Lok Lak
Cambodia's ubiquitous Phnom Penh café dish, a genuine layered fusion rather than a single clean lineage: the name and wok-tossing technique trace to Vietnamese bo luc lac ('shaking beef'), which spread into Cambodia and became so embedded locally that many now consider it authentically Khmer, while the hot-seared beef plated with lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg closely mirrors French steak-frites, a real trace of French Indochina introducing large-scale cattle beef to a cuisine that had leaned mostly on freshwater fish. The dipping sauce of lime, salt, and cracked Kampot pepper is a real regional marker too — Kampot is Cambodia's own Geographical Indication-protected pepper region, internationally recognized since 2016.
⚠ Contains: Egg, Soy, Gluten. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
Ingredients
- 500g beef sirloin or tenderloin, cubed
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sugar
- Black pepper
- 1 tbsp butter or oil
- Lettuce, sliced tomato, and red onion, for the bed
- 2 eggs, fried
- Juice of 2 limes
- Salt and coarsely crushed Kampot pepper, for the dipping sauce
Steps
- Marinate the beef cubes 20-30 minutes in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, sugar, and pepper.
- Sear the beef in a very hot wok or pan in batches, without crowding, 1-2 minutes per side.
- Arrange the lettuce, tomato, and onion on a plate, and top with the seared beef.
- Fry the eggs sunny-side up and place on top.
- Mix the lime juice, salt, and crushed Kampot pepper for the dipping sauce, and serve alongside with steamed rice.