Cambodian cuisine distinctive and complex spice blend called "kroeung." Other ingredients for kroeung used by Khmers in America are lemongrass, turmeric powder, garlic, prahok, and lemon leaf. This is an important aromatic paste commonly used in Cambodian cooking. Many vegetables used in Khmer cuisine are also used in Chinese cuisine. Vegetables such as winter melon, bitter melon, luffa, water spinach and yardlong beans can be found in soups and stews. Oriental squash can be stewed, stir fried or sweetened and steamed with coconut milk as a dessert. Vegetables like mushrooms, cabbage, baby corn, bamboo shoots, fresh ginger, "kai-lan" ("Chinese kale"), snow peas,
Thai cuisine paste. Fresh Thai basil, distinctively redolent of cloves, and with stems which are often tinged with a purple color, are used to add fragrance in certain dishes such as green curry. Other commonly used herbs in Thai cuisine include "phak chi", (coriander or cilantro leaves), "rak phak chi" (cilantro/coriander roots), spearmint ("saranae"), holy basil ("kraphao"), ginger ("khing"), turmeric ("khamin"), fingerroot ("krachai"), culantro ("phak chi farang"), pandanus leaves ("bai toei"), and Thai lemon basil ("maenglak"). Spices and spice mixtures used in Thai cuisine include "phong phalo" (five-spice powder), "phong kari" (curry powder), and fresh and dried peppercorns ("phrik thai"). Northern Thai