Food fads are a strange and sometimes cruel phenomenon. Some cuisines go from obscure to wildly popular in almost no time, propelled by pop culture shifts — the sale of Japanese food exploded after a TV mini-series set there debuted in 1980. At other times a charismatic chef’s cooking show or hip restaurant creates an opening. The popularity of Thai food in America may be credited to media-savvy restaurateur Tommy Tang, who exploited his connections among LA’s rock stars and screen royalty to make Bangkok’s bites the hip thing. Tang was doing more than working his phone book, because he also created hybrid dishes for an American palate and wrote a menu that tantalized diners to explore the new experience.
Cambodian food hasn’t found its Tommy Tang yet, and as yet no movies set in that culture have caught the popular imagination the way the Shogun series mesmerized audiences 40 years ago. Interest was sparked in the early 2000s when LA band, Dengue Fever, which rocks out on psychedelia with vocals in the Khmer language, released several albums and that’s when I first visited Long Beach’s Cambodia Town. We went to a cavernous nightclub and filled the middle of the table with noodles, stir-fries, and other delights before the band came on. When they did we were transfixed as they started playing traditional tunes for an audience that joined in stately and graceful circle dances. As the evening went on the music got louder, faster, and more modern, the dancing more freeform and we listened and watched from early evening until the last note.
That restaurant eventually closed and we found a new favorite – Sophy’s Cambodia Town, which I recently revisited. Sophy’s has discontinued live music for the moment, but the food is enough of a draw to be worth the trip. It has relationships to both Vietnamese and Thai food because the Cambodian Khmer empire once ruled the majority of both countries, but there are subtle shifts in even familiar dishes. The menu here is huge, and when ordering we let our server be our guide, asking him to select a balance of traditional dishes. He steered us away from some that use pungent fermented fish and shrimp paste, ingredients Cambodians adore but most Californians don’t, but I ordered one deliberately. The beef ribeye with anchovy sauce was a large salad of artfully cut raw vegetables alongside sliced grilled ribeye and a bowl of garlicky, peppery fish sauce. I like robust Caesar salads, but this took concentrated fish flavor to another level, salty, funky and challenging. A little of it went a long way, but if you dipped just a bit on the beef and followed it with the one of the vegetables, it was bracing but enjoyable. I should mention that I was alone in this evaluation, and I got to take a fair amount of it home.
My companions were much more enthusiastic about another beef dish, the Cambodian-style jerky. This isn’t much like American jerky, as thick rolls of beef are seasoned and slow-cooked so most of the fat melts out, then deep-fried just before serving. It’s slightly leathery outside, tender inside, and amazingly good when dipped into the sauce of rice vinegar, sesame, pepper, garlic and sugar. My friends were equally enthusiastic about the shrimp and squid salad, an item that isn’t on the menu but is always available — they list this salad with shrimp or squid, but will combine them if you ask. The seafood is tossed in a complex dressing that has a gentle heat from chili, ginger, pepper, garlic, citrus and who knows what else. Even the person at our table who usually picks around the squid was eating it cheerfully.
Another popular item was the Banh Cheo, a crisp fried crepe filled with ground chicken, shrimp, bean sprouts and onion. This was served with leafy vegetables and mint, and is very similar to the Vietnamese crepe with an almost identical name. It’s good, but not essential to get an idea of Cambodian flavors. Neither are their chicken wings, which are conventional but saved by an array of dipping sauces that range from mild and fruity to one that is spicy enough that I momentarily lost the power of speech after tasting it.
Our server had warned me about that sauce but I had to try it, and after doing so I was delighted that we had ordered Cambodian beers from Ankgor Brewing. The lager was decent, the stout excellent and slightly fruity, and if you enjoy a good brew with Asian food, it’s a must. We ordered an extra one to share to finish the meal, and took a fair amount of it home because the portions were generous. Dinner for three with beer ran just over $100, and was well worth it.
Long Beach’s Cambodia Town boasts many excellent restaurants like Sophy’s but hasn’t become a tourist attraction the way that Los Angeles’ Thai Town has. This may be due to several factors, including the fact that one is spread out, the other compact — they have about the same number of restaurants, but Thai Town is six blocks long, Cambodia Town is over a mile. It’s also more focused on serving the community than arranged around tourist traffic, so there’s less neon and faux-Asian architecture. Menus items may be sparsely explained and you may end up eating something quite different from what you expected. The plus side is that the welcomes are warm and genuine, servers are used to helping guide outsiders through the intricacies of the menu, and the prices are quite modest. Sophy’s and places like it are ambassadors of an ancient and interesting culture and though they don’t have the music back yet, the day may come when people dance the old dances for their pleasure and you watch for yours.
Sophy’s Cambodia Town is at 3240 Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. Open daily 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. for indoor and outdoor dining. There is a parking lot in the rear. Reservations accepted for six or more, call 562-494-1763.