Kammu people have never used any oil in their food, they use only cold water for cooking, and eat no fried food at all. This is because fried food is unsuitable for eating with sticky rice. Another reason for not using lard in the food, is that some people cannot eat food with lard, since they would get diarrhoea or got a cough if they ate it. There were many Kammu people who came to the towns and ate food of the city people where they used oil, and then they got diarrhoea or got a cough. This was probably because earlier people used lard and not vegetable oil.
People used vegetables more than meat, because meat was difficult to get. On the other hand, there were both wild and cultivated vegetables. Of the wild vegetables some are growing along the riverbanks and others are growing on the mountains. All kinds of bamboo shoots are also edible and most of them are tasty. You should not worry about the food in the Kammu village regions, there is enough for all the villagers. However, you must know which ones can be eaten and which ones one should avoid to eat. There are some plants which are poisonous and others are edible.
Almost all kinds of bamboo shoots are somewhat poisonous and there are also terrible itching hairs on the sheaths. You have to peel off the sheaths carefully and cook the shoots at least 30 to 50 minutes, before you can eat them. (See Damrong Tayanin: Being Kammu, My Village and My Life, Southeast Asia Program Series Number 14, Cornell University 1994. p. 69-76) Only shoots of bitter bamboo, càak and the smaller bamboo, 
can be eaten raw, since these two kinds of bamboo have no poison at all in them. Therefore when a baby is born people used smaller bamboo to cut its navel. On the other hand tlàa bamboo is very poisonous. The hunters use it to make spears for the spear-traps for catching large animals. (See Damrong Tayanin and Kristina Lindell. Hunting and Fishing in a Kammu Village. Curzon Press 1991, p.60-72)
can be eaten raw, since these two kinds of bamboo have no poison at all in them. Therefore when a baby is born people used smaller bamboo to cut its navel. On the other hand tlàa bamboo is very poisonous. The hunters use it to make spears for the spear-traps for catching large animals. (See Damrong Tayanin and Kristina Lindell. Hunting and Fishing in a Kammu Village. Curzon Press 1991, p.60-72) The càak and smaller bamboo have long roots and spread by themselves and grow all over the area. Wherever their roots reach, the shoots sprout to there. Their shoots are sprouting during the hot season, from February to June. The càak shoots are rather bitter, yet they are edible and people like to eat them. People may make soup or roast them and eat with pepper sauce and rice. Below are two recipes:
Soup of Bitter bamboo shoots
Ingredients
- Five shoots of bitter bamboo
- One dried pepper
- One tablespoon of salt
- Two hands full of edible weaving ants' eggs
· One hand full of Erythropalum scandens
Preparation
- Fill a pot with 1,5 litre cold water, and one tablespoon of salt
- Peel off all the hard sheaths of the bamboo shoots, and slice the shoots into small pieces
- Cut up a dried pepper into three or four pieces
- Add one hand full of Erythropalum scandens
- Add two hands full of edible ants' eggs
· Boil the soup for 15 to 20 minutes
From February to August we went to look for the weaving ants' nests in the forest. When we saw a nest hanging on a branch, we climbed up and cut down the branch with the ants' nest. Then we burnt the nest and the inedible ants and collected the eggs and the winged form of the weaving ants. We used the weaving ants' eggs to make soup mixed with vegetables or roasted them in banana leaves. The ordinary ants are inedible, since they are very sour. The eggs and the winged form of the ants are tasty.
Roast bitter bamboo shoots
Ingredients
· Just roast the shoots until the sheaths are burnt, and peel off the sheaths. Eat the shoots with rice and pepper sauce
Kammu people ate very simple food, because they had not much time for cooking. They started to work from dawn continued to dusk. Sometimes people were in the forest or on the riverbanks. They then cut some peppers and put salt on it, and picked some wild edible leaves and ate with rice. That is all. We called this kind of meal "pók prí". However, today I hope the Kammu people who are still living on the mountain slopes will have better food and better life conditions than people who live in the city
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