Bok l’hong, Green Papaya Salad, of Cambodia has earned a place in the Best Salads in the World by the TasteAtlas, an encyclopedia of flavours, a world atlas of traditional dishes, local ingredients, and authentic restaurants.

Bok l’hong ranked 28th with a score of 4.2 among the 50 best salads in the world, according to the same source.

Bok l’hong, meaning pounded papaya in Khmer, is a Cambodian take on the green papaya salad that is widely consumed throughout Southeast Asia, said the TasteAtlas.

According to the TasteAtlas, unlike the Thai version that uses thin strips of papaya and typically requires the fruit to be pounded with other ingredients, the traditional Cambodian version, similar to the Laotian and the Vietnamese versions, uses shredded papaya instead, and it does not involve fruit pounding.

The salad often contains tamarind, galangal, and prahok, a type of Cambodian fish paste. Bok l’hong can also feature smoked fish or salted crabs, and it is usually consumed with steamed rice and grilled meat such as chicken. One significant difference between the traditional Laotian green papaya salad and the Cambodian version of the salad lies in the use of white fish sauce in the latter instead of the much more pungent fermented fish sauce which is typically used in the former.

Source: Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP)