Book excerpt: Southeast Asian cuisine has risen in popularity over the past few decades and this has led many people to discover the unique flavors of Cambodian cooking. This cookbook is geared to food lovers who would like to expand their cooking repertoire and to young Cambodian Americans who would like to learn the dishes they may have grown up eating and now miss. Demaz seeks to make Cambodian cuisine accessible to the average cook who may not have the time to roast and grind spices from scratch due to the realities of modern society. Over the past thirty years, Demaz has tested various pastes and sauce bases available in Asian grocery stores and now increasingly in mainstream supermarkets. In some cases, these ready made concoctions provide an excellent point from which to begin. For those who are familiar with the cuisine of Thailand, for example, the spices used in Thai curries are very similar to those used in Cambodian curries (with the exception of less sugar, chili pepper and coconut milk). This makes a Thai curry paste a good starting point. To make the final result an unmistakably authentic Khmer taste, Demaz adds spice combinations and ratios unique to Cambodian cooking.