OP: Cambodian Cooking

Sovan Boun Thuy, 1992. Comb bound. Very Good Plus.

Widowed in the 1970 Cambodian civil war, Sovan Boun Thuy emigrated with her five children to California where her community-building work exposed a lack of culturally relevant food for the sizable Cambodian population in San Jose. Using savings from her work within the Department of Education, Thuy opened the South bay area’s first Cambodian restaurant, Chez Sovan, which is still in operation today.

The restaurant published this comb bound cookbook in 1992. Leading with fresh vegetables and herbs, nearly all the recipes are delightfully versatile, permitting the use of any animal protein, tofu, or just the vegetables alone. The dishes include:

• Kuy tiew tuck—a rice noodle soup with bean sprouts, cilantro, onion, and beef, chicken, pork, or shrimp
• Amok—catfish (or chicken) marinated in coconut milk, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, and fish sauce, steamed in banana leaves
• Kari—coconut curry with carrots and potatoes suitable for any meat (except pork, which “just doesn’t taste right”), fish, or tofu
• Bac keng—a sweet, baked coconut custard

Ours is in excellent shape, seemingly unused but with a bit of shelfwear. Uncommonly seen.