Little Khmer Kitchen

Sreymom “Mom” Lund was born in Kampot, Cambodia, and orphaned at the age of five. She lived on the streets for a period of time before being adopted by an Australian family and moved with them to Phnom Penh and, eventually, Adelaide.

After short stints cooking at Jamface and Golden Boy, she opened her first shop, Little Khmer Kitchen, at the tender age of 24. She cooks “through the taste of memories”. Some of her earliest memories of food are from Kampot market, where she’d wander around asking for scraps of left-over food. It’s where she discovered the flavours and aromas of Khmer cuisine.

One regular dish at Little Khmer Kitchen is kor, a sweet and spicy stew of pork, hard-boiled eggs, caramalised palm sugar and Kampot pepper (imported from Cambodia) and, usually, water. Lund subs in coconut water for the latter.

Another staple is amok, a steamed fish curry (Cambodia’s national dish, according to Lund) cooked and served in banana leaves. There’s also a take on Cambodia’s traditional stuffed frogs – chicken wings packed with kroeung (a ubiquitous Cambodian spice paste) – and chicken and beef skewers.

Lund serves breakfast, too: a congee-like rice porridge called bor bor, banana fritters, and waffles with seasonal berries, coconut and vanilla ice-cream.

The stall itself, a former sausage shop, is a small and simple set-up: a timber bar and high stools peer into the kitchen, where Lund turns out breakfast and lunch daily and dinner on Friday nights.