Kralan, Cambodian bamboo rice cake.
Three days back I had asked on Facebook about the photo shown below.
The responses were quite interesting. Ranging from a smoking pipe, cow poo to a spider, they made me laugh and of course worried. For a moment I wanted to stab myself for asking our driver to stop midway to buy these. Come on, I had eaten bambooful of this dish!
I am pretty sure some people referred to Google as well because they answered correctly. 😀
Packed food, ready to eat.
Okay, here is the answer. It is a traditional Cambodian rice dish cooked in a bamboo.
Known as Kralan (in Cambodian) or Khao lam (Thai: ข้าวหลาม, Lao: ເຂົ້າຫລາມ), it is a Southeast Asian food often described as a cake. Ignorant people like us call it rice cake. 🙂
Kralan is a delicious traditional cake food in Khmer cuisine, and is influenced by Thailand, Vietnam, India and China and especially popular in Siem Reap region.
It is made of steamed rice mixed with black beans or peas, grated coconut and coconut milk. The mixture is packed inside a bamboo stick, mouth is closed with leaves stuffed. Then it is slowly roasted over fire until cooked.
This is how it is opened.
The traditional or actual way of cooking Kralan is to bury them underground and cook but that takes time and these days people prefer to cook them over fire.
With little burnt aroma, it tastes so yummy.
In Cambodia, Kralan cake is often made and eaten around Chinese New Year and Khmer New Year. With Chinese New Year approaching, no wonder I saw tens of Kralan sellers on the road.
Note- All the information is provided by our driver. Kralan is bought, photographed and eaten by me. 😀
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