom around watermelon field.

Painting

5 years ago when we took this photo. And after that we sent it to my sister so we could received the painting one because my brother in-law, he draw it for us.

13 Petals

Finally, I have post this one. I remember when I was young during Phcum Ben final day, we have made small lantern than we have decorated it by using this kind of flower because it is easy to find at the countryside. I think there are two kind; one is one layer (like this photo) and other one is multilayer.

It has 13 petals and it is amazing because the yellow around the middle, there are also 13. I just notice when I started to describe about flower petals.

Yellow Flower

 It has been long time since I took this photo :D
But in fact, it just passed two month ago. I worked with volunteers so I have chance to visit many place. So even working, there are also enjoying because there are many new thing I have met such as the way of  people speaking in rural area, new plants that I never seen before and new way of making good relationship between foreigners and local people.

This kind of flower is not the new one for me, but I still can't remember its name because of me when I met, I just passed by it. January-13-2013, is in the middle of dry season in Cambodia, but during November to January is a little bit cool in Cambodia so it would be good for all plants to growing well. I think if compare to foreign country, we call it would be spring (it is the hot season of the solar calendar).

Dragonfly

 <Dragon Fly>

Every evening at my aunt's house, there are many dragonfly because around her house there are some plants which was dead during dry season. Even-though, it was dead but my aunt did not cut it off so it made other good view by tree without leaves. Around 5PM to 6:30PM, there are many dragonfly come to perch everywhere on the tree and it just stand still on the same posture. Usually, the little grand daughter in her house always see it and introduce about it to other guest who visited her house.

That's little grand daughter, she was 1 and half years old. She can't speak now but she tried to use her expression to show the dragonfly to us. It is really interesting because we can't notice it at first sign because dragonfly colors by looking from the far place, it look dark. But once after we noticed, it look great with the other side of point of view.

The reality, there are more than hundred of dragonfly. But I post only some part of it where I can't took photo of it.

Black Butterfly

On weekend in early morning, I have seen one butterfly which just born from worm. We can see near the butterfly, there is one thing that look similar to worm. That one is the shell of the butterfly before it grows enough.

It is the first time that I have seen something nature which butterfly just leave its shell.

Black butterfly, what does it mean?
Excluding its wing, this butterfly body look like mosquito. Even thought, it is like that but it still look beautiful.

Started from first time I posted photo. There are two photos of butterfly with the same color black. But the shape and size are different.  

Na Kry Flower

 <Evening Time Blossom>

Again for white flower. I have thought that maybe there are a lots of white flower all around Cambodia, But just some cases I don't know their name and some I have known their name.

For this one, Cambodian people recognize it by it smell and it blossom only in evening time.

Our older generation was said that " This kind of flower is resemble to women who work at night time". But actually, it has two meanings. One meaning is good and other one is bad. But it is not bad meaning at all. It just the compare when people doesn't like something. I believed that there is no bad meaning for comparing flower to people who did useless.

Looking back to past half of century, our famous song was sing about women represent to flower which blossom in order from morning to night time. One day, women blossom three times; Morning time, Afternoon time and Evening time.

This flower is represent to evening time blossom for women. It also has very delicious smell (in my thinking like that :))

Next time, I will post Morning Flower and Afternoon Flower.

Bay Kdang Flower

 I ever posted this flower once time when I just started create my blog.

The special reason why I created this blog was because once I took this flower photo during I have family trip, and I found out that they were really look beautiful.
And then I started the idea to create blog which post all flower and traditional material if I have met during I traveled somewhere.

So now finally, I have created this blog with many photos that I took during my working field to province.

The first one I have posted was bright purple color but right now, I have posted two more.

I like the yellow one. It is look pure and fresh for all situation. Even it looks good at the dark color.

Pink one is also good for white people.

I will post more if I meet other color of the same kind flower.

Butterfly Flower

<Butterfly Flower>

Even wing has broken but it still can fly to find beautiful flower. One day in early morning, I saw this crippled butterfly around the flower.

It flew everywhere in the garden. And it visited all flower because at that time, only him who flew around beside that there were no other butterfly.

Very brave crippled butterfly^^

Red-Flo

In my thinking, this flower is no blossom because it has very thick petals so it is hard to spread their petals.

It grow well in the hot weather. I saw it in the Svay Rieng Province, Cambodia. Maybe, this plant grow around Cambodia land but it is not attractive to people that why it rarely to have eyes caught with their presence.

Elephant's Trunk Flower

<Elephant's Trunk Flower>

It is a little strange. I just known for the first time because in the reality I don't interest at all in this flower. It is small and look dirty with difficulty to find their beauty. But after taking photo, I found out that they are really beauty. They really hide beauty well, maybe to protect people cutting it.

In fact, it is like grass on the road which no attractive from people. Because many dust on their leaves. But if you look close to their flower and leaves, you will notice their special shape with attractive flower shape with the small size.

Cambodia palm juice container

 <Cambodia palm juice container>

In Cambodia, there are many sugar palm tree. And sugar palm tree we can use with variety way. Amount of them, we get juice for; sour juice for drinking because it is like alcohol, and sweet juice for drinking and also can be making sugar.

Mostly in raining season, they did not get water from sugar palm tree because it would be mixing with rain drop and not pure.

To get palm juice, we get it from palm tree flower. And the container, it made of bamboo. It is Cambodian traditional way of container which used to keep water for going far place or putting some juice.