Lok Lak

Seared beef tossed hard in a hot wok and eaten with tuk meric, the dipping sauce of crushed green Kampot pepper and lime that is the whole point of the dish

Origin: Kampot and Phnom Penh, Cambodia

From the journey of Black Pepper.

Lok lak is cubes of beef marinated briefly, seared very hard and fast, and served on a bed of lettuce, tomato, and raw onion with a fried egg on top and a small dish of tuk meric beside it. The name comes from the tossing: the meat is shaken rather than stirred, so that it colours without releasing its juices. The dipping sauce is the dish. Tuk meric is nothing but black pepper crushed coarsely in a mortar, lime juice, and salt, and its quality depends entirely on the pepper. Kampot pepper, grown on the red soils of the coastal province of the same name, is among the most sought-after in the world, holds a protected geographical indication, and tastes floral and citric in a way that ordinary pepper does not. Green Kampot pepper, picked unripe and used fresh on the stem, is used the same way and is startling. The Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan, writing about Angkor in 1296, recorded pepper growing in the country, but the Kampot industry as it exists was built under the French protectorate, when the plantations supplied Paris and pepper became a colonial export crop. The Khmer Rouge years destroyed it almost entirely, and the vines were replanted from the 1990s by growers working from what survived. The dish itself carries a French fingerprint too. The beef, the fried egg, and the plate of salad beneath belong to the colonial restaurant kitchen rather than the village one, and lok lak is one of the clearest places where the two layers of the Cambodian table sit visibly on top of each other.

Ingredients

Beef

600 g beef sirloin or rump, cut into 2.5 cm cubes

Marinade

2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar, grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp black Kampot pepper, coarsely crushed

To cook

2 tbsp neutral oil
1 onion, cut into wedges

Tuk meric

2 tbsp black Kampot pepper, coarsely crushed
4 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp flaky sea salt

To serve

1 lettuce, leaves separated
2 tomatoes, sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
4 eggs, for frying

Method

Mix the beef with the oyster sauce, soy, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, and the teaspoon of crushed pepper. Leave for twenty minutes at room temperature.
Make the tuk meric: crush the two tablespoons of peppercorns coarsely in a mortar, so that there are still recognisable fragments, and stir in the lime juice and salt. Divide between four small dishes.
Arrange lettuce, sliced tomato, and red onion on four plates.
Get a wok or heavy frying pan as hot as it will go. Add the oil, then the beef in a single layer, and leave it undisturbed for sixty seconds.
Now toss hard, shaking the pan rather than stirring, for a further two to three minutes, adding the onion wedges halfway, until the beef is caramelised outside and pink within.
Tip the beef and its pan juices over the salad.
Fry the eggs hard in the same pan so the whites are crisp at the edges and the yolks still runny, and set one on each plate.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice and the tuk meric alongside, for dipping each piece of beef.

Notes

Kampot pepper is worth buying for this specifically. It is sold by good spice merchants, holds a protected geographical indication, and the difference in a sauce this bare is not subtle. Fresh green peppercorns on the stem, if you can find them, make a superb tuk meric and are how it is often served in Kampot itself. Chicken and pork are both common and cook the same way; the pepper sauce does not change. The fried egg and the salad beneath are French colonial additions to a Khmer dish, and both are now completely standard.

The Gastrographer

Name: Lok Lak
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Cambodia
Ingredients: 600 g beef sirloin or rump, cut into 2.5 cm cubes; 2 tbsp oyster sauce; 1 tbsp light soy sauce; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 1 tbsp palm sugar, grated; 4 cloves garlic, crushed; 1 tsp black Kampot pepper, coarsely crushed; 2 tbsp neutral oil; 1 onion, cut into wedges; 2 tbsp black Kampot pepper, coarsely crushed; 4 tbsp lime juice; 1 tsp flaky sea salt; 1 lettuce, leaves separated; 2 tomatoes, sliced; 1 red onion, thinly sliced; 4 eggs, for frying

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control