Stir-fried Rice Noodles with Pan-fried Chive Cakes

March 23, 2021

I enjoy the taste of Stir-fried Rice Noodles and Pan-fried Chive Cakes. It has a unique flavor. The authentic Khmer food is available in the local markets, street food stalls, and some restaurants. But it is easiest to get at the local market. You can have it as a main course for breakfast, lunch, brunch, or dinner. The dish has a combination of many types of flavors, mixing sweet, salty, sour – which is from the chili source, and so also a little bit spicy.

Stir-fried Rice Noodles (in Khmer we call “Lort Cha” – but pronounced like “low cha”)

Stir-fried Rice Noodles consist of short fat rice pin noodles which are made from rice flour. Added to the noodles is your choice of meat (could be beef, pork, chicken, or shrimp), bean sprouts, chives, scallions, chili, garlic, egg, fish sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce, and natural brown palm sugar. Some places add cabbage, Chinese broccoli, or spinach, as well. Some people like to add pork rolls, meatballs, or ham, too. But, for me, I like to add Pan-fried Chive Cakes with my Stir-fried Rice Noodles.

Pan-fried Chive Cake (in Khmer we call “Nom Ka Chai”)

Nom-Ka-Chai

Pan-fried Chive Cake is made from rice flour, chives, and scallions. I really like the chive cake that is crispy on the outside, the more crispy, the better! There are two types of Pan-fried Chive Cakes. The first is made by filling the chives and scallions inside the rice flour and building it like a round cake patty. The second to mix the ingredients and then shapes it into a square.

This dish brings back fond memories of my childhood. I used to see how people in my hometown made short-fat rice pin noodles.

There’s a restaurant that specializes in this dish, since 1987, called Family Rice Noodle & Chives Cake. They have several branches. If you come to visit Siem Reap, Cambodia, I would suggest you try it once.