Lok Lak
ឡុកឡាក់
Seared cubes of beef tossed hot and fast, served over greens with a lime-and-black-pepper dipping sauce — Phnom Penh's golden-age restaurant dish.
By Cambodian Cookbook Kitchen · May 22, 2026
ភ្នំពេញ Phnom PenhIndependence & Sangkum era, 1953–1970
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Serves
- 4
- Level
- Intermediate
Lok lak is Phnom Penh dressed for dinner. Cubes of beef, marinated and seared hard in a screaming wok, are tumbled over a bed of cool greens and served with a fried egg, rice and a little bowl of lime and cracked black pepper. Its lineage is honest and layered: the technique comes through the French-colonial kitchen and the neighboring Vietnamese bò lúc lắc — "shaking beef," named for the toss of the pan — and it settled into Cambodian life in the confident Sangkum years, when Phnom Penh's restaurants were writing the modern Khmer table. What makes it Khmer is the finish: the raw salad bed, and above all the tuk meric, that sauce of lime, salt and Kampot pepper.
The cooking is nearly nothing and entirely about heat. A hot wok, oil just shimmering, beef in two batches so nothing steams — ninety seconds, dark crust, rare center, out. The magic is Kampot pepper, whose citrus-floral bite earned it protected status in 2010; ground coarse and fresh into lime and salt, it is the reason people order this dish and then order the sauce again. Sear well, sauce brightly, and eat while the egg is still runny.
Sear the beef in batches over a truly hot wok. Crowd the pan and it stews — you want a dark crust and a rare heart, in and out in under two minutes.
ពាក្យពីចុងភៅ · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsគ្រឿងផ្សំ
Serves 4
០ of ១៤ gathered
Beef and marinade
Lime-pepper sauce (tuk meric)
To serve
Methodវិធីធ្វើ
Step 1: Marinate the beef
Toss the cubed beef with oyster sauce, soy, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic and pepper. Twenty minutes at room temperature is plenty — this is a fast dish and the beef should not be swimming.
Step 2: Mix the dipping sauce
Stir lime juice, cracked Kampot pepper and salt into a small bowl, one per diner. Taste it: sharp, peppery, saline. This tuk meric is what the beef exists to be dunked in, so make it sing.
Step 3: Build the bed
Line each plate with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and thin red onion. This raw, cool base is not garnish — the hot beef wilts it just enough and the sauce pools into it.
Step 4: Sear hard and fast
Get a wok smoking hot with a film of oil. Sear the beef in two batches, tossing, for ninety seconds each — dark outside, pink within. Resist the urge to stir it to death.
Step 5: Plate and finish
Pile the beef over the greens, slide a fried egg alongside, and serve with rice and the lime-pepper sauce. Spoon a little of the pan juices over the top and eat it immediately.
ឧបករណ៍ · The tools
Equipment
Carbon-steel wok
ខ្ទះFor char kroeung, loc lac, and every fast fry — a well-seasoned wok gets screaming hot and moves food fast, the whole point of a stir-fry. Flat-bottomed for a home stove.
Shop on Amazon →Rice cooker
ឆ្នាំងបាយPerfect jasmine rice with zero attention — rice is at every meal here, so the one appliance nearly every page leans on. A basic model does the job.
Shop on Amazon →Tiered steamer
សម្ភារៈចំហុយStacked tiers for amok cups, steamed cakes, and fish — gentle, even heat that sets custards without breaking them. A wide pot with a rack stands in.
Shop on Amazon →
Equipment links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions from the kitchen
Where does the name lok lak come from?
It descends from the Vietnamese bò lúc lắc — "shaking beef" — for the motion of tossing cubes in a hot wok. Cambodia took the technique in through the French-colonial kitchen and the golden-age restaurants of Phnom Penh and made it a national favorite, the lime-pepper sauce and raw salad bed being wholly Khmer.
What cut of beef should I use?
Tenderloin is the restaurant standard, but a well-trimmed sirloin has more flavor and holds up to the sear. Whatever you use, cut it into generous cubes so the outside can char while the middle stays rare.
Can I make the sauce without Kampot pepper?
You can use any good black pepper, but Kampot's bright, almost citrus heat is genuinely different and worth buying once you have tried it. Grind it coarse and fresh — pre-ground powder loses the whole point.
បន្ទាប់ · Cook next
