Dish

Mee Kola

Pailin rice vermicelli dish of the Kola community, dressed with sweet and sour fish sauce and many garnishes.

Mee Kola is a Pailin rice vermicelli dish of the Kola community, dressed with sweet and sour fish sauce and many garnishes.[1][2] It is also known as Mi Kola and Kola noodles.[1][2]

Cultural context

Mee kola is traditionally eaten for breakfast and is served mainly in morning markets.[2] Curious Cuisiniere also suggests it as a light lunch or as part of a larger dinner.[2] It has become a popular street food in Cambodia.[3] Global News calls it a northern Cambodian noodle dish.[4]

Borbormornsrae Restaurant, which serves Khmer cuisine, offers Mi Kola for Battambang locals and others who miss its taste, and its recipe appears on the Cambodian Embassy in London's website.[1] Mlop Mean Restaurant on Street 578 in Phnom Penh has served mee kola as a Battambang specialty: steamed noodles with boiled pork, egg and carrot and cucumber pickle.[5]

Ingredients and preparation

The rice noodles are topped with dried shrimp powder and fried garlic in a sweet and salty sauce. They are served with fresh herbs, pickled vegetables, peanuts and a soft-boiled egg.[2] The dried shrimp powder gives the dish its savory depth.[2] The sauce, called nuoc mam in the Curious Cuisiniere recipe, is mixed from fish sauce, water, sugar, vinegar, garlic and julienned carrot.[2] The pickles of cucumber, carrot and shallot need at least two hours and may be made a day ahead and chilled.[2] The dried shrimp are soaked, roasted and ground. The noodles are cooked, rinsed and tossed with dark soy sauce, the sauce, shrimp powder and the fried garlic with its oil.[2] The bowl is finished with boiled egg, mint, cilantro, roasted peanuts and sliced chili, with more sauce on the side.[2]

The Embassy recipe, from Borbormornsrae Restaurant, mixes the simmered noodles with fried garlic and its oil, dark soy sauce and shredded green papaya, cucumber, carrot, bean sprouts and Khmer basil. Crushed peanuts are combined with dried shrimp, and hard-boiled eggs go on top.[1] The dressing, teuk trey pa-em, is made by boiling water with minced garlic and adding sugar, salt, fish sauce and vinegar or lime, with chili flakes if wanted.[1]

In other versions, steamed rice vermicelli is cooked with soy sauce and garlic chives. It is served with pickled papaya, carrot and cucumber, hard-boiled eggs, sweet garlic fish sauce, dried shrimp and crushed peanuts, with lime and chili flakes.[3] Hello Angkor gives a meatless, fried version of rice-stick noodles steamed and stir-fried with soy sauce and garlic chives, served with pickled vegetables called jroak, sliced boiled eggs and crushed peanuts.[6][7]

History and origins

Accounts of the dish's home differ. The Cambodian Embassy in London says it came from the Kula people and originally from Battambang, where it is one of the province's signature dishes.[1] The Phnom Penh Post also calls it a Battambang specialty.[5] Curious Cuisiniere and Wikipedia place its origin with the Kola people of Pailin Province.[2][3]

Records from the nineteenth century tell of the Taungthu, the "Hill Men," brought by Thai merchants and officials from the bordering Shan state, in present-day Myanmar, to work gem mines in Thailand near the Cambodian border.[2] After years of mining, they became known as Kola or Kula, a somewhat derogatory term meaning Indian or foreigner.[2] A group of Kola found precious stones in Chanthaburi, in southeastern Thailand, and other Kola merchants followed. Later, more powerful Indian, Chinese and Thai businessmen pushed them east.[2] The Kola gradually resettled in what is now Pailin Province, where they kept and developed their own culture, folklore and cuisine.[2] In the Wikipedia account, the Kola descend from Burmese migrants to northwestern Cambodia.[3]

Kola cooking shows Shan, Mon and Burmese influences, especially in desserts, dishes for auspicious occasions and the popularity of rice noodles.[2] In mee kola, the dried shrimp powder is linked to Shan State, while the pickled vegetables and nuoc mam show Cambodian influence.[2] The dish is also called a Burmese-style noodle dish.[7]

Regional and household variations

The vegetables and herbs are fresh and seasonal, and recipes change them with what the local market has.[2] The Global News version dresses the noodles with a sauce of palm sugar, rice wine vinegar, water, fish sauce, lemongrass, garlic, peppercorns and salt. The sauce is heated until the sugar dissolves, and lime juice goes in once it cools.[4] Its toppings are Thai basil, cilantro, green onion, papaya or bean sprouts, Japanese eggplant, pickled cucumber, pickled radish, salad greens and toasted cashews. Tofu, soy curls, eggs or taro rolls may be added.[4] The Phnom Penh Post version adds boiled pork.[5]

Preparations and recipes

  • Curious Cuisiniere
    Rice vermicelli tossed with fried garlic oil, nuoc mam and dried shrimp powder, served with quick pickles, egg, herbs and peanuts.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Royal Embassy of Cambodia in London, Kola Noodles
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Curious Cuisiniere, Mee Kola (Cambodian Vegetarian Noodles) (2024-06-03)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Wikipedia, Kola noodles
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Global News, Recipe: Cambodian noodle dish Mee Kola (2023-02-05)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Phnom Penh Post, Cheap Eats
  6. ↑ Hello Angkor, An Uncommon Guide to Cambodian Cuisine (2019-08-15)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, Cambodian cuisine
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This page was last edited on 2 October 2026, at 01:35.