This Thursday’s take out review is on Naga Cafe, serving Khmer street food on the outskirts of Little Cambodia.
First opened in the summer of 2019, Naga Cafe’s owner Paul Thu wanted to bring truly authentic Cambodian flavors to the streets of Long Beach. Originally in the donut business, Thu wanted to branch out.
The menu consists of Cambodian street food staples, like bahn-mi style khmer sandwiches, beef-skewers, twako and rice porridge.
Speaking about the menu, Thu said “I wanted everything to be very authentic. For example, in Cambodia, most of the chicken is free-range but not here in America. So for the poached chicken I special order free-range birds.”
Like many restaurants, Naga Cafe’s dining room has reopened, and is neatly arranged and decorated with photographic prints on the walls displaying different aspects of Khmer culture.
Not wanting to miss out on anything, I ordered the phnom penh noodles, simple rice porridge, and the twako khmer sandwich.
Phnom penh noodles, which usually consists of thin cut rice noodles in a pork broth, are popular in the Cambodian diaspora and are featured in many restaurants in Little Cambodia.
Each restaurant does their food a little differently and according to Thu. His is special because “The secret is in the broth. Most people use only chicken or beef, but we use both and you can really tell the difference,” said Thu.
The difference it makes was quite clear to me, as the broth was clearly the star of the show in this dish. The gentle notes of lemongrass cut through the rich broth and helped the prawns, beef, and pork belly retain their own flavors.
The simple rice porridge was a standout for a similar reason, using a similar broth that made the enormous portion of porridge seem too small.
The Twako khmer sandwich was very well done. Similar in most respects to a Vietnamese Banh Mi, the uniquely cambodian trait was the twako. A special kind of sausage that is made from ground beef, lemongrass, and khmer herbs.
At just under 30 dollars for a veritable feast, considering the portion sizes, the value at Naga Cafe is hard to beat.
According to Cafe employee John Thu, the most popular drink is their riff on Vietnamese iced coffee.
Thu said, “We under-sweeten it slightly, and in Cambodia we have our own method of brewing the coffee, so the flavor is quite distinct.”
Considering the hospitality shown to me by Thu, and the amazing quality of their food, Naga cafe has my whole-hearted recommendation.