1/4
Monorom Cambodian
Rating: 3 stars.
Address: 2150 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach.
Information: 562-434-1919,www.monoromcambodianrestaurant.com
Cuisine: A popular Khmer cafe in a Little Cambodia mini-mall, offering a wide selection of dishes in a pleasantly sedate setting, with a staff happy to explain the complexity of Cambodian flavors to newbies.
Hours: Breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day.
Details: Beer and wine. Mall parking. Reservations not taken.
Prices: Appetizers, 99 cents-$4.75. Entrees, $5.75-$18.95.
Cards: MC, V.
Like the phoenix, Monorom Cambodian Restaurant arose from the ashes of its former self.
In April 2011, a Long Beach favorite called La Lune was destroyed by a fire. While waiting to rebuild, the owners opened “a smaller family-style restaurant in the heart of Cambodia Town” with cooking by master chef Mrs. Pok Sim, according to the restaurant’s website. The result is one of the best destinations in the city for experiencing Khmer cooking, a place with a pleasant interior that’s unexpected from the plain-Jane exterior. I do love a surprise — both in the decor and on the plate — and Monorom delivers.
The restaurant is kind enough to supply some notes on the inner workings of Cambodian cooking, telling us “The food of Cambodia includes tropical fruits, rice, noodles, drinks, dessert and various soups.” Almost every meal includes a bowl of rice, although noodles are also popular. Along with the rice, a wide range of curries known as kari (in Khmer), soups and stir-fries are also served.
“Typically, Cambodians eat their meals with at least three or four separate dishes,” the menu explains. “A meal will usually include a soup, or ‘samlor,’ served alongside the main courses. Each individual dish will be either sweet, sour, salty or bitter. Chili is served on the side, and left up to individual diners and to their taste. In this way Cambodians ensure that they get a bit of every flavor to satisfy their palates.”
In this case, it translates into a menu that takes a bit of study. Despite the numerous overlaps with Thai cooking, the food at Monorom has an ethnic complexity that doesn’t leap out at you on first glance. What is one to make of the appetizer called cha quai? Described on the menu as “daily baked fresh ... traditional Cambodian pairing of dipping breadsticks ... great with coffee or with any of our traditional Cambodian soups,” they look like churros without the cinnamon sugar. Are they savory, sweet or something else completely?
How about the mee kola, a dish of steamed rice noodles with soy and garlic chives, pickles and hardcooked eggs, sweet garlic fish sauce and sun-dried shrimp? Or the prahok kties, which combines ground pork and ground smoked fish with eggplant, coconut milk, lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaves, galangal and the fermented fish paste called prahok, “a delicious staple of Cambodian cuisine”?
There’s a sense of having meandered into an alternative universe at Monorom.
But that’s OK with me for I’ve got a strategy when I’m just not sure. That strategy is to wander around the room, checking to see what others are eating. This always embarrasses my teenage daughter, but it works. Basic rule: If it looks good, it probably is good. (Maybe. I hope.)
This is how I wound up with a meal of bai sach goh jong gac, a mouthful of a dish that’s a cousin of beef satay, though in this case it’s beef satay on steroids. The beef is marinated in kroeung, which is a generic term for just about any Khmer spice mix. At Monorom, the mix of herbs is built around lemongrass.
The sticks are sweet and tender, a wonderful treat for those of us enamored with satay (the go-to dish in any Thai restaurant), served with white rice and those ubiquitous Cambodian pickles. The beef sticks have a wonderful char on them, which sits atop meat that melts away with every bite. This is one of the best beef dishes ever.
Looking around, I also found a dish called bai cha kh’nhei, described on the menu as “crispy ginger,” though it’s really a chicken dish stir-fried with a lot of julienned ginger. I like ginger and I like it crisp, which is how it appears on this plate, flavored with pepper, garlic and fish sauce. The menu says you can exchange the chicken for fish, which would probably work fine, though it’s hard to imagine it better than with the chicken.
I couldn’t resist an order of kuyteav goen sursh, described as “Student Noodles ... introduced ... out of necessity by students of limited financial resources.” Well, if that’s the case, the students are well fed as this is a fine dish of rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts and a choice of beef, chicken or seafood. Students I know tend to subsist on Top Ramen, which is basically Cup o’ Salt. This is so much better. Infinitely so. There’s a Cambodian version of pad Thai noodles for the same price. Students would do well with any of them.
The menu is long and complex and so tempting. Should you have a taste for Cambodian sdao leaves, which are notably bitter and are said to heal what ails you, there are several dishes made with sdao here.
Not everything is for everyone — the Khmer salted fish is pretty intense. But it all goes well with sweet drinks, like the Thai iced tea and the fruit shakes (love the mango).
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Send him email at mreats@aol.com.
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