From Cambodia.
- Region
- Southeast Asia deep cuts
- First record
- 1902 · Modern & global
- Fold
- Ball
- Cooked
- Boiled
- Wrapper
- Rice or wheat doughFilled; sweet balls
- Filling
- Glutinous rice flour; palm-sugar centre
- Cooked
- Boiled
- Served
- Rolled in coconut; served in banana-leaf cups
- Size
- About 2 cm across
Not known yet We don’t yet have a written story, a recipe or a precise place of origin for Num plae ai. What we do have is below, with its sources.
Where
Open the map →
Evidence
Fairly sure. A dated text records it by 1902. Part of its origin story is legend.
We list 3 sources: 1 primary or archaeological, 1 secondary, 1 legend. How grading works.
First record Bernard, Dictionnaire cambodgien-français, 1902, entry NOM: "phàl ai" in a list of Cambodian cakes (D); first found, name only, no description
Sources
- A
Dictionnaire cambodgien-français (entry NOM)
Headword NOM: 'Pain, gâteau (en général). [...] — ânsâm, — kom, — kângvin, — réach chien, — tien, — khuhey, — tréap lengo, — thâk kachân, — bânchôk, — akôr, — khép, — khlàut, — phàl ai, — lot, — banhbêu, — chting...…
Headword NOM: 'Pain, gâteau (en général). [...] — ânsâm, — kom, — kângvin, — réach chien, — tien, — khuhey, — tréap lengo, — thâk kachân, — bânchôk, — akôr, — khép, — khlàut, — phàl ai, — lot, — banhbêu, — chting... différents gâteaux, très goûtés des Cambodgiens, faits avec de la farine, de la graisse, des oeufs et du sucre.' (OCR; diacritics approximate.) - S
Modern description (glutinous rice flour balls filled with palm sugar, rolled in coconut); cites the Cambodian-English Dictionary (1977) only for the words num and plae; no dated history.
- L
Travel and food sites repeating 'an old Khmer legend' (search-result summaries)
Nickname 'husband-killing cake': a bride's hot rice balls choke her greedy husband.
Family G
